Meal Prep Encouragement

#BestBubby

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 11:16 pm

Sunny Days wrote:

You steam and blend veggies first? And which bag do you use?

In my soup recipe, I said to process veggies using S blade and saute them.

So the veggies are already sauted for 30-40 minutes before being frozen in bags.

One can use a bag of sauted veggies to make soup. (Just add water).

Or one can add salt, pepper, paprika, egg, oil & flour to the bag of sauted veggies to
make a kishka or veggie burgers.

Sunny Days

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 11:20 pm

#BestBubby wrote:

Re the kishka

#BestBubby

Sun, Nov 14 2021, 11:24 pm

#BestBubby wrote:

This makes 8 soups - and takes up very little freezer space:

Saute for 5-10 minutes:

2 lb of processed onions

Process and add:

1 lb carrots

1/2 stalk celery or medium celery root

1 turnip

1 large parsnip (I forgot this)

1 large zuchinni

6-8 cloves garlic

1 Bell Pepper (I forgot this)

2 large potatoes (optional. adds carbs)

saute for 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent bottom from burning.

[color=blue]cool and divide into 8 sandwich bags and freeze.

To make soup:

you can just add some water (about 5 cups) and have processed soup
with croutons or noodles.

If you like vegetables in the soup you can add: If adding vegetables use 6 c. water

frozen vegetables: broccolli, cauliflower, mixed vegetables, zuchinni

raw vegetables: sliced zuchini, potato chunks, sliced or baby carrots

The above is a recipe for making soup using bags of sauted veggies.

One can also take a bag of sauted veggies and make a kishka or veggie burgers:

1 bag sauted veggies

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 T. paprika

1 egg

1/2 c. oil

1 1/4 c flour

mix above and form into a log and bake one hour to make KISHKA

Or form into burgers and fry to make veggie burgers.

Hope this clarifies.

amother

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 5:32 pm

13. 2 square pans of "apple crisp" (diced apples, with a mixture of oats, oil, and sugar on top) PLUS the extra crumbs in a ziploc
14. 2 square pans of pumpkin "muffins" (one of which I plan to leave whole, and one sliced)

Thanks to everyone who's sharing tips and recipes! I'm starting to worry that I might make too much food to fit in the freezer!

amother

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 5:38 pm

lucky14 wrote:

Wow. How do you have time to do so much in one day?????

I wondered the same thing... I just did one thing at a time-in the morning, during nap time, etc. And at the end of the day I realized how tired I was! (I didn't actually do one thing at a time. I had a few things going at once. But I didn't plan that I had to do all those things, I just did as much as I could)
The real answer is probably that each thing is simple and quick (that pasta sauce is a little too fancy for me. I probably wouldn't make it again) and I'm not cooking for so many people.
And having my 3yo help by peeling one of the onions surely made it much easier.

KJP

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 7:18 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Anyone have a recipe/method for a big batch of pizza dough that I can freeze raw in balls?

I have a Hamilton Beach bread maker. It includes a recipe for pizza dough, which I use and then freeze. Nice and easy, minimal amount of effort, and have had no issues with it coming out of the freezer.

amother

Tue, Nov 16 2021, 8:56 pm

15. 3 meals of meat sauce in microwave safe containers (will need a side like pasta or potatoes)
16. 5 balls of pizza dough plus a pan of pizza balls (I meant to freeze it raw but forgot)
17. 3 meals of meatballs (will need a side like spaghetti or rice)

#17 is still cooking, because the meat rook a long time to defrost.
My freezer is getting very full, so I've removed a bunch of things from my list. I think from my remaining list, my priorities are chicken soup, kugel, and cookie dough, meat pizza toppings. Secondary are: chicken cutlets in marinade, ground meat with rice, deli roll, calzones, and beef with broccoli.

amother

Eggplant

Tue, Nov 16 2021, 9:19 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

What is your apple crisp recipe?

amother

Tue, Nov 16 2021, 10:05 pm

amother [ Eggplant ] wrote:

What is your apple crisp recipe?

It's just what I described. Diced apples, with a mix of oats, sugar, (mostly brown sugar this time) and oil sprinkled on top. I should've put in cinnamon, actually, but I forgot.

thunderstorm

Wed, Nov 17 2021, 11:05 am

#BestBubby wrote:

So cool. The kishka could be used as a stuffing for chicken.

thunderstorm

Wed, Nov 17 2021, 11:07 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

It's just what I described. Diced apples, with a mix of oats, sugar, (mostly brown sugar this time) and oil sprinkled on top. I should've put in cinnamon, actually, but I forgot.

You can always sprinkle cinnamon on top before serving

amother

Thu, Nov 18 2021, 11:06 am

18. 3 packets of pastrami topping for a pizza dough
19. 4 deli rolls (that's 1lb of pastry dough total) + the extra slices of meat in a ziploc for sandwiches
20. 3 meals of chicken cutlets in shwarma marinade

The first one I actually did yesterday, but I didn't update my list.
I also have a whole bunch of ground meat defrosting in the fridge, and a couple of things that I want to make with it. I'm just missing one ingredient, that hopefully I'll get today. And hopefully I'll then have time to cook it.
That leaves me with kugels (maybe tomorrow, if I get the meat done today), chicken soup (next Friday), cookies (maybe next Thursday), another dessert (whenever I get the ingredient I'm missing for that. maybe Sunday), another pizza dough (probably Chanuka). I'm pretty sure that all of these things will still fit, if I arrange them well.
I never thought I'd be the type of person to have a fully stocked freezer like this, but it makes me happy.
ETA
21. 3 meals of rice with ground meat in pans. (I think it's based on a recipe for something called taco bake)
Also 1 microwave container of spiced ground beef, but I think I already had one of those at the beginning of my list, so I need to add it there.

amother

Fri, Nov 19 2021, 1:09 pm

22. 3 square pans of rice cauliflower kugel
23. 2 square pans of mixed vegetable kugel
24. 2 cookie pies

(#23 is still baking. #24 I didn't actually do yet, but it's so easy that it's practically done as soon as you have the ingredients. It's the one where you break the sandwich cookies into a pie crust and pour a couple of whip cartons on top.)