healthy make-ahead meals

A few weeks ago I spotted a recipe book in the library: "Make-Ahead Meals Made Healthy." And that's when my plan to cook up a storm over March Break was born. Stumbling across the make-ahead breakfast smoothies (and making 14 of them!) was grafted into this plan.

I can't believe that March Break is already over. It flew by, and I didn't get everything done that I thought I would. However, I did reach all my cooking goals (minus one dish!). Perhaps this is because cooking became a form of procrastination -- a way to avoid preparing two unit tests, writing lesson plans, making unit plans and marking the pile of assignments in my bag? Perhaps.

I love cooking ahead and freezing or preserving things. My kind of cooking involves turning my kitchen into an absolute mess, getting in comfortable clothes, working like I'm in a factory, doing several rounds of dishes and ... not having to cook again for awhile. Maybe it's my years of working in a camp kitchen, who knows? Go big or go home -- I hate the idea of pulling everything out and cooking two.servings.every.single.day.

Anyway ... I would definitely recommend this book of recipes. Everything I've made is very tasty; a nice way to switch up the same old, same old dishes I make to put in the freezer ahead of time (chili, shepherd's pie, etc.) And every single dish is definitely a step up from the frozen pizzas, pasta or cold cereal we normally reach for when we're hungry and don't have much time.

my kind of cooking: turkey casserole in my mega steel mixing bowl...

The recipes I've tried from this book:

1. Creamy Turkey Casserole with Broccoli and Cauliflower
Yummy! Surprisingly, the chopped dried prunes that this recipe calls for taste really good in it. (Never had dried prunes before.) While this recipe includes turkey, broccoli and cauliflower I wonder how "healthy" it is considering the cream of chicken soup cans, mayonnaise and Havarti cheese. Oh well -- it's delicious. Because it is pretty creamy, I think I can stretch it even further by serving it with rice or pasta.

2. Family-Friendly Chicken and Wild Rice Bake

Ginger Veggie Fried Rice

A good one-dish dinner. This is the dish that I have bought the ingredients for but, here I am, the end of March Break and it hasn't been made yet. I'll get to it, I'll get to it.

3. Ginger and Veggie Fried Rice.
With the beaten eggs, spinach, sesame seeds and edamame (I used snow peas), this is easily hearty enough to be lunches for me. (I froze it flat in small freezer bags.)

4. Salmon Cream Cheese Breakfast Burritos
I didn't realize that this is more like a spread, so I was a little surprised when I prepared it and the texture was not what I expected! This is a really good recipe, though, and despite the cream cheese it's pretty healthy -- it takes 8 cups of baby spinach and a whole bunch of green onions. Spread this on a whole wheat wrap and you have a nice light lunch to go. Since this goes so far, I froze some of the extra in containers to use as cracker dip.

Salmon Cream Cheese spread 

5. Black Bean Breakfast BurritosEggs, red pepper, (I threw in some green pepper too), cilantro, onions, black beans and pepper jack cheese (I used Monterey Jack -- is that the same?) ... delicious and easy breakfast or lunch. Burritos get wrapped in tin foil, put in a freezer bag, and can be quickly re-heated individually in a microwave or toaster oven.

Some other recipes in this book that caught my eye: mushroom-stuffed pork chops with roasted root vegetables, beef and papaya burritos (wha????), caramelized onion soup, smoked ham and bean soup, whole-grain parmesan herb twists and dark chocolate and almond scones.

I like how the recipes in this book make large quantities (because they're meant to be prepared and frozen ahead of time) and gave freezing and reheating instructions for each recipe.


 With the smoothies, packing all of this into my small fridge freezer was quite the exercise! I can't imagine what I'd be like if I had a chest freezer ... scary. At least I'd be prepared for the Apocalypse.

turkey casserole ready to be packed into the freezer