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guitarnan
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| Posted: Sept 03 2010 at 10:57am | IP Logged
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I begin my first week as a Really Busy Dance Mom next week. Classes: four nights per week. Performances, competitions and workshops: more nights per week. At least three times each week I will not get home until after 8:00.
I am great with the slow cooker (I own - and use - five cookbooks just for this appliance) but my family will go on strike if every single meal comes out of that jolly little device. 
If you have go-to recipes for make-ahead meals, please share.
We don't eat beef, but I can substitute ground bison or turkey for ground beef in many recipes.
My family will thank you!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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JodieLyn
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what about the hot sandwich types that you can do the filling in your crockpot?
what about something like stuffed baked potatoes that you can cook the potatoes in the crockpot and come home and just quickly heat up toppings (if needed).
We use bean burritos as a quick standby
mac and cheese, broccoli and some sort of meat (either on top of the mac and cheese or on the side) can make a fairly quick easy meal.
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CrunchyMom
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I find tacos to be an easy make ahead meal. You just need to reheat the meat (which sometimes tastes better reheated anyway after the flavors meld) and everything else is all pre-chopped and grated. All you have to do is assemble.
Also, with it being the tail end of summer, you could have fun doing some chilled soups. I'm going to make vichyssoise today for a barbeque at a friends house tomorrow. I doing that because I have potatoes and leeks from our CSA and some sour cream to use up, but gazpacho and cucumber chilled soups are yummy with a salad or cold sandwich.
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kristacecilia
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I second the chilled soup or salad idea. I make a salad with shell pasta, tuna, mayo, and chopped pickles and hard cooked eggs. It's nice to throw together in the morning and have ready in the evening, especially when it is hot outside.
I don't know if I would recommend doing this if you aren't home, but my oven has a start time/stop time option where I can throw my prepared casserole or whatever in the oven, then tell the oven what time to come on, at what temperature, and how long to cook. I have only used it when I wasn't home a few times, just when I was going to be home shortly after it started. Mostly I use it to put dinner together at lunch, then stick it in the oven when I hear the beeper that says the oven has preheated. Then it turns off automatically for me and I don't risk burning it while I am off playing with the kids or what have you.
You could put together a soup in the morning and then reheat it by the bowlful for dinner, and I also use my time delay on my breadmachine when I do this to make sure we have nice, hot bread to go with it.
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hylabrook1
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My quick go-to works like this:
Cook some rice.
While it's cooking, cook a few cloves of garlic in olive oil in a large pot.
Pour into the pot 3 cans of seasoned diced tomatoes (we use DelMonte brand)
Drain and rinse 2 cans of black beans; add them to the pot.
When everything is heated through, serve the tomatoes and beans over the rice. A pre-packaged salad on the side, maybe with some mandarin oranges and sliced red onion to jazz it up.
You can pre-cook the rice, at least partially. This is quick, cheap, and nutritious.
Peace,
Nancy
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MelissaClaire
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I feel your pain! With just 3 in sports we're going to have 5 games, 4 practices and an additional batting cage practice each week. I've been looking at this issue myself!
You could grill a bunch of chicken earlier in the day (or week) and put together a nice salad before leaving for dance and just combine them when you get home.
Our favorites are baby spinach with sliced strawberries, celery and almonds with a balsamic vinaigrette or a nice Caesar salad
We also like fajita salads--Marinate thinly sliced steak strips (or chicken) in half bottle of Italian dressing, 1 tsp cumin and a couple of dashes of hot sauce for 1 hour--or however much time you have! In hot skillet coated with cooking spray cook thinly sliced red & green peppers and onions. Add steak--and marinade--and cook through. Serve over salad greens, drained and rinsed black beans, rinsed frozen corn, crushed tortilla chips/taco shells. Top with cheese and dressing made from equal parts sour cream and salsa. You could cook the meat early and the salad is easy to throw together.
Breakfast for dinner is usually quick to come together--pancakes, eggs, reheated quiche, fruit salads. You could make ahead egg and biscuit (and turkey sausage) and just reheat when you get home. Last week I made up a bunch of french toast sticks and froze them individually on a cooking sheet and then transferred them to a freezer bag. Now I can just pull out what I need to cook and they take under 10 minutes to heat to hot and crispy in the oven. You can also make quick individual crustless quiches in muffin tins by just pouring the eggs/milk/cheese/veggie mixture in muffin tins.
Fried rice can be made very quickly if all the components are ready (meat and rice already cooked.)
Cold tuna noodle casserole with chips, tomatoes, fruit.
If your dough is all ready and cheese grated (and any veggies sliced) grilled pizzas are really quick.
Chicken Club Pasta Salad
8 ounces corkscrew or spiral pasta
3/4 cup italian dressing
1/4 cup mayo
2 cups chopped, cooked rotisserie chicken
1 cup Muenster or Monterey Jack cheese, cubed
12 strips of crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled
1 avocado, chopped
1 cup each chopped celery and green bell pepper
8 ounces cherry tomatoes, cut in half
At home, cook and drain the pasta according to the package directions and rinse it with cold water. Whisk the dressing with the mayonnaise in a large bowl, then stir in the pasta and the remaining ingredients. Spoon the salad into individual resealable plastic containers and chill. Transfer the containers to your cooler before heading out. (or just keep int eh fridge for dinner when you get home.)
Wrap sandwiches come together quickly. We like turkey, guacamole, bacon, cheese, salsa in sundried tomato wrap with chips and fruit salad or spinach wraps filled with balsamic grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, baby spinach, fresh mozzarella all tossed in a balsamic dressing. Chicken salad (or egg salad) on croissants are also big hits around here.
Individual muffin size meatloaf (or pot pies) are easy to reheat along with mashed potatoes.
You could also use your crockpot to keep soups and spaghetti warm while you're out.
I've also ground and frozen several pounds of ground beef (in 1 lb packs) so I can come home and quickly add it to make a dish. You could do the same with chicken.
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juliana147
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Nancy, I'm in this position, too. What are the 5 cookbooks you use? My family groans when the appliance comes out too often... maybe I need some new recipes!
-juliana
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Kathryn
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guitarnan wrote:
I begin my first week as a Really Busy Dance Mom next week. Classes: four nights per week. Performances, competitions and workshops: more nights per week. At least three times each week I will not get home until after 8:00.
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My oldest started ballet 2x a week as well as being the "helper" in her now 3yo sister's class and the new dance company which usu. means another Sat so I feel your pain trekking back/forth!! And w/ a new baby on the way, I'll watch this thread w/ great interest as I've never been great w/ the quick meals (unless they're processed and frozen from the store!  )
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(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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Kathryn
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Ok, so for real advice, I will ditto what Melissa said and making meat ahead. I usu. have DH grill enough meat on Sundays to last at least thru Tuesday so that's 3 nights worth of meals. Well, at least the meat is done and that's a big hassle right there. If I can get it together, then I'll make something completely different w/ the meats or sometimes it's just the grilled chicken or whatever and then some thrown together sides such as is a salad, fruit, rice or potatoes...something easy.
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KC in TX
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Kathryn wrote:
guitarnan wrote:
I begin my first week as a Really Busy Dance Mom next week. Classes: four nights per week. Performances, competitions and workshops: more nights per week. At least three times each week I will not get home until after 8:00.
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My oldest started ballet 2x a week as well as being the "helper" in her now 3yo sister's class and the new dance company which usu. means another Sat so I feel your pain trekking back/forth!! And w/ a new baby on the way, I'll watch this thread w/ great interest as I've never been great w/ the quick meals (unless they're processed and frozen from the store! ) |
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This is us as well. I have 3 girls who dance ballet and Nutcracker season is just around the corner. I face this every year but as my girls get older, the classes are later.
I have a rice cooker so that helps in getting the rice ready before we return. I just plug it in and turn it on and voila! We sometimes have to do basic rice and kimchi which works for us, but probably not for most of y'all. Tacos work really well for us, but we usually do nachos. It's quick.
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ALmom
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If you have an easy day in between, then you can prepare all the ingredients for stir fry. Throw them in a wok after getting back and the cooking only takes a few seconds. The extra marinating enhances the flavor. I do one recipe with sirloin (but I imagine you could substitute meat and I often stretch the meat with soybeans). The meat is marinated with ginger and soy sacue, browned, then add in onions,green oninons, and mushrooms (you can buy them already chopped or sliced according to your preference but make the ingredients fresh), and garlic. Then for the last to be added - green and red peppers sliced, snow peas (if they are good and cheap enough) and canned water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and baby corn according to what is on my shelves. It is great served over rice.
I do another version with chicken - the chicken is the lead item timewise on this one because you have to cut all the raw chicken into chunks and the taste isn't as good but still liked by my folks. I use a bag of frozen Chinese veggies, and a bunch of fresh broccoli.
With Chinese cooking (with American ingredients or mix of what is available and American ingredients) it is the beforehand stuff that takes the time - cutting the veggies and meat. However, you could buy some things already cut and then throw in canned water chestnuts and bamboo shoots or something and cut some of the cutting down. Also, sometimes if you are buying meat, the butcher will cut it up in small pieces for you. I often have the beef one for company dinner because all the work can be done the day before.
I will often store different stages in different sealed containers - ie meat, with the ginger and soy in one container, vegetables that go in first in another and the vegetables you only want in for enough time to be slightly warm in last. When I go to cook, it is a matter of dumping the stuff in teh wok of hot oil in the correct order.
Do the rice in a rice cooker or ahead of time too.
The other thing that is quick is using leftover pork and mixing barbeque sauce in and making bar-b-que pork sandwhiches - need buns, mayo, dill pickles and cole slaw.
Salads and soups are usually quick - especially if the meat is either leftover or browned and frozen earlier. I try to stock my freezer with browned h.b meat for my veggie soup or chilis which only take minutes to cook once the meat is done.
Another quickie is boiled chicken which we then crumble over salad stuff. (Boiling the chicken may take some time, but it can be boiled frozen, and put in the refrig for later). I imagine you could sprinkle any variety of leftover meat and/or nuts over a plate of green or Romaine lettuce. Or another variety - slice tomatoes, on top of salad greens and then put a heaping helping of tuna on top. No salad dressing required.
In a real crunch - canned black beans heated in a sauce pan and served over tortilla chips with salsa, gaucamole, black olives, and salsa - toppings to be applied according to individual taste.
Janet
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guitarnan
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Juliana,
Some of the cookbooks I use, in order of frequency of use:
Make it Fast, Cook it Slow
The Idiot's Guide to Slow Cooking
Fix-It and Forget It Cookbook
The Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes
I have another one but its title escapes me. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook and its entertaining-themed companion are both very good, too (my library has them).
It's a challenge for me to get enough veggies into our diets, so that is one area I am really trying to work on.
Sadly, our library has cancelled most of its magazine subscriptions, so I have fewer free resources for recipes. (I do use a few online sites but find it tedious to wade through the pages and ads...that's just me!)
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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SuzanneG
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My two favorite Crockpot cookbooks are:
:: America's Best Slow Cooker Recipes
:: Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, her blog has all her recipes on it: A Year of Slow Cooking
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Sanveann
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I really love "Fix, Freeze, Feast" -- it's a great book of recipes that work really well in the freezer. I especially like this particular book because a lot of the recipes use fresh ingredients, as opposed to a lot of canned soups and such.
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Elena
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You might want to consider Once a Month Cooking. I did that for a while and it was a LIFE SAVER!!  You can even vary it and cook more often, but at least to have some stuff in the freezer to just pull out and heat up was great!
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Mimip
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KC in TX wrote:
I have 3 girls who dance ballet and Nutcracker season is just around the corner. I face this every year but as my girls get older, the classes are later.
I have a rice cooker so that helps in getting the rice ready before we return. I just plug it in and turn it on and voila! We sometimes have to do basic rice and kimchi which works for us, but probably not for most of y'all. Tacos work really well for us, but we usually do nachos. It's quick. |
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I'm with KC and Nutcracker season is crazy!!!! WE live with the rice cooker for rice and to make boiled potatoes too! I fill the pot with water, oil and salt, peel the baking potatoes, drop in the water and press the button. These boiled potatoes make amazing mashed potatoes. (Oh and I do the same for sweet potatoes but it takes a bit longer)
I make sloppy joes at 5-6 lbs a pop and freeze 1 1/2 lb portions. Then on the day I want to use it I take it out that morning and it thaws by night time. We place in hamburger buns with fruit on the side.
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Mimi
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juliana147
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Thanks, everybody, I will have to look for these cookbooks! I guess I haven't been looking in that section of the bookstore or library lately.
Janet, we love Chinese food, but it hadn't occurred to me to cut everything up a day ahead...  what a neat idea.
Mimi, I have a rice cooker, but haven't tried cooking potatoes in it. How long does it take to cook? My rice cooker boils over all the time. Do you have to watch it with potatoes?
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guitarnan
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Mimi, how old is your rice cooker? (And how big is it?) I would love to try this but I am afraid my 25-year-old model might not be up to the task...
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Marybeth
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We enjoy using our George Foreman grill on busy night. I start some rice and then make a salad, steam some veggies and start to cook the meat. I usually get the meal (start to finish prep and cooking) on the table in a 1/2 hour of getting home.
You could make ahead some individual hamburger patties and make some batches of sloppy joes. If I had freezer room, I would make potato casseroles or hot veggie casseroles on the weekend and freeze them.
My girlfriend and I did the 30 day cooking several times which is so worth it. She moved away and my motivation left me too. 
Marybeh
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Elena
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Yea the 30 day cooking is a m a r a t h o n ! I was totally whipped after every session.
But time wise and money wise- totally worth it!
And I LOVE the George Foreman grill. Very fast, very tasty food!
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Beyond the Crockpot - Make-Ahead Ideas?
