One week of pre-made dinners done, and I'm sold.

E

evan

Well-known member
I have only done this for a week, but I'm already sold on the idea about making pre-made dinners for the week on weekends. In my case, Sundays.

Last Sunday I baked 8 chicken breasts and made one batch of Evelyns Briami, and one mushroom and fried onion creamed stew-thingy, in addition to a hearty beef and vegetable soup. I put one chicken breast in each box and added either briami or mushroom stew. (We always have soup sundays, but I got three portions of left over soup too). Sunday afternoon my nephew called and asked if I remembered that he was coming down from up north to spend the week with us (he studies in the city a week every month). Uhm.....nope but yeah, I do now, I told him and had the soup ready when he arrived.

The week got more busy than expected also. My brother dropped by the city to visit on Tuesday and took me out to dinner, my nephew decideed to go out with some friends for pizza on Wednesday and then hubby worked late on Thursday and Friday I went to the doctor to check on a lump in my breast that I don't like and I spent the afternoon with a friend that assured me that this is not cancer and I really didn't feel like cooking when I came home, so the pre made dinners practically saved the entire week for us and made sure that we had nutritious and tasty meals every night. I made pasta or rice to go with the chicken, and had crisp bread wth the soup (I had soup on Monday while the other two had chicken with mushroom stew). It really took all the stress out of cooking this week, so I'm definitely doing this again!

Sunday I'm making a salmon chowder for dinner (Mrs Wallace's recipe), then I'm making a moose stew with mushrooms and peas (as in a wild game stew), and a batch of bolognese sauce. It's February, I'm still going for hearty meals for a few more weeks but I plan on going lighter once spring arrives. Pre made salads are a great idea - I'm definitely doing that.

 
Yay, Eva, I'm so glad your first week of pre-made

dinners went well and inspires you to continue. Mission accomplished. That's awesome!

 
Sounds like you have dinners well under control for lots of weeks to come. Great idea!

 
Congratulations! My approach as well...

Give me a large Sunday roast and a large pan of roasted vegetables and I can put a different dinner on the table for the rest of the week.

Some more time saving ideas:

Rice and Beans: Make huge batches then take out and freeze small packets for later 1 meal use. Pulling out a package of frozen precooked rice (I only use brown rice that takes 45 minutes to cook) is a great building block for a quick dinner.

I like to toss together leftover veggies, leftover meats, with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, red pepper flakes, etc. for a very tasty one-dish fried rice that takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Also, don't forget eggs. Weeknight omelettes stuff with leftovers make quick and delicious dinners in just a few minutes.

Another thing I do is combine the roasted veg (which are beginning to break down and get juicy and mooshy by the end of the week) and leftover meet scraps with a package of frozen stock from the freezer for a quick stew to end the week.

When I bake bread, I will pull out dough to make a half dozen or so small dinner rolls and put those in the freezer to pull and use with soups, stews, and salads. Just reheat in the oven and it totally transforms the simple dinner with a hot homemade crusty roll.

I bought 3 turkeys after Christmas for $10 apiece and have been roasting one every 2-3 weeks. The bounty of having all that wonderful turkey stock on hand after I have pick the roasted bird and boil the carcass is a wonderful thing to have on hand as well. I simmer my stocks a long time and reduce them to much easier to store concentrated quantities (glace viand). It's meat jello and a spoonful stirred into a sauce, stir-fry, etc. adds so much flavor.

 
I think I got a little over enthusiastic here. I just bought two ducks......

...and now I have no idea what I'm doing smileys/bigsmile.gif

( Duck soup and warm duck salad with mango and spinach is on the menu. )

 
Cassoulet!! YOu might prepare confit from at least one or both since there isn't a lot of

meat on our ducks.
Having two to make the rendered fat AND the the skin cracklings would be a bonanza.
Duck soup or gumbo from the other parts and the broth?

 
2 ducks no problem...Roast Duck. Duck Fat Roast Potatoes...

Here is the method I learned from two elderly Austrian ladies. I do use higher heat these days for the crisping, but everything else is still the same.

The Austrian ladies served their duck with braised red cabbage and dressing, although I prefer to make dumplings with large soft Bavarian style pretzels.

https://finerkitchens.com/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=16170

 
or on the BBQ spit collecting all that wonderful fat in a pan below. Love duck fat. And it's so easy

to cope with when it is in the BBQ

 
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