Make Your Own Frozen Dinners

SOURCE: http://bohemianrevolution.com/make-your-own-pre-cooked-frozen-dinners/

Make your own pre-cooked frozen dinners

by Jen (January 28, 2009)

Even though some frozen dinners are less unhealthy than others, they’re still pricey. You pay for that convenience. There’s a better option: make your own frozen dinners. The advantages to making your own are: you can control what goes in them, there’s no need for preservatives, kids can microwave them if you’re not around for dinnertime, and they save you money. In fact, let’s go into some detail about that last one: not only are they cheaper than storebought frozen dinners, but homemade frozen dinners help you use up all your groceries. That’s a big money saver if you’re someone who finds food going to waste in your fridge or on your shelves.

How to make a frozen dinner

Of course the easiest way to make a frozen dinner is to freeze a one-dish meal: chili, stew or a casserole, for example. Put it all in one dish and let family members scoop out the amount they want to heat, or store individual portions in freezer wrap. This is simple and wonderful, but not all of your food that’s going to waste can be used in these recipes. If that’s part of your goal, read on.

In theory you can make complete meals in compartmentalized dishes, but the problem with this is that not everything reheats at the same time. It’s easier to use individual freezer and microwave safe containers (or freezer bags) for each dish. This also has the advantage of allowing everyone to pick their own combination of main course and side dishes.

• Cook your meat or protein dish all at once and portion it into containers.
• You can use frozen or fresh vegetables as side dishes. Check this article from SparkPeople for a list of dishes that do and don’t freeze well.
• Frozen shrimp and fish from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s can save you time and money compared to buying the same meats fresh and freezing them. Look at the packaging to see the ingredients - if it’s just the meat plus perhaps a reasonable amount of salt or seasonings, it’ll be a healthy choice as well as a savings.
• Look at your canned goods way back on the shelf where you forget they exist. Which of them make good sides, or even main courses? Go ahead and portion them into containers so they’ll be eaten.
• Ditto on those veggies you bought that wound up not going with any of the dinners you fixed. Cook them in a nice big patch and portion them out.

Frozen pizzas are a wonderful frozen food. I use tortillas that are about 9 inches in diameter to make a nice individual portion, and to cut down on the carbs of pizza dough. It’s not easy to find tortillas that don’t have a fair amount of preservatives and so on - ditto on pepperoni - but everything else you put on it can be fresh. Mozarella cheese, homemade tomato sauce, ham, olives, pepperoncinis, chicken, bite size bits of seasoned beef, corn, aspararus, pesto sauce… the possibilities are really endless, and it always seems like such a treat. I find these work better cooked in the oven than the microwave - the tortilla becomes a nice, crunchy crust in the oven and stays soft in the microwave. But you can do the majority of reheating in the microwave and then cook it in the oven for just a few minutes.

The goal with making your own frozen dinners is for you to actually do less work than cooking every night, eat healthier than most “convenience” food allows, and save money. It may not work for everyone, and if you actually enjoy cooking every night or are already good about using every bit of your groceries before they go bad, then this is probably not the tip for you. But hopefully this will help some of you, or give you some ideas of your own for making healthy dinners simple and less expensive.

Ways To Use Up All That Ground Beef or Turkey

Whacky Doodle Ground Beef


Years ago I made a terrible mistake. I froze 10 of pounds ground
beef. That big block of frozen burger languished in my freezer
for years. What was I thinking? I should have browned it first
then froze it in usable portions. But browning beef can be so messy!

A few weeks ago I came upon another cheap ground beef opportunity.
The expiration date was nearing and my supermarket needed to get
rid of--you guessed it—ground beef. Ten pounds. I almost walked by.
Then I decided to try something different, albeit a little weird.

I put the entire 10 pounds of raw ground beef into my big stock pot.
I added enough water to cover and set it over high heat to come to
a boil, no cover, no salt. After about 5 minutes I gave it a stir
to break up the big clumps, which were few. The hot water was
doing all of my work for me--no splatters, no mess. When all of
the pink color disappeared I knew it was done, even though it
had not started to boil.

I placed my large colander into a big bowl in the sink and
poured the now cooked beef into the colander. I did this in
batches because my colander would not hold all of it at once.
This drained off all the liquid into the bowl including the
fat, leaving uniformly fine-textured ground beef in the
colander. No clumps! I could have done the same thing scooping
the meat from the stock pot with a large sieve, transferring
the drained beef into a large bowl. (When done draining I put
the beef broth in the refrigerator. Later I skimmed off the fat
and will use the broth for soup.)

I measured 2 cups of cooked beef (the equivalent of about 1 pound
of raw ground beef) into each gallon-size zip-type freezer bags,
pressed out the air and zipped. Then I laid each one on the
counter to flatten it thin; stacked them like sheets of paper
and popped the stack into the freezer.

Because my bags of beef are so flat I can use them frozen—no
microwave required. I take one of these flat frozen package
of ground beef, whack it on the side of the sink to break
it into pieces, unzip and pour the contents into a non-stick
skillet. It’s ready for all uses. Here’s the best part:
This method removes the fat leaving the ground meat
virtually fat free.

Quick as a Flash Burrito Filling: Two bags of boiled beef
whacked and dumped into skillet (equivalent of 2 pounds raw
ground beef), two packets of Lawry’s Burrito Seasoning mix
(any brand will do), 2 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil,
reduce heat and allow to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
Done! Wrap in warm flour tortillas with grated cheese. Serves 8.

Sloppy Joes: Two bags boiled beef (equivalent of 2 pounds
raw ground beef) whacked and dumped, 1/2 cup chopped onion,
1 cup chopped celery, 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato
soup, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1 tablespoon white vinegar, 1/4 cup
packed brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce,
1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and 8
hamburger buns.

Place ground beef in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat.
Add onion and celery, cover the pan and cook over medium heat
until beef is thawed and onions and celery are tender, about
5 minutes. Stir the tomato soup (undiluted), ketchup, vinegar,
brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce into the beef mixture.
Season with salt and garlic powder. Simmer over low heat
until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently. Spoon the hot beef
mixture onto buns, which may be toasted first. Serves 8.

Bulk Cooking Tips

On Sundays, I prepare as much food as possible for the upcoming
week, including breakfast & lunches for work.

Breakfast is usually white chocolate or vanilla pudding yogurt and
fresh fruit.  Or I'll package up a bowl of milk and make hot cereal
at work and add unsweetened applesauce to it.  Or I'll have the milk
with one of my prepackaged cold cereal packets already at work and
add a banana. 

Lunch includes a big chopped veggie salad (celery, carrots,
broccoli, radishes, cabbage, etc.) or a big regular salad and an
entree.  Cowboy beans over barley, dinner leftovers, chili over
brown rice, etc.  I also bring fruit for an afternoon snack, so I'm
not ravenous when I get home and may grab anything just to quell the
munchies. 

I package most meals up on Sunday in individual containers.  The
entrees are packaged up during the week if I'm using dinner
leftovers.  For instance, tonight's dinner will be Wednesday's
lunch - Grilled chicken thighs, green beans, and a chopped salad. 

Other things I cook on Sundays - as many side dishes as possible. 
I'll cook brown rice, barley, couscous or other grains, sauteed or
roasted veggies, make up some sliced pickled beets (add several "no
salt added" cans to a container and add some s & p and vinegar), a
cold salsa or bean mixture, a big fruit salad, etc.  The
possibilities are endless.  I'm a big fan of beans so I cook a lot
of them.

I'll also prepare a soup, maybe a spaghetti sauce, grill up some
chicken or pork tenderloin for a multitude of uses during the week
(if I'm not planning to use right away, I'll cut it up and freeze
it).  I'll also take meat or fish out of the freezer to defrost for
Monday and Tuesday night's dinner. 

I make up two 32 oz containers of yogurt pudding - one is usually
chocolate for dessert during the week.  The other is for breakfast
with fruit or my husband will have fruit and yogurt with his lunch. 

It makes the week so much easier if you plan ahead!  It also stops
temptations when you just don't know what you want or don't feel
like cooking, and end up making bad choices.