Homemade Fast Food

"Mise en place" is the french term for "putting in place."
Setting up all your pre-measured ingredients helps you stay
organized in the kitchen (and feels like a cooking show!)

Make ahead meals is the topic for our March cooking workshop here at The Hub. Soups, stews, pies and baked dishes work well to make ahead in large batches, and freeze for later use. Our workshop utilizes a set of core ingredients to build 3 dishes that differ in flavor, texture and presentation. Participants helped prepare the dishes, then packaged them up for freezing at home. Spending a few hours cooking ahead allows for convenient "fast food" meals, without sacrificing quality, nutrition and taste.

From a big pot of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) a batch of brown rice, plus a few other basic ingredients like fresh spinach, vegetable stock and canned tomatoes, we made Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, Chickpea Spinach Soup and Chana Masala (served with Brown Rice). Each of these affordable dishes can serve as a complete meal, and they all taste great. 

Homemade vegetable broth is simple to make with veggie scraps
and lend rich flavor to soups and other dishes. photo credit: Ayana Brown

You could do something similar with another type of bean or meat, and different grain and vegetable choices. Another approach is to make several pans of one dish, such as enchiladas or lasagna, and freeze enough for several meals. 


Some things to consider for Make Ahead Freezer Meals:

·       Suitability There are a few items that don’t freeze well: lettuce, cucumbers, bean sprouts, raw potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Egg based sauces like mayonnaise will separate and curdle when thawed. And many dairy products such as cream, yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese will sometimes go watery when thawed. However sour cream or cottage cheese in a dish that will be baked is usually fine.

·      Appeal. Will you want to eat this meal again? If you didn’t like the food the first time, you probably still won’t like it a few weeks later.

·       Timing. Make sure you set aside enough time to prepare the food, let it cool, and package it for the freezer. A few hours (or less) are all you need for most meals. Some people like to make a day out of it, and cook several different dishes, for a variety of choices.

photo credit: Ayana Brown

·      Space. How much space do you have in your freezer? This will determine how much food you can make ahead and store, and what kind of packaging you choose.
·       Containers.

Ziploc-type plastic bags bags Make sure and get out as much air as possible, and seal it tightly to avoid any spills or freezer burn (double bag for extra protection).  

Aluminum Foil Baking Pans or your own baking dishes. Look for these at dollar stores where you can often get a 3 pack for $1.

Plastic Tupperware or other plastic containers with sealed lids. These work well for soups. They can take up a lot of room in the freezer so consider space when using them.

photo credit: Ayana Brown

·      Serving Size. Unless you are freezing large portions for a family meal (for example, a lasagna or a pan of enchiladas), small serving sizes are usually easier to thaw and reheat.

·     Ease of Reheating. Choose meals that are easy to defrost and reheat. Pans that can go directly in the oven are perfect. For soups, let it thaw a bit in the container, then you can transfer it to a pot to heat up.

·       Label. Make sure to label and date all meals in the freezer. Place older frozen foods towards the front of the freezer so you are more likely to see them and eat them. Another idea is to make a list of all frozen meals and place this list on the outside of the freezer so you always know exactly what you have without having to search.

Basic Zucchini Mixture (BZM)

Make up a big batch and freeze it in 2 or 3 cup packages and use in cakes, breads, soups, meatloaf, etc. See the article cited below for 50 uses for BZM!

(based on a recipe at http://articles.philly.com/1990-09-02/food/25878500_1_zucchini-bread-dessert-recipes-onion)

1 c finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T butter

1 T oil

5 lb grated zucchini (about 2 great big ones)

Cook the onion and garlic in the butter and oil until soft. Add the grated zucchini and stir for 4 to 5 minutes. Cool and drain. Squeeze through a clean towel to remove most of the moisture before using. Yields about 8 cups of drained BZM. The onion and garlic will not affect the taste of cakes, breads, etc. made with the BZM.

Note - Kayte came up with a wonderful idea! Instead of squeezing the zucchini mixture in a towel, she put it in a salad spinner and spun away. She got about a quart of liquid out of the zucchini which she's going to use a base for making veggie stock. It would be great in any kind of soup.

Frozen Honeydew Smoothie

If you’ve planned far enough in advance, you can make a FROZEN HONEYDEW SMOOTHIE. Prepare the melon chunks and put them in a single layer, not touching, on a cookie sheet. Freeze, then transfer the frozen chunks to a plastic bag and keep in freezer until you want to make the smoothies. If you’ve got room in the freezer, prepare and freeze a bunch of cantaloupe and honeydew chunks to use in smoothies later, when they’re not on sale. 

FROZEN HONEYDEW SMOOTHIE

2 c frozen honeydew chunks

2 c HOMEMADE YOGURT

2 T apple juice or 1 T apple juice concentrate

1/4 t vanilla extract

Put everything in the blender and blend until smooth and frothy. Makes 2 smoothies of close to 2 cups each. 

Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves (no stems), packed

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds)

½ cup grated parmesan or romano cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

This can be made quickly with a blender or food processor, and it can also be made into a chunky pesto by hand with a lot of chopping.  Combine basil, nuts and garlic in the blender.  Add the olive oil until blended and then add the romano cheese in small pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Serving: Add this pesto to cooked pasta, cooked potatoes, spread it on a sandwich, or use it on pizza. 

Freezing: If you want to freeze the pesto you make, omit the cheese (it doesn't freeze well). Line an ice cube tray with plastic wrap, and fill each pocket with the pesto. Freeze and then remove from the ice tray and store in a freezer bag. When you want to use, defrost and add in grated Parmesan or Romano.

Frozen Diced Peppers

Wash some bell peppers. If there are any soft spots, cut them out. Remove the seeds and dice the peppers. Spread the diced peppers out on a cookie sheet and freeze them. Use a spatula to loosen them from the cookie sheets, and put them in plastic freezer bags. Freeze immediately. To use, just pour out the amount of pepper you need and put the rest back in the freezer. Don’t let the ones you aren’t using thaw. Like most fruits and vegetables, the texture changes with freezing, and I only use frozen peppers in cooking.

If you don’t have room in your freezer for a cookie sheet, you can dry the peppers a bit before you freeze them. Line a cookie sheet with paper towels, and spread the peppers out on it. After half an hour to an hour, scoop up the peppers and freeze them in plastic freezer bags. You may need to give the bags a good whack to separate them when you’re ready to use them, but they’re just as good.

Frozen Diced Tomatoes

Easier than canning them, but you do need freezer space. Wash, core, peel and dice your tomatoes into a big bowl. Or chunk them. It doesn’t matter. I usually just quarter them, unless they’re especially big. Sort of smoosh them down a bit, and add some seasonings if you like. (I usually don’t – I wait until I’m cooking to season them.) Drain them, and put the drained tomatoes into jars, freezer containers, or plastic freezer bags. Add some of the juice, then close up the container and refrigerate until cold. Then freeze them, and use them later just as you would canned tomatoes. Be sure you leave at least half an inch of empty space, or head room, at the top of jars and freezer containers, to allow for the contents to expand as they freeze, and don’t screw the lids on tightly until the tomatoes have frozen. That way, if they expand more than there’s room for in the jar, the lid can be pushed up a bit instead of the jar breaking.

Frozen Whole Tomatoes

This is the easiest way to preserve tomatoes, but you do need freezer space. Simply wash whole, ripe, perfect tomatoes and leave them out to dry. Once dry, put them in plastic bags and stick them in the freezer. When you’re ready to use them, simply take out however many you need and either hold them under warm running water for a minute or so or stick them in hot water. Either way, the skin will slide right off. Cut out the core, and they’re ready to use. Frozen tomatoes lose their fresh tomato texture and really need to be cooked. Slice them up and use them in soups, or stews, or chili, or spaghetti sauce, or, my favorite, in scrambled eggs. Don’t expect to end up with chunks or slices of tomato after it’s cooked. It cooks down to pretty much nothing, but leaves behind its color and its tomato flavor.

Food Preservation

Canning:

    Applesauce For Canning

    How to Can Tomatoes

    Pressure Canning

Freezing and Preparing for Freezing:

    Basic Zucchini Mixture (BZM)

    Browned in the Crock Pot Bulk Ground Beef

    Browned in the Oven Bulk Ground Beef

    Browned in Water Bulk Ground Beef

    BZM (Basic Zucchini Mixture)

    Freezing Melon

    Frozen Diced Peppers

    Frozen Diced Tomatoes

    Frozen Whole Tomatoes

    Ham Broth

    Pumpkin Basics

Jams and Jellies:

    Corn Cob Jelly

    Wild Rose Petal Jelly

Other:

    Breadcrumbs

    Oven Dried Tomatoes

    Roasted Peppers

    Rose Water

Pickles and Pickling:

    Easy Pickled Watermelon Rind

    Kim Chi (Korean Sauerkraut)

    Red Hot Cucumbers

    Watermelon Pickles