Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Homemade "T.V." Dinners

Knowing I was going to be away last weekend, I prepared some freezer meals ahead of time so my husband could have a home-cooked meal if he got tired of eating out. I tried to think of easy things that he would like and that wouldn't be too much for one person. He likes my homemade pizzas so I put several of those in the freezer that he would only have to bake-as easy as a frozen pizza from the grocery store.

While cooking dinner one night, I got the bright idea to make him some meals from dinner leftovers. This way he could heat up one container in the microwave and not have to cook a whole freezer meal if he didn't want to.

I used my favorite rectangular Pyrex leftover dishes that I talk about here. They are the perfect size for a meat and a couple of sides. Over the next few days I came up with three different meals to freeze.

This was so easy to do. It required no extra cooking; just remembering to save a portion back so I could freeze it.

I plan to do more of this as it would make for very handy lunches when there are no leftovers!

Sonshine has a post about making individual freezer meals to share with elderly family members or friends. I think this would be a fantastic way to minister to singles as well!

For more kitchen tips, please visit Tammy's Recipes!

4 comments:

Wendi said...

Love this idea! I sometimes will freeze leftover for lunches. I usually just have the maindish leftover, but love the idea of making extra veggies to make it a more balanced meal.

~M said...

How do you reheat this? Don't different items need different cooking times?

Mary Ann said...

M-
We just reheat it in the microwave for several minutes as you would do for a plate of food. (Check it as you're cooking so you don't overcook.)I recommend letting the meal thaw a little while before heating just to reduce cooking time, if you can.

So far, we've been really happy with the results.

Thanks for your comment!

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

I need to start doing this. We often have one or two servings leftover that nobody eats.