Preparing Now for Busy Weeknights Ahead

Around our house, the hours leading up to dinner time can be pretty nuts. My son comes home from school exhausted but still has homework to do, they all get in the car to pick me up from the train station, some nights there’s soccer practice, and at some point we must eat. And that takes some preparation because we all know home cooked meals don’t come knocking on the door like the pizza delivery guy, right? 

Gathering with my family around the table for our one meal each day is important to me. And I think it’s important to them too (since they tend to complain when mommy has a meeting). It gives us a chance to talk about what happened that day, share the highs and lows, and hear what's on their minds. In a busy day, that might not happen at any other time.

There’s also a lot of research telling us that kids who eat meals with their family tend to do better in school, avoid drugs and alcohol, and have a healthier future. Right there are enough reasons for me to make family dinners a priority.

So to make things a little easier around our house, I plan. And this week I took meal planning to a new level.

Typically, my meal planning goal is to have an organized approach to the week and avoid that “oh, what do I want to cook” moment that just adds stress at the end of a day. With the kids back in school, I wanted to make sure that we still enjoyed family dinner time, while easing into the new schedule.

Last week I put a list together of a few things that I could prepare ahead of time, and freeze for future dinners. Saturday we went to the farmer’s market and a few stores to stock up – spending less than we expected, and were ready to cook!

Enjoying the Farmer's Market    

(©2010 Gina Rau)

So, wondering about the outcome of my Labor in the Kitchen Weekend? Here's what we made:

Pasta Sauce: 3 quarts + 3 pints  ready to defrost and serve with pasta

Chicken Broth: 3.5 quarts (the result of the chicken below which we had in my beloved slow cooker all day)

Mexican Chicken Torte: 3 casseroles to heat later

Meatloaf: two loaves, pre-shaped in the freezer

Jennie’s Granola: about 7 cups ready for snacking and yogurt before school (this was the kids' favorite recie to help with, taking this…

…and turning it into yumminess!)

Mac n’ Cashew Cheezy Wheezy: this is our dairy-free version of mac n’ cheese that my kids love. We had it for dinner with enough leftovers for school lunch, and have a second jar of the “cheezy” sauce for next week.

My pantry, freezer and refrigerator cannot hold anything more than what exists there now but I’m pleased with the outcome. Of course, it helps that I enjoy cooking meals for my family and spending time in the kitchen together, so this hardly seemed like “labor”.

The biggest reward is knowing that we have meals prepared (or partially) to make busy weekday dinners a little easier on ourselves, without having to turn to the drive thru or convenience foods.

If you’re considering spending time in your kitchen to prepare meals ahead and freeze them, I highly suggest the Cook & Freeze book. It guided me through the process my first time, and still provides many useful nuggets and ideas. They have instructions for what to do prior to freezing, tips on how to freeze and defrost, and tested recipes that are good for freezing. It’s been a helpful resource for us.

Mac n’ Cashew Cheezy Wheezy

Inspired by the Vegan Table, with a few twists of our own

1 ¼ cups raw cashews

½ cup nutritional yeast

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp salt, to taste

2 tsp garlic powder

3 ½ cups non-dairy milk (we use plain almond milk)

3 Tbs cornstarch

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup light miso

Dash of nutmeg

16 oz macaroni, cooked according to directions

Bread crumbs

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a heavy saucepan, pour milk, add cornstarch and oil. Bring to a slight simmer over high heat, stirring often. Decrease heat to low-medium, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until cornstarch dissolves.

Grind cashews in a large food processor until fine (but don’t let them turn to paste). Add nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, and garlic powder. Pulse a few times to blend in spices.

With the food processor running, gradually add the milk mixture to the cashew mix. Blend for approximately two minutes, or until well mixed and smooth. Add miso and a dash of nutmeg, and pulse to make sure it’s well blended.

Put cooked pasta in a baking dish and pour cashew cheese mix over, covering and mixing well. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over entire top surface.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the top is a golden brown. Enjoy!

Nuccio-Sampere Family Pasta Sauce

I have to admit that my grandparents’ pasta sauce, which they’ve been making for over 60 years together, is the very best pasta sauce, or sugo, that I’ve ever had. My grandfather usually makes sweet Italian sausage that gets added to the sauce, along with meat balls, and pork ribs on the bone. They taught my mother how to make our family sugo when she was a little girl, and they all taught me when I was a little girl.

I remember Sunday nights at my grandparent’s house and the tattered apron my mama always wore for cooking her sugo. Whenever we travel home, it’s high on the request list for meals, and each bite takes me back to special memories.

Unfortunately, our family recipe has never been written down. It’s all about the ingredients we put into it and the resulting flavors. I’ve never made the same sauce twice, yet it has the same flavors each time. Since I don’t have a recipe to offer, I’ll extend an offer to pasta night at my house, whenever you’re in our neck of the woods.

 Until then…mangia bene