Guest post by Pocket Your Dollars reader Jessica Featherstone:
You are on your way home from work, soccer game or just tired from a long day. It is time to answer the age odl question, “what’s for dinner?” Drive thru? Restaurant? Cook? Usually anything but cooking wins, which makes your pocketbook and health the losers.
A few months back Pocket Your Dollars reader, Jessica Featherstone, began to cook ahead and freeze meals to avoid take out. She works full-time, is a mom and has a busy life, but manages to double a recipe, eat half, freeze half and keep a stash of ready-to-go meals handy. She has offered to share some of the best recipes she’s come across in the weeks ahead. They are all tried and approved by the Featherstone family.
Today’s recipe is Chicken Manicotti. An easy option when you contemplate “Eat out or eat in?”
Ingredients
4 cups chopped, cooked chicken
2 (8 oz.) containers chive and onion cream cheese
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and chopped
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
8 oz. prepared manicotti shells
2 jars pasta sauce
Combine first 4 ingredients and 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Cut pasta shells down the sides and fill each with 1/2 cup chicken mixture. Roll; place into 11 x 17 baking pan. Pour sauce over top; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Now you can freeze half for a meal at a later date or bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings. When you remove from freezer, bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes. Enjoy!
Ingredients listed makes one meal of 4-6 servings. Double the ingredients to make two sets and freeze one in an 11×17 inch baking pan. Or you can line an 11 x 17 pan with aluminum foil (leave excess on the edges to serve as “handles”), fill it with the manicotti and freeze it. Once it is frozen, lift the foil out (hence you need extra for “handles”), wrap with foil or put inside a large ziploc. When it comes time to reheat the meal, simply place the manicotti and foil inside the same 11 x 17 pan. This will keep your pan out of the freezer and let you use it for other things.
Your turn: What are your favorite websites and resources for cooking ahead?
I’m always looking for ideas on that age old question “what’s for dinner?”
I will have to give this recipe a try as it sounds yummy and even better yet, quick & easy!
I cannot really answer your question for today though since I haven’t done much cooking ahead but am interested in starting.
Thank you Carrie and Jessica!!
I found a book that has inexpensive and easy meal ideas titled:
Cheap Fast Good! by Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross.
When I need inspiration for “what should I make?” I pull it out and adapt it to what I have on hand.
(Bought new using a high value coupon from Borders. Might find at Half Price books or Half.com as it is an older book)
My one criticism, the recipes tend to be rather bland and make use of some odd combination of pre-made high sodium ingredients (onion salt, Ketchup, peanut butter and soy to make a Thai peanut sauce— it tasted awful….) instead of more authentic seasonings.
I usually add extra spices, more garlic, more onions, peppers. More authentic ingredients like rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger for Asian style recipes. Or cumin, fresh cilantro, chili peppers for Latino inspired dishes.
The authors encourage you to do some prep work in advance, excellent time saving advice. Poach chicken breasts, brown ground beef, cook beans.. package into meal size portions for the freezer. The one major step of preparing the meal is already done.
Now just prep the pasta/rice/vegetables, thaw the meat, add a sauce….. Ta da!
Dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes, no money spent on take out.
Awesome!!
I suggest no-boil lasagne noodles instead of the manicotti – just soften in water and then roll the ingredients! Even easier and often cheaper!
I would love more of these recipes! My husband and I work hectic schedules, and are often eating alone at home…. so who wants to cook for one?
My weakness is lunches. They get so boring: sandwich, hot pocket, lean cuisine, soup at hand, ramen ….. I’m always looking for cheap, creative lunches that don’t require alot of prep!
Shannon,
My husband is a hard-working (as in very physically hard) carpenter. I also work.
For the past (almost) 5 years, we’ve made double portions at dinnertime with the understanding that the “extra” will be for the next day’s lunch. It’s very important to
get a good quality thermos to keep hot foods hot. Since they come in different sizes
mine is quite a bit smaller than his, so that I stay smaller than him. :)
The other important thing with this is to give thought to what things make good leftovers.
In general, we don’t cook things Sunday-Thursday evening that won’t make good lunches
for the next day’s work lunch.
Once a person gets in this habit it saves quite a bit of money. We pack our lunches, along with needed snacks and drinks. Judging by what workmates say they spend on lunches, we each save about $8 per day on food and depending on weather, about $5 or more per day on drinks. The savings is above what the food and drinks I make and pack cost.
Things that we have found as good freeze-ahead meals include chili, spaghetti, and homemade soup. A tip we picked up from Alton Brown’s show “Good Eats” is to chill the food first, then freeze it. This helps to prevent freezer burn.