Quick Prep Dinners at Home

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

In this time starved era, we are always looking for ways to get all that we need to get done finished with ever more efficiency. But we don’t want to stop making home cooked meals just because our schedules are too busy.

Well I recently found out about one solution to this dilemma. I had the opportunity to attend a party at a store called Dream Dinners with a bunch of ladies from my neighborhood. The concept of the store is really neat: you walk in, claim a shelf in the refrigerator, and get to work constructing a couple of week’s worth of dinners with an easy to use system involving the store’s recipes and pre-prepped fresh ingredients. Most of the recipes were very family friendly, and you could adjust the seasonings to suit your tastes.

You walk out after about an hour with a bunch of ready to assemble, made from scratch meals, minus the grocery shopping and the sink full of dirty dishes. The meals can then be frozen (ingredients are stored in disposable foil baking trays and zippered bags with complete cooking instructions) and pulled out when you need them. Dinner is ready in less then five or ten minutes rather then the typical half hour to an hour. Plus, we had a lot of fun, chatting and tasting wine while we were prepping our meals.

My family and I were more than satisfied with our homemade Arroz Con Pollo dinner (a layered Spanish style dish of rice, black beans, corn, scallions, salsa, chicken and cheese), and it sure made the end of the day dinnertime crunch a lot smoother. Plus cleanup was a breeze. I thought this was a great concept, but if you don’t have a store like this in your area, you could also take some of the ideas home and do it yourself for substantially less money and a bit more control over the ingredients (for example you can use organic chicken or dark meat instead of the usual chicken breast if you prefer).

This is exactly what I plan to do to get ready for the upcoming new addition to our family, and I’ve been testing out some ways to design your own quick prep dinner program at home. During my “nesting” phase, I plan to pre-prepare a bunch of meals with simple instructions for the freezer, so after the new baby comes, my husband or I can walk into the kitchen and get a homemade dinner ready in minutes.

So if you have a free Sunday afternoon or evening during the week, here is the plan: First off you will need to have on hand all of your ingredients and Ziploc bags and foil trays to store each meal. Casserole dishes are best, but you can also get everything ready for a slow cooker meal or stew, and store it in a doubled Ziploc bag. Sauces and proteins are generally frozen apart, unless it’s a casserole dish where everything cooks together. You can make double recipes and refrigerate some for early in the week and the rest for up to three months later.

To speed preparation, have everything ready to go, and ingredients prepped. For example a big bowl of chopped onions, chopped garlic (for speed you can use the prepared variety, which is what they used in the store), other veggies chopped, spices out, cheeses grated, and all cans opened, along with measuring cups and spoons.

For ease, I suggest using pre-chopped vegetables that you can find in the produce section, such as sliced mushrooms and cubed butternut squash. Also, you can approach your recipes flexibly, using up a full can of corn rather than a cup, to minimize waste and cleanup. Then prepare your meals, assembly line fashion, getting everything ready right up to the final moments of either simmering or placing the finished dish in the oven. For sauces, the easiest way to dump ingredients into a Ziploc bag is to place the bag, standing up in a quart container. Package all components of the meal together carefully for the freezer with simple written instructions, call in your cleanup crew, and you’ll be set to defrost and go.

I applied the same concept of the Arroz Con Pollo recipe to make dinner for last night, this time layering the casserole with rice, sliced mushrooms, leeks, garlic, chicken, and a light cream sauce, all covered with cheddar cheese, and it was a hit! The recipe is below with freezing instructions if you want to try this concept at home. Or apply the same process to any of your favorite recipes!

Serves/Makes: 6

• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 package (8 ounce size) sliced baby portabella mushrooms
• 2 leeks, washed and sliced
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounce size)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 tablespoon freeze-dried chives
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese