My Make-Ahead Meals

Boy, wish I would have remembered to take pics of my make aheads from last weekend.
Here's what I did:

Made chicken florentine out of the new philly cheese cooking creme from this youtube video: It was easy to freeze too. Yummy.

Then I made meatloaf out of this recipe from my old tried and true Betty Crocker cookbook: I like to combine all my favorite stuff from different recipes, partly b/c I don't like instructions, and because I like to be creative. So I used this recipe combined with the one on the back of the Kroger meatloaf seasoning packet. Then I added mushrooms, yellow and orange peppers. It was very good.

Next up: spinach quiche. I had a lot of fresh spinach left over b/c I buy bulk spinach for my kids to snack on (weird huh, they LOVE it!) so I put it into this quiche recipe and had quiche 4 times this week for breakfast!
This is the recipe I started with, minus the onions (I would have used flakes but was out) sub monterey/colby jack cheese for cheddar and fresh mushrooms instead of canned. I just had the last peice for lunch.

The beef tips and gravy was mostly for my hubby. This one was easy - Crockpot to the rescue! Throw in the cubed steak or the stew steak, half a can of mushroom soup and 2 cups of beef broth. Maybe a little brown gravy mix if you like it thicker. Let it cook in the crock pot about 4 hours on low. Get home, cook up the egg noodles and din din is ready!

I also subscribe to e-mealz b/c my mom got me a gift certificate for christmas for 6 months. Sometimes I strike out for the week and nothing looks good, but this week had some good ones including a Glazed chicken tenders recipe.

I made up the glaze and soaked the chicken in it overnight to have the next day. Since my hubs was grilling out making us a pork tenderloin that night I had him throw the chicken on so it would already be cooked. He pulled it off right before it was fully cooked so it wouldn't be too dry when we reheated it.

We used 1 stick of melted butter, 1 cup of brown sugar and some jamaican jerk seasoning (the recipe called for cajun seasoning but I had jerk, so that's what we used) to make the glaze. I baked it in a 350 oven the next night for about 15 -20 minutes and served it with corn and a salad.

This was my first time experimenting with making ahead. It took me about 2 hours and probably cost less around $50 for all the food, although I'm just guessing there. Next time I'll keep better track!

Two things you may notice from my meals. I do not stick to the recipe. I use what I have and sub things that I think sound good b/c I like to experiment. I also don't really "cook from scratch." I'm not above using packaged meat loaf or gravy mix and Philly Cream cheese cooking creme, which I had a great coupon for. It saves time which is really important to me in the kitchen.

I also don't like recipes with a lot of steps or a lot of ingredients. I joke that if it has more than 5 ingredients I'm out. I like to keep it simple.

Please share with me either here or on Facebook your tips for make ahead or quick meals. Bon appetit!