These Days

These days, my evenings are spent in the classroom, while my beloved hunk of man sits at home and pines for me. But that doesn't mean he must also pine for my cooking! And that also does not mean that I should eat sandwiches for lunch and dinner for the next 14 weeks.

So I thought to myself, "I can just make big batches of food, freeze it, and we can eat it later in the week. Very much like a frozen dinner. But cheaper. Healthier. And infinitely more delicious, if I do say so myself."

This practice is easy, if you have the time to cook a lot on the weekends, don't eat out much AND possess a few simple math skills to double the recipe. Oh, and some freezer-proof containers.

SO, let's say you double the recipe for some chicken fideo. This is such a good idea on many, many levels, because you will want to eat a lot of it immediately upon its completion. So you eat it, and you savor it. You giggle at how outrageous it is that a box of fideo costs only a quarter. It should be criminal for something so inexpensive to yield something so hearty and delicious.

Now, you'll take the pot and divy it up into entree size containers (mine hold a little over 3 C of food). Depending on the food, each container can house one serving or two. This fideo is pretty dense yet pliable, and if I really pack it in, that's 2 servings. Same goes for beans and rice. But if it's roasted potatoes, veggies and some form of protein (chicken, bean patty, whatever), you'll probably only be able to get one serving into the container.

Then get some labels. I recommend regular old tape. But I also recommend folding a tiny bit back on itself, forming a tab, so that you can rip off the old label with ease and wash the container .

And presto! Microwave ready meals in a flash!