The chaos of the holidays is already looming closer and closer. There are school events, parties, volunteering. . . our time is at a premium. At the end of a long tiring day the siren call of take-out or the drive through is especially strong!
Fight back by having a plan! If you have a repertoire of quick and easy meals, and keep the ingredients prepared and on hand, you can always pull through in a crunch.
Although I don’t subscribe to the full bulk cooking/once a month cooking type plans now that I’m home (and have a bit of time for meal prep) I do like having PORTIONS of meals on hand.
I find that by having precooked, premeasured portions of meat on hand I drastically reduce my cooking time. I like to cook chicken, ground meat or meatballs in a big batch and then freeze in meal size portions. For me that is about a cup to a cup and a half.
Need some ideas on how to use it? Easy!
Stirfry: Mix with a bag of frozen stirfry veggies and some soy sauce, serve with rice
“Stroganoff”: Mix with 1 can of cream of soup, 1 pkg dry brown gravy mix. Serve over noodles (may add onions or mushrooms)
Spaghetti: Toss into a can of sauce and warm. Serve over noodles
Curry: Mix with leftover veggies (or a bag of frozen) and instant curry cubes. Serve with rice
Gravy: Either make milk gravy, or cheat and use a mix (country or brown) and serve over rice, bread or biscuits.
Pot Pie/Shepards Pie: Mix with can of mixed veggies, white sauce or cream of soup. Cook in casserole dish with either boxed mashed potatoes or biscuits on top (I make homemade drop biscuits)
Tacos/Burritos: Add the spice mix and serve either on burrito wraps or in taco shells w/ regular accompaniments
Soup: Use either broth or tomato juice for base, add veggies and a starch if you like.
Hamburger casserole: Use a starch (we prefer noodles), cream of soup (or white sauce) corn and peas, salt and pepper.
Hamburger Mac ‘n Cheese: Add to your favorite Mac ‘n Cheese recipe
Chili Mac: Add to cooked elbow noodles, spaghetti sauce, chili powder, beans, onion and green pepper. Bake.
Sloppy Joes: Use your favorite recipe.
Chicken & Gravy: Use dry packet of gravy mix and serve over rice, biscuits or bread
Mustard Chicken: Mix either sour cream or plain yogurt (1/3 C) w/ dollup of dijon mustard and some beef bullion powder (or onion soup mix) warm and add chicken. Serve with rice.
Chicken soup: Broth, veggies, chicken, rice or noodles
Chicken Tacos/Burritos: Add the spice mix and serve either on burrito wraps or in taco shells w/ regular accompaniments
Stirfry: Mix with a bag of frozen stirfry veggies and some soy sauce, serve with rice
Curry: Mix with leftover veggies (or a bag of frozen) and instant curry cubes. Serve with rice
Chicken Cacciatore: Add to spaghetti sauce, serve over noodles
Chicken Stuffing Casserole: Make stuffing (box or homemade) layer chicken on top and pour gravy over (from a packet).
Chicken Divan: Mix cream of soup, 2tsp lemon juice, 1 C mayo & chicken. Layer over spinach or broccoli, sprinkle with cheese.
Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese: Add to favorite Mac ‘n Cheese
Spaghetti & Meatballs: Add to spaghetti sauce and serve over noodles
Meatball Subs: Add to spaghetti sauce, serve on a roll with cheese
Sweet & Sour Meatballs: 1C brown sugar, 1/4 C cider vinegar, 1TBS catsup, 2 TBS Flour, 2 TBS soy sauce. Mix, pour over meatballs and bake
Stroganoff Meatballs: Mix with 1 can of cream of soup, 1 pkg dry brown gravy mix. Serve over noodles (may add onions or mushrooms)
BBQ Meatballs: Cover with favorite BBQ Sauce
If you are a visual person and need to SEE how to cook up the beef or chicken, check out this photo tutorial: Bulk Cooking at Kim’s Kitchen.
Now with all these ideas, do you really have an excuse for avoiding dinner at home tonight? What are some of your favorite uses for precooked chicken, ground meat/beef or meatballs? Share your ideas in a comment below!
Photos by Photos by JK584, Tiny Banquet Committee, Mullenkedhiem and Roboppy
Oh, WOW!! What a fantastic post – I really appreciate this right now, not so much because I’m waaay busy with holiday stuff yet, but when DH deploys my meals get into a real rut of quick and tried/true. This will add a HUGE amount of meals to my repertoire – and they sound like stuff the kids will even eat 🙂
Bless you!!
Thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas! All 3 of my daughters are involved in afterschool activities, so while I love to cook, I get home about 15 minutes before dinnertime most nights!
Another favorite way of mine for using pre-cooked chicken is chicken & apple tacos. You saute some onions in 2 T butter until medium soft, add thinly sliced granny smith apples, a pinch of nutmeg, salt & pepper. When the apples get soft, stir the chicken in until warmed through. Serve on flour tortillas with fruit salad.
Great post…for ground beef, you could add rice and brown gravy:) One of my kiddos favorite;)
This is a great list! Although I do many of these, I’m printing this out for future reference.
Thanks, Jenn!
This is a great list! Thanks for putting all of this together!
Great ideas! The holidays are especially hectic, so it’s definitely important to plan ahead! A few additional meals that are quick and favorites at our house:
pasta bake – layer pasta with ground beef, pasta, sauce and cheese and bake until bubbly. There is a specific favorite you can find at my blog if you’re interested, Million $ spaghetti. It freezes very well too!
creamy chicken and rice – this harkens back to my college days (did I just say harkens?!) Mix cream of chicken soup with a cup of minute rice, a cup of water, and diced chicken. Heat to a simmer, cover and cook until rice is tender. Season with salt and pepper (we like hot salt)
Jenn I just recently stopped working overnight and switched to early a.m. shifts and as during my overnights, I still rely on my trusty crockpot for my meal to be ready when I am. I realize it takes a little planning (making a meatloaf at 2am is not exciting believe me!!) I find if I do my prep work for a meal before bedtime and store in a plastic container overnight, I dump it in the crockpot before heading off, it is ready at meal time. You can convert alot of recipes for crockpot cookery. I have also relied on extra cooked chicken and ham etc for quickmeals as you have suggested in the article. I routinely have bought chicken whole at my Cosco and roasted a whole bird on sunday and getting three meals for the week out of one bird including two tons of broth which is invaluable. Sorry to have rambled, yet this is such an important topic for alot of people lately, and time is such a valuable commodity and in talking with other homemakers (mostly who work outside the home) they do have a tedency to pick up food and with money tighter they need quick and healthier alternatives, Thanks for all of your great ideas. You inspired me to try something new I have not thought of with my Cosco chicken meat.
Hi Jenn! I just tried making fried rice, using leftover rice, leftover veggies, and leftover pork or chicken. It was terrific. I posted the recipe on my blog.
Thanks for all the great frugal ideas. We can sure use ’em! 🙂
thanks for the great ideas! i’m pregnant and have had a hard time cooking regularly, but frying up some beef in bulk (or boiling some whole chickens) and trying some of your suggestions will be a great way to help me keep us eating at home. thanks, jenn!