Power Cooking: Thinking Outside the (Ice) Box

[buckeyefan08]

So my SIL had an idea...
When the girls in my cluster and I were talking about the power cooking shows someone mentioned a place where you can go "assemble" like 12 dinners in a matter of about two hours. The idea is they do all the prep work and clean up and you choose from a "menu" of things to make. Then you can customize your meal. (ex: we don't like mushrooms so I could leave those out but I could add extra cheese if I so choose.) The only problem is for me to make 12 meals it would cost like $200! SIL and I think we could probably do it cheaper at home. Invite all of our friends & family (we are all busy families with young kids, sports, PTO, jobs etc.) We could each prep certain things and when we all get together we would have all the ingredients needed and prepped to assemble and then freeze. On a busy night we could just pull it out of the freezer and reheat as directed.
Our problem is finding things aside from casseroles that will freeze and reheat well. Does anyone have any good ideas? I need help thinking outside the (ice) box!
Thanks!


Sorry it was a long post!

 

[chefmeg]

there is a version of the power cooking show that my Director has done...I will go search for it and be back to post if I can find it!


found it! all of the recipes are for chicken, which is healthier and usually less expensive!

 

[byrd1956]

Chef Meg, the powercookingshow doc. is great, thanks for sharing it! Lisa, Just checked to see where Windham, Ohio was ....way up north east from me. I'm just south of Columbus in buckeyeland!

 

[chefruthie]

Check out Welcome to 30 Day Gourmet's Freezer Cooking Online Manual. . . They have really good recipes for freezing and all sorts of tips about it too. You can read the archived newsletters and there are a ton of recipes and tips in those also. I have done freezer cooking for a long time and it's really a great concept :thumbup:. Hope you enjoy the site.

 

[buckeyefan08]

Thanks Ruthie! This site is great! I'll read more tomarrow and get started planning! For now it's off to bed!

 

[buckeyefan08]

Thanks to you too Meg those recipes look great!
Robyn- I'm really surprised you found it on a map! It's a little hole in the wall. We have a four pump gas station, small grocery store and a Dollar General. Three stop lights but they have turned two into flashing lights! Pretty soon they will just take Windham off the map all together! LOL!

 

[chefruthie]

You're so welcome! I thought it would be perfect for you. I have the cooking manual and it is used a lot. About 10 ladies from our old church in Michigan wanted to do this and I ordered the manuals for all of us and we had loads of fun with it. Many of them still do this even after I moved to Indiana years ago. I use a lot of the tips in my Power Cooking shows from there.

 

[Stephaniecafe]

Check out Welcome to 30 Day Gourmet's Freezer Cooking Online Manual. . . They have really good recipes for freezing and all sorts of tips about it too. You can read the archived newsletters and there are a ton of recipes and tips in those also. I have done freezer cooking for a long time and it's really a great concept :thumbup:. Hope you enjoy the site.

Great site Ruthie! This is very similar to how I do my freezer meals too! What a great resource!