QOTD 4/16

[fiveohfive]

You ladies always have such wonderful recipes planned out in advance. I'm asking for a little help with today's QOTD!

My DH cooks 90% of our meals, usually I am the one who helps to plan meals and shops for the groceries. He's getting sick of cooking every night and I've been looking up a lot of the "cook once, eat twice" recipes today so that there is less prep for him to be doing daily.

So here's my questions: Are there any meals that you specifically plan to make knowing that you can reuse ingredients the second day for a different meal? Or do you have any meal prep shortcuts that help to speed up the dinner making process?

Eta: this is the article I was looking at if anyone is interested

busycooks.about.com/cs/lefto/a/cook1eat2.htm

[mommabakes]

There are a few things I do, when I make a beef roast, we'll have the leftovers as beef and noodles or shredded beef sandwiches, I'll roast a while chicken (or buy a rotisserie one) and shred the whole thing up, using part for chicken tacos, chicken noodle casserole, chicken pot pie, etc. cook up a pound of Italian sausage and use part for homemade pizza/stromboli, and part for spaghetti or lasagna.

[junewife]

We always make 2-3x as much shredded chicken as we need and freeze the rest. We use it mostly for chicken tacos and bbq chicken sandwiches, but you could use it for several things.

[redfraggle]

I make a lot of casseroles and soups that I can reheat the next day. Favorites include: lasagna, slow cooker taco soup, chili, tator Tots hotdish, cheeseburger bake, cheeseburger macaroni, quesadillas casserole, wagon wheel casserole, and chicken parmesan. Tacos, sloppy joes, and spaghetti also reheat well and make enough for 2 meals at this time.

As for prep-ahead tips, I have some veggies (onions, zucchini, carrots, celery, etc.) chopped or shredded in pre-portioned baggies in my freezer. So when want to make something using them, I just grab from my freezer rather than taking the time to wash, peel, chop, etc. every time. I've also frozen pre-seasoned meats in baggies to just grab and throw on the grill or pan when I'm in a big rush (really this one isn't so much about saving time as it is about saving money by buying meat on sale and freezing it). And I've even been known to freeze pre-cooked meat so that it is ready to be added to a casserole or soup without me having to spend time cooking it.

[fiveohfive]

Thank you ladies for all the advice! I really appreciate it.... We're gonna need it (see other post!)