I know that a lot of you parents and spouses dislike the occasional need to cook when you re-e-e-eally
don’t want to. Especially after a hard day at work or when you just aren’t feeling too good. Well, I’ve got
a treat for you and the family. TV dinners!! Yep. Those ‘old standby’s’ that came to us from the
wonderful people at Swanson’s© , Burns© , and the many other generic food sources.
I now give you a twist on those, mostly tasteless, meals; home made TV dinners! What would you give to
have the convenience of these without the empty calories, additives and overall blah taste?
What you will need are microwaveable segmented dinnerware. I recommend the ones from Amazon, as
they are generous in their size and also have vented lids. They are available at the link below.
For the dinners, you will need your choices of meats, vegetables and starches. With this recipe, I will give you a starter idea and let your imagination take over. Remember, the better the quality, the better the meal.
Basics for this type of meal are as follows:
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Meat or protein portion should be about 5 ounces, unless the protein is vegetable based, then raise the weight to 7 ounces.
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Vegetable portion should be no more than 7 ounces and can be any vegetable you wish. The ones that work best in the microwave are the harder ones like carrots and broccoli.
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Starch portion should be about 7 -8 ounces of potato, rice of your choice or other ground plant like squash, yam etc.
Pre-cook the meat in the way you want it to look (chicken parmesan, beef tips, pulled pork, for example). It should be cooked almost completely before it goes into the dish.
Vegetables may be parboiled and placed in the dish. For the starches, lightly cook any yam, squash or potato before placing in the tray.
Rice is totally cooked and added to the tray – either steamed or as a pilaf or fried rice. The same goes for mashed potatoes or yams.
Sauces or gravies of your choice can then be added to the appropriate section of the tray. You may make your own sauces and gravies or use the ‘store-bought’. I make my own.
Once you have placed everything in the plates, let them cool before covering them. When you have them covered, label them as to what is in each and they can be stacked in your freezer – either the one in the fridge or your chest freezer.
With these make-ahead meals, you can easily leave the choice of dinner to the individual members of the family. You did the work when you were energetic enough to do so, and the whole family benefits from wholesome, tasty meals with no additives. The meals can be kept up to 8 months in the chest freezer and up to 5 months in the smaller refrigerator one.
What I usually do is get my grandkids involved when they are here. They can make their own favorites then. Try that with your own gang (kids or grandkids). These can be done for lunches and also breakfasts. Breakfasts take a bit more consideration.
Eggs can be touchy, but everything else works well, especially pancakes and waffles.
You can get the segmented dinnerware in most Dollar stores. They are a bit pricey, but well worth the expenditure where your family’s needs and health are concerned.
There are also other containers for things like pasta dinners and desserts.
