Mar 07 2010
Gourmet Frozen Dinner or Lunch From Your Own Home
Convenient meals can be a lifesaver at times. They can be more nutritious than fast food and eaten at home. You can grab one of these meals when you have a busy schedule and feed you family an nutritious gourmet frozen meal.
There may be times when you have no choice but to grab a frozen meal from the grocery store, but many times, you have another option. Make your own gourmet frozen meal.
By making your own frozen meals, you get to choose what goes into your food. You can choose to leave out ingredients that are not your family’s favorite or increase the spice a little here or there. Additionally, you can choose how much salt or sugar is added to the meals your family eats.
While many people just prepare the meals they know their family likes to eat, others like to experiment. If you are tired of the same old family favorites, here are some ideas that freeze well. Vegetable soup, beef stew, chicken curry, corn chowder or broccoli beef.
Remember that starchy foods such as rice and pasta are not good choices for frozen meals. They tend to be overcooked by the time they have sat in the sauce and are warmed. If your recipe calls for these ingredients, just cook everything else and freeze the sauce. The rice or pasta can be quickly cooked while the rest of the meal is warming. For trouble free rice, use a rice cooker. For pasta, pick up fresh from the grocery store. It cooks in about three minutes once you have boiling water.
There are a couple of ways to stock your freezer with gourmet frozen meals. The first is to double or even quadruple a recipe that you are cooking for your family’s dinner. As soon as the food is done, remove the excess to the refrigerator to begin cooling.
Another way to stock the freezer is to have a couple of days per month that are set aside for shopping or cooking. Shop the first day and cook the second. In a short amount of time, you can prepare several meals that have been doubled or tripled and fill the freezer.
While there are many containers that will work in the freezer, one of the best is a vacuum sealer. Choose the sealer that has a heat seal to preserve the quality of your food. These bags will stand up to microwaving or boiling in a pot of water.
For those of you who aren’t up to this sort of planning and time, there are actually renowned chefs who prepare frozen gourmet meals.
If you choose this option where other people do the work, stay out of the supermarket aisles to be assured of good quality. Online retailers, will actually deliver the gourmet meals to your home.