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I have my lunch to go????
If you work or school you should prepare your meals in advance. Eating in the cafeteria is expensive; why not bring a hearty and affordable lunch with you? |
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We suggest you prepare MORE THAN ONE MEAL AT A TIME and then portion and freeze or refrigerate portions for the next few days. Once again; not rocket science; but something you will be interested in shortly. We have developed an entire website dedicated to giving you the recipes and ideas for quantity cookery for your family, check out Buck's Recipe HomePage. You can also do an internet search for any dish imaginable. Someone; somewhere will have posted a recipe for that pineapple goat stew that you mother used to make. Many families devote a whole day to grocery shopping and cooking for the week; and this is a sensible thing to do. A trip to the basic foodstuffs store, a trip to the fruit market and butcher and you will spend a bit more on gas but may save up to $1.00 per item. No big deal when you are buying for yourself; adds up if you have a list 2 pages long with 60 items.... The best way to start is with a meal plan. For beginners I suggest making a list of your 3 favorite dishes. Something you like to have when you go out but don't normally order since it's too expensive. A rack of ribs; tabooli, roast beef, a big steak, whatever. You already have in mind how those meals are going to look and taste since you have already had it somewhere else. This makes it much easier to make it yourself. Much easier than some recipe that you have never tried before and can't visualize. Once you become more experienced and have more spices in the kitchen just buy what's on sale and work your meal plan around it. Make sure you have the proper dishes to freeze and serve the food later. A suggested meal plan is 2 entrees, a salad or rough cut veggies with 2 desserts created all once. So you would require containers to create frozen or refrigerated "portions" of your meals for 4 days later in the week. |
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For containers, you have a few options: 1. Reusable: Tupperware, microwavable china, etc. Far superior since can be reused again and again and does not tend to stain like plastic. Bring your Corning ware bowl with you in a lunch bag. Even frozen soup or pasta travels fine to the fridge at the office to be reheated later. This is the best choice if you have a dishwasher since cost's alot less money in disposable containers. 2. Disposable: There are many options out there ranging from single use Styrofoam to reusable plastic containers. Some dishes freeze/reheat very well and others do not. Meats and potatoes, pasta all work well. For menu ideas just look in your frozen food section. There is a reason they are preparing these types of dishes, as they reheat well. |
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There is an important concept in catering known as "carry-over cooking" This is the process whereby something that has been previously heated and cooked continues to be heated during the reheating process. You see this all the time in large scale catering events serving roast of beef au jus. All the plates are prepared in advance with par-boiled (or 1/2 cooked vegetables) and almost raw beef. The plates are left in electronic or gas heated "warmers" at about 250 for an hour or so until ready to serve. In some cases a sauce will be added just before serving to disguise the beef; which was literally cooked to a standard "medium" in the warmers. |
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Using this same concept when preparing food for consumption later after freezing it then makes sense to undercook your portions since the process of cooking will continue during the reheating stage. If you want to add vegetables such as peas, carrots to your plates I suggest adding still frozen vegetables. When the plate is reheated the meat and potatoes are warmed, and the vegetables are cooked; everything is ready at the same time. As long as it is warmed and cooked a bit means that the veggies will still be crunchy. See carry-over cooking above... I never scrimp on the salt or sugar when preparing these meals. If the sauce is not salty and the potatoes don’t look right I may be inclined to keep going to the cafeteria. If the potatoes have that great cheese crust that I like and the sauce is nice and spicy; I may continue enjoying a satisfying meal prepared (mostly) by my own hands. Don't forget the importance of recycling. When you turn $100.00 of raw ingredients into $300.00 worth of lunches and dinners you tend to create alot of garbage along the way. Do you part and remember to recycle. Visit Buck's Recipe HomePage for more meal ideas that can be prepared in bulk and then frozen and served later. |