Cooking For Engineers

[Guest]

I hate to cook when I'm hungry, as I get impatient and no matter how well stocked the fridge I end up reaching for the two minute noodles, So I'm looking for ideas for meals that can be cooked in large quantities and then stored for the rest of the week that don't end up tasting and feeling like damp cardboard after reheating. There's only so many variations you can do on soup.

[IndyRob]

I used to work at a pizza place that also offered spaghetti. They'd pre-cook the spaghetti and freeze individual portions in plastic bags. When a spaghetti order came in, they'd drop the contents of one of the bags into boiling water for a few seconds (basically just to thaw and warm), put it in a gratin dish, cover with sauce (maybe some frozen meatballs), and put that in the oven for five, maybe ten minutes.

As a home modification, you could make up a big batches of spaghetti and sauce, individually bag and freeze them. When the hunger hits, you bring some water up to a simmer and drop a bag of spaghetti and a bag of sauce in. Leave 'em just long enough to get heat in both. Then put contents of bag A over contents of bag B and enjoy.

Incidentally, last night I was induced by my family into making spaghetti. I agreed before I realized that I had no frozen or commercial sauce. I had to improvise, but the following worked out very well....

"OMG, I Don't Have Any Spaghetti Sauce" Spaghetti Sauce (Provencal)

2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
(sorry, no measurements but...) Heavy shakings of dried minced onion, herbs de provence, and garlic powder.

Simmer to the bloopy stage ("bloopy", of course, meaning the point where the bubbles are breaking and spattering like lava - i.e. going "bloop" - as opposed to a boil).

[youngcook]

Is "OMG," Oh my gosh or Oh my G?( I don't like when people say this one)

[DrBiggles]

[Pickles]

YoungCook, OMG means what you think it means ie, Oh My God
However, if you want it too mean oh my gosh then by all means!

Another good thing that freezes well is lasagna very yummy

[youngcook]

Yeah. I wanted to know what they meant it to be.

[Howard]

Chili. Portion, freeze, microwave, eat.