<p>I’m trying to help my DS with meals. He’s a busy, poor grad student living and cooking in his first apartment AND has limited resources. I know it’s not lots of fun to cook for one so I’m encouraging him to freeze portions so he can simply reheat when he’s too busy to cook…</p>
<p>Do you have favorite recipes that are simple and cheap AND that freeze well? I’m going to visit him for a long weekend and thought I could spend some time cooking up some things and stashing his freezer, but when those things are gone…you get the picture. If he’s has the time, I’d like to spend an afternoon cooking with him so I can teach him some basic recipes. I don’t utilize my freezer like I should, not all that familiar with freezing meals…so any help you can offer would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Is there a cookbook you’d recommend for such a young man?</p>
<p>You can easily freeze these in single serving packages…</p>
<p>Pulled Pork…put a big, cheap pork roast in a crockpot with a tablespoon of stock concentrate, pepper, and some ancho chili powder. Shred when done. Mix some of the shredded prok with BBQ sauce for sandwiches. Mix the rest with a little OJ (pork carnitas) and use for tacos and burritos.</p>
<p>Sloppy Joes.</p>
<p>Chile.</p>
<p>Pasta Sauce. Cook up a big batch of pasta and freeze.</p>
<p>The other day on Facebook , a mom posted a pic of her freezer. She had spent the day turning 80 lbs (yikes!) of ground beef into freezer portions. She made things like, chili, spaghetti sauce, salisbury steak, taco meat, sloppy joes, stuffed peppers, enchiladas, etc.</p>
<p>When you think about it, you could do much of the above with chicken as well…chicken tacos, chicken chili, chicken enchiladas…</p>
<p>He could also precook a lb or 2 of ground chicken/turkey/pork, chicken breasts, etc and freeze that in portions (1/4 lb girl size portion. ??? guy sized portion). My DD has been doing that and then using the cooked meat to whip up quick dinners. </p>
<p>Examples:
Add taco seasoning to meat, heat in microwave and add chopped veggies and lettuce for taco salad. </p>
<p>2) add a can of drained mixed veggies to cooked diced chicken breast, and bottled gravy (or homemade bechamel - its easy), cover with instant mashed potatoes or premade pie crust, heat in microwave/oven for chicken pot pie. </p>
<p>3) use cooked chicken/ground beef in a quick stroganoff recipe and serve over egg noodles.</p>
<p>I gave my DD several cookbooks with quick easy recipes to use when she wants some fresh ideas.</p>
<p>Just ate a Kashi steam bag of Sesame Chicken - surprisingly delicious! I don’t usually like or buy frozen meals but I think a few would be a good splurge for your grad student. My college daughter is a new cook in an apartment with no meal plan. I started her for the first month with single serving individually flat packed (by us) pork /beef and a bag of the frozen chicken breasts. All she needs to do is take one out the night before to thaw in the frig then cook on the stove or in the oven. My reasoning is the beginning of the semester she has more time to learn a few cooking skills, fits more servings in her fourth of the refrigerator, and she can add sauces and sides she wants for that meal. She know how to do rice, corn and potatoes in the microwave. I also stocked her with barbecue, Italian and ranch dressing, canned vegetables, beans, pasta and sauce. We also had some fresh fruits and vegetables which she likes raw or microwaved. Unlike her sister, she needs to be pushed along into cooking! I also wasn’t in the mood to make it a bunch of freezer meals this summer but will probably do it sometime late in the semester since she doesn’t have a car. Hopefully she will appreciate it more then!</p>
<p>What about getting him a George Foreman grill and showing him how easy it is to cook burgers (beef, turkey or salmon) or chicken breasts. The burgers (all 3) from Costco are uniform size and cook up well directly from the freezer. </p>
<p>Do you or he have a nearby Trader Joes? They are great for quick prep meals.</p>
<p>I have a cuisinart griddler. It would be great for a grad student. It makes great hamburger. I find that buying chicken breasts and freezing them individually, both plain and I also put salad dressing or teriyaki sauce and freeze them they are an easy meal on the grill. I also find the little bags of prepared rice are fine in a pinch.</p>
<p>D likes to make chicken chili or spaghetti sauce in bulk to freeze.</p>
<p>I’ll give you two of my favorite recipies that makes about three or so servings each:</p>
<p>Chicken and rice soup:</p>
<p>Boil chicken and shred
Toss onions and carrots into the broth and simmer for 30 mins or so, or until carrots are soft.
cook rice seperately
add chicken back in and simmer for another 15 mins
add whatever seasoning you like
serve over the rice</p>
<p>and my other favorite is this one:</p>
<p>1/2 lb of ground beef (i splerged and bought ground serloin from my local butcher)
1/2 a head of cabbage
one small onion
a cup of rice or noodles
1/3 cup brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste</p>
<p>brown the beef and add the onion when its half way done. Add the cabbage (chopped) with about 3 cups of water to the pot and keep on meduim heat for 20 minutes stirring every five. Add seasonings and stir in.</p>
<p>Serve over rice or noodles.</p>
<p>I played with and created that one. It makes about 3 servings or so.</p>
<p>Quiche is so simple and inexpensive to make…my boys love to make it when they have a piece of leftover chicken and some veggies…and it’s good for breakfast, lunch or dinner.</p>
<p>My boys have also been known to spend a Sunday afternoon watching football, reading and cooking–they like to make a big batch of meatballs or chili because it’s easy to portion them out and freeze some.</p>
<p>Eventually all of the meals that you make him will be gone. You know what they say… Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.</p>
<p>You might want to buy him a crock pot as a present. There are so many simple meals to make that take very little effort. For most of them you just toss the ingredients in the crock pot and leave it for the day. He can buy what ever meat is on sale that week and look up a quick crock pot recipe online. Easy, one pot meals with everything in there. Inexpensive and not a lot to prepare or to clean up after. Perfect for a busy grad student.</p>
<p>I think Quinoa would be great to use too because it is has all the amino acids and cooks up in 15 minutes and can be used in many ways for all meals. There are many whole new cookbooks dedicated just to this newly popular superfood.</p>
<p>I’m a poor graduate student and I live on trader joe’s frozen meals. But for homemade frozen food, I’d probably do meat, like turkey meatballs or marinated chicken, that I could warm up and throw into pasta/rice/quinoa, etc. Stir fry would also be really convenient to have stashed away.</p>
<p>The george foreman/cuisinart griddler is also a great option. Really quick and easy way to cook anything from chicken to quesadillas.</p>
<p>And while it’s always nice to have mom’s cooking in the freezer, he could, you know, learn to cook. All grad students are busy, but it’s not that complicated.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>frozen meat balls, grape jelly & chili sauce. toss together, put on low or high (depending how long you will be away and when you want to eat). </p></li>
<li><p>whole chicken with 2 cups water, some baby carrot, a quartered onion & a few potatoes. Chicken soup in 8-10 hours.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>My sons do cook many of their meals, but they like quick and easy with little clean up after. </p>
<p>They use their Rice Cooker a LOT to make a large side dish of rice (they put the leftovers in baggies for later). Then just stir fry some meat and veggies (beef or chix) and have it with rice.</p>
<p>Pasta is also very easy for students. Have him find a jarred sauce that he likes. If he has a bag of frozen meatballs in his freezer, he can throw in a few while heating up the jarred sauce. Boil some pasta, and voila!</p>
<p>another EASY meal for students is…microwave a large baked potato. (wash and prick it first). While it’s cooking, heat up a can of chili. When the potato is done, cut it open, pour the chili on top. Sprinkle with some shredded cheese if desired.</p>
<p>My kids also like the Dollar menu at Wendy’s. They’ll get 2 Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe for $1 each.</p>
<p>My sister had a book called “Help, My Apartment Has A Kitchen!” Very good for the brand-new cook.</p>
<p>Throw brown rice or canned hominy into the chili, and it’s a complete meal right out of the freezer without another step.</p>
<p>I’ve always loved my mother’s simple lentil soup. It’s a hearty meal, it’s easy to make a big batch, and it freezes like a dream. Dirt cheap ingredients, too:</p>
<p>Chop and fry together 1 pound of bacon and 1 onion. Add two bags of lentils, a couple of chopped baking potatoes, a couple of chopped carrots, and a bay leaf. Cover with water or low-sodium canned/boxed broth. Simmer for 40-60 minutes, depending on the thickness you like. Season with salt, pepper, and plenty of cider vinegar and brown sugar (let’s say a few tablespoons of each). So good on a cold night!</p>
<p>He should buy rotisserie chicken. Eat the limbs for a meal or two. Then take the breast meat and shred it and put portions in snack sized bags. </p>
<p>When he wants a very quick hot meal, make soft tacos: put a corn or flour tortilla in a pan, add shredded chicken, cheese of choice (we like low fat feta) and salsa of choice (we like green/tomatilla). To mix it up, use shredded cheddar and red salsa. Once you have the chicken shredded, it takes about 5 minutes to quickly thaw a snack sized bag of chicken and make a couple of warm soft tacos.</p>
<p>(I find that the rotisserie chickens from Walmart have a lot more breast meat than the ones at our local grocery store.)</p>
<p>The rotisserie chix idea is awesome. Every week he should buy one. From one of those he can have a few meals…soft tacos, chopped chix on salad, chix with potatoes, etc. </p>
<p>If he’s adventuresome, if he has some meat left on the frame, he can put it in the crockpot with water and some veggies and seasonings and make chix soup…throw in some rice or egg noodles for a starch. </p>
<p>Any leftover chix and always be added to some leftover rice to make Fried Rice…add some onions, some veggies, some soy sauce, an egg or two…</p>
<p>One thing I like to make that can be easily frozen is quesadillas. For me, I’ll fill tortillas with black beans and corn and pepper and some seasoning, then fold them in half and fry both sides in a frying pan until golden brown and crispy. These can be wrapped individually and frozen, and then you can head them up in the microwave or the oven.</p>
<p>Fajitas are also a quick meal where it’s pretty easy to cook just for one. I chop up peppers, carrots, baby corn, some onions and snap peas, and fry them in a pan with fajita seasoning. Put them in tortillas with cheese and sour cream and you’re done. Normally only takes about 15-20 minutes in total.</p>