More meals, please…

I am on a roll and for the first time ever I am cooking dinners.  In fact, one night last week I made a frozen dinner and found it entirely disgusting.  In my defense, it had been in there for a long time and did have freezer burn, but it was so disappointing after all my home cooked meals.  Most of the time I do get Amy’s frozen dinners, and I really can’t complain about them, so for my one frozen dinner night a week, I will stick with Amy’s.

Speaking of brand names we probably all know, my dad sent me these noodles and the sauce so I could make pad thai.

I was a little nervous because Ryan is not a big pad thai fan, so I decided to load it up with goodies. 

I will admit that prepping in advance is a great trick and anyone can do this, and even though I say this to clients all the time, I am finding that even for myself a little planning and prepping in advance can go a long way.  Tuesday after work I had to take the dog to the vet and then come home to cook dinner and then head to the high school volley ball game, so there was limited time.  I wanted to have steamed broccoli and tofu with my dinner, so Monday night when there was more time, I lightly steamed (still a little crisp since it would cook more when I actually made the meal), and then baked my tofu.

After that, I did marinate the tofu overnight in some of my pad thai sauce.

 

This made dinner so easy on Tuesday night.  I grabbed some bean sprouts, some peanuts, a red pepper and the rest of my sauce.

 

Then I add all of that to my tofu and broccoli, and sautéed this a little bit in a tad of olive oil.

Last step was the presentation and I just served it with the rice noodles.  Oh, and it was a success.  Ryan loved it and even took some leftovers in to work.

 

I wasn’t sure if I could even top that pad thai experiment, but I was determined to try on Thursday night with a four bean chili.  This recipe is from the Vegetarian Times Low Fat and Fast cook book.

 

Here are all my canned goods for this quick and easy chili.

Now if this doesn’t say fall, I don’t know what does. 

I love when I can add fresh items to canned items and save time and money and feel like I am getting the best of both worlds.

After cooking the onion and pepper with some garlic, I added the broth and beans.

Seriously, it was that easy.  In about 20 minutes I had a delicious meal.  This was a hit with Ryan too and he even took leftovers in for lunch.

QUESTIONS:  Do you ever prep some of your meals a day or so in advance to make better use of your time?  Do you have a favorite recipe that combines fresh and canned/frozen items?