[DesignDiva]

Well, DH is about to take an extreme cut in pay as he goes into fulltime ministry, and I'm back to pinching pennies again! I am digging around the net to find out about OAWC in particular for kids lunches, since they both like to take lunch most days. I have been making a weeks worth of sandwiches on Sunday nights for each of them, and storing them in the fridge. Now that they are going into Junior High, though, their tastes are getting a bit more ... sophisticated. (read "expensive" LOL) Of course, Hot Pockets at $1 a piece are a little too pricey for my Scottish side, so I am experimenting with making my own. I just made Pizza Pockets with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and got a big YUM from both kids! I'm going to try them with a cooked apple filling for a dessert pocket. I think the crescent rolls are a bit too soft for a more robust filling, so I'm going to try maybe a piecrust or biscuit dough. I know bread dough will work, but I wanted something a little different.

The pizza pockets were actually easy peasy, you just take the crescent rolls, divide into 4 rectangles (two triangles each) and pinch the seams together. I rolled them a bit to make them the right size, then filled with about 3 T shredded mozzarella on the lower half of the rectangle. I broke up a 1/4 lb. burger patty and sauteed it until it was crumbly, added about 1/4 c of prepared spaghetti sauce and spooned about 1 1/2 tablespoons on top of the cheese. Then I wet the edges, folded the top of the rectangle over, pressed the edges closed and crimpled with a fork to seal. I did poke the top with a fork for steam holes. Bake for 15 minutes, then flash freeze hard. I made 8 of them with 2 tubes of rolls, a cup of cheese, a burger and a bit of sauce, cost was probably about $4 for all. AND....I know what's in them.

My next pocket adventure is going to be breakfast pockets, scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon and cheese in biscuit pockets I think. They SAID they would take them for breakfast, we'll see LOL I already do double or triple batches of pancakes and waffles and flash freeze them. Microwave three frozen pancakes or two waffle quarters wrapped in a paper towel for a minute and a half and you've got a nice hot short stack.

Anyway, I thought this would be a fun thread. I just read about Corn Dog muffins, basically a corn muffin with 1/4 of a hot dog embedded in it. The kids thought that sounded cool too.

So feel free to include some ideas if you've got them, or read about them if you don't!

[gwen]

I've never tried once a month cooking - I think I was afraid I'd cook alot of something and it would never get eaten - but for years I have been a devotee of Leanne Ely's "Menu Mailer". Her website is http://www.savingdinner.comand it truly does "Save Dinner" for us!

The format is this. You subscribe to one (or several if you like) Menu Mailers through Leanne's website. Leanne is a nutritionist who recognized the need of many to simplify the weekly process of cooking healthy family meals. There is a Frugal Menu Mailer, a Regular, Low Carb, Body Clutter (Weight Loss), Heart Healthy, Crock Cooking, Vegetarian, and Kosher. With nutrition in mind, Leanne designs all her menus to be healthy so even with the Regular MM (which is what I subscribe to) we still eat very low fat, high quality food with a great deal of variety.

Each week a menu arrives in your email box with 6 recipes for a main dish and suggestions for side dishes. Included with the menu is a shopping list so all you have to do is add any incidentals and you have your shopping list for the entire week. There are sample menus on her site so you can try before you buy!

She just came out with a new "MEGA Menu Mailer" which is her OAMC option that she says can be assembled in about 2 hours and includes instructions, shopping lists, and menus for 22 meals! The cost is $8.95 and includes yummy sounding dishes like: Caribbean Steak, Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Lemon Grilled Fish, Carolina Crock Pot Pork, and Layered Lasagna.

After being with Leanne for years, my family and I have never had a recipe we didn't like. The best part is that the weekly chore of menu planning and shopping is done for us so that we can spend the time doing other things.

We like doing Migas (scrambled eggs with peppers, cheese, and crushed tortilla chips) in homemade tortillas and freezing them. Dh grabs 2-3 on his way out the door and he has a hearty breakfast ready to heat up.

The Pizza Pockets sound yummy. Keep the recipes coming . . . we're always looking for grab and go (or pack away for later) recipes!

G.

P.S. I realized after re-reading my post that I sound like a "Saving Dinner" commercial but I am in no way associated with Leanne other than being a very satisfied customer.

[laurie]

Eva: Don't know if you can make a different version of this, but it's very filling for a sandwich (got the idea from my aunt):

Grilled Sloppy Jo's

1. One can of prepared sloppy jo sauce
2. 1 lb hamburger

Cook hamburger; drain; add sauce.

You'll then need three slices of bread. Butter two of the slices on one side like you would for grilled cheese. You'll also need two slices of cheese.

1. Place 1st slice of (buttered) bread in skillet.
2. Lay 1st slice of cheese on bread.
3. Cut hole with biscuit cutter out of 2nd slice of bread & place on top of cheese.
4. Fill the hole with cooked sloppy jo mix.
5. Lay 2nd slice of cheese on top of mix.
6. Place 3rd slice (buttered) bread on top.

Grill until pretty hard. It will soften as it cools to eat and will be very moist and gooey inside with the sloppy jo and cheese. Tastes very much like a pizza pocket.

Eva, I was wondering if something could be done like this if you could somehow seal the edges of the bread or whatever you use; otherwise the sloppy jo will squirt out when reheating.

It's really good and so simple.

Laurie

[GardenOfDarwin]

We bought one of those "sandwich pocket" machines at Costco when they were like $8 or something. Looks like a waffle iron, but you make stuffed sandwiches in it. Don't know how well they'd stand up to a week in the fridge.

My other thought when reading your post was using the pre-made Chinese "skins". Forgive me, I can't for the life of me remember the proper name at the moment, but you can buy 100 of them in a package, usually in the produce department (?why?) for a few bucks. Wonton wrappers, maybe? Anyway, I have a little press that I use with them to make potstickers. Lay the skin on the press, add a T of filling, wet the edges, then press. Might work for snackish sized sandwiches.

Do you do canning?

Susan

[DesignDiva]

You guys are so good!

Susan, I've been thinking about wonton skins, saw a show last night on them and got all excited again. They are tiny, though, once folded. I really want to make the cream cheese filled Crab Rangoons because I love them so much! I have a sandwich maker, which is used with regular bread slices, but I don't know how well that would freeze? Maybe I'll try that too! I'm going to try biscuits next as my bread for the pockets. I've only canned once, and while it was a fun thing I don't think I'd like to do it regularly.

Laurie, that sloppy Joe sounds great, and would be a perfect filling for a bread dough sort of thing. I have a round sandwich sealer thing but I don't think it would stand up to a steaming filling, it's more for PB&J style sandwiches.

Gwen, I've heard of savingdinner, it's popular on another forum I frequent. I guess I'm kind of looking to take that one step further to a savingdinnerinthefreezer format LOL How do the scrambled eggs taste after freezing? We love breakfast burritos and I know they will freeze fine, but I've heard that eggs suffer in freezing.

Good ideas! Keep them coming as you discover new stuff!

[laurie]

I've always thought about doing the cooking one whole day on the weekend thing so that we would have meals for the following week. Somebody had told me that you have to cook some things not-quite-done and then flash freeze them? Is that true? Then they finish cooking when heating up?

Eva, not sure if this would freeze well, but we make something we like to call, "French Tacos". You simply cook the hamburger/taco seasoning, and place it on puff pastry sheets, fold and seal. After baking them (they get nice and flaky) we open them up and add cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and whatever else you like. It's also great with chicken and peppers.

I guess the ony complication would be that you have to open it back up and therefore, it wouldn't be sealed anymore for freezing. But, they're really good.

Along the hot dog theme, what about pigs in a blanket with crescent rolls and cheese? You could cut the hot dogs in half or quarters and make appetizer size portions. May heat up quicker in the microwave.

Another thing we make that we got from a sandwich shop, is what the shop calls "Gerbers" (don't ask me why:?).

You use french bread sliced lengthwise. Butter and sprinkle with garlic powder (not salt). Then chop ham slices into small pieces and put on top. Cover with provolone cheese and sprinkle with paprika. Place it on a cookie sheet and bake just until it gets warmand the bread gets slightly toasty, and then broil to warm up the ham and melt the cheese.

This is absolutely delicious and if it could somehow be done inside a sandwich and sealed, would be wonderful.

Susan, I'll have to get me one of those machines; sounds great.

Laurie

[chabuchie]

I haven't done much freeze ahead stuff, but I have frozen some spanakopeta (I have no idea if that's spelled correctly). I just prepared it and left the final baking until after it came out of the oven. I've done the same with some puff pastry recipes. Mushroom pockets in puff pastry are really good, and really easy.

[stacylu]

Eva

Check out Recipezaar's forum on OAMC and especially this thread

It's one of those things that I mean to do but never have... maybe I'll be inspired now

[DesignDiva]

Stacy, that's a fabulous link! I found a thread on Lunchbox in the Freezer, it's perfect! Thanks!

[jenswrens]

Eva, can you post a link to the Lunchbox in the Freezer thread? I searched but couldn't find it. Thanks!