Favorite meal train dinners

[Anonymous]

Yes to chicken parm casserole style, the Uncle Julio's sounds amazing, soup if you know everyone likes soup!

I like to throw in a side salad and cut-up fruit.

Or breakfast - really good bagels and fixins and fruit.

[Anonymous]

The last few times, I let the family choose, and each time they chose meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I would never choose that, but lots of folks like it.

[Anonymous]

I second (third?) the roast chicken. I avoid casseroles because people get so many of them.

[Anonymous]

I've done chicken pot pie, white chicken chili (include lime/avocado/cheese for topping and corn bread muffins), grilled chicken breasts with the ingredients for Caesar salad and a nice loaf of bread. A strata or frittata would also be a nice change of pace.

[Anonymous]

I used to be on a committee for an organization that regularly ran meal trains. I've probably made about a dozen meals. I usually email a list of about 6 options and I'd say about 90% of people choose meatloaf.

So I make usually make 6 mini loaves (3 lbs of beef with six 1/2 lb meatloaves, a big container of mashed potatoes, a container of gravy, a vegetable of some sort and dinner rolls.

[Anonymous]

I do taco fixings in separate bags, so that kids can choose what they want, paired with brownies, of course!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The last few times, I let the family choose, and each time they chose meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I would never choose that, but lots of folks like it.

My neighborhood is doing a meal train for a teen home and ‘homemade mashed potatoes’ was at the top of their list.

I’m a fan of doing soups, salads and good bread. But for the teen home I’m doing homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli slaw and a salad.

[Anonymous]

Someone made me meatloaf, mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli when I had a new baby and it was so so good at that moment it was one of my top 10 meals. Unbelievably comforting food.

[Anonymous]

I make homemade sloppy Joes and then send with buns - easy to heat up or freeze until needed. Also I make chicken pot pies which can also be frozen, and I make them in individual serving portions because I often find when meal trains are needed families aren’t eating together at the same time, so easier to have individual servings that can be heated up as needed.

[Anonymous]

Please no soups or stews.

[Anonymous]

I had no idea so many people liked meatloaf that much.

Can anyone share a good white chicken chili recipe?

Scoff away, but when it’s a meal train in a home with young kids I often do tater tot casserole. I always get rave reviews - it’s comfort-type food for adults, and they love that it’s not something they have to hassle their kids to eat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make homemade sloppy Joes and then send with buns - easy to heat up or freeze until needed. Also I make chicken pot pies which can also be frozen, and I make them in individual serving portions because I often find when meal trains are needed families aren’t eating together at the same time, so easier to have individual servings that can be heated up as needed.

I don’t mean to derail, but any chance you’d share your homemade sloppy Joe recipe?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea so many people liked meatloaf that much.

Can anyone share a good white chicken chili recipe?

Scoff away, but when it’s a meal train in a home with young kids I often do tater tot casserole. I always get rave reviews - it’s comfort-type food for adults, and they love that it’s not something they have to hassle their kids to eat

The NYT offers a tater tot casserole recipe - there are ways to elevate it, so no scoffing here. It's classic comfort food, esp. in cold weather

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make homemade sloppy Joes and then send with buns - easy to heat up or freeze until needed. Also I make chicken pot pies which can also be frozen, and I make them in individual serving portions because I often find when meal trains are needed families aren’t eating together at the same time, so easier to have individual servings that can be heated up as needed.

Oh, I've never thought to do it for the freezer/make-ahead purposes, but I do a beer cheese sloppy joe on pretzel buns that is pretty delicious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had no idea so many people liked meatloaf that much.

Can anyone share a good white chicken chili recipe?

Scoff away, but when it’s a meal train in a home with young kids I often do tater tot casserole. I always get rave reviews - it’s comfort-type food for adults, and they love that it’s not something they have to hassle their kids to eat

I grew up in a meatloaf loving family - so much so that we had tiers of them - the "A" string that we'd make most often, the "B"s that we made occasionally, and those relegated to the "C" (never make again) status if we tried a new recipe and it didn't land. We've got one that's wrapped like a jelly roll, another made of ham with a cheese crater in the middle, one with a tea bisk crust, one that incorporates the mashed potatoes right in - you name it.