Make-ahead recipes for guests that aren't casseroles from 1965?

[Anonymous]

Soups?

[Anonymous]

Eggplant parmesean is perfect, but takes 3+ hours to make. Its all the slicing, cutting in half, dip egg, dip bread crumbs, and frying of billion pieces until its brown that takes a few hours. Like 2 large eggplants, but I prefer multiple small ones. Raos sauce is fine, slice mozzarella to put on top of casserole (in deep large foil pan). Bake maybe an hour covered. Cool. Freeze. serve with spaghetti.

[Anonymous]

Stuffed shells

[Anonymous]

Italian pot roast. You could do all your searing then freeze and then do your sauce and simmer from frozen

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/italian_pot_roast/

[Anonymous]

Also recommend a Trader Joe’s run for frozen mini croissants for breakfast

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eggplant parmesean is perfect, but takes 3+ hours to make. Its all the slicing, cutting in half, dip egg, dip bread crumbs, and frying of billion pieces until its brown that takes a few hours. Like 2 large eggplants, but I prefer multiple small ones. Raos sauce is fine, slice mozzarella to put on top of casserole (in deep large foil pan). Bake maybe an hour covered. Cool. Freeze. serve with spaghetti.

Do you have a good recipe for this? I'm a solid cook, but eggplant kind of eludes me (zucchini is similar). Do you deep fry or pan fry?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all these, some great ideas that weren't on my radar. (And that NYT chicken shawarma recipe is making me hungry just looking it over!)

[Anonymous]

Bbq shiort ribs in the oven
Serve with mashed potatoes that you made ahead just put the potatoes in a casserole dish freeze them and when ready to cook pop in oven hour before serve with
salad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws are visiting for ten days at the end of May. I was thinking this morning that it'd be great to find some recipes that could be partially or wholly prepared in advance and then frozen, to make things less hectic when it actually comes time to cook.

The only recipes that came to mind are 60s frankenfoods involving cans of cream of mushroom. Delicious for sure, but... it'd be nice to add more, erm, elevated recipes to the rotation.

In the comments on some NYT recipe, someone mentioned freezing chicken thighs in marinade, to pull out the night before. Hacks like that are really intriguing, too!

Limitations: MIL won't eat lamb or fish or bell pepper. Husband and kids have zero spice tolerance, otherwise will eat anything.

Thank you in advance, it's gonna be quite a week!

A modern stew - delicious. Serve over orzo

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021794-creamy-spinach-artichoke-chicken-stew

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws are visiting for ten days at the end of May. I was thinking this morning that it'd be great to find some recipes that could be partially or wholly prepared in advance and then frozen, to make things less hectic when it actually comes time to cook.

The only recipes that came to mind are 60s frankenfoods involving cans of cream of mushroom. Delicious for sure, but... it'd be nice to add more, erm, elevated recipes to the rotation.

In the comments on some NYT recipe, someone mentioned freezing chicken thighs in marinade, to pull out the night before. Hacks like that are really intriguing, too!

Limitations: MIL won't eat lamb or fish or bell pepper. Husband and kids have zero spice tolerance, otherwise will eat anything.

Thank you in advance, it's gonna be quite a week!

Why not 1) hire a personal chef for the week 2) dine at a restaurant where you won't have to worry about cooking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enchiladas.

Lots of recipes out there. My fave is the Skinnytaste chicken enchiladas -- the sauce is fantastic. https://www.skinnytaste.com/chicken-enchiladas/

How do you leave the spice out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws are visiting for ten days at the end of May. I was thinking this morning that it'd be great to find some recipes that could be partially or wholly prepared in advance and then frozen, to make things less hectic when it actually comes time to cook.

The only recipes that came to mind are 60s frankenfoods involving cans of cream of mushroom. Delicious for sure, but... it'd be nice to add more, erm, elevated recipes to the rotation.

In the comments on some NYT recipe, someone mentioned freezing chicken thighs in marinade, to pull out the night before. Hacks like that are really intriguing, too!

Limitations: MIL won't eat lamb or fish or bell pepper. Husband and kids have zero spice tolerance, otherwise will eat anything.

Thank you in advance, it's gonna be quite a week!

Why not 1) hire a personal chef for the week 2) dine at a restaurant where you won't have to worry about cooking?

Not everyone has this kind of money to spare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eggplant parmesean is perfect, but takes 3+ hours to make. Its all the slicing, cutting in half, dip egg, dip bread crumbs, and frying of billion pieces until its brown that takes a few hours. Like 2 large eggplants, but I prefer multiple small ones. Raos sauce is fine, slice mozzarella to put on top of casserole (in deep large foil pan). Bake maybe an hour covered. Cool. Freeze. serve with spaghetti.

Wegman's has frozen cutlets. Maybe TJs too or they did at one time. I do half a pan eggplant and half chicken patties. You can probably do whole pans though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My in-laws are visiting for ten days at the end of May. I was thinking this morning that it'd be great to find some recipes that could be partially or wholly prepared in advance and then frozen, to make things less hectic when it actually comes time to cook.

The only recipes that came to mind are 60s frankenfoods involving cans of cream of mushroom. Delicious for sure, but... it'd be nice to add more, erm, elevated recipes to the rotation.

In the comments on some NYT recipe, someone mentioned freezing chicken thighs in marinade, to pull out the night before. Hacks like that are really intriguing, too!

Limitations: MIL won't eat lamb or fish or bell pepper. Husband and kids have zero spice tolerance, otherwise will eat anything.

Thank you in advance, it's gonna be quite a week!

Why not 1) hire a personal chef for the week 2) dine at a restaurant where you won't have to worry about cooking?

Oh DCUM. So reliably out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Indian food is great made ahead. I know you said no spice tolerance, which would make this suggestion problematic, but did you really mean heat? If so, just make it mild. Many of the other suggestions like enchiladas and chili are spiced too.