Make-ahead meals come in handy on busy nights

Dec. 22 is the shortest day of the year, but for most of us, December can seem like the shortest month of the year as well. Somehow, there just don’t seem to be enough days for all the shopping, family get-togethers, Hannukah and Christmas parties, school performances and other events crowding the calendar.

Getting dinner on the table needs to be on that to-do list. All too often, December dinners end up coming from the drive-through window as time-strapped cooks take a shortcut. Instead of that window, though, the freezer door might be the place to pick up a quick meal for smart cooks who have made double batches of a few family favorites, serving one and freezing the other for busy nights.

It’s simple math: If there’s only half as much time to cook dinner this month, cooking twice as much at a time equals a full slate of dinners. Not everything can be frozen, but many main dishes and desserts are just as good after a stay in the freezer.

Deborah Taylor-Hough, author of “Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month,” has developed a list of what works best for doubling and freezing — casseroles, soups, stews, meat dishes in gravy, cooked poultry, roasts, meatloaf and cooked dried beans.

Her list of what doesn’t work is short but emphatic — egg-based dishes, cream sauces, stuffed poultry, cooked fish fillets and baked fruit pies are one-batch wonders that don’t survive freezing and thawing.

Taylor-Hough recommends making sure the freezer’s temperature doesn’t get above zero; she suggests lowering the freezer setting to -10 degrees before putting cooked but still warm food in the freezer.

In “Frozen Assets,” Taylor-Hough includes recipes that make 10 or 12 servings and easily are divided into several meals, but almost any recipe in any cookbook can be doubled or even tripled. Online recipe sources, such as AllRecipes.com, even have a tool to do the math when changing the number of servings. The limiting factor, in many cases, simply is having a pot big enough to cook an expanded quantity.

The meal from the freezer isn’t a net timesaver if it took an inordinately long time to make the double batch in the first place, so Taylor-Hough suggests finding recipes with built-in short cuts.

Congressional Chili cuts prep time by using canned beans and by using prepared red molé sauce, available in jars at most grocery stores, to replace the flavor that usually comes from simmering dried chilies.

Chicken and Spinach Lasagna lends itself to several shortcuts. Instead of cooking chicken breasts, a hurried cook can substitute meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken. No-cook lasagna also pares preparation time by eliminating both the cooking step and the time it takes to get a large pot of water boiling.

No-cook noodles actually are precooked, then dried. They are thinner than regular lasagna noodles, thin enough that diners who like plenty of pasta in their lasagna might feel cheated. Taylor-Hough insists regular lasagna noodles can be used without cooking in lasagna that will be frozen because there is enough liquid in the sauce to cook them.

Taylor-Hough also skips the step of thawing frozen casseroles. She instead doubles the suggested cooking time.

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Congressional Chili

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 medium yellow onions, diced

2 green bell peppers, diced

2 cloves garlic, pressed

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

2 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 (16-ounce) canned tomato sauce

3 tablespoons prepared red mole

3 tablespoons chili powder

3 cups water

1 (32-ounce) canned kidney beans or chili beans

Shredded cheddar cheese

Diced onions

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the onions, peppers and garlic. Sauté until the onions are translucent and the peppers begin to soften.

Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Brown the beef in a soup pot; drain off any excess fat.

Add half of the onion-pepper mixture to the meat.

Stir in the tomato sauce, mole, chili powder and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the beans and the remaining half of the onion-pepper mixture; cook for 15 minutes.

Serve topped with cheese and onions. Serves 10.

SOURCE: “Peace Meals: A Book of Recipes for Cooking and Connecting” published by the Junior League of Houston

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Chicken and Spinach Lasagna

1 cup ricotta cheese (can use low-fat or nonfat)

3/4 cup cottage cheese

1 (10-ounce) box frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

1/3 cup olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large cloves garlic, sliced

1 (28-ounce) canned Italian whole tomatoes

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

3/4 cup water

4 to 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons sugar

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained (or use no-cook)

4 chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, spinach, egg and oregano in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat the olive oil in a medium heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, and sauté the onions and garlic for 8 to 10 minutes.

Mix in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water and basil.

Blend the ingredients with a potato masher of hand blender until chunky.

Mix in the sugar; season with salt and pepper.

Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Rinse the cooked lasagna noodles with cold water and drain.

Lightly oil a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking pan or two 8- or 9-inch square pans.

To assemble the lasagna, spoon 1 cup of the pasta sauce over the bottom of the pan (or pans). Arrange three lasagna noodles in a single layer over the sauce.

Top the noodles with 1 cup of the sauce, followed by half of the chicken, 1/3 cup of feta and 1/2 cup of mozzarella.

Layer three more noodles, followed by 1 cup of sauce, the remaining chicken, all of the ricotta mixture, 1/3 cup of feta and 1/3 cup of mozzarella.

Cover the lasagna loosely with foil and bake for 45 minutes Remove the foil for the last 5 minutes of baking. Allow the lasagna to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

SOURCE: “Peace Meals: A Book of Recipes for Cooking and Connecting” published by the Junior League of Houston

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Chicken Curry

2 tablespoons butter

2 cups pared apple, finely chopped

2 cups celery, sliced

1 cup onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 tablespoons cornstarch

4-6 teaspoons curry powder (according to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

4 cups milk

4 cups cooked chicken, diced

2 (3-ounce) cans sliced mushrooms, drained or 1 cup sliced fresh

In saucepan, melt butter. Add apple, celery, onion and garlic. Cook until onion is tender.

In separate bowl, combine cornstarch, curry, salt and broth. Stir into onion and apple mixture; add milk.

Cook and stir until mixture thickens and bubbles.

Stir in chicken and mushrooms. Heat through.

Divide into freezer bags, label and freeze.

MAKES: 10 servings

SOURCE: “Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month,” by Deborah Taylor-Hough