My First Make-Ahead Meal
Thursday May 22nd, 2008 at 1:47 pmI’ve recently discovered something about myself .. I really enjoy eating home cooked meals. On top of that I love to find recipes and try them out. However, I dont like to cook every night, more like once a week, I really enjoy cooking once in awhile. But because I don’t like to cook regularly I find myself heating up ‘bag meals’ and zapping microwaved box meals too often. So I started to wonder if I could start making my own frozen dinners. I found in my last Real Simple magazine that they had a ‘make-ahead’ recipe for steak fajitas. I then spent the rest of my Sunday afternoon reading everything I could about freezing meals and once a month cooking (OAMC). Monday I packaged up my first make-ahead meal, those steak fajitas, and this afternoon I reheated a bag for the first time.
Here’s straight from the freezer
After 10 min of defrosting
After draining extra water & turning heat up to cook the meat 
Here is my fajita ready to eat (yes, I know I rolled it into a burrito, that’s just how I do it). Perfect meal for after my wii workout
The Recipe (from Real Simple Magazine, June ‘08)
freeze it
- 1lb flank steak, thinly sliced against the grain
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 red bell peppers (I used 1 red, 1 green)
- 1 jalapeno, seeded (if desired) and thinly sliced (I diced mine)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (I ran out so I used a little chili powder, some cumin, & some cayenne pepper too)
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (forgot this)
- Kosher salt
- 4 1-quart re-sealable plastic freezer bags (I used 1 gallon because I put 2 servings in each bag)
cook it (per serving - my bags have 2 servings each, so this was doubled)
- 1 bag frozen fajita mixture
- 1 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 8-in flour tortillas, warmed
- salsa (optional)
- sour cream (optional)
In a large skillet, over medium heat, heat the oil (use 1 teaspoon per serving). Empty the frozen contents of the bags into the skillet. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Raise heat to medium high and cook, uncovered, until steak is cooked through, 2 to 6 minutes. Serve with the tortillas & salsa and sour cream if desired.
My changes - I doubled the recipe, ending up with 8 servings, or 4 bags of 2 servings.
I’ve been inspired, I picked up a few cookbooks and I can’t wait to start stocking my fridge with yummy meals that I made! And I really can’t wait until Nikki can cook again and we can start exchanging make-ahead meals!
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Those burrito fajitas look delicious. And what a simple recipe. I’ll be making this!
[May 22, 2008 at 4:40 pm]My friend Tiffany did OAMC for a while with a group of girls. They would make certain items ahead, then all get together one night and bag up the meals they had made and pass out the meals to each other. It really seemed to work for them.
[May 22, 2008 at 8:36 pm]I’ve been doing this for awhile now. I love it! I’m definitely going to try this one. Thanks!
[May 23, 2008 at 9:02 am]