Hellobee Boards

@Bao: We love the turkey chili from Dinner: A Love Story - http://www.dinneralovestory.com/my-8-year-old-made-this-chili/

I make a double batch and freeze it. It's a little spicy as written - we cut the chili powder down to more like 3 tablespoons.

I have this cookbook and use it all the time (at least once a week, but often more). I don't follow the specific days but sometimes it's nice to look in summer months when you're looking for something summery, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Pot-Day-Williams-Sonoma-recipes/dp/1616284331

I am hoping to make some meatloaf that can be reheated by the slice to store in the freezer. So not really "one pot" but add some simple sides (green beans and potatoes or something) and you'd be set.

http://www.plainchicken.com

Everything this lady makes is like meat, cheese, potatoes, etc. BUT her recipes tend to be very simple and easy to pull together. In her search section, search for "skillet" - she makes a LOT of different no-boil pasta skillets that are done in like 20-30 minutes and she posts a weekly meal plan based on her recipes. She also does a fair amount of crockpotting.

Another website is http://www.mommyskitchen.net. Same thing - ribsticking food, but usually very straightforward recipes and she has archives of monthly meal plans she makes with links to the recipes.

For us, we usually keep pork shoulder, chicken thighs, and chuck roast in the freezer because they crockpot the best. We make a lot of shredded pork, beef, and chicken and then use it for all kinds of Mexican food, BBQ sandwiches, etc. Its just a matter of adding taco spices or BBQ sauce or teriyaki sauce and throwing it on buns, pizza crust, tortillas, chips, salads, etc. After you cook a big batch of the meat, you can just freeze it in portions and have pre-cooked meat. You can obviously do that for ground beef too.

We like to make big batches of pasta sauce (with or without meat) and chili (with or without beans) in the crockpot, chill it overnight, and then portion them into gallon size freezer bags. Freeze them flat and you can stack them neatly in the freezer.

As a general rule, we like to have pre-cooked food in the freezer. So we usually cook double or triple what we make and then freeze a meal for later. We just pull a meal out of the freezer and let it thaw on the counter or pull it at bedtime the night before and let thaw in the fridge and then reheat when we get home.

One meal we make that guests love is baking those frozen spinach and cheese ravioli from Costco into a lasagna. We take half of the bag, a jar of your favorite sauce, and a cup of shredded mozzarella. A little sauce on the bottom of your pan (I like using disposable aluminum ones), layer the ravioli, sprinkle the cheese packet that comes with it, then more sauce on top and a layer of cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 400F. Remove the foil the last few minutes, let the cheese bubble, and serve! If you want a faster version, use the fresh ravioli or tortellini and you'll be done in 30.