Recipes/ Ideas needed

[MaggieTheCat]

Pasties also freeze incredibly well, but they're also a little more work. For the unfamiliar, pasties (yes, pasties, not pastries) are a type of hand pie usually filled with savory ingredients. The most common and traditional are Cornish pasties, which include beef, onion, potato, and turnip or rutabaga. Here's my recipe for homemade pasty dough, which is very similar to pie dough:

Crust:
3.5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup cold lard, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup cold water, or more/less if needed

Place flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the lard and pulse a few times, until the mixture is sandy. Add about 1/2 cup water and pulse a few times to get it going, then turn the food processor on low and drizzle more water in slowly until it forms a ball. Be careful not to add too much water, or to over mix.
If you don't have a food processor, you can do this by hand. Just cut the lard into the flour/salt with two forks or a pastry cutter, then drizzle the water over and toss to combine.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

Of course, if you don't want to go to the trouble of making your own dough, you can use store-bought pie dough, the ready-to-use kind in the refrigerated section (don't use the frozen pie crusts, though.)

Whichever dough you decide to use, roll it out to about 1/4" thick (you'll want to roll the store bought dough out thinner than it comes) and cut into circles about the size of a small plate. Place about 1/4-1/3cup filling in the middle of the dough, and fold over to form a half-moon. Seal the edge well by crimping the crust, or just use a fork to crimp. Wash with an egg wash if desire (1 egg + 1 tablespoon cold water, beaten together) and cut a few slits in the top to ventilate. Bake at 350 for an hour.

Here are some filling ideas:

Traditional Cornish Pasty:
1lb boneless round or chuck steak, uncooked
1-2 small potatoes
1 carrot (optional)*
1 small turnip or rutabaga
1/2 packet beefy onion soup mix
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons butter
*Carrots are not part of the traditional Cornish pastie, and anyone who knows pasties will tell you so...but I like to add them anyway.

First and most important: make sure everything is diced very very small! This will make folding the pastie dough over the filling much easier. If there are big chunks of potato or turnip in the mix, they may rip holes in the dough when you try to fold over.
Mix everything except the butter together in a large bowl. Place 1/4-1/3 cup filling on the rolled out dough, and dot with 1/2 tablespoons butter before folding the dough over.

Taco Pasties
1lb beef or chicken, browned and seasoned with taco seasoning or spices
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup frozen corn (or canned, drained)
Salsa to taste (optional)
Shredded cheese

Mix everything except the cheese together. Fill as above, sprinkling the filling mixture with cheese before folding the dough over.

Italian Chicken Pasties
1lb chicken, cooked and shredded
1-2 small potatoes
1-2 small carrots
1/2 packet dry Italian dressing mix
3 tablespoons butter

Mix everything except the butter together. Fill as above, dotting the filling mixture with 1/2 tablespoon butter before folding the dough over.

For reference, the butter/cheese helps keep the pasties a little moist inside. They can become very dry otherwise. If you like, you can serve pasties with some kind of dip. Ketchup is very common for the Cornish pasties, or some kind of gravy. Salsa or sour cream would be good with the taco pasties.

If making my homemade dough recipe, I usually get about 6 medium pasties out of it. Once the pasties are cooked, just let them cool, wrap in plastic wrap, place in a zip-lock baggie and throw in the freezer. As I said, they freeze incredibly well and to serve, just throw them in the oven (straight from the freezer, no need to thaw first) for about 20-30 minutes, until heated through.

While I was typing this, I thought of something else you could do: A pot pie. Just get yourself some disposable pie tins, some pre-made pie dough like the stuff I mentioned above (or make your own) and find a good chicken pot pie recipe. I like Alton Brown's curry pot pie recipe a lot:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ipe/index.html
Just line a disposable pie pan with one piece of pie dough, pour the filling in, top with the other piece of pie dough, trim/crimp the edges, cut a couple slits in the top to vent, and bake until golden brown. Then the whole thing can be frozen, or you can portion it out first into slices so they don't have to reheat the entire pie at once.

Something else that I meant to mention. You said you did some BBQ chicken with a baked potato...did you actually bake the potato fully, then freeze it? In my experience, baked potatoes don't freeze well. They're usually okay if they're in something, like soup or casserole, but on their own I wouldn't think they'd be very good re-heated. But it would be very easy for your aunt and uncle to make a fresh baked potato to go with any meal you prep for them.

[Aethian]

Hormel sells these microwave meals called "Compleats" which I've been eating every other day or so. They're not minimally costed, but they may be within your budget, and they're very convenient. You don't have to keep them refrigerated or frozen, and they nuke up in a minute and a half. They're a bit under $2 each at Walmart (your price may vary).

The salt is very high on these fyi

[TheSHAD0W]

Hormel sells these microwave meals called "Compleats" which I've been eating every other day or so. They're not minimally costed, but they may be within your budget, and they're very convenient. You don't have to keep them refrigerated or frozen, and they nuke up in a minute and a half. They're a bit under $2 each at Walmart (your price may vary).

[firecat88]

Lasagna is a pretty good freeze-and-store meal. Since beef is expensive where you are, you could probably do ground pork instead, or even a vegetarian version. As with thansal's idea, you could also easily make individual portions of it.

[thansal]

I'll second soups/stews as you can go one step further and portion them out and then freeze them so that all that has to be done is take it out and pop it in the microwave/stove and bob's your uncle.

I'll bug my GF for her Split Pea Soup and Lentil soup. Both very good, and they come from her German mother as an added plus (that said, they might not be German for all I know :P)

[MaggieTheCat]

Most soups and chilis will freeze and reheat wonderfully. This one is a little unconventional, but my husband and I love it, and it can easily be scaled to make bigger portions. It's vegetarian so it's relatively healthy and pretty cheap. If pressed for time, you can use canned sweet potatoes instead of roasting fresh:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/African...up/Detail.aspx

I also make a bean and veggie chowder that is full of flavor and, again, vegetarian and pretty healthy/cheap. Sorry, I don't have actual measurements, I just use however much of everything I have on hand and base it on how many people I'm feeding:

Onion, carrot, celery, diced
Canned diced tomatoes, with or without added flavoring (like garlic and italian spices)
Canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Frozen corn (or canned, drained)
Barley, rice, or a very small noodle such as ditalini (optional)
Salt, pepper, dried Italian herbs, and fennel seed (don't overdo it on the fennel, 1/2 tsp or so is usually enough. Can always add more.)

Sautee the onion, carrot, and celery in some butter or olive oil, until tender. Add the undrained tomatoes, beans, corn, and as much water or chicken/vegetable stock as you want to fill out the soup. Add some seasoning and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Allow to simmer as long as you can, the longer the better since the flavors will marry. Keep adding water or liquid if it starts to get too thick. If you want to add another starch, you can either bring the soup to a boil and add it directly in and allow it to cook in the soup, or cook some separately in a pot of water and add it in right before serving. This is also great to make in a crock pot and can be left to cook on low all day.

Here's a recipe for vegetarian enchiladas that I know freezes really well, since I've made them before, and it's easy to customize with your favorite veggies:
http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/st...as/#more-11755

I'm not a vegetarian...honest. I just happen to have several good vegetarian dishes. But here's a chicken tortilla soup recipe that uses all canned items, so very affordable. If you don't like the idea of making it with canned chicken (I have and I think it's fine, but it weirds some people out) you can use cooked cubed chicken, or buy a rotisserie chicken to use. Also, I use 1 can of cream of chicken soup and 1 can of chicken stock instead of 2 cans of stock, to make it a little thicker:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/six-can...up/detail.aspx

Also, keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to cook full-blown meals for them. Once they get home, you could bring them over some fresh lunch meat, cheese, bread, lettuce, tomato, and maybe a piece of fruit and they could have sandwiches for lunch or dinner (at least, this is perfectly acceptable in our household.) Try throwing a package of bratwurst in their freezer (even better if you boil them in beer for an hour first) with the instructions to thaw and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, turning over once halfway through. (or you could do that and then they'd just have to thaw them.) Also leave a can of baked beans (or make your own) and a fresh watermelon and they've got a backyard cookout in their kitchen.

I'll stop there since I'm sure you're going to get a lot more suggestions from other people here. I think it's great that you're trying to help out like this. Hope your aunt's recovery goes well!

[Docmayhem]

Long story short: One of my aunts is in a rehab facility for a serious fracture of her femur. She will probably be there a few more weeks. My uncle has been staying with her pretty much all day, every day (he's retired), as her helper and cheerleader for PT.

I've learned that when faced with a big problem, I should focus on the parts I can do something about - in this case: my uncle doesn't know how to cook, and is having trouble feeding himself properly.

I decided to make a bunch of easy-to-reheat meals to put in his fridge so he will have one less thing to worry about.

So far I've made:

• Lemon chicken with rice and peas
• BBQ (dry rub) chicken with baked potato and broccoli
• Teriaki stir fry chicken with rice and sweet peppers
• Chicken with spinach and cheese ravioli and broccoli Alfredo

I don't want to keep making the same things, so I'm asking for ideas and recipes.

Money's a little tight, so chicken or pork (beef is real expensive around here) are preferred. Vegetarian can also work. The main thing is it has to be something that can be cooked, frozen, and reheated without losing too much of its appeal. Anything along the lines of traditional German comfort food would be especially appreciated.

Thank you all in advance.