Last Minute Dinners

I always wanted to be Laura Ingalls

This past week we didn’t have power for about 52 hours. A fast moving storm with crazy wind and rain moved through. Although it was sunny about 30 minutes later, the whole area had widespread power outages. Electric company workers were sent in from many different states. However, there were so many trees down they had to clear them before addressing the power line issues. We were lucky to not have trees or big branches fall on our property. Without electricity I still had to figure out last minute dinners. In this case, I’m talking about dinners that are not on my planned menu.

Why I Need Last Minute Dinners

I need last minute entrees often (someday I’ll address easy, quick side dishes). I’ll realize at the last minute that I don’t have the energy or strength to make something. Are these true emergencies? Not exactly. We are far from starving. We are lucky enough to have a Domino’s not very far from us and they are inexpensive enough that we can feed the four of us for under $20.00. But, a girl can only eat so much pizza, particularly one of the few girls in the world who doesn’t really love pizza.

Even when we have electricity, I need to plan for having easy, last minute dinners in the house.This past week complicated things because I couldn’t use the electric stove, oven or microwave. I also couldn’t take things out of the refrigerator or freezer for fear of both spaces losing their coolness even faster. It got me thinking about these last minute dinners and how I plan for them.

Easy Ways to a Last Minute Dinner

One of the ways I make sure to have last minute dinners ready is by batch cooking. I often double or quadruple a recipe to package up whole extra dinners for the freezer. If I am going through the steps to make something, it is usually not much harder  to make a larger amount of the same thing. Soups and stews freeze particularly well. I really love soup so this is a no brainer.

We were able to use the propane grill for one of the nights of the power outage. I grill at the last minute when I have small things that can be defrosted quickly. Premarinated boneless chicken, thin steaks or hamburgers frozen into patty shape are all good for last minute cooking. I make sure to individually wrap each piece to pull apart easily so I don’t have a large, frozen lump to contend with. This time, I had to send my husband to the grocery store to buy steak since I couldn’t open the freezer, but grilling still makes things easier for me especially with a husband that grills. I just marinate and prepare the food for the grill and any side dishes. I use the broiler when the weather makes it impossible to grill.

One of our favorite last minute dinners is a meal that is on our planned menu every few weeks anyways, as long as it’s not excessively cold outside. We all LOVE this meal. What is it? Tuna fish sandwiches, pickles and potato chips. Sometimes there are sliced raw veggies if I am motivated. Luckily for us, this emergency dinner worked well during the power outage. All I had to do was tell my husband exactly where the celery and mayonnaise were in the refrigerator so that he could open the door, retrieve the items and close the door quickly. I chopped celery and made tuna salad with very little light.

Out of Juice

We made it through two dinners and a 35 degree night before I decided I wasn’t up for planning anymore dinners without electricity. We checked into a hotel around 47 hours later at 2:45 pm. Of course, the power went back on around 8:00 pm while my husband was putting dry ice into the freezer. It didn’t matter at this point. I was eating takeout sushi in a nice warm hotel room bed, with no thoughts at all of planning dinners to feed my family. I may have declared an ultimatum that I wasn’t going back home until we had electricity and I felt free as a bird.

Ideas and Possibilities

Taco/Tortilla Fillings:

Tortilla fillings can go inside of flour or corn tortillas. Both kinds of tortillas can stay in the refrigerator for months. Ground beef taco meat, chicken tinga, canned refried beans, and Korean flavored pulled pork all work well inside tortillas. Shredded cabbage and jarred salsas are great for topping these tacos.

Soups and Stews:

I keep all the quart containers that come from restaurants or the grocery store to freeze things in. Chicken soup, beef and barley soup, homemade squash soup, sausage and kale soup, stews, carne guisada, etc., are all regulars in my freezer. I keep canned black bean soup and cartons of tomato soup in my cupboard.

“Grilled” Cheese (to go with soups):

I keep a variety of sliced cheese, including American, cheddar and Swiss in the refrigerator. When soup alone is not enough, I can throw “grilled” cheese sandwiches into the oven. If this is too much, I tell people to toast their bread, put a slice of American cheese in between, and microwave it for 10 seconds. If this gets complaints, I give “the look”.

Purchased Frozen Skillet Meals and Frozen Family Sized Entrees:

Sometimes I am unable to do any cooking, and I just need something I can put in the oven or microwave. If I’m out of homemade options, I turn to store bought entrees. Frozen lasagna, chicken piccata, and frozen pot pies are the easiest. Sometimes I can manage dumping a bag or two of frozen skillet meals into my saute pan, cover, and occasionally stir it.

Mostly Homemade Pot Pies:

I keep the insides of chicken pot pie in flattened gallon freezer bags in the freezer. I keep cans of refrigerator biscuits in the refrigerator. Anyone in the family can defrost and heat the gravy, chicken and vegetable mixture in the microwave. We then put the insides in a pyrex dish. Top the mixture with canned biscuits divided in half (tops and bottoms, flaky or regular). Bake at about 350 until the biscuits are baked through and the filling is hot and bubbling. I’ve changed up the seasoning and fillings to make southwestern pot pie and other flavors as well.

Veggie Burgers:

Veggie burgers are great and come in a huge variety of flavors. We like the Thai and Southwestern ones best. I usually just heat them in the microwave because pan frying them doesn’t make a whole lot of difference in texture. I keep BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, and sweet chili sauce in the refrigerator and almost always have lettuce and slicing tomatoes around. If I don’t have buns around, the veggie burgers fit nicely in square sliced sandwich bread, toasted or untoasted.

Other Freezer Meals:

I freeze almost anything I can freeze. American chop suey, chicken parmesan, pulled pork, smoked meat from our smoker, store bought precooked chicken sausages etc,.

Leftovers:

Our refrigerator is almost always over-packed. It is a good idea to keep your toes a little back from the falling pickle jars. Usually at this point, I don’t care what everyone eats. Things don’t have to be nutritionally balanced 7 days a week. We let the girls choose what they want first, and then my husband and I eat whatever they turn up their noses at.

Microwave Noodles:

I can’t believe this is a category, but it is. Anything that can get cooked in the microwave is a last minute solution. I keep slightly higher quality instant noodles around (is high quality ramen even a thing?). One daughter really likes the Nongshim kimchi ramen, and the other, likes the Maruchan teriyaki yakisoba noodles. Lately, I’ve been into the Indomie MI Goreng noodles, which are Indonesian instant stir fry noodles. I can throw in bits of leftover vegetables or meat from the fridge, krab stick, or fish balls (I just set my brother up for one of his favorite jokes). The sodium level is ONLY 36% of a person’s daily intake for the MI Goreng noodles!

Try this no cook recipe: White Bean Tuna Salad