Panipopo

Panipopo is a Polynesian dessert that consists of lovely, soft bread dough covered with a sweetened coconut sauce and baked.  The sauce soaks into the outside of the bread giving it a soft, sticky, coconut exterior.  It's so good! My description is not doing it justice.  I make it every time I make Chicken Curry Buns because it's a great way to use up leftover bread dough and coconut milk and because it is delicious.

Easy Non-Freezer Meals

After a couple months and four service visits my new freezer is finally working.  It was fixed shortly before I left for a three week road trip with my kids.  I didn't have the time or energy to fill the freezer before the trip.  Now I'm back and recovering. I'm getting ready to do some freezer cooking, probably next week.  In the meantime I thought I would post some of the easy meals I've been making while I have not had a freezer.  Something I noticed is that a number of them are things I already make for the freezer.

These easy meals that freeze well are a good option for those who don't want to dedicate a whole day or week to making freezer meals.  Instead you can make these meals for dinner make enough to freeze at the same time.  Check out the new "eat one, freeze one" category in the index to find meals that would be a good candidate for this.  I've been making a lot of the meals in that category lately.  Here's more meals I've been making that are easy and don't freeze well.

Mascarpone Walnut Pasta

I used to make this dish a lot before I started freezer cooking.  It's delicious and easy.  It was nice to have it again while we were waiting for our freezer.  I briefly considered working on a casserole version of this dish, but it's so fast and easy it doesn't seem worth it.  I didn't think to take a picture.  The last time I made it, so you'll have to use your imagination. :)

Mascarpone Walnut Pasta

From: Great Pasta Sauces

Serves 6

1 lb pasta (I live campanelle, but you can use something else)

4 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
8 oz mascarpone
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper

1. Put the pasta on to boil according to the package instructions.
2. In a large frying pan melt the butter.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Add the walnuts and gently stir for 3 to 4 minutes until they are toasted.  Be careful not to burn!
4. Stir in the mascarpone then the parmesan.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine.

This is very tasty served with a bacon and spinach salad.

Lemon Chicken and Gnocchi Sheet Pan Dinner

I haven't had a freezer for the past few months, so I've been exploring other quick and easy, but still tasty, meals.  Sheet pan dinners have been really popular online lately.  I admit that I have been skeptical of them. Generally sheet pan meals have potatoes, vegetables and meat all cooked together on one tray, and some of the ones I see seem like the meat would be way overcooked before the potatoes are tender.  However, I do love this sheet pan chicken tikka, and it convinced me to take a look at more sheet pan dinners for quick non-freezer meals.

Previously for the chicken tikka I have put the chicken in the marinade and frozen it to simplify the process and make it a freezer meal.  Lately I have been just making the marinade and putting the chicken in it a day in advance since I didn't have a large freezer to do bulk freezer cooking.  In this way it works as an easy meal when you don't have freezer meals, or as a freezer meal where marinading  and portioning a bunch of meat in advance does simplify things.  Really any meat in a marinade in the freezer is an easy and common way to do food prep in advance.  Look at your favorite marinaded meat dishes see what you could prep and freeze to simplify your life.

Freezer Jam

I'm supposed to be doing a boatload of cooking this week to fill up my brand new freezer, and, hopefully, still have enough energy to blog about.  Unfortunately there is a problem with the new freezer, and I am holding off cooking until it's taken care of.  Instead I decided to make freezer jam, which can go in the small freezer on top of my fridge.

My grandma used to make freezer jam when I was a kid.  I loved the stuff.  Later as an adult I decided to try my hand at making it.  I was delighted to find that it is super easy to do and soon had delicious freezer jam of my own.  I was less delighted to discover that the two main pectin brands, Ball and Sure Jell, did not yield a consistent product.  Sometimes I would end up with delicious, set jam, but just as often my jam would not set at all.  Instead I would have many jars of fruit syrup.  It was still delicious but not what I wanted.  In talking to other jam makers I learned that others also had problems with inconsistent set.

Microwave Side Dishes

I am not a great microwave cook.  Until recently I only considered the microwave good for melting and reheating, not for cooking.  That attitude is gradually changing.  While the microwave may not be great for baking, it can be a useful tool in making easy side dishes to go with freezer meals.  Plus grocery store have started selling rice or pasta pouches that are already cooked and can be reheated in the microwave.  I haven't tried the pasta pouches, but I have tried a couple of the rice ones and found them useful.  I don't plan to use them all the time since they're more expensive, but having a few in the pantry would be handy as a back up.

For making my own microwave sides, I started with the obvious, potatoes.  I have been microwaving potatoes and sweet potatoes to serve as a side since long before I started making freezer meals.  When I started doing freezer meals I sometimes needed a vegetable side for a meal.  This lead me to using the ready-to-microwave bags of green beans or broccoli that are found in the supermarket produce section.  It took me a while to get over not prepping my own veggies, but these are convenient and tasty with a little butter, salt and pepper.

Easy Mango Lassi

I love Indian food, I have learned to make and freeze some of my favorite Indian meals.  Many grocery stores have also started carrying naan and I find myself going out for Indian food less often.  After all, I have delicious homemade Indian in my freezer.  This is a wonderful thing as I get to have my favorite Indian dishes regularly without having to spend a lot of money.  The downside was that I wasn't getting to have a mango lassi with my Indian dinner.  The obvious solution was to learn to make that as well. 

I tried a few different recipes I found online and wasn't really happy with any of them.  Many called for fresh mango, which while delicious, it is sometimes hard to find ripe ones.  Plus having to peel, pit and cut up mangoes kind of defeats the purpose of having convenient freezer meals.  Then I tried frozen mango chunks from the grocery store.  That did not make a good lassi.  For some reason mango gets really chalky when frozen.  Finally I discovered canned mango and created a tasty and convenient lassi that makes it so I can have the full Indian restaurant dining experience at home.  I'm going to give you the recipe, but it is really flexible.  Don't be afraid to change things around to fit your tastes.

Serves 4

1 15 oz can mango in syrup
2 cups plain yogurt ( I use Greek yogurt, but regular should be fine)
3 cups ice
honey to taste

1. Pour the mango, including the syrup into a blender.  Add the yogurt and blend until smooth.
2. My blender wasn't large enough to handle the full recipe, so I poured out half the mango-yogurt mixture into another container.
3. Add half the ice and blend until smooth.  Add honey to taste.
4. Pour the lassi into cups to serves.  Repeat step 3 with the rest of the mango-yogurt and the ice.

Asparagus in Ambush

Like the Avocado Tacos I posted before, this is not a freezer meal.  However, on occasion I post meals that are simple to make and delicious, which describes asparagus in ambush perfectly.

Adapted from: An American Place

2 lbs asparagus, woody bottom ends cut off and discarded
10 oz thinly sliced ham
14 slices swiss cheese
7 flour tortillas

Makes 7 wraps

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the asparagus and boil until just tender.  Drain well.
2. Place three slices of ham on a tortilla.  Put two slices of cheese on top of the ham and place a handful of  asparagus in the center on top of the cheese.  Roll the tortilla up around the ham, cheese and asparagus.  Place the wrap in a baking dish.  Repeat with the other tortillas.
3. Bake the wraps at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until the ham is hot and the cheese is melted.

Avocado Tacos

I need to start this post with a disclaimer.  Avocado Tacos are not actually a freezer meal.  However, they are incredibly easy and convenient especially since they don't require any cooking.  They are so easy and fast to put together that I think they are in keeping with the spirit of this blog.  These tacos are a delicious staple for our summer meals.  They are cool, refreshing and filling, plus they don't heat up the kitchen.  A perfect meal for hot summer days.

Another advantage to these is that they can be modified in a variety of ways to make them even easier.  Sometimes I leave out the diced tomatoes to save time and just let the salsa stand in for the tomatoes.  Or you can use pre-shredded lettuce or spring mix instead of cutting or shredding lettuce yourself.  We really like the queso fresco for these, but we have sometimes used pre-shredded cheddar or Mexican blend in its place to save time on the crumbling or a trip to the store.