Do You Make Dinner Ahead of Time?

Hi S. S. For holiday meals or company coming for dinner I do as much the day/night before as possible. I have never had onions or garlic or any vegetables or spices dry out over night. I never serve re heated food, I personally don't like re heated food. J.

I don't chop garlic up, but onions, bell perppers... I chop it up and use it within 2-3 days. Or, I put it in a freezer ziplock baggie and use it within a month or so.

You can freeze tons of veggies, i even do this to herbs, makes it easy to cook in a hurry, or to not waste foods if you have leftover herbs or something and you don't want to throw them away.

I have lots of advice and tips on doing it here on my blog:
http://littlelovables.blogspot.com/2010/02/soul-salsa.html

Last night, I chopped veggies (carrots, onions, potatoes (place chopped potatoes in cold water in the fridge & they don't discolor) for stew and browned the stew meat (floured in seasoned flour). This morning, I layered them in the crockpot, added 1 cup broth, and 1 can of diced tomatoes over the top & set the crockpot on low.

I'll do a casserole the night before sometimes, too, to be baked the next day. I do this probably 1 or 2 times per week.

I often precook meat--will brown or boil 3 lbs of ground chuck & freeze in 3/4 lb increments for use in recipes. Or cook a whole batch of chicken breasts in the crockpot, then dice it up into cubes and freeze in 1-recipe batches (about 3/4 to 1 lb). That speeds up my cooking time for dinner tremendously.

I buy the big bag of grated cheese; it may be more expensive that the blocks, but its worth to me (I'm a klutz and constantly scrape my knuckles trying to shred the last bits).

Does making enough O. day to ensure leftover the next day count? I'm the master of that! LOL

If I do make something "ahead" for the next day, I usually make it/cook it completely so we can just heat it up the next day.

I plan all my meals ahead, so in the morning I decide what I will be making for dinner and put the meat out to defrost and make sure I have the rest of the ingredients. I do not put together things the night before for the very reason you mentioned and also I have heard that as soon as you start chopping up veggies they start to lose the nutrients. (Not sure if this is true)

Here is what I find works best. I do crock pot when I can and put everything together just before I get the kids up for the day. This usually takes 15 to 30 minutes. If I have something that does not work in a crock then I start preparing mid-afternoon so If I get interrupted (kids) or have a lot to do that day I won't get tied up in the kitchen for an hour.

I very rarely cook a meal that I reheat for dinner, it is just not the same. Every once and a while I will put a casserole together like chicken and rice or lasagne in the morning and just cook it at dinner time.

Hope this helps.

It depends on the day. Mondays never my day is too busy. I usually make dinner before hand on Tues - Fri.
I started using my crockpot more often this past winter. I have my favorite cookbooks I pick out some tasty recipes.

I do it and garlic works just fine.

I am making chicken soup tomorrow. I will thaw the chicken carcass, chop all the veggies, and leave a box of chicken stock on the counter. Tomorrow after work, I start the chicken stock in one pan and heat a skillet with a little olive oil. I will sauté all of the veggies and start the chicken when the stock is at a boil. When the veggies are sautéed, they will join the chicken. Once the chicken is cooked, I will remove the bone from the fire and remove any usable meat. I will add noodles and in 12 more minutes, dinner will be served.

We eat leftovers a lot, reheating it in the pan where it was cooked. I'll make a stir-fry with a sauce and eat it for two or three nights. But I'll do all the cooking and the first eating on one night, then just re-make the pasta or rice the next night, since pasta dries out quickly and so does rice.
My rule of thumb is that prepared food isn't very good after a week. It's probably safe to eat, just not palatable. We will generally eat stir-fry Monday, Tuesday, something else Wednesday, and finish it off on Thursday.
It's very common for us to eat fish and rice for dinner and then for lunch the next day or so.
Garlic and onions won't dry out in a day if you put them in the fridge in a plastic bag. They'll last for a few days.
I generally don't do the prep the night before unless it's a complicated dish. Anything with dry goods is fine to do the night before. Veggies start to dry out faster, so I don't prechop them. But I'm quick with a knife.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa without refrigeration, so here are some unusual tips just for fun: Tomato-based sauces are good on the stove top for about four days if you heat them to boiling twice a day. Broth-based soups (fish head soup, yum!) can go by the same rule. Boil it in the morning and at night and it's fine to eat, and still tasty, even if it's at room temperature all day. Not that you have to do that here, but hey, info is free. And I wouldn't do that with any soup that has dairy in it.
We are big on leftovers. It saves a TON of cooking time, since we tend to go out and do stuff during the day and come home late and tired with no time or energy to cook.
Another generic tip is to have a fall-back meal that takes 10 minutes or less to prepare that everyone likes. We have cold plate. It's sliced apples, sliced sharp cheddar cheese (one of the bricks you slice, like Dubliner or Cabot), sliced smoked sausage (summer sausage), and crackers. All the food groups, relatively healthy, everyone likes at least one thing, and it's on the table in about 5 minutes. Sometimes I add carrots and hummus, or grapes, but mostly not. The kids pick and choose, and we're all happy. And it's less than $2 per meal per person, more or less. Those cheddar cheese bricks are good in the fridge for at least a week, and the other stuff keeps for much longer, so it's easy to just have it around if you think it's going to be "one of those weeks." Cold plate has become our Sunday night standby.

Also, some things reheat well and others don't. In general, pieces of meat do not reheat well unless they are in stews of sorts. If you are going to reheat a side like succotash, the microwave is best. Rice and pasta should be cooked fresh, or you can made fried rice with day-old cooked rice. Stews and soups and sauces (spaghetti sauce included) reheat very well and are often better the next day. It depends on how you cook. If you have the J. of Cooking, read through it. It's a great resource for a lot of things.

I cook in the morning.
Then heat up for dinner.
I do my cooking in the morning, because in the afternoon/evening is too busy.

I don't usually prep ahead of time, but on the weekends I try to cook enough meat to last the week. Then I add the meat to different things and "reheat" it with whatever I am making. That seems to save a lot of time.

I cook Monday, Tues, Wed, leftovers on Thursday and pizza on Friday. Weekend meals depend on if we have the kids or not, I usually just wing it.

I brown about 6 pounds of hamburger at a time and freeze it in zip baggies. Then I take out and use for salads, tacos, soups, pasta's, sandwhiches, etc. I do the same thing for boneless chicken breasts that I cook on low in the crockpot all day and then chop up and freeze.

I have a saladmaster so I use that to cut up everything I need for salads and keep a huge tupperware container of salad ready to go in the fridge at all times. Sometimes my daughter just gets in there and will have a salad for breakfast! We have salad with dinner every night.

I also have those fruit basket things and keep on hand apples, oranges, grapes and banana's so anyone can have one when they want.

That's basically what I do and it works for me since I work full time. good luck!

I plan a menu for 1-2 weeks, but I don't cook it ahead of time. I'm a SAHM, so I have more leeway, but I also try to check the calendar. ie: I was helping out with an orientation class on Wednesdays, so I tried to avoid dinners that required a lot of prep or baking time (pizza, spaghetti!!! hehe)

I always make dinner in advance. I always make enough for leftovers and then I overlap so that I generally have two meals running at the same time. I also do a freezer meal preparation once a month where we pre-prepare 10 meals. There are different companies but I go to Wildtree because they don't use preservatives, coloring additives, and it's so yummy!

Another mom taught me that if I chop too many onions I can double freezer-bag them and freeze them for a later use. I have done this many times when making a base for spaghetti sauce or chili. I have not done it with garlic though.

I do occasionally prep vegetables like celery, carrots, squash etc. earlier in the day. Tomatoes I save until later, closer to dinnertime.

If I am making homemade soup I might get it 3/4 of the way made and then finish closer to dinner...but only on the same day. Meatloaf and meatballs I might prep the day before and cook the day of.

It depends what it is. For example, if I was going to do spaghetti and meatballs, I might make it in advance and throw it in a 9X11 pan. The next day I'd add some cheese and turn it into a baked pasta dish. Vegetables can almost always be prepped the night before. Potatoes and carrots should be stored in water - just drain the water and cook the next day (add fresh water if you're boiling). If stuff is going in the slow cooker, I tend to pile it all in, cover it, and stick it in the fridge. The next morning I just add the liquid and turn on. Things like biscuits or pancake mix can be made the night ahead and stuck in the fridge - they just need to be cooked a little longer when they start out cold. I try to make at least one part of the meal that can at least partially be cooked/prepped the night before so that dinnertime isn't so crazy.

Good luck!

I often just keep chopping if I know I'll be using more in the next few days with onions and peppers. I will sometimes make casseroles in advance. Some things I cook and freeze so I am reheating once thawed. I cook bacon in advance and freeze to use in recipes. I'll grate cheese in advance by 24 hours. It just depends.