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I have a perennial quest to find non-Japanese-bento recipes that I can treat like Japanese bento recipes: because the packed-lunch culture is so prominent in Japan, there are cookbooks with recipes specially developed to be stored in the freezer (affiliate link; about 1/3 of the recipes in that book are freezable) that you can just take out and either (a) pop into your lunch--which is stored at room temp--and will thaw nicely and be ready to eat at lunch time or (b) you nuke to thaw, then pack in your lunch when cooled. (You cool things that you nuke or were refrigerated and heated in the toaster oven to crisp up to reduce condensation in the lunch, which promotes spoilage.) Prepping your lunch in the morning takes maybe ten minutes, spread out in two five-minute sessions if you need to heat it up and cool it before it goes into your lunch.
Awesome. I want to do that with more non-Japanese recipes, so they mesh well with things we cook more often. I'm not particularly good at braining enough to look at a basic Japanese freezer bento recipe and see how it would work if I subbed in other seasonings and sauces, so I periodically poke around the web for recipes, especially vegetable side dishes, that freeze well.
Alas, this search is complicated by the existence of the Freezer Meal World. This is a movement that aims to simplify meal prep for moms (it's always moms) by setting aside one or two days a month, doing a big grocery run and making a bunch of dishes, mostly casseroles but there's some variation, and getting them to a point where they can be frozen. Prep on the day, however, requires that you remember 24 hours in advance that you have one of these things so you can put it into the fridge to thaw overnight, and then you have to remember an hour in advance of dinner that you did that so you can preheat the oven for 15-20 minutes, than bake the casserole for 45 minutes. Or, if it's a boil-in-the-bag type of meal (say, pasta with sauce), then you need to thaw it overnight and then gently boil it until it's heated.
This world never uses microwaves to thaw or reheat. Or maybe they do, but I've yet to run across a website with freezer meal recipes that includes microwave instructions or a separate section for nuking-friendly recipes.
In general, there's also not that many side dishes that get frozen--they're expecting you to boil some corn on the cob or use some frozen vegetables or make a salad on the day to go with the casserole you've reheated.
This is all somehow supposed to save you time. I disbelieve, when I could just make tacos on the day and use my weekend to do something else. I mean, I found these three side dishes today, which sound good, except that the "prep" beforehand saves you zero time over doing it day-of and in fact adds time because you need to thaw them overnight. They're good for preserving food you bought for later, they're good for extra stuff in the CSA box you need to do somethin with before it goes bad, but they are not, as the website explicitly says, good for saving you time: Sauteed Pineapple, Balsmic and Rosemary Grilled Vegetables, and the absolute "time saving" travesty of Baked Asparagus. Yes, I'd do that last recipe if I bought asparagus and then realized I wasn't going to have time to cook it before the tips got slimy, but that saves no time!
And it does not solve my problem, which is recipes that can be COMPLETELY cooked, frozen in single servings, and popped into a lunch in the morning, to gently thaw by lunch. (I also have a microwave available at work, but if I don't have use it, so much the better.)
ARGH. Anyway, if you have any side dishes--preferably vegetable and grains (although I'm not fussed about meat/cheese/stock in them) that you know can be frozen in single servings and popped frozen into a lunch, or nuked to thaw (since I have a microwave at work), then please, link me! It works better to eat at room temps if they're highly seasoned, as flavors blossom when heated and get more dulled as foods get colder. (I have just finished a green bean dish that contains butter and lemon zest and...yeah, needed even more flavoring.)
In return I can offer you a few of the freezable bento recipes we've collected: Google Docs link
Awesome. I want to do that with more non-Japanese recipes, so they mesh well with things we cook more often. I'm not particularly good at braining enough to look at a basic Japanese freezer bento recipe and see how it would work if I subbed in other seasonings and sauces, so I periodically poke around the web for recipes, especially vegetable side dishes, that freeze well.
Alas, this search is complicated by the existence of the Freezer Meal World. This is a movement that aims to simplify meal prep for moms (it's always moms) by setting aside one or two days a month, doing a big grocery run and making a bunch of dishes, mostly casseroles but there's some variation, and getting them to a point where they can be frozen. Prep on the day, however, requires that you remember 24 hours in advance that you have one of these things so you can put it into the fridge to thaw overnight, and then you have to remember an hour in advance of dinner that you did that so you can preheat the oven for 15-20 minutes, than bake the casserole for 45 minutes. Or, if it's a boil-in-the-bag type of meal (say, pasta with sauce), then you need to thaw it overnight and then gently boil it until it's heated.
This world never uses microwaves to thaw or reheat. Or maybe they do, but I've yet to run across a website with freezer meal recipes that includes microwave instructions or a separate section for nuking-friendly recipes.
In general, there's also not that many side dishes that get frozen--they're expecting you to boil some corn on the cob or use some frozen vegetables or make a salad on the day to go with the casserole you've reheated.
This is all somehow supposed to save you time. I disbelieve, when I could just make tacos on the day and use my weekend to do something else. I mean, I found these three side dishes today, which sound good, except that the "prep" beforehand saves you zero time over doing it day-of and in fact adds time because you need to thaw them overnight. They're good for preserving food you bought for later, they're good for extra stuff in the CSA box you need to do somethin with before it goes bad, but they are not, as the website explicitly says, good for saving you time: Sauteed Pineapple, Balsmic and Rosemary Grilled Vegetables, and the absolute "time saving" travesty of Baked Asparagus. Yes, I'd do that last recipe if I bought asparagus and then realized I wasn't going to have time to cook it before the tips got slimy, but that saves no time!
And it does not solve my problem, which is recipes that can be COMPLETELY cooked, frozen in single servings, and popped into a lunch in the morning, to gently thaw by lunch. (I also have a microwave available at work, but if I don't have use it, so much the better.)
ARGH. Anyway, if you have any side dishes--preferably vegetable and grains (although I'm not fussed about meat/cheese/stock in them) that you know can be frozen in single servings and popped frozen into a lunch, or nuked to thaw (since I have a microwave at work), then please, link me! It works better to eat at room temps if they're highly seasoned, as flavors blossom when heated and get more dulled as foods get colder. (I have just finished a green bean dish that contains butter and lemon zest and...yeah, needed even more flavoring.)
In return I can offer you a few of the freezable bento recipes we've collected: Google Docs link
