An opportunity presented itself for me to make some food for a friend who was having shoulder surgery. Because my friend lives alone and because the expected healing time was going to be something like five weeks, a few of us where I work decided it would be nice if we could do something to help.  We wanted to make her food that was easy and practical so she could heat it up with just one hand if she had to since she would not be able to use the arm/shoulder she was having the surgery on for a little while.

As I brainstormed what we could do I remembered a message we got from one of our readers not too long ago suggesting the idea of cooking casseroles in muffin tins. The advice was offered as a solution for those who wanted perfect portions and for those who cook big meals (from recipe sites) but are only cooking for one or two people. I knew I loved the idea and wanted to give it a try, but I wasn’t in a hurry. It was wanting to help my friend that gave me the extra motivation I needed to jump on it immediately.

Four situations where this “individual” cooking concept is especially helpful:

1. When you are making a full casserole but will only be eating, or serving, one-two servings at a time.
2. When you are wanting to make lunches ahead of time that you can heat up in two minutes or less.
3. If you have kids who don’t eat very much. Once we had these in our freezer I realized I could cook one square for my kids and then if they wanted more I just heated up another one. It seems like there is less wasted food this way.
4. When you are trying to be mindful of portion control.

Here is how this concept of individual cooking works.

The concept of individual cooking is that you prepare your freezer-friendly dish in muffin pans, rather than square and rectangle baking pans. Then, once they are cooked you freeze the ones you aren’t going to eat right away. This makes for perfect serving sizes, and it makes them incredibly convenient anytime.

I will tell you what I did and then I will tell you what I should have done.

 

What I did.

I decided I was going to tackle five different dinner recipes and I was going to double each one so I would have some in our freezer for my family and I would have plenty to take to my friend.  I figured I would be doing all the prep work anyway so I might as well make enough for my family too. The recipes I decided to make were Chili Cornbread Pies, Barbecue Meatloaf, Crescent Topped Chicken Bake, Mini Spinach “Lasagna” Squares, and Flourless Oatmeal Bars. (today I will show you the chili cornbread pies) I was excited to get started so as soon as I had my list written out I went to Aldi and got all the ingredients I would need.

When I got home I wanted to get started right away so I put all the ingredients on the counter, rolled up my sleeves, put on an apron, and got to work. I didn’t do any math as far as how long each recipe would take to cook, cool, and freeze. I just went for it! About 4 hours later I was wrapping things up with several food options all stacked up in our freezer and I had a huge mess of a kitchen.

 

(I had to take some of the foods that were in our freezer and put them in our deep freezer so we would have room to stack the food I as it froze…It wasn’t a problem, but it was just another thing I didn’t think about ahead of time.. and how about that sink! What sink, you ask? …I promise it’s under there.)

What I should have done.

If I were to do it again I probably would not try to tackle several recipes in one night. That was a little much. Each recipe I cooked took about 20 minutes to cook, so if you figure I was doubling five recipes then that is about ten rounds of cooking. So you are talking a good 3-4 hours between prep, cooking, cooling, and freezing. Because I was using two pans I had to wash them in between but I had to let them cool before I could wash them. This took up extra time.

What I would suggest for you to do.

Pick a recipe. Give it a try. If you like cooking this way and you find it works for you come back and try it with another recipe. (I will post several recipes tomorrow that you can use with this concept) If it is a recipe you know you love consider doubling the recipe, but don’t try to tackle four recipes in one night like I did.

It’s late and my computer is giving me serious issues tonight so I will not be able to get to all the recipes today. I will share one recipe tonight and I will try to get to the others tomorrow. Here is one of the recipes I tried…

Chili Cornbread Pies

Here is what you will need:

A brownie pan or a muffin pan
I used parchment paper muffin liners. (You could also use aluminum liners. Not sure if they are necessary but I used them to make it easier to transport each cup after they cooked but weren’t frozen yet. When it came time to heat them up later I peeled off the liner before reheating the food. )
Cooking spray
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (15 oz) can low-fat vegetarian chili soup
1 (11 oz) can Mexican-style corn, drained
1 (6 oz) box cornbread mix
2/3 cup water

Here is what you do:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Heat the stove to medium-high heat until hot. Sauté onion until tender.

Stir in soup and corn and mix with onion.

Spoon mixture into a muffin tin or brownie pan lined with muffin liners.

Mix together cornbread mix and water.

Pour cornbread batter in a thin layer on top of the chili mixture.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the cornbread is slightly browned. You can find the original recipe here. (I just omitted the cheese) This is what this recipe looks like in a square pan…

Dividing this recipe into twelve muffin cups makes each muffin cup worth 5 WW FreeStyle SP.

Once cooked, allow to cool, and then freeze. Once they are frozen really good you can pop them all into a bag and store them in the freezer in freezer bags. If you are doing Weight Watchers you can mark how many Smart Points one cup is worth to make it easy to remember later.

When you are ready to heat one up take off the cupcake liner (if you used one) and reheat in the microwave 1-2 minutes in a microwave safe bowl.