The Meal Planning Mommies want to thank Jane from Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms for submitting one of her staple recipes, some mighty fine looking sloppy joe’s!
Jane is the mother of two growing boys, has a charming blog loaded with recipe ideas, and has written a cook-book that we were pleased to review.
Her cook-book is loaded with her family favorite meals that she has modified to be make-ahead wonders! This is a wonderful resource for meals that can be prepared in advanced and served with ease. As you flip through her cookbook you can see that her recipes are tried and true, having been served at her dinner table many an evening! We liked that.
Here is a taste of what Jane has cooking:
Whenever I talk about make-ahead meals, I tell people about my #1 go-to recipe…Sloppy Joes. This recipe is in my cookbookand it’s one of our favorites. You can cook it and freeze it in different size portions to fit your family. I have sent Matthew back to his dorm with frozen Sloppy Joes on many occasions, so he can have something other than cafeteria food once in a while. It defrosts and reheats in the microwave in minutes. With Andrew’s La Crosse schedule right now, it’s especially nice to have this in the freezer, so I can come home and cook a delicious, quick meal that we all like! I hope you enjoy the recipe and find it helpful for your family!
Freeze it in labeled freezer bags and lay it flat in your freezer so you can stack your frozen meals. You can freeze it for 3 – 6 months. I use vacuum bags as it preserves it longer in the freezer.
You can purchase Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms below! Look how easy we make it for you. (Hehe).
And, on top of that we are giving away a free copy of Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms this week to one lucky reader.
1). In the comment section answer the following question inspired by Jane’s sloppy Joe’s : What is your family’s staple meal?
The give-away begins today and will end on Saturday, May 29th.
My families go to meal is Taco Pie…
Basically think of Taco versus nachos. All you need is ground beef, a jar of salsa, refried beans, tortilla chips, and whatever fixings you like on your tacos!
Quick, easy and YUMMY!
Lately, it’s been flat iron steaks and potatos on the grill. I work for a large meat company, so I get discounts on our product. I have to buy the meat in bulk, like 30 lbs our more.
In the winter, I’d say chili. I make a awesome semi homemade chili that I got from my Grandma.
One of our staple meals is quesadillas. They’re fast, easy, and versatile so you can use whatever ingredients you happen to have on hand.
I would say mine would have to be either taco’s or Spaghetti. you usually always have what you need for it and its easy to make.
My kids are so picky the only thing I KNOW I can get them to eat is macaroni and cheese. Our other staple would be spaghetti which they will USUALLY eat. 🙂
Our staple is probably taco’s as well and potato casserole! Both are easy and make plenty for our family. Also, with teenagers always running they are good eat when you can meals. My Sunday go to meal is roast in the crock pot. Easy and smells wonderful!
Our staple meal is probably spaghetti, because I always have a ton in our cabinet. It’s just so cheap and easy to make!
Our go to meal is tacos. I need a new one though. I’m getting sick of tacos. 🙂
My families staple is pasta with a red sauce we make. We usually make a large batch of the sauce to freeze which makes pasta night even easier. All I have to do is cook the pasta and warm up the sauce!
our family meal is creamed chicken. when i can’t figure out what else to make, i just throw a chicken in the crock pot when i leave for work and it’s ready to be shredded when i get home. i use the juice that i cooked the chicken in to make the gravy and just pour it over biscuits or mashed potatoes. goes down great all the time.
Our go to meal is definitely spaghetti. We always have ground beef in the freezer and sauce in the pantry.
Our staple meal is spaghetti. I always have the ingredients on hand and it is easy to make.
We call ours Sausage and Noodles…not sure if it has a real name. It’s an onion cooked in a little butter, then add a bag of the shredded coleslaw mix, a bag of (cooked) egg noodles, and then 16oz of sliced polish kielbasa. Let it cook covered in a pan, stirring occassionally until it starts to brown and just some of it gets crunchy. Very yummy, my little guy loves it.
Ours would be Taco Bake…so easy and everyone loves it!
thanks!
terraljones at gmail dot com
our ‘go to’ meal is meatloaf. it is super tasty and simple. even the kids clean thier plates!!! only takes 1/2 hour to prepare and 1 hour to bake. just enough time to switch laundry and get kids ready for dinner!!
Our go to meal is homemade pizza. Always keep some kind of bread around that can be quickly used as a crust (french bread, naan, tortillas, pitas, or a quick pizza dough) and everyone gets to pick their toppings! Thanks for the great giveaway- I really want a copy of this book!!
Go to meal is usually hot dogs and macaroni & cheese, put the hot dogs in the water, bring to boil, add macaroni… when macaroni is cooked, hot dogs will be floating, pick them out and finish macaroni as directed on box. Not healthy, but cheaper than take-out pizza.
Risotto! It seems really fancy at first, but honestly it’s great because you only really need the rice & chicken stock (both cabinet ingredients), you don’t have to stir it quite as often as you’d think, and you can throw all kinds of veggies and leftovers into it. I usually go with mushrooms, carrots, and peas.
One of our favorites is soup with pasta – tomato soup with cooked pasta added and topped with a little cheese (and 2 T. of love, my husband would add). It’s really simple and tasty and we sometimes make a sandwich or quesadilla to go with it.
Our go to meal is polska kielbalsa with corn and rice. It’s the only thing I know my son will always eat.
Sausage & peppers. Both my kids love sausauge (we like the chicken ones best), and raw pepper strips for the kiddies, cooked peppers with onions & mushrooms for the grown ups. jfsarma at gmail dot com
My guys love cheeseburgers. I wish I loved them as much. 🙂 Thanks
mrspoofa(at)aol.com
Our go-to meal is Chicken Divan! Yum!
Our go to meal is spaghetti. My kids LOVE it! I wish it didn’t mean a bunch of extra laundry after they eat it though. 🙂
Baked Spaghetti! Yum. Easy to throw veg in to hide. Easy (period). I make double batches to freeze often.
We like lasagna for something that could be made in advance.
Our families favorite is something we call SOS. It is really just ground beef with a flour gravy.
I have a few “go to” meals when we are super busy: Baked Potatoes with toppings, Breakfast dinner, or soup and grilled cheese. They are my fastest meals and off the beaten path of my normal menu plan.
Thanks for the great giveaway. I’d love to win!
And thank you for posting this recipe for sloppy joes!! I was menu planning on my phone at 2 am the other night as I was up feeding my newborn. I had NO inspiration but this sounded so good that I am trying it tonight! The plus is that we’ll have plenty for the freezer as suggested.
Thanks again!
Jane
Our go-to meal is fried rice with leftover meat and veggies.
kristen_yeh (at) yahoo (dot) com
Our staple meal is chicken parmesan. I toss grilled chicken in a pan with cheese and spaghetti sauce and we are done!
As a family of 1 (and a cat) I have several “go to meals:” the frozen boxed variety, spaghetti squash (previously cooked, frozen & thawed) and sauce, and a veggie, chicken & feta omelett! Of course the cat is easy, she just eats cat food!
I’ve recently discovered that planning my dinner ahead of time makes for a more relaxing evening!
Like some others, I think my family’s go-to meal has to be tacos for sure. I use the packet mixes so it’s even quicker. I eat mine on a baked potato with salad usually and my husband has them in a tortilla. Would love a chance to win this book! My husband has been wanting me to make homemade sloppy joes for i don’t know how long now! Thanks for sharing.
kelly.polizzi@gmail.com
Ours is usually some form of pasta. We also make tacos with regularity.
We always keep ground turkey in the freezer, so we can always make tacos or spaghetti with meat sauce. For an easy meat sauce, I brown some ground turkey, add a jar of spaghetti sauce and some water, cook it to reduce, then serve over pasta. Yummy and easy.
We always keep ground turkey in the freezer, so we can always make tacos or spaghetti with meat sauce. Yummy and easy. =)
Grilled chicken drumsticks and veggies, together with cheesy potatoes. The frozen meat can be microwaved in just a few minutes and cooked on our barbeque grill together with onions, bell peppers and mushroom without having the heat in the kitchen. Add bbq sauce to the meat at the end before they’re done. To complete the meal, we use microwave oven to ‘bake’ potatoes and then add shedded cheese to the hot potatoes before serving. After all, we have less dishes to clean and a wonderful dinner to enjoy! It’d be great to have a copy of the cookbook to learn how to prepare make-ahead meals for my family.
our favorite staple would be homemade pizza on a friday night…nice way to end the week. 🙂
~eunice b
rsmile2u @dejazzd .com
Our staple go to meal is taco pie. Super easy & my daughter loves it
My family’s go-to meal is tacos – everyone loves it, and I can get them to eat more veggies that way!
We have a few go-to meals…aside from spaghetti, we’ll have what we lovingly refer to as “tuna slop”. You cook any type of pasta/egg noodles and then add tuna & mayo & cheese. Sometimes if we have time we use cubed cheese, but usually it is shredded. You can add as much tuna/mayo as desired. We also do chicken parm or BBQ ribs on the grill with dh making his own sauce. If I’m doing make ahead, I like to do lasagna or chicken divan & our new fave is the chicken tetrazini you posted a few months ago. I always make one & freeze one.
Thanks so much for the sloppy joe recipe…love the idea of freezing it…never thought of that!
Thanks for the chance to win!
spaghetti and meatballs – yum
june_spirit2628 at hotmail dot com
our go-to meal is 15-Minute Italian Chicken & Rice with Vegetables from the Food & Family Magazine – Summer 2006 if you keep older copies of this wonderful magazine!!!
Our regular (and fairly healthy) meal is Turkey Chili–all the ingredients can be stored in the freezer or pantry.
Thanks for the chance to win!
–Liza
ejm6x (at) yahoo (dot) com
We seem to ALWAYS have italian food… any kind of pasta!!! Yummy
quesadillas and wraps!
emmy1981 at aol dot com
i try not to have staple meals because i grew up eating staple meals ALL the time and can’t stand the thought of them. i try to mix it up all the time and keep a ton of easy meal recipes on hand. it takes more time but at least i don’t get sick of it!
Tacos! Chicken or ground beef. They are easy and fresh and everyone will eat them.
waterchic83@yahoo.com
If my Dad is cooking it is boring chicken, rice, and salad and if I’m cooking a staple meal it’d probably be turkey sausage, pasta, and homemade red sauce.
dlogstonATgmailDOTcom
Our meal is meatloaf.
hewella1 at gmail dot com
our staple meal is pasta with some kind of marinara sauce
sarinalv@yahoo.com
Our families staple is steak and mashed potatoes, so simple, but so good!
six_one_nine_girlie86 (at) yahoo (dot) com
Our staple is homemade pizza. Ever since my boyfriend learnt to make the dough himself, its what he wants nearly every day!
sugareaterATgmailDOTcom
my kids are on a pasta and pesto sauce kick lately
sibabe64 at ptd dot net
Tacos are a staple around here. Everyone loves it especially when we have freah lettuce and tomatoes.
Variations of pasta with red sauce and veggies are our staple.
drchurchill28 at gmail com
Hashbrown casserole! Inexpensive, comforting, and delicious. The perfect winter meal.
simp2553@gmail.com
Mac and cheese with frozen veggies tossed in with the pasta as it cooks and cooked hot dogs sliced in at the end.