Frozen Assets
Lunches

Copyright 1998 Deborah Taylor-Hough

Lunches at home can be prepared easily in advance. Smaller servings of your regular dinner items can be served for a lighter noon-time meal. Many items can be frozen and then included in brown bag lunches, as well.

Sandwiches:

These freeze well. Fillings that work for freezing include cooked meat, tuna, sliced cheese, cheese spreads, hard cooked egg yolks and nut butters. Use day old bread; spread bread lightly with butter or margarine to prevent fillings soaking into bread; mixing jelly, mayonnaise or salad dressing into the sandwich filling helps prevent soggy bread. Tomatoes and lettuce get limp when frozen, so add these after removing sandwich from freezer. Frozen sandwiches will thaw in lunch boxes in about three to four hours, staying fresh and cooling other foods in the lunch box at the same time.

Quiche:

For lunches, cooked quiche can be frozen in individually wrapped slices. Serve warm (heated in microwave) or cold.

Soup:

Homemade soups can be frozen easily in microwave-safe single-serving containers. Heat in microwave until thawed and hot.

Desserts:

Cookies and cakes can be frozen in individual servings and then placed still frozen into the lunch bag.

---

Basic "Use-It-Up" Quiche
(Serves 6)

You can use almost any leftover vegetable or meat in this recipe. If you have eggs, milk, rice and cheese, you can practically clean out your fridge right into your quiche pan. I always add the cheese last when making this quiche. The cheese makes a beautiful mellow-brown crust on the top. I usually add a bit of chopped onion to my quiches for flavor, and broccoli makes an especially nice vegetable quiche.

Crust:

2 cups rice, cooked (white or brown)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp soy sauce

Filling:

1/2 lb any leftover vegetable, chopped (single vegetable or a mix)
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk, or light cream
1 cup cheese, grated (your choice: Swiss, Cheddar, Jack, etc.)
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/8 tsp pepper
Dash nutmeg, or ground mace

Crust:
Mix together cooked rice, egg and soy sauce. Spread evenly to cover well- buttered quiche pan or pie plate. Bake rice crust at 350 F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Filling:
Place chopped vegetable in bottom of crust. Mix together: eggs, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour over broccoli. Top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven, and let sit ten minutes before slicing, if serving fresh; or wrap pie pan, label and freeze. Quiche can be served cold after thawing for a yummy hot weather treat; or heat the thawed quiche at 350 F for 20 minutes.

Deborah Taylor-Hough is the author of the bestselling Frozen Assets: Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month and A Simple Choice: a practical guide for saving your time, money and sanity. She also edits the Simple Times email newsletter. To subscribe, visit Debi online at: thesimplemom.wordpress.com

---

---

---

Copyright 1996 - 2013 "The Dollar Stretcher, Inc." All rights reserved unless specifically noted.

Contact the Dollar Stretcher at:
Dollar Stretcher
PO Box 14160
Bradenton FL 34280
941-761-7805

---

"The Dollar Stretcher, Inc." does not assume responsibility for advice given. All advice should be weighed against your own abilities and circumstances and applied accordingly. It is up to the reader to determine if advice is safe and suitable for their own situation.

About Us

Privacy Policy

Writer's Guidelines

Sponsorship

Media

Contact Us