Good Transportable Meals to New Mom

Super-easy Enchilada Casserole (followed by pot roast)

1# cooked hamburger, 1 can rinsed and drained Ranch-Style beans, 1 small can enchilada sauce, grated cheddar (4 oz-ish), 12 corn tortillas

*chop or tear tortillas into bite-size strips
*mix meat, beans, sauce
*grease 2 qt. casserole dish
*layer 1/2 tortillas, 1/2 meat mix, 1/2 cheese
*repeat and cover in foil
*bake 325 degrees for half an hour-ish until it is bubbly around the edges

I will store this in the fridge for days before baking, but if I want to freeze it I mix the meat/beans/sauce and put it in a zipper bag (packaged with the tortillas and cheese separate) so the tortillas don't break down in the freezer.

If she's nursing and sensitive to beans I suppose this is out. Then I send crock-pot pot roast with root veggies. No browning. I put whole scrubbed carrots, celery, and a big quartered onion on the bottom of the crock-pot. Then some quartered new potatoes on top of that. Then a big ol' chuck roast on top of it all. I sprinkle a pack of prepackaged au jus and one of beefy onion soup mix on top of the meat, throw in a few peppercorns, and cook for 20 minutes or so on high to get it hot, then on low for all day (10 hours-ish). This transports beautifully in pyrex after its made and can also stay for days in the fridge and then be reheated under foil.

Hello N.,

~~~Chicken and Cashew Nut Rice~~~

This recipe looks harder than what it is... basically you need chunks of chicken, cooked white rice, mix them together and add some peas, peaches and cashews and viola!

for this recipe you can just keep the cashews out until serving it. (and since the peaches are canned...well, keep them in the can until it gets there)

~~~~Chicken and Cashew Nut Rice~~~~


Ingredients:

8 oz chicken breast
1 lb rice
1 lb peaches -sliced or halves
8 oz cashews
8 oz sweet peas
1 Tbs oil
1 small onion
1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 chopped green pepper

~~~RICE~~~

cook rice according to instructions (not too wet)
(I add a pinch of garlic powder and some salt to the water)

~~~CHICKEN~~~
cut chicken in small pieces/chuchks. (1 - 2 inch pieces)
Chop onion, garlic & green pepper

--caramelizing the chicken pieces-- this is optional:
put oil on hot pan. Add a bit of sugar (1-2 teaspoons)
let it get dark brown. (it will smell like it's burning. This is to give a nice color to the chicken)
Add chicken to hot browning/caramelized sugar. (BE CAREFUL not to get splattered) stir chicken so it browns evenly.

Add onions, garlic, peppers, salt, (black pepper optional). Cook chicken w/ very little water. (you could add some curry powder too)

~~~Peaches~~~
drain peaches for a few minutes
cut peach slices in 1/2 (if you get sliced peaches just drain them)

~~~MIX~~~
in a clean "big" pot:

1. add the chicken and rice. Mix well.
2. Add peas. Mix well
3. Add cachews. Mix well
4. Add peaches. Mix well.

Enjoy!

I like to make my Chicken Pot Pie Casserole for new moms.

Ingredients:
1 cooked rotisserie chicken
1 disposable foil casserole pan
2 boxes of refrigerated rolled pie crust (pillsbury or generic; found next to eggs, butter) {4 pie crusts total}
2 cans mixed vegetables-drained (or 1 bag frozen veggies - cooked)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of celery
milk
celery salt
pepper
egg

* Preheat oven 400 degrees.
* spray pan w/nonstick cooking spray. lay out 2 pie crusts on the bottom of pan so all of bottom of pan is covered... there will be overlap on edges (that will help make crust).
* debone/shred chicken from rotisserie chicken (no skin, no bones)... i use mostly white meat. shred it into bite size pieces.
* Mix chicken w/veggies.
* In separate med bowl, mix 2 soup cans w/milk (measured in one soup can). Add celery salt, pepper and other seasonings/herbs if you want.
* Place chicken/veggie mixture into pan on top of bottom crust. spread out evenly.
* Pour soup/milk mixture over chicken evenly.
* Roll out remaining 2 pie crusts on top, covering entire pan. Overlap crusts.... pinch edges of bottom and top.... to form edge crusts.
* Beat egg w/tiny amnt of water. Brush egg wash over crust so it has a glossy nice finish as it bakes.
* Cut lines into crusts so the casserole pot pie can vent as it bakes.
* Bake for about 45 mins. Check on crust after 20-30 mins - if it's browning too soon, cover edges w/foil.

Kids and adults love this! You can send this without baking it - if they want to eat it later. I haven't frozen this dish... but I imagine just skip the step of baking it....and put it in the freezer. I'm sure you could just take it out of freezer into 400 degree oven and bake for much longer ... maybe 1 hr or 1hr 30 mins.???
And I like to use disposable pans so the new moms don't have to worry about washing my pan and returning it to me. They can just throw it away when done. :-)

Also I made this great recipe on the back of the Minute Brown Rice box last night. Chicken and Spinach Florentine. Oh so yummy! And easy! Let me know if you'd like that too. It's healthier : brown rice, spinach, cherry tomatoes, chicken breast. Very flavorable.

I would suggest you go to somewhere like Dream Dinners in Frisco. They have a FABULOUS menu and make preparing a lot of meals at once, a breeze. The food is very tasty too - yum!

crock pot lasagna!

1. Brown ground beef, onion and garlic in frypan.
2. Add tomato sauce
3. Spoon a layer of meat sauce onto the bottom of the slow cooker.
4. Add a double layer of uncooked lasagna noodles (break to fit) and top with cheeses. (i use cottage and mozzarella)
5. Repeat with sauce, noodles and cheeses until all are used up.
6. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.

Someone brought us poppyseed chicken, spinach salad (in a bag; she included mandarin oranges and slices of almonds), and brownies after our first child, and that stands out as a very special meal. I recently had surgery that kept me from being up and about for awhile, and a neighbor brought us a bag of groceries that included a pint each of chicken salad and tuna salad, fig newtons, crackers, oatmeal cookies, and a few other things. That turned out to be like a bag of treats! We could just make a sandwich, have a snack, and I had some mild, tasty crackers to help my weak appetite when I needed to take pain pills. So maybe one "real" meal they could eat for dinner (poppyseed chicken, lasagna, chicken spaghetti) and one "grab bag" of stuff they can snack on or use for quick lunches...

You're sweet to help your friend!

You are so nice for wanting to help folks you know. Sadly, my best crock pot recipe is for nuclear chili. I bet other folks out there have some good comfort food recipes.