Make-Ahead Meals: Week 1 Recap

Warning: don't read this post if you're hungry.  Week One of the make-ahead meals is complete!  After a very long day in the kitchen, I had a stocked freezer of all the building blocks I would need for the next few weeks' worth of meals.

I have to say--it's been wonderful to simply pull out one or two portions from the freezer in the morning so they can thaw throughout the day and then cook a quick dinner in the evening.  In some instances, we even had some leftovers for lunch.  I haven't been able to find the Make-Ahead Meals feature on the Every Day with Rachael Ray website, so if you're interested, pick up the September issue and try these recipes yourself!

Without further ado, here's how the first week turned out:

Spanish Rice with Shrimp
Building blocks: tomato sauce, roasted peppers, rice pilaf

Fusilli with Chicken and Tomato Sauce
Building blocks: tomato sauce, pulled chicken

Mango, Pork and Watercress Salad
Building block: pulled pork; we used a salad mix rather than watercress

Pork-and-Avocado Tacos
Building block: pulled pork

Overall, everything tasted good, but our favorites of the week were the salad and the tacos.  The lime-honey dressing on the salad was fabulous with the mango, pulled pork, red bell pepper, and shallot.  And we were pleasantly surprised that the tacos were so delicious without cheese and sour cream--the creamy avocado definitely did the trick.

Since we had some leftover ingredients at the end of the week, I whipped up some garlic and onions to put over our grilled steaks last night.  Not a make-ahead meal, but easy...  I think I'm getting the hang of this!