Meals you can make ahead

If you've ever hosted Thanksgiving dinner, you know how hectic it can be especially the day before the holiday.

And if you work "Turkey Day" like I do, that means a lot of preparation the previous evening.

Luckily, my wife also is pretty handy in the kitchen, so a lot of the prep work such as peeling potatoes, fixing up a relish tray, making a pie or two and maybe some scalloped corn gets done the day of the meal without my help.

However, I like to make the dressing for the turkey a day in advance (don't stuff your bird until just before putting it into the oven or roaster) and also make sure all the key ingredients for the other goodies that will make their way to our dining room table are on hand.

The latter often requires a second trip to the store because I always seem to forget something the first time. That's the case even when I'm armed with a list.

All of this running around and preparation on the eve of the holiday doesn't leave much time to fix supper, especially since Therese and I both work until late into the afternoon.

Which brings me to the idea of having a meal or two in the freezer for just these type of occasions.

There are a lot of dishes that immediately come to mind when I think about make-ahead meals. A good casserole always will do in a pinch. Just pop it in the oven when you get home from work, and it's ready to serve in a half-hour or so.

And then, there's frozen meatballs, which can be added to some store-bought marinara sauce, heated up on the stove and put over spaghetti, which takes just minutes to fix.

My favorite

But my favorite has to be lasagna. What's nice about this dish is that it's just as easy to make a couple of pans as it is one, so you basically can prepare two meals at a time.

A word of caution: Lasagna is one of those meals that can raise havoc on anyone who's watching their weight. Many recipes call for a ton of meat as well as several types of cheese.

So, if you're looking to fix some lasagna for the day before a holiday such as Thanksgiving when there will be plenty of meat and other calorie-laden foods, it might be a good idea to make it vegetarian-style.

I recently made one that contained broccoli, spinach and carrots as well as a mixture of part-skim ricotta cheese, fat-free cottage cheese and freshly grated Parmesan. The results were great.

Not all vegetable lasagnas are nutritious. If lasagna contains a heavy cream sauce and a ton of cheese, it might not be very diet-friendly, even if it's loaded with veggies.

Don't wait for a holiday to roll around to fix some make-ahead meals for the freezer. It's always nice to have a meal in the freezer just in case some relatives drop in unexpectedly.

Or, as one of my co-workers said, you just might feel lazy some night and not want to cook.

Either way, you get to take the night off.

Tiedeman is food editor at the Herald. Reach him at (701) 780-1136; toll-free at (800) 477-6572, ext. 136; or jtiedeman@gfherald.com .