An OAMC (Grown-up) Lunchbox
My husband works in a remote area, far from any restaurants and microwaves. He has been taking ramen noodles to work for lunch for the past 3 months and is absolutely sick of them. I decided to do an OAMC lunchbox for him, taking into account the fact that he couldn’t heat anything up. He also requested that some sweets be added to the list of recipes so that he could have a “complete” meal.
Instructions:
Print out and read through all recipes and directions thoroughly. I like to read through them several times, just in case! This way there will be no surprises on cooking day.
Make a master shopping list by adding all every recipe’s ingredients to your shopping list. Go through your pantry and refrigerator and check off any items you already have.
Make sure you have the appropriate containers and freezer bags. I highly recommend freezer bags as many things can be frozen flat which saves considerable space in the freezer!
Take your revised shopping list and go shopping!
Perform all preparation tasks on the task list the night before.
The Recipes:
Lunch in a Loaf - make a triple batch of the dough
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce – make a double batch with ground meat (half meatballs and half loaves); sauce optional
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto – make a double batch (to be eaten on crackers and with the pizza roll-ups)
Ham Salad Sandwiches – make only the filling
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC) – you don’t need to make the tomato sauce (use
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto)
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc) – only make the filling
Super Moist Super Easy Banana Bread - OAMC – make muffins instead of loaves
Uncle Bill's Whipped Shortbread Cookies
Lime, White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins
These recipes together make about 15 calzones filled with three different types of filling. It also makes 10 servings of
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice, 6 servings of
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC) (with 6 servings of
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto sauce on the side), 4 servings of
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce, 7 individual servings of
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto and 2 extra servings of
Ham Salad Sandwiches to be eaten on crackers. You will also have enough desserts to accompany each of these meals. All in all, you’ll have about
44 days – about a month and a half - worth of worry-free cold lunches that can be mixed and matched!
Containers needed:
48 quart sized freezer bags (Antipasto, fried rice, extra ham salad, muffins, cookies)
A roll of aluminum foil (calzones, pizza roll-ups, mini meatloaves)
Kitchen tools needed:
Large skillet
Large pot
Several muffin tins
Several large mixing bowls
Two large baking sheets
Food processor –
helpful but not necessary
Various assortment of stirring spoons, knives, etc.
Task List: Remember – do this the night before!
This is very important to do the night before – otherwise you’ll be in the kitchen ALL DAY the next day instead on only about 6 hours. Place all ingredients in labeled zipper type bags and place in fridge overnight. Makes for easy assembly the next day!
Make room in your freezer and refrigerator for the big cooking day.
Chop 2 cups of green onions. Put ½ cup in a baggie for
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce, ½ cup in a baggie for
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto, ¼ cup in a baggie for
Ham Salad Sandwiches, ½ cup in a baggie for
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice, ¼ cup in a baggie for
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc) Filling.
Chop 2 cups green peppers. Put in a baggie for
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto.
Chop 4 medium sized eggplants. Put in a baggie for
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto.
Shred 1 cup cheddar cheese and place in baggie for
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc).
Shred 1 cup mozzarella cheese and place in baggie for
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC).
Chop 2 cups green beans and place in a baggie for
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto.
Chop 2lbs chicken and cook thoroughly in skillet. Cool and place 4 cups in a baggie for
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice. Place the remaining chicken in a baggie for
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc).
Either chop or process 1lb ham and place in a baggie for
Ham Salad Sandwiches.
Mash 3 cups banana and place in baggie for
Super Moist Super Easy Banana Bread - OAMC.
Juice 2 limes. Half will be used for
Lime, White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins and half for the
Ham Salad Sandwiches.
Lay out all the containers and equipment you will need for tomorrow. It also helps to have any canned goods and spices on the counter grouped by recipe.
Cooking Day:
*** As stated above, this whole process took me about 6 hours without any interruptions or significant breaks.***
Prepare plenty of trivets and cooling racks either in your kitchen (if you have the counter space) or on a nearby table.
Make the triple batch of
Lunch in a Loaf bread dough and leave to rise. You will need to split the dough up to rise in two different bowls (unless you have a huge bowl!). You can also choose to add the basil to only one batch of dough if you like. However, I think the basil is excellent in each recipe - the
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc), the
Lunch in a Loaf (filled with
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce meatballs and
Ham Salad Sandwiches), and the
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC).
Make the double batch
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce. Make half into meatballs and cook in skillet. Put the other half into muffin cups and bake in oven. Set meatballs aside.
Make the
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto (this is SO quick because everything is pre-chopped). Put in big pot to simmer on back of stove.
Make the
Ham Salad Sandwiches. Set aside.
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce should be done by now and set aside to cool.
Your bread dough should be risen by this time. Roll out 1/3 of dough and make the
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC). Bake.
Prepare
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc) filling. Set aside.
Punch down the remaining bread dough and roll out about fifteen 8” circles.
Fill 5 of the circles with
Ham Salad Sandwiches, 5 with
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce meatballs, 5 with the
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc) filling. Pinch shut into half moons. By the time that you’ve done this, your
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC) should be ready to come out of the oven and cool on racks. This leaves room to bake the 15 calzones on two large cookie trays.
While calzones are baking, turn off
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto which should have simmered down nicely by now. Set aside to cool.
Make rice for the
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice.
While rice is cooking, start wrapping or bagging the food that is cool enough to go into the freezer (I was able to wrap the
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC), the
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce and the extra
Ham Salad Sandwiches by this time). This will make room for the calzones and the cookies to come!
Don’t forget to keep an eye on the rice! There’s nothing worse than cleaning a burnt rice pan. 
Check the calzones. If they’re ready, take them out to cool. If they’re not, keep and eye on them while you stir-up the
Super Moist Super Easy Banana Bread - OAMC. Put batter into muffin cups and put into oven.
Finish assembling the
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice. Set aside to cool completely.
Stir up the
Uncle Bill's Whipped Shortbread Cookies. Once the
Super Moist Super Easy Banana Bread - OAMC muffins are done, put in your first batch.
*** The timing for this part is subject to how quickly you can complete certain tasks. Feel free to make adjustments according to your own speed – that’s what’s so wonderful about cookies batches. You can put them into the oven as you see fit.***
While your first batch is baking, wrap the cooled calzones for the freezer. This will make room for the many cookies that this makes.
While your second batch is baking, stir up your
Lime, White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins. Put into muffin tins.
When second (or third, depending on how quickly you can stir up the second batch of muffins) batch of cookies comes out of the oven, put the muffins in to bake.
While muffins are baking, this will give you time to bag the
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto into about 13 individual servings. This freezes beautifully flat! Then, bag the cooled Chicken Fried Rice which also freezes flat when put into freezer bags.
Take muffins out to cool and put in last batch(es) of cookies. Once cookies have all cooled, wrap muffins and cookies in desired portion sizes and slip them into your already very full freezer!
Finally, have someone take you or take yourself out to dinner for your favorite meal because YOU DESERVE IT!
Labels:
The wonderful thing about these recipes is that they were chosen because they taste good when cold. My husband just reaches into the freezer every morning, chooses what he want to eat that day and slips it into his bag. When lunch comes around, the food is defrosted and ready to eat! You can, however, warm most of these recipes up nicely with a minute or two in the microwave.
I just take an indelible marker and note the name of the recipe and the date that I made it on the freezer bags and/or tin foil that I’ve used to store the food in. However, for those of you who like to print labels, here they are!
Lunch in a Loaf
Date:
Oriental Mini Meat Loaves With Honey Garlic Sauce
Date:
Eggplant (Aubergine) Antipasto
Date:
Ham Salad Sandwiches
Date:
OAMC Chicken Fried Rice
Date:
Pizza Roll-Ups (OAMC)
Date:
Bar B Que Chicken Basil Calzones (Oamc)
Date:
Super Moist Super Easy Banana Bread - OAMC
Date:
Uncle Bill's Whipped Shortbread Cookies
Date:
Lime, White Chocolate and Coconut Muffins
Date:
JillAZ
KrabKokonas
Tish
* Pamela *
Chef Rhanda5
welcome here!
We have to scrimp up enough to move out, and fast! This is hopefully going to last the two of us for the next fortnight.
Ashleigh Davis
this is wonderful, thank you
