How to Make Gluten-Free Lean Cuisines

Hi! I hope your week is going good so far! I had a fun, productive and energizing weekend.  I’m ready to hit the ground running with some new projects. One of the projects that I did over the weekend was make my own pre-packaged, individual, gluten-free dinners that I can keep in the freezer.

My college roommates will probably recall that I ate a Lean-Cuisine with sauteed vegetables every night for dinner.  (Courtney, Rachael… remember all the Lean-Cuisines that I had stocked in the freezer?)  They were cheap (5 for $10 on sale,) satisfying (only when you added a cup or two of frozen vegetables) and conveinent to prepare. Oh, how I miss my Lean-Cuisine dinners. I’d complete my meal with a Tofutti Hooray! Hooray! bar and I was a happy girl. After finding out that I needed to eat gluten-free, I was slightly disheartened when I checked the ingredients of every Lean-Cuisine meal in the grocery store to discover that almost ALL of them contain gluten! Mostly in the form of wheat or soy sauce.

My Lean-Cuisine days were over. Today, I avoid Lean-Cuisine frozen dinners for two other reasons: they are chalk full of preservatives and artificial ingredients and I don’t own a microwave. I think you might be able to heat them in a toaster oven, but when I’m hungry, I need to eat within about 5 minutes max.  So, I came up with a genius solution: making my own, individual, healthy, gluten-free freezer dinners. If you are interested in making you own, please read my description below.

Homemade Gluten-Free Lean-Cuisines

Ingredients:

3-4 types of uncooked protein (chicken tenderloins, shrimp, steak, tempeh, etc.)*

Frozen veggies of your choice (broccoli, green beans, Italian or Asian themed frozen veggies, etc.)

Prepared brown rice (I like to get the frozen brown rice at Trader Joe’s because I never know if mine is going to turn out or not) or another type of gluten-free starch. Cooked quinoa, beans and brown rice pasta would all work too.

Prepared or homemade gluten-free sauces of your choice (curry, marinara, teriyaki, garlic butter, etc)

Quart sized Freezer Zip-Loc bags

I went to Trader Joes last Friday and bought all of my ingredients. Don’t freak out about how much you just spent in one shopping trip. You are saving time and money in the long run by buying ingredients in bulk and doing the prep work ahead of time. I was able to make 16 dinners out of my food. When you have all of your ingredients and an idea of what you want to make, take everything out of the fridge and place it on the counter. Slice your desired poultry, meat or meat alternative into bite sized pieces. Remember that we are mimicking the Lean-Cuisine and they contain small bites of food. Place each type of protein in a separate bowl and pour whatever type of sauce that you would like to go with it on top. Mix well and set aside.

Now, comes that fun part! Label your Zip-Lock freezer bags ahead of time with the type of dish. Also decide approximately how many calories and grams of protein you would like per bag. Our goal is to fill you up with enough healthy food per bag, so that you are not spending the rest of your evening in front of the kitchen cabinet looking for something else to eat ;)

Next, open your first bag and fill the bottom with one serving of your protein and sauce. If you are adding rice or another type of starch, add a serving on top of your protein. Next we get to my favorite part, the veggies! Try to mix and match different combinations of about 1-2 cups of frozen vegetables. This is a great opportunity to fill up on low-calorie, high-fiber veggies. Remember that the more vegetables you add, the less hungry you will be around bed time.

Push any remaining air out of the bag while your seal it up. Ta-da! You have your own homemade, gluten-free, Lean-Cuisine ready for your enjoyment. You can store them for up to 3 months in the freezer.

To prepare your meal, place the bag in your refrigerator the night before. When you ready to prepare your dinner, simply heat a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with a little bit of olive oil and add the contents of your bag to the sauce pan. Cook for approximately 5-10 minutes, until your protein is cooked through. Serve on a plate and enjoy!

* If you are planning on microwaving your dinner instead of cooking it on the stovetop, you may cook your protein the day before. Allow it to cool completely in the refrigerator before beginning the bagging process. Follow the rest of the instructions up until the cooking step. Place the contents of your bag into a glass, microwave safe dish and cover. Cook on high for 2-3 minutes, until your meal is fully heated. Serve on a plate and enjoy!

I truly hope that you are able to prepare these pre-made dinners for yourself.  We all have hectic schedules and by spending two hours on a weekend day, you can cut your nightly food preparation time in half. I am aware that this meal preparation will not work for a lot of families, but it might come in handy for times when everyone has a different schedule and your children need a quick and easy dinner.

Please let me know if you choose to try this meal preparation method out and how it works for you.

I shared my dinner the other night with one of my fav’s, Gwyneth. She doesn’t do Lean-Cuisines, so I treated her to a salmon fillet with steamed lemon-tahini kale and a glass of Cab. Haha!

Have a great day!!!