Have Dinner Ingredients; Will Travel

October 18, 2019 11:57 AM

I'm visiting a friend and her family later this month, and I want to make dinner for everyone one night while I'm there. I want to take all the ingredients with me, and will make a 3- to 4-hour public transit trip to get there, so the ingredients must keep unrefrigerated for that length of time. I want something relatively easy and fast to make that won't require any specialized equipment. What are some good dinner ideas/recipes that would be suitable for these particular circumstances?
posted by orange swan to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

Alternatively, if you use one of those insulated grocery tote bags you can find at a lot of grocery stores, and 2-3 large ice packs, you can transport refrigerated items easily. This is definitely fine for 3-4 hours, especially if the bag can be zipped closed.
posted by blueberrypuffin at 11:59 AM on October 18, 2019 [6 favorites]

Spaghetti - take the dry pasta, some jarred sauce, some parmesan/romano cheese to grate, maybe a frozen loaf of garlic bread as a side it should be ok out for a few hours.

Shelf stable gnocchi - (stored on the shelf at bakeries/grocery stores), onion, pepper, zucchini, whatever veggies you like really, if you do the ice pack thing you can bring some bacon or sausage to go along with it - and make sheet pan gnocchi.
posted by lafemma at 12:03 PM on October 18, 2019

I would also do a pasta. I'd probably do pesto (my favorite sauce and keeps fine outside the fridge for several hours) with fresh veggies - like mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper - all of which are fine outside of the fridge for the length of this trip. I'd just make it a big one pot meal. I would not include any meat or soft dairy (medium-firm or hard cheeses would be fine) out of the fridge this long.
posted by amaire at 12:08 PM on October 18, 2019

I've made this a few times, it's really delicious! SUPER QUICK AWESOME GARLIC SPINACH SOBA NOODLES
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:09 PM on October 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

I like pasta with brown butter and sage and parmesan, and think that everything would be fine unrefrigerated that long...
posted by pinochiette at 12:16 PM on October 18, 2019

What about chili? You only need to bring beans and a pepper and an onion and spices (depending on your level of Chili Fundamentalism), and borrow a big pot when you arrive.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:22 PM on October 18, 2019

I notice a couple of people have posted meatless recipes, I assume because of not wanting to transport meat since you didn't specify vegetarian/vegan in your question. However, a solid-frozen pound of ground beef or ground turkey would not fully thaw in the 3-4 hour time frame. You would, however, want to put it into a leak-proof container such as a ziploc or similar, just to be on the safe side. You could throw it in their fridge to finish thawing once you get there if you are not making dinner the first night.

Assuming you want your spaghetti or chili to have meat, of course.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:31 PM on October 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I am open to either meat-including or vegetarian recipes -- I just need to be able to transport the meat safely. Thanks for the tip about the frozen meat. Canned meat is always an option too.
posted by orange swan at 12:36 PM on October 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Canned meat is never an option!

You could cook the ground beef and transport it with a cold pack along with the rest of the ingredients to make lasagna. That's what I'd do.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:42 PM on October 18, 2019 [5 favorites]

Lasagne is super easy. You can cook everything in advance and assemble on arrival. I am partial to vegetable
lasagne but advance cooking a meat sauce will work fine as well.
posted by bearwife at 12:44 PM on October 18, 2019

You could make a short rib braise at home in a slow cooker, freeze it and then bring it with you along with egg noodles and some additional veggies if you like.

As others mentioned, something frozen in a block will be fine thawing for hours.

I like the Chinese 5-Spice short ribs on the Williams Sonoma website.
posted by vunder at 12:55 PM on October 18, 2019

You could take a couple bags of pre-made pizza dough, some shredded cheese, some veggies and optionally some smoked sausage and not worry too much about temperature.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:57 PM on October 18, 2019

I made a sausage-tortellini soup that is really tasty and extremely simple.

Italian sausage, removed from casing or not sausage-d in the first place. (Frozen trick would work just fine on these.)
Can of crushed tomatoes
Box of broth
Onion
Garlic powder, oregano, chili flakes
Fresh tortellini or ravioli
Fresh spinach or kale
Parmesan and parsley for topping

Cook the sausage in some olive oil, crumbling as you go. Chop the onions and add to sausage. Add in tomatoes and broth and spices, simmer. Add pasta and then greens, timing it so they will be done at the same time. Garnish with parmesan and chopped parsley.
posted by Liesl at 12:59 PM on October 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

I applaud you for the thought. Do you know if these folks have any dietary restrictions? That would be relevant. In addition to the frozen animal protein a bag of frozen veg, together with a cooler bag, would keep meat that is not frozen cold enough as well for that time. That might open up additional options.
posted by koahiatamadl at 2:38 PM on October 18, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'd make a complete lasagna in a disposable pan at my house and then freeze it and bring it frozen. It won't thaw much at all and if it can go directly into an oven when you arrive, it'll be super easy to manage. Bring fixins for a salad and garlic bread (also easy to pre-assemble) and you've got an entire dinner. My favorite lasagna is vegetarian even though I eat meat. It's a roasted eggplant and spinach lasagna where I mix the eggplant with ricotta and also - separately- mix the (cooked and drained) spinach with ricotta - both veggie ricotta mixes also get S&P, grated romano/parm, and garlic. Then, assemble with pasta, sauce, cheeses, and the ricotta veggie layers. It's savory and so delicious.
posted by quince at 2:42 PM on October 18, 2019 [11 favorites]

The ingredients for a savory galette will travel well.

The stuff for pastry dough at Bon Appetit's tomato & cheese recipe will travel just fine in your conditions. Smitten Kitchen's squash & greens fillings will, too (her dough uses sour cream, but I don't find it improves the dough noticeably).

Food and Wine does a sausage galette on a potato base which has travel-friendly ingredients and makes a nice meal, but does require a food processor.
posted by crush at 3:27 PM on October 18, 2019

These BBQ tofu bowls are super easy, we eat them at least once a month, and I think tofu would be fine traveling? Especially if you froze it first.
posted by nakedmolerats at 4:48 PM on October 18, 2019

*I should note we don't ever make the sauce in that recipe. Just bring a bottle.
posted by nakedmolerats at 5:02 PM on October 18, 2019

You could make a tomato sauce for pasta ahead, freeze, transport frozen in an insulated container.
Pesto is easy to make, travels well.
I love roasted butternut squash with pasta. I usually add bacon. Squash, bacon and pasta keep well. or Brussels sprouts if you don't love squash.
posted by theora55 at 6:24 PM on October 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

Chicken in wine (coq au vin) is easy and seems more glamorous than run of the mill pastas. Quantities in this outline recipe are flexible:

1 chicken cut into pieces, or I just use thighs
3 tbs butter/olive oil
Brown: 1/4 lb salt pork; 3/4 cup chopped onion; 1 sliced carrot; 3 minced shallots or scallions; 1 garlic clove

Brown the chicken pieces; add 2 tbs flour; 2 tbs parsley; 1 tbs marjoram or chervil; a bay leaf; 1 teasp salt; 2 cups dry red wine (2/3 bottle);

Simmer about 1 hr; optionally add 1/2 lb sliced mushrooms 19 mins before finishing cooking
Check seasoning & serve

Nice with rice or mashed potatoes, and maybe string beans
posted by anadem at 8:00 PM on October 18, 2019

I'm doing the same on Nov 1. Will be making tortilla de patatas and Sprouts 225.
posted by dobbs at 6:28 AM on October 19, 2019

Jambalaya? If you're willing to go only-andouille for meat, all you need is tomato paste, canned tomatoes, broth and some veggies (probably celery, peppers, carrots, and onions but YMMV), which you could either cut up at home and bring in a bag, or carry whole. And spices, which can likewise go in a bag. If you have something kinda-sorta insulated you can bring frozen pre-cut chicken too but it's good just with sausage. In any event, you sound like my kind of houseguest.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:16 PM on October 19, 2019

You've every excuse to keep it simple. Soup (premade by you and frozen before you leave home), the makings for salad and the dressing (premade by you and traveling in a mason jar or bought), good bread.

Or order in Chinese or Thai or pizza.

I'm sincere. It's about being together, relaxed and comfortable.
posted by tmdonahue at 11:10 AM on October 20, 2019

Response by poster: I'm back from my visit to my friend's place. In the end, given the circumstances, I decided I preferred to use a recipe from my own repertoire rather than take any chances on making something new. But I did figure out how to do that thanks to the tips in this thread.

This past Saturday morning I made a pot of meat sauce using olive oil, leeks, mushrooms, Italian sausage, red wine, and tomato sauce. I also baked a batch of banana chocolate chip muffins. I boxed up both the muffins and the sauce and froze them. Then, when I was leaving Sunday morning, I put the muffin and sauce containers in an ordinary cloth shopping bag along with a bag of penne and a stick of mozzarella. I put a frozen pumpkin pie that I had baked two weeks previously in the bag on top of everything else.

My trip took less time than I had estimated -- I arrived at my friend's house in two hours and forty-five minutes -- and the sauce hadn't even thawed out. Then when I made dinner for everyone on Monday night, I only had to cook the pasta, grate the cheese, mix the pasta and sauce together, sprinkle cheese over the top, and bake the resulting casserole for 20 minutes. I used none of their supplies but some salt and pepper and parsley flakes, and a can of whipped cream my friend's partner bought for the pie. Everyone was enthusiastic about the food, even their three-year-old, whom I saw tuck away a muffin with impressive efficiency.

So, thanks everyone! I visit this friend once or twice a year and will undoubtedly be using your suggested method of "make stuff ahead of time and freeze it for the trip" again, as well as some of your specific recipe ideas.
posted by orange swan at 12:27 PM on October 30, 2019 [1 favorite]