Home Cooking with T.V. Dinners

Home Cooking is a wonderful thing; but let’s face it, we don’t always have time. You can “doctor up” a frozen meal to fake home cooking. Your family may be completely fooled! Shh….don’t tell anyone! 

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

Frozen dinners

various additions of staple items you probably already have in your cupboards.

Step 1

The first and most important step is this: kick everyone out of the kitchen, and hide the evidence! To fake home cooking, you have to place the frozen meals packages where people will not see them … I’m not kidding. Throw some newspapers on top of them in the trash.

Step 2Presentation is everything.

Cooking shows always say, “Presentation is everything.” Well, that is the point with frozen meals, too. Place them on a nice plate just like home cooking. Don’t forget to hide the divided tray, too. The only food that comes in those are school food, hospital food, and frozen meals, none of which excite anyone very much! A beautiful place setting on a nice placemat, heck, even splurge with a cloth napkin, if you have one!
Just remember, you are serving the plate ahead of time and bringing to the table. If you have a eat-in kitchen you will have to carefully time things to have the plates served before family or hubby is called to dinner.

Step 3

Now for the part about DOCTORING UP frozen meals. We are going to talk about little things you can do to embellish and improve a t. v. dinner. You mix the added seasonings in the divided tray, place on serving plate then top with whatever goes on top. You may need to rewarm the plate before serving with added veggies. I’m just going to move through this food item by food item; meals are arranged differently. We are talking about just a tiny sprinkling of seasoning for individual servings.

Step 4

Corn: add a little butter, salt, pepper, onion powder and about a tiny pinch of sugar. Stir, then top it with a tiny sliver of butter. Remember, just a miniscule amount because this is just one serving.

Step 5

Peas: Add a little butter, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of onion powder.
Green beans; Mix the following ingredients in a desperate container and sprinkle just a tiny amount. Chili powder, garlic powder, seasoning salt, salt and pepper. Also, add a little butter to these too.
Macaroni and Cheese: If the cheese is sparse, you can melt a little cheese over the top. I usually don’t. Stir well to distribute the cheese. After it is on the plate, sprinkle with seasoning salt.

Step 6

Mashed potatoes: Add butter, garlic, if desired, salt, pepper and onion powder. Top with butter and a sprinkle of parsley. €If the meal is a gravy-type, spoon a little gravy on top. Or buy some canned gravy for this very purpose! Gravy mix in the little packets can be very good, too!

Step 7

The meats that include a beef type entree can be enhanced with Worcester sauce or A-1. You can add some onions , peppers, or mushrooms if you have any. Add dried minced onions, if you want and let it set a little; you will have to rewarm. Add a little ketchup and chili powder to thicken up the ones in a tomato sauce.

The chicken entrees, fried, nuggets, patties, etc…, need a sprinkle of salt and onion powder. The chicken parmesan type can use some extra parmesan and garlic powder.

Step 8

The Mexican meals can have any kind of cheese added to the entree and rice. You can freshen it with a sprinkle of onion powder. Add salsa and sour cream after it is plated to get the home cooking effect. Serve the Mexican meals with chips and salsa on the table in a festive bowl to distract the family from the frozen meals!

Step 9

Oriental frozen meals can be helped with some added soy sauce. Any added veggies help it. A few left-over peas, green beans, carrots, or onions make it look more like home cooking. I often make a shrimp sauce that can be added. I will add a link to that recipe at the end.

Step 10

The Italian entrees, often packaged by themselves, are so much better with parmesan and garlic powder added. You can also add other cheese, too, like mozzarella. These frozen meals with pasta are the ones I have found easiest to disguise as home cooking. There are endless possibilities of things you can sprinkle over the top. Chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers, even a little pesto. Added cheese is the most important.

Just about any frozen meal needs more salt.

The single entree pasta dishes seem the best tasting and the easiest to camouflage as home cooking.

You might want to fix an extra meal or two if you have big eaters to cover the “seconds” problem.

Pick up some bread or dessert to add to the meal, and they won’t notice the meal so much.

Do not overcook your frozen meals. Each microwave is a little different. If you have 3 or more to cook, it might prove easier to just use the conventional oven. They often taste better when not “nuked.”