This Week's Make Ahead Meals

I didn't do as much prep work for this week's make ahead meals...And I really should have.  Tonight was the first night of basketball practice, AKA crazy night.  From now on I need to plan on a dinner that is ready in about 15 minutes or just give in and get Chipotle!

For tonight I had a special request for dinner: baked potatoes.  The kids are nuts about the baked potatoes at grandma's house, so I found out what she does special.  The secret is to rub onion salt all over the outside of the oiled potato before baking.  Then mix in Earth Balance with the center of the potato after baking.  Sounds like a winner!  What's that?  You don't have onion salt?  Me neither.  You can just mix onion powder and salt or you can chop an onion and then rub salt in the juices.  Or dehydrate your own onions, pulverize them with a mortar and pestle, and then mix them with salt.  I took the first option.

On the side we're having the Tangerine Baked Tofu and the Roasted Masala Brussels Sprouts from Veganomicon.

So here's how you can make this ahead:

• Prick the potatoes with a fork, rub them in olive oil or Earth Balance, and sprinkle them with onion salt.  Wrap in foil and put in the fridge until ready to bake the next day.
• Mix up the tofu marinade and add tofu.  Marinate in the glass baking dish that you'll use to bake them in the next day.
• Mix up the cornmeal/spice blend for the sprouts.  Wash and trim the brussels sprouts and store in a container you can use to mix them up with the spices and oil the next day.  
• On dinner night, put the potatoes in first- they can take up to an hour.  Then add the tofu after about 15 minutes.  Last, add the sprouts about 20 minutes later. 

Sorry for those who don't have Veganomicon.  Let this just be reason 8,265 you should buy it.  And this meal still takes an hour to cook, but the dinner night prep time is very little.  So you could put stuff in the oven while doing math homework with the kids or cleaning the house or during commercial breaks while eating ice cream in front of the TV.