Meat loaf.....and try Ann's trick of heating the slices on the grill.
It seems to me people are starving at the beach....things like a cook all day in the oven pot roast would be good, or a corned beef.
We always had a turkey which served for lunches as well as an evening meal or 2, and we always bought fresh fish several times.
Enjoy....I miss the ocean something awful!

Let's see, what can be made ahead and frozen? Chicken pot pie, or even better since you're at the ocean, Lobster Pot Pie, I saw Ina Garten make one and couldn't figure out why I'd never thought of it. She used puff pastry dough, making it fast, instead of homemade dough.

Cabbage rolls do well made ahead and frozen, then baked with the sauce when needed, or just cooked all day in a crockpot.

Macaroni and cheese is easy and fast to put together and nearly everyone likes it.

A "taco bar" has been discussed here many times, and it's something that people can put together as they like, you can use ground meat, marinated chicken, pulled pork or beef, or all or any combination, and some tortilla chips along with the toppings could yield nachos and taco salad for those who like that.

LindaC's idea of meatloaf is a good one, and a couple of roasted chickens can yield hot chicken sandwiches, that above mentioned pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, chicken salad sandwiches, chicken enchiladas. You can't go wrong with a couple of roasted chickens.

Your leftover roast can yield a shepherd's pie too, my girls loved it, along with Spanish Rice made with ground beef to make it a full meal.

As well as dinners, how about breakfast? Lots of breakfast casseroles are quick and easy, and I make Woodie's Creme Brulee French Toast the night before and just bake it in the morning. The smell alone got my kids out of bed! Biscuits and gravy are pretty fast, if you bake biscuits the night before for supper and then heat them in the morning. BreaKfast burritos are easy to make ahead and freeze, as are "McMuffins", which then only need thawing and heating. Oatmeal cooks overnight with fruit in the crockpot really well too.

I'm sure you have cookies, brownies, desserts covered. LOL Cookies and brownies freeze well, but the dough can also be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or two, and baked off as needed.

Oh, and I have a cinnamon roll recipe that calls for making the dough the night before, letting it rise in the refrigerator and baking them the next day for hot, fresh cinnamon rolls, if you're interested in that.

Annie

You guys are endless with your suggestions! We may need to stay at the beach an extra week or two... just so I can try out all these recipes!

The taco salad idea is GREAT! As well as the roasted chicken (I may try the 5 hour Sticky Finger Chicken recipe that I love so much from this bulletin board). I could get it started right after lunch... head out and enjoy the afternoon on the beach and voila! Dinner's ready!

Hubby and I don't eat much red meat, but the rest of the family does.... and they love meat loaf (why didn't I think of that??!!).

Thanks a million!

Starlight,

Could you please post the recipe for the spicy marinated roast? It's just me and hubby here and that sounds like a great way to have roast two ways.

trsinc.... certainly! I'll dig it up and post it. I make it all the time when we have a large crowd coming over and I've never had a single person that didn't love it. It's a great "make-ahead" recipe.

Spicy Marinated Eye of Round Roast

1 (3-5lb) eye of round roast
3 sweet onions (sliced)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Spicy Sauce:
chopped fresh parsley
2 cups ketchup
2 cups water
2 large sweet onions, sliced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1 bay leaf

Place roast in a roasting pan; add onions, salt and pepper. Bake, covered, at 325 degrees for 3 hours and 30 minutes. Cool and cut into thin slices. Place in a large ovenproof container; add Spicy sauce. Cover and chill 8 hours. Remove from fridge and let stand at room temp 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Garnish, if desired. Serve with mashed potaotes.

For sauce: Bring all ingredients to a boil in a dutch oven over medium heat; reduce heat to low and cook 1 hour. Cool. Discard bay leaf. Yield 7 cups.

Source: Southern Living Magazine, Nov 1999 issue
________________________________

As I have said, this is a wonderful recipe that I can make ahead of time, marinate overnight and heat up the next day. The meat is so tender and the sauce is scrumptious. You MUST have potatoes or rice to soak up the sauce (my crew prefers the potatoes).

I feel certain that I printed this from someone here on the Cooking/Recipe Forum, but I have no idea who posted it.... I wish that I could take credit for it, but I can't!

I will say that the sauce makes WAY more than enough for a smaller roast. For my big group, I usually cook two roasts and one recipe of the sauce, and it is plenty.

I finally found the original poster (thanks to pat_t for posting the original recipe!).... here is a link to the thread (I hope it works!)....

Here is a link that might be useful: Spicy Marinated Eye of Round Roast

Thank you! Can't wait to try it.

Pulled BBQ pork sandwiches would work great too.

Oh, that roast sounds superb and I'm gonna try that one for sure. One thing that goes over well with my family, is very simple, (nothing fancy with my guys!!) I brown about 4 pounds ground beef with salt and pepper, when done drain the liquid off, add 1 can tomato soup, stir well, toss it in the crock pot, on low. It can be in there for a long time, the longer the better.Go join them on the beach or wherever they are!! Serve on hamburger buns, dill pickles, catsup, onions, mustard, whatever you want on them. Tossed lettuce for salad, and if you want potatoes I guess whatever is your favorites but we do thing the lazy way and we have chips and dips with ours. Along with this I make a large pan of baked beans because they are as good cold as hot, or almost anyway. As I said we are not fancy, just hungry!! This can certainly be made ahead of time and frozen if you want. Only you know how much to make but you get the idea anyway. Have fun at the beach!!! BT