Recipes for bulk meals?

Question

I'm a college student with not a ton of time to cook. Where can I find some cheap recipes that make a lot of a meal in one cooking session? Thanks!

Detail 

Hi  High school foods teacher here and wanting to do a fun iron chef lesson with my students. I’m at a private school and it’s a small group of about 12 kids grades 10-12. My co teacher and I are wanting to do a iron chef style lesson but we want to make sure we choose “mystery ingredients” that will a) provide opportunities for versatile dishes as part of the judging criteria is for creative use of the ingredients b) tasty as we are judging and would prefer things are edible and c) pair well enough that it won’t be too wacky. The lesson plan so far looks like: quickly explain the idea and unveil the ingredients. Allow ten minutes for planning (googling is allowed) and then have 40-60 minutes creating and then we will have presentations and judging for the remainder of the 2 hour class. ( plus clean up/ pack down etc.)

We are thinking of a combination of protein + vegetable + flavour and have so far best come up with chicken + tomato + citrus (they can choose lemon, lime, or orange). We’re also thinking halfway through of increasing a fourth mystery ingredient that they have to incorporate which were thinking that honey might be a good idea.

Thoughts? Are those ingredients good choices for essentially lower level (for the most part) ability high school chefs?

Answers

1- I love that idea! As far as protein goes, I think chicken is definitely the easiest/most economical. I also think the tomatoes and citrus would make for some good, round dishes. If you wanted to up the ante just a touch you could incorporate something prepackaged like saltines or cereal or something.

I’m getting more of a chopped vibe with the numerous ingredients. You could check out some of their after hours clips on YouTube for more ideas (granted some of theirs are really hard baskets but for general pairing or prepping the students, that could be fun!)

Good luck!

2- I have done iron chef many times with students here are some ideas if you want to use any of them :). I generally choose a very neutral base like potatoes or pasta for an ingredient. I also let them make a 'battle plan', research a few days before, and one prep day ahead of time. They need to make a grocery list (with a budget), a production plan, and a plating concept. Then there is lots of time for the judging to happen on the day of the battle. My classes are only 80 min, it seems like you may have more time to do this in? I also make certificates for the winners, have other teachers or students judge the dishes. If you are planning to do the on the fly lesson I suggest giving them a few lessons in the days before showing them how to use some of the ingredients in other ways, and how to come up with fast go to ideas. I avoid the on the spot for a few reasons: clean up always becomes a disaster when they are crunched for time, and in order to give them time and get them to think 'further' and create a really good dish and plating. Have fun!!!!