40-Day Christmas Challenge | Day 13: Cook Once, Help Future You Twice • Everyday Cheapskate

Somewhere between now and Christmas, there will be a night when making dinner feels completely unreasonable.

You’ll have been shopping. Or wrapping. Or working late. Or sitting through something that lasted approximately 47 minutes longer than anyone predicted.

You’ll walk through the door hungry, tired and very susceptible to the siren song of takeout.

Today we’re going to feed that version of you.

And the nice thing is, this does not require spending Sunday afternoon filling 23 matching meal-prep containers.

We’re just making one dinner do the work of two.

Today’s Challenge

The next time you cook something that freezes well, make extra.

Eat one. Freeze one.

Or make extra of one useful part of the meal: taco meat, cooked chicken, meatballs, soup, sauce. Anything that can make another dinner considerably easier.

That’s it. Future You now has a head start.

Do This Today

1. Choose something worth doubling.

Start with something you’re already planning to make.

Chili. Soup or stew. Lasagna. Enchiladas. Meatballs. A casserole. Taco meat. Pulled pork or chicken.

You don’t necessarily have to double the entire recipe.

Making tacos tonight? Cook extra ground beef. Cooking chicken? Cook more than you need and freeze the extra for soup, tacos or sandwiches.

The point is to piggyback on work you’re already doing.

2. Make the extra.

Before doubling everything automatically, take a quick look around.

Do you have enough ingredients? Will the pot hold it? Is there room in the freezer? Remember Day 10. Hopefully we made a little room.

Sometimes doubling the recipe makes perfect sense. Sometimes making two pans while everything is already on the counter is easier. And sometimes the smartest thing you can do is simply cook twice the chicken.

3. Label it for the person who will find it later.

Once your extra meal or ingredient is packaged for the freezer, label it with what it is and the date.

If it needs special reheating or finishing instructions, add those too.

Quick Win

Not cooking anything suitable today?

Write DOUBLE IT beside one meal you’re already planning to make.

Or freeze one useful component you already have. Small counts.

Need Something Worth Doubling?

Some meals practically volunteer for this assignment. Soups, casseroles, enchiladas, meatballs and cooked meat are usually much easier to make in quantity than they are to make twice.

My Whacky Doodle Ground Beef is almost tailor-made for this. I cook a big batch of ground beef at once, portion it and freeze it so tacos, casseroles, sloppy joes and other dinners already have the time-consuming part done.

Or choose a recipe you’re already making and make two. Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, Hearty Vegetable Lasagna and Italian Cheesy Meatball Bake are all good candidates.

You don’t need four meals in the freezer by tonight. Pick one. We’re helping Future You, not opening a frozen-food warehouse.

Give It a Destination

Remember the calendar we looked at on Day 5?

If you already know there’s a particularly crowded day ahead, mentally reserve today’s extra dinner for that night.

You don’t need to make another elaborate plan. Just knowing, That’s the night for the lasagna, turns food in the freezer into a problem already solved.

And if you don’t know which night yet? Fine.

Dinner insurance is still dinner insurance.

No Freezer Space?

Then don’t freeze anything.

Cook once and deliberately use the leftovers.

Roast chicken tonight can become chicken tacos tomorrow. Meatballs and spaghetti can become meatball sandwiches. Extra rice can become fried rice.

Same cooking session. Another meal already halfway there.

You don’t need a chest freezer to make Future You happy.

Why It Matters

We tend to think about preparing for Christmas dinner.

We don’t always prepare for all the completely ordinary dinners that happen on the way to Christmas dinner. Those are the meals that can catch us at 6:12 p.m. hungry, tired and suddenly willing to spend considerably more than we’d planned just to make dinner appear.

One extra meal isn’t impressive. It doesn’t need to be.

On the night you need it, it’ll be exactly enough.

Your Turn

What’s your favorite cook-once-eat-twice dinner? Tell us in the comments. I’m especially interested in the embarrassingly easy ones. Those are usually the most useful.