Mama’s Lasagna Bake: A little slice of heaven, right out of the freezer!
Ingredients:
- 8 cups prepared Marinara sauce (I make my own but using store bought is fine)
- 4 pkgs (12 oz each) cooked rotini or any other medium pasta
- 1 pkg sweet Italian sausage
- 1 pkg mild or hot Italian sausage
- (I have used bulk ground Italian sausage before but I prefer the sausage in casings)
- 2 lg buckets ricotta cheese (I wait till these go on sale, usually around Christmas time then freeze them till I want to use them.)
- 5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups parmesan cheese
Instructions:
Boil the sausage on the stove till the internal temperature is 150. Meanwhile cook the pasta and drain. Let the sausage rest till cool enough to handle. Slice into ¼ inch medallions. In a large bowl mix all ingredients except 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and the parmesan cheese.
Portion out the pasta mix into disposable (which by the way re-use very nicely!) loaf pans, top with some of both cheeses, cover with saran wrap then foil and freeze. To re-heat simply place into a 350 oven till bubbly and warm or dump out onto a plate and warm in the microwave. These make a great meal for two when combined with a few bread sticks and a side salad.
Mama’s Stuffed Peppers: A delicious change from the ordinary!
Ingredients:
- 3lb ground beef
- 1 onion chopped fine
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- 1 red pepper chopped fine
- 2 cups cooked white rice
- 1 can green chillies
- 1 can black beans
- 1 cup corn
- 1 pkg taco seasoning
- 4 Bell Peppers (Red, Yellow, Orange or Green – your choice)
Instructions:
Cook ground beef, drain fat, add taco seasoning. Let cool for a few min’s while you cut the tops of the peppers and remove the inner membranes (a melon baler works great for this). Coat the peppers in a bit of olive oil and roast upside down in a 450 oven for 10-15 min’s. While the peppers are roasting, mix the cooked ground beef with the rest of the ingredients. Let peppers cool for just a few so you can easily handle them. Turn peppers right side up place in a roasting pan and fill with 1 cup mix and top with shredded cheese. Bake for 15-20 min.
These freeze great stuffed as is or I often times make up the mix use a few peppers for dinner that night then freeze the rest of the mix in 1-2 cup portions and save for when peppers are on sale. This also works well for lettuce wraps, tacos or stuffed cabbage leaves.
Mama’s Meatloaf: Great for freezing, even better for eating!
Ingredients:
- 2lb ground turkey/chicken (I wait till this goes on sale – some times for .99 per pound as a managers special at my local Frys)
- 3lb ground beef – I use 80/20 if mixing it with the turkey, if I use all ground beef I use a leaner ground
- 2 lg onions chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp salt or salt substitute (we prefer Lawry’s seasoning salt)
- 2 cups frozen corn
- 1 cup ketchup
- ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ½ cup bread crumbs (I make my own from the crusts off our loaves of bread – just freeze them till your ready to use them then spritz with a bit of Pam, bake at 375 till crispy, place in a food processer and pulse till they are finely ground)
- 2 eggs
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients then portion into mini loafs (about 2 cups per loaf)
Once you have the loaves portioned out use the bowl to mix up 2 cups Ketchup, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ tsp black pepper and a dash or two of hot sauce (optional). Spoon sauce over the top of the loaves and bake in a 350 oven for 20-30 min’s till the internal temp is 150 degrees. Let rest then freeze in individual Ziplocs. They make great meals or thawed and cut into slices for sandwiches!
Chopped BBQ Beef sandwiches:
These are a great favorite here in our house, but we don’t always have left over roast or brisket sitting around, so I came up with this… ready to go dinner for 2 size baggies of chopped beef. Just heat and eat.
Step 1: Fire up the old crock pot.
Step 2: Add roast, seasonings and veggies as desired. We just use onions and carrots and it gives a really tasty flavor.
Step 3: Go about your day… come back in 8 hours. This is the easy part. After 8 hours you should have something like this:
Step 4: Remove roast and let rest and cool.
Step 5: Slice, chop, dice and shred as desired. In the end you should have something like this:
Step 6: Put into serving size containers. We were all out so I used freezer bags. For us, 1 cup of chopped beef does about 4 hamburger buns ~approx dinner for two).
Step 7: Freeze.
Step 8: Once removed from freezer for use, just warm the beef slightly. Then add a squirt of BBQ sauce as desired and finish warming.
You should end up with something like this:
Step 9: Serve on some buns (any buns) and eat.
The best part is that this is so easy in the front end, how much easier can it get but dumping everything in the crock pot and walking away. Yet it is so awesome on the dinner table, tastes like a BBQ joint.
In the end one 4 pound roast yielded us 9 baggies (or 9 dinners).
