Welcome back! Today I'm sharing something different...no crafting or decorating projects! Today I'm talking food!
I'll let you in on a little secret...I dislike cooking A LOT! It's just not something I enjoy doing, which isn't a good thing since I'm a stay at home mom and housewife. I do 100% of the grocery shopping and meal planning at our house and about 95% of the cooking. My husband likes cooking and is a great chef but unfortunately he has to work full time (bummer). I also babysit a few days a week which keeps me busy.
To keep things less stressful at dinnertime I decided to try my hand at freezer meals.
First I did my research (on pinterest of course). I pinned lot's of freezer meal recipes and read all of the instructions. I stocked up on foil baking pans (from the dollar store) and large freezer bags. I decided to start off with six different recipes and doubled each of them to make twelve meals. I made a detailed shopping list and hit the grocery store.
Friday was my cooking day since I wasn't babysitting and all the kids were at school. I was actually excited to get started because I knew how much time this was going to save me in the following weeks. I started my cooking marathon at 7:30 and finished at 4:30. I was exhausted and my kitchen was wiped out.
Here is a glimpse into my day...
Here are the meals I made.
pepperoni lasagna
I've had this recipe for years and it is our favorite lasagna.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 small onion
2 1/2 cups water
1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (6oz.) tomato paste
1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
8 lasagna noodles cooked
1 package (3.5 oz) pepperoni
2 cups mozzarella cheese
Instructions:
cook beef and onion then drain
add water, tomato sauce, tomato paste, bouillon and seasoning bring to boil reduce heat and simmer for 30 min.
in small bowl combine eggs, cottage cheese and sour cream
spread 1/2 cup meat sauce into greased 13x9 baking dish
layer with 4 noodles, cottage cheese mixture and pepperoni
top with remaining noodles and meat sauce
sprinkle with mozzarella cheese
cover and bake at 350 for 35 min.
uncover bake 10 min longer
let stand 15 min.
Even though it was a long long day, it was worth all the work!
Dinner time this week has been so easy and no frozen pizzas or chicken nuggets!
I plan on making this a bi-weekly event. I've even started planning out my next round of freezer meals.
Have you ever made freezer meals? Do you have one you would recommend? I would love to hear from you.
