Make Ahead Meals

April 22, 2010

I must confess: I don’t always have the time or the energy to start cooking supper when I get home after a long day. I often prefer to have a light supper when I’m that busy/tired but my husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. So I decided to let him choose his 4 favorite recipes (that froze well) and made them all one Saturday morning. As you can see above, it made quite a few meals that were easy to freeze, and reheat in the microwave. My husband was very happy with these as they made great grab and go lunches too.

Another great advantage of this kind of make ahead cooking is that very little food goes to waste. You buy only what you need to make the recipes, and you use everything up! We could have used re-usable containers but the rinse and recycle containers pictured above were great for even more time saving cleanup. I purchased these disposable (yet recyclable) containers at Provigo Warehouse and they were about 26$ for 50 containers with lids.

These were the meals that I made and froze:

Cheesy Shrimp and Rice
Turkey Chilli Con Carne
Basic Meat Lasagna
Shepherds Pie

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Lasagna Casserole

July 11, 2009

This Frankenstein dish is a mish-mash between our beloved lasagna and my husband’s pasta sauce - which for the record neither have been combined before this day. His style of pasta sauce combines meat, and lots of vegetables that I don’t usually include in my own family’s sauce recipe. However mixed together they create and hearty and healthy casserole supper. Serve with a side salad for a nice whole meal. For those who are new to using Pantacce noodles they are like mini lasagna noodles (see below). Our favorite brand to use is the President’s Choice which usually can be found at either Loblaws or Maxi.

From: MontrealFoodies
Prep/Cook Time: 30 mins
Serves: 8-10 good portions

Ingredients:

1/2 box PC brand Pantacce noodles
1 bottle pasta sauce
2 tsp. olive oil
1 lb. lean ground beef
3 cloves garlic diced
4 sticks of celery chopped
1 onion chopped
2 carrots shredded
1 bell pepper (colour of your choice)
1 container ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 package “Pizza” Mozzarella
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil pantacce noodles until cooked, drain. Meanwhile add olive oil to skillet heated to medium-high heat and cook vegetables until onions are translucent. Remove vegetables when done and set aside. Brown ground beef then combine with sauce, vegetables and noodles. In a bowl combine salt, pepper, ricotta and eggs. In a large casserole dish spoon in half of vegetable/meat/pasta mixture and spread all of ricotta mixture, followed by half of mozzarella, then top with remaining vegetables/meat/pasta. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella over top and bake in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.

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Beaver Lake Pasta Salad

May 27, 2008

This past Saturday was a gorgeous sunny day, so a few of our friends decided we would head over to Beaver Lake for a picnic and some sun worshiping. Amongst the group were several of our male friends who have true “male tastebuds” and appreciate pizza & beer as many foodies would a fine glass of Chardonnay and Oysters. So I decided to make a classic pasta salad for the picnic but with a slight twist. Loaded with fresh veggies and dressed with a nice tangy dressing - which requires zero prep. Everyone loved the salad, especially the “guys”. This salad transports well and is great for picnics since the only dairy is heavily salted - vegetarian friendly to boot! We hope you enjoy this salad with great weather, friends and lots of fun like we did. Read the rest of this entry »

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