For the working woman...whose husband doesn't cook!

I work anywhere between 45 and 50 hours a week, balancing a career and home doesn't always leave a lot of extra time.  Currently, we have no kids but I figure it's never too soon to start playing around with ways to make life more simple and gain some spare time out of it.  I really enjoying cooking from scratch, try to limit the amount of processed food that we eat.  My husband unfortunately eats quite a bit of processed food if I'm not around to cook for him.  At least I know when I'm preparing a meal for us, it's healthy and delicious which is an added bonus.  Over the years, I've practiced and refined my skills at making some large scale basic recipes that can be easily turned into several delicious freezer meals for later when life is hectic.  My husband can handle taking something out of the freezer and putting it in the oven so that it will be ready when I get home.  These meals have come in handy with my parents as well.  Over the past 5 years my parents have had some health issues and having these meals on hand that I could take a few down to them when I went to visit to ensure they have a hot, healthy meal when they needed has been helpful as well.  For the most part, I'm a loyal Hannaford Shopper considering that is how I gain my livelihood and the life style I enjoy but at times like this where I need a large amount of an ingredient, I make a trip to Sam's Club.  You'll see why once you see how much food I can make with just a few basic ingredients an how budget friendly it is.  

Here we go...so we're going to start with a Basic Tomato Sauce (aka Pasta Sauce)

6 medium carrots, minced

1 1/2 large onions, minced

1 bulb of garlic, peeled and minced

1/4 c olive oil  

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot.  Add minced carrots and saute for 2 minutes, then add minced onion and saute for 3-4 minutes, then add the minced garlic and saute for another 2 minutes.  

Why carrots?  If you've ever made pasta sauce from scratch or read the back of a jar of pasta sauce to see the sugar content.  When using canned tomatoes or fresh ones they are very acidic and need something to counterbalance them.  That's why I use carrots, they add some great nutritional value to my pasta sauce with a hint of sweetness to offset the tomatoes.  They compliment each other well.  

Now on to the tomatoes...

2- (6lb, 6 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes

4-15oz cans tomato sauce

2-29oz cans tomato sauce

Pour into stock pot and stir until combined with carrots, onions and garlic.  You may choose to buy large cans to equal the tomato sauce I used, today I was cleaning out what I had in the pantry.  

Now to add a little spice...

1 1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper

1 1/2 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp sea salt

Stir until combined with sauce.  Simmer on medium heat (due to size of pot, need to use higher heat) for one hour.  

In about an hour and a half you have a basic tomato sauce that can easily be added to for additional recipes.  

Freezer Lasagna  

We love lasagna in our house, it can take some time to throw together a good lasagna so this isn't always a good options for a weeknight meal.  I found that they freeze really well and I use foil bread loaf pans so it's perfect for two people with maybe a little piece leftover for lunch the next day.  

Meat Sauce: 

20 cups of Basic Tomato Sauce

3 lbs Ground Beef, browned and drained

1 lb sausage (I make my own sausage that I keep in the freezer so feel free to use your favorite kind)

2 cans tomato paste (for lasagna I like the sauce to be a little thicker)

2 tbsp dried Italian Seasoning

Mix everything together in a stockpot and set aside.  

Ricotta Filling: 

My husband doesn't really care for a lot of Ricotta, we've tried using other substitutes but it doesn't taste the same. That's why I mix in a bag of baby spinach, he loves it and it's another vegetable that I get to add to our meal.  

1- 6oz bag baby spinach, rough chopped

1- 3lb container whole milk Ricotta

1/2 c shredded Parmesan cheese

1 c shredded Romano Cheese

2 tbsp dried parsley flakes

1 tsp garlic powder

 Now the fun part, the assembly of the lasagnas.  I set up a little assembly line and put them all together at the same time.  

Set up your foil bread pans in a row.  

Put about a 1/2 cup of meat sauce in each pan and spread so that the bottom of the pan is covered.  

You'll need about 1 1/2 boxes to make 8 bread pan lasagnas.  I like these the best because they fit perfectly in my bread pans and they are no boil.  

Place 1 lasagna noodle in each pan.  

Add about 1/4 cup ricotta mixture to each pan and lightly spread out to cover with the back of a spoon.  

Top with about 1/3 cup meat sauce, spread with back of spoon to cover.  

Sprinkle with a pinch of shredded three cheese.  

Continue layers until you reach 3 noodle layers or pan is 3/4 full.  Last layer should be meat sauce.  

Cover with foil and put in freezer.  

When you get ready to cook your freezer lasagna.  You can cook straight from the freezer or you can take out the night before and defrost in the fridge.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Frozen:  1 hour 

Thawed: 30-45 minutes.  

During the last 15 minutes of cooking, I'll either put a couple pieces of provolone cheese or sprinkle with mozzarella, depending what I have on hand in my fridge.