Freezer Meals Week 1 Plan- Lasagna

 

It has been a long while since I have actually had a freezer meal session.  But today I was feeling ambitious after returning from the store.  I spent 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours preparing the meals and here is what I ended up with.

Menu for Week 1
Lasagna
Spaghetti Sauce
Chili
Rio-style Pork
BBQ. Pork

That's 5 very yummy meals I can now pull out of the freezer any night of the week for our family or a neighbor.  My goal is to get a few extra ahead so that when my son returns from his LDS mission next month, we will just be able to sit back and enjoy him and not have to fuss to much in the kitchen.  Sounds like a worthy goal to me.  So here was my plan and the recipes I used today

I actually began last night by putting a 5 lb. pork roast into my crock pot on low for 10 hours.  When I woke up I shredded it and put it in a bowl in the refrigerator. Most I used for the Rio Style Pork but I reserved a bit for BBQ. Pork sandwiches (just using sauce I bought at the store).

I browned 4 lbs. of ground beef,
then used my food processor to dice all of my peppers and onions. 
At this point I was ready to begin assembling my recipes, starting with . . .

Easy Cheesy Lasagna
1 lb. ground beef
26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce ( I like Ragu) + 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 and 3/4 cup of small curd cottage cheese
1 egg beaten slightly
1/2 tsp. basil leaves (optional)
3-4 cups of Colby/ monterey jack cheese grated ( I just buy it this way)
American Beauty oven ready lasagna, uncooked
1/4 cup Parmesan

Take 1/4 of your ground beef and simmer together with spaghetti sauce and brown sugar, (today I had a 45 oz. jar of sauce so I just added half of my meat and saved extra for spaghetti sauce later in the week).

In a small bowl mix together cottage cheese, beaten egg, basil and grated cheeses.

Spray a glass 13 x 9 inch baking dish with non stick spray. Then add a thin layer of meat sauce.  Over this mixture place 3 uncooked  lasagna noodles running cross wise.  The pieces shouldn't overlap or touch the sides of the pan since they will expand when baked ( I love these noodles they make it so easy!)

On top of  the noodles place  1/3 of meat mixture, then 1/3 of meat sauce.

Repeat this step two more times.  Then sprinkle the top with Parmesan.
Cover tightly with foil then freeze. 
To bake remove Lasagna from the freezer the night before to defrost. 
Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 40 min. or if you didn't have time to defrost it bake for 1 hour and 30 min.  Remove foil the last 10 min. of baking

*For a saucier version add 1-  8 oz. can of tomato sauce to your meat mixture.