Red and White Pasta

This is by far one of my favorite go to meals.  It is easey peasey to assemble (like 15 min.) and a yummy pasta dish the whole family always loves!  I make this dish without meat, but I have tasted it with ground beef or sausage which makes a nice variation.

Red and White Pasta
1 lb. (16 oz.) tubular pasta, I use Penne
16 oz. jar of Alfredo sauce
26 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce
2-3 cups of mozarella or Italian blend cheeses

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degees
2.    Cook pasta according to package directions; drain
3.  Spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce in a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Layer half the pasta, half the alfredo sauce, half the spaghetti sauce, and 1 and 1/2 cup of the cheese.  Repeat the layering with the remaining pasta, alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce, and cheese.
4.   Cover with aluminum foil and bake 30 min. or until it is hot and bubbly.

Serve with a tossed salad and Italian or French bread.

*Double this and use as a freezer meal. 

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.


 

Rio Style Sweet Pork, Rice and Beans

So I don't have a picture of this yet.  But this recipe is so easy and delicious.  You can serve it on tortillas with beans and cilantro rice. Top it with more green salsa and cheese (place in broiler on low to melt)  and serve with guacamole, sour cream and  your favorite salsa. . . Yum!  Or serve this as a salad over lettuce with black beans salsa, sour cream, guacamole and rice. 

Rio Style Sweet Pork
1 3-5 lb. pork roast (boneless)
2 cups of green chili salsa (bottled not fresh)
2 cups of brown sugar

Place in a greased slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours.  Shred pork with a fork before serving. Keep lid off after shredding for about 15 min so juice will thicken.  If freezing, keep juice and freeze with meat.

Cilantro Lime Rice
1 cup uncooked rice
1 tsp. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. lime zest
1 (15 oz.) can chicken broth
1/4 c. water
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In sauce pan combine rice, butter, garlic, lime zest, chicken broth and water.  Bring to a boil. Cover and cook 15-20 min., until rice is tender.  Remove from heat.  In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro. Pour over hot cooked rice.

Black Beans
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 c. tomato juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In a non-stick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell it.  Add beans, tomato juice and salt.  Continually stir until heated through.  Just before serving stir in the cilantro. 

Quick Quiche

The scene outside our door this morning looked like a winter wonderland, perfectly ordered for Christmas Day! We were lucky that everyone was able to make it out to our house for another tradition we all enjoy together, Christmas Breakfast. Matt loves to cook, and breakfast is his specialty. We were joined by Nanny and Papa, aunts and uncles and all of our fun cousins. We are so blessed to have so many people on both sides of our families who love us and want to share the holidays together. This year our menu was simple:

Cinnamon French Toast

Ham

Fresh Fruit

Quiche

Caramel Apple cider and Milk

The quiche seemed to be a big hit and was made that much easier by preparing it a day ahead of time and simply warming it in the oven. I love this recipe, from one of my favorite sites http://allrecipes.com/. I use all of the ingredients suggested in the recipe and make the addition of ham and mushrooms to it. It is heavenly delicious.

Quiche

8 slices bacon

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

4 ounces shredded swiss cheese

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup all purpose flour

4 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

1. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside. ( I brown my onions in a little of the bacon grease).

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 inch pie plate.

3. Line bottom of pie plate with cheese, bacon and anything else you would like to add in. Combine eggs, butter, onion, salt, flour and milk; whisk together until smooth; pour into pie plate.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 35- 40 minutes or until set. Serve hot or cold.

* If using as a freezer meal bake first according to recipe.  Freeze. When ready to eat defrost in refrigerator and reheat in the oven 20-30 min. May also microwave.

Breakfast Smoothie Delight

 

 We have been making this recipe for many years now.  I have tried a lot of different versions but this is by far still my favorite combination of flavors.  I like to make several batches of this smoothie mix and freeze it in containers so that we have an instant healthy breakfast whenever we need to run out the door quickly. ( Recipe makes 2 servings)

 

1/2-1 cup yogurt, nonfat, any flavor

1 banana, ripe, sliced and frozen

1/4 cup fruit, sliced and frozen

(any type of fruit you would like- I just buy mixed berries)

1/4 cup orange juice (when I don't have juice I just add extra milk)

1 cup of milk

optional: 1/3 cup oatmeal or 2 heaping Tbsp. flax seed

 

Blend ingredients together in a blender for about 1 minute.  Be creative and try a variety of fruits combined with different juices.

 

To Freeze: Add the first 4 ingredients into 2 cup serving containers.  For the juice I put in 1 Tbsp. of juice concentrate (no water).  When ready pull mix out of freezer. You may want to defrost a bit.  Dump into a blender and add milk and oatmeal or flax before blending. 

Mmmmmm-So refreshing and healthy!

 

*Always save your over ripe bananas by peeling, slicing and freezing them in baggies.  The riper the banana the sweeter the taste.  Also if you are making this on the fly and don't have frozen fruit on hand just add in a handful or two of ice cubes then blend.