Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or someone who works outside of the home, you are busy! And when it comes to getting dinner on the table, that can be a real challenge. One of my go to strategies is to have make-ahead meals in my freezer, ready to be used. You may have heard of the once-a-month cooking strategy, where you try to prep all of your meals over a day. This works for many, but can be an overwhelming task to undertake. There are many ways to make meals ahead of time. The key is to find a way that works for you (if that is what you want to do).
Recently, one of my friends partnered with a friend, chose several recipes that they thought each of their families would enjoy, then divided the recipes, making several batches of each. The result was about 30 meals for each family. For myself, one strategy that I use is to make large batches of something my family enjoys. In the past, I have made frozen lasagne, but now that we are a gluten-free family, I was not sure if I could do the same with gf noodles. For example, as I could not find no-cook gf lasagne noodles, I wondered if the noodles would be soggy. Read the rest of the blog entry to hear what I found out...
A few weeks back, I was shopping at our local grocery store when I stopped at the discounted vegetable and fruit bin. Wow! I was met with quite the find: fresh blueberries, peppers, zucchini, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, and apples. All was on half price and the produce was in good condition.
As bulk cooking was on my mind, I got busy right away, spending most of a day preparing food. By the end of the day, I had Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cheddar Soup, Mashed Potatoes, Cheese and Zucchini Fritters, Apple and Cherry Crisp, Blueberry Muffins, Cranberry - Blueberry Sauce, and Vegetarian Lasagne, all of which were then frozen for use later.
I got started on my vegetarian lasagne by making the sauce
I am fortunate to be able to use a large roaster (oven), which I can plug in outside in our gazebo, which cuts down on the heat in our non air-conditioned home.
If you are making a vegetarian pasta sauce, use whatever ingredients you like. I sauteed onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. Then I added mushrooms, peppers, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and seasonings.
You can use this sauce on spaghetti, in a lasagne, or for chicken cacciatore. It is definitely freezer friendly.
As mentioned above, I wanted to try making gluten-free vegetarian lasagne. I had several pans ready, that were sprayed with Pam. I then started with some sauce.
The sauce was spread around
For the middle mixture, I use mozzarella, parmesan cheese, cottage cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper
After not finding gf non bake lasagne noodles, I decided to cook the noodles minimally. They were definitely al dente.
At this point, it is a simple layering of sauce, noodles, and cheese mixture
I like to do a final topping of sauce, followed by mozzarella cheese. If you like, sprinkle italian seasoning or oregano on top.
I used smaller containers as well and when I ran out of gluten free lasagne noodles, I moved on to use spaghetti and macaroni. Both worked just fine.
You can see that I followed a similar process as with the lasagne noodles
To freeze, I like to first wrap in plastic wrap and then use two pieces of tin foil, so in essence it is wrapped in three layers. Remember to take the plastic off before baking :)
The lasagne was delicious!
We have been eating about one every week. I like to thaw the lasagne in the fridge overnight before cooking. It seems like such a decadence to eat a completely homemade lasagne on a week night when no one has time to cook something so elaborate. Lasagne tastes even better the next day and is perfect for leftovers in lunches. And in case you are wondering, the noodles were perfect!
My happy freezer: Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cheddar Soup, Mashed Potatoes, Cheese and
Zucchini Fritters, Apple and Cherry Crisp, Blueberry Muffins, Cranberry -
Blueberry Sauce, and Vegetarian Lasagne.
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