Food Friday Lasagna Soup

I recently added a new recipe to my list of winter soups we enjoy, so I thought I'd share here.

It is Lasagna Soup and can be made in the slow cooker after browning the ground beef, but I just continued in the same pan, and it was ready in about 30 minutes with much less mess.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef-I used 93% lean
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 1 pack of McCormick Thick and Zesty Spaghetti mix
• 15 oz petite diced tomatoes with juice (or crushed tomatoes if your children don't like pieces)
• 8 ounce can tomato paste
• 1 tsp minced refrigerated garlic (or fresh if you'd like of course)
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3/4  cup Parmesan cheese (real shredded)
• 12 ounces of bow tie pasta
• Shredded mozzarella or parmesan for garnish and deliciousness

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef with the onion. Then, add the Spaghetti mix.
2. Add next 5 ingredients, and bring to a boil.
3. Add heavy cream, and then add bow tie pasta cooking at least as long as package directions.
4. When pasta is tender, dish into bowls, and serve with shredded mozzarella or parmesan on top.

Food Friday- Save the Spaghetti!

Leftovers of things like spaghetti sauce, taco meat and chili need not be tossed just because it isn't enough for my husband's lunch the next day.  I just have a small labeled tupperware (or reused spreadable butter) container in the freezer and place the leftover in it immediately after dinner.  No more confusing random containers in the refrigerator that have to be thrown out because noone remembered to eat them!  After the container is full, I just use the frozen spaghetti sauce or taco meat the next time we want to eat it. 

When we have chili on our hotdogs we never eat it all, so there's a chili container in the freezer.  Another thing I noticed is that a recipe of Cranberry Catalina chicken (Boneless skinless chicken breasts with whole berry cranberry sauce, bottled Catalina dressing and Lipton dry French Onion soup) is enough for 8 chicken breasts, and I only need 4 (in truth 3, but my husband usually eats the other one for next day's lunch).  Half of the can of whole berry cranberry sauce goes into a labeled contained in the freezer for use another day.  Easy and both frugal and environmentally conscious. :)

Food Friday-Double the recipe and freeze one

One thing that saves a lot of time for me is to double the recipe when I make certain casseroles and put it in the freezer.  Because our family is a small family of four, I then divide the recipe into three portions.  When I serve lasagna for example, my family enjoys eating it once, but after the second time it is no longer welcome.  Creating three separate pans (8X8 aluminum pans covered with aluminum foil) of lasagna reduces the amount of leftovers significantly and insures that the last bite of lasagna is as fresh and yummy as the first (rather than refrozen after cooking or held a day in the fridge).

I use this technique with lasagna, tater tot casserole, mexican chicken casserole and mexican beef casserole.  I also divide one recipe of sweet potato casserole into two pans because unless you are expecting a lot of people, you just can't eat it all in two days.  It is wonderful to have something in the freezer in case you unexpectedly need to take food to a family in case of sickness or bereavement.

Next week: Reducing waste from chili, taco meat, spaghetti and cranberry sauce.

Food Friday-Back to Back leftover usage

It is common sense, and I should have already thought of it, but making the most of your purchases can be helpful in meal planning and in using up what you have on hand.  My online acquaintance Brie Clark mentioned back to back meal planning recently.

For example, if you know you want to have tacos on Tuesday, you'll need lettuce (usually shredded) and tomato.  You might try to have BLTs or another sandwich on either Monday or Wednesday to use up the produce.  This can apply if you are a small or large family. Large families usually buy a larger package at Sam's anyway right?

Another idea might be to roast a whole chicken on Monday and have it as the main dish. Your leftovers could then be used as topping for pizza, chicken with Alfredo sauce and pasta, chicken pot pie or a chicken soup (Mexican style, Minestrone or chicken with rice perhaps?) later in the week.

With a roast, you could eat it as is the first night. Then make beef burgundy with mushrooms and noodles the next night or have French Dip sandwiches.

Next week: Save time on time-consuming recipes.

Food Friday-31 days of meals (41 ideas!)

Planning what to eat when your day is devoted to stamping can be a challenge :), so I'm going to devote a few Friday posts to food planning ideas. 

Perhaps this post can help you think of something to do with whatever meat you have available that day. Jog your memory easily! Be sure to add a fish category if you like fish, and change the ideas for your family's likes.

Chicken
1. Chicken Tacos or Quesadillas
2. Chicken Tortilla Soup (either tomato-y, corn-y or creamy)
3. Herb Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and salad or veggie
4. Chicken Fetuccini Alfredo
5. Chicken Pot Pie/Dumplings
6. Hot Legs (Like hot wings, but I use legs. Our girls have Ritz cracker legs since hot is too hot for them.)
7. Cranberry Catalina Chicken Breasts
8. Lemon Poppyseed Chicken Breasts (with or without honey)
9. Orange Asian Chicken

Ground Beef

10. Stuffed pepper filling (The tomato and rice ground beef filling is yummy.)
11. Cheeseburgers
12. Tacos
13. Taco Soup
14. Spaghetti
15. Lasagna
16. Barbecue Meatballs
17. Chili
18. Tater Tot Casserole
19. Mexican Beef Casserole

Beef
20. Roast and Potatoes & Carrots
21. Beef tips Burgundy with mushrooms and noodles
22. French Dip  Sandwiches
23. Vegetable Soup
24. Steak & Baked Potato
25. Teriyaki Steak Kabobs

Pork
26. Ritz Cracker Pork Chops (Lately I've been slicing pork tenderloin for this)
27. Crock Pot Pork Chops and Rice
28. Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin
29. BLTs (or BLCheese)
30. Ham
31. Ham & Cheese or  Bacon & Cheese Quiche
32. Pulled Pork Barbecue sandwiches

Miscellaneous
33. Baked Potato Soup
34. French Onion Soup
35. Hot Dogs with or without chili
36. Loaded Baked Potatoes
37. Minestrone Soup

Frozen
38. Braum's Salisbury Steak with mashed potatoes
39. Corn Dogs
40. Frozen Barber Farms chicken cordon bleu with salad and corn on the cob
41. Coconut Shrimp

Next week: Back to Back leftover usage