So, I pulled out all of my spaghetti making supplies to make my East Coast spaghetti sauce with meatballs, sausages, braciole and some pork ribs. It makes the kitchen an absolute mess, but I’ve got a delicious sauce for dinner guests tonight, enough for us again later this week, and 20 meals frozen for use in the next few months…..yep, it’s a lot of work initially.. Also, I froze containers of just sauce which is ideal for meatless dinners such as ravioli and baked ziti.
You have to have a lot of freezer space to do this kind of cooking, but I promise you it’s well worth it, especially when you are using a tried and true recipe that you know will come out just perfect.
I freeze in plastic storage containers, and also use my vacuum sealer since food bags take up very little space. The trick is to make sure the container is air-tight to prevent frost. Don’t defrost in the microwave as plastic breaks down with noxious fumes.. just let the container sit in a sink of lukewarm water.. it’s much safer.
I really watch the weekly fliers for sale items. If lean ground beef is on sale, I’ll buy 10lbs or so… cook it up and then freeze into meal-sized packages using the vacuum sealer. On any busy day a package of frozen cooked ground beef can quickly become one of our favorite comfort food meals:
Beef Enchiladas
Chili
Shephard’s Pie
Tamale Pie
My husband’s favorite Sock-a-roni meat sauce
Spaghetti Bolognese
Mexican Goulash
The uses are pretty endless… Try power cooking with your favorite recipes…
Thanks for stopping by.. I promise to take pics next time... but this time my kitchen was sooo messy!!
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Thanks so much for stopping by. Your comments are important to me and I read every one of them! Hugs, Peggy