Baby Steps

Since life has been in perpetual change lately, what with the loss of a job, a move, a new baby, a new job and an upcoming move, I've decided that I can't just throw myself into the once a month cooking/shopping life just yet. Mainly because we are going to be moving here soon and I don't want the frozen food to spoil. :-)

So, we are taking baby steps towards this life change in our eating habits. Since we currently only have a small freezer, I can't even freeze a few meals, so we've been doing a few practice meals to see what freezes well and what tastes okay after it has been frozen. I have also been trying out a few new recipes in casserole form to see if my family enjoys them. I figure planned meals are that much more easy if they are one dish meals(meat, veggie, starch in one dish).

Here's what I have discovered so far. Spaghetti sauce does not taste very good after being frozen. The smell/taste of the garlic and the meat seem to overpower the container they are in and squelch any other flavor that might be present. I am thinking that maybe cooking up the meat ahead of time and then mixing with some sauce from the pantry before serving might be a smarter option.

I tried a new casserole recipe on my family that they seemed to love. Keep in mind I have only one eater and two pickers. So to get them all to eat an all in once dish meal was quite a victory. And on the plus side, I liked it too. I think it even tasted better the second time around after having been frozen. Hopefully your family will enjoy it as much as mine did.

Taco Casserole (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1. brown 1 pound of beef (or turkey beef, this is what we use, it's slightly healthier and my family can't tell the difference anymore)
2. here is where I add any veggies that I want to sneak into the meal for my family. Spinach is an awesome addition. It blends in wonderfully with any form of browning meat and takes on the flavor of what it is being cooked with. Plus having some frozen spinach in the freezer is a quick and easy addition. You can also put in blended squash or zucchini for easy tasteless, i.e. undetected veggies.
3. add a packet of your favorite taco seasoning. you might also want to add some salsa or hot sauce at this point depending on how spicy you like things.
4. add a can of tomato soup and a can of water.
5. stir all ingredients until they are well blended and warmed.
6. as you are browning the meat and mixing everything else, boil some macaroni in another pot. you can use mac and cheese noodles or any other kind of noodle, we used the noodles that look like shells. My kids like to look at them. :-)
7. Get big pan out(or two if you made enough to freeze half) combine drained noodles and meat/veggie combo together.
8. On top, put drained canned corn(or frozen) layered around the whole casserole.
9. On top of that put on broken taco shells sprinkled all over.
10. Top that with cheese.
11. Put in oven for a half hour at 350degrees.
Frozen Directions
12. If you freeze half, don't put on the shells or cheese until it is time to cook or they might be a bit soggy.
13. Make sure you mark what date you originally made it and use before a months time is up.
14. When reheating cook at 350degrees. might take a bit longer than a half hour, depending on whether it was thawed out or not.


Enjoy!