Stuffed Shells- Freezer Meal Edition

Stuffed Shells

I am so excited about making freezer meals. A few of my friends are attempting a new freezer meal group later this week where each of us chooses a recipe, makes enough for each family that attends, and then we will swap meals at the end. Because I am hosting it this time, I wanted to get mine done early, so I can help others work on theirs while they are in my home. Freezer meals create a sense of peace in me. Weird, I know, but when I know that I have a head start on dinner for the next several days (or even WEEKS!), I can face the difficulties of the day with more confidence. Other freezer meal bloggers talk about how they like to fill their freezers with their meals and then go peek at them from time to time. I may or may not do that. Don't judge. Here's a detailed depiction of why freezer meals are important for our budget.

Stuffed Shells have a lot of steps in the process, but none of the steps are difficult. I made this recipe knowing that I needed to make enough for six young families. The families have as few as three members and as many as five in the largest, so I wanted to be sure to include enough shells for a family of five (two adults and three children) to have a dinner entree.

The first step in my process was to make a big batch of meat sauce. I used  Ree Drummond's recipe for meat sauce as my basis for my concoction. 

I did stray a bit from her recipe because I don't keep wine in the house, and I used a mixture of local raised beef and local raised pork sausage instead of all beef. I am not a fan of onions, so I finely chopped some fresh zucchini, fresh yellow squash, and some red peppers that I found in the freezer. I forgot the bay leaves too. The sauce still turned out great. This makes A LOT of sauce. Seriously, it starts with FIVE POUNDS of meat! 

On with the shells. I cooked three boxes of shells in a large pot of boiling water, to which I added salt and a bit of olive oil to prevent stickage. (Is stickage a word?) Once the shells reached a perfect level of done-ness, I took my whole pot of shells, poured off most of the water, then I turned the cold water on and let the shells cool completely.

While the noodles cooked, I made a lovely filling for my shells. I grated a whole bunch of Parmesan cheese and mixed it together with eggs, ricotta, cottage cheese, shredded mozzarella, and several lovely dried herbs- parsley, basil and lots of oregano.

 Here's how the pretty herbs look poured on top of the ricotta.

 And the mozzarella...

 Here it is all mixed up together. It smells lovely at this stage, but resist eating it unless you fear no salmonella from raw eggs.

Next, we stuff them. I scoop about a tablespoon of the mixture and spoon it into the cooked shells. Then I close them and lay them seam side down.

Three boxes makes A LOT of shells. My kids seemed concerned about my sanity when I counted them... there were 120 to be exact. All the other shells broke apart and I couldn't stuff them.

Next, I added a layer of wax paper to an 8"x 8" foil pan because I have heard that tomato sauce can react with different types of metal. I'm not sure if it would happen with these, but I knew how many of these pans of shells I was planning to make, and I don't have time for an experiment to go awry! I added a couple of spoons full of sauce to the bottom of the lined pan.

Next, I took the pretty filled shells and lined them all up in rows. I fit 18 shells in each pan. Aren't they pretty?

Here's when the meat sauce really gets showcased! Scoop enough on top of the shells to cover them generously. These are going to be baked at a later date, and noodles that get crispy in the oven are not my favorite. 

Smooth out the sauce like so.

Here they all are in their beauty!

This step is exceptionally important. Truly. Labeling bags saves so much time later on! I like to include what is in each bag, instructions for cooking, the date it was made, and the cook's name too. These 8" x 8" foil pans fit nicely in a gallon size freezer bag.

Before the ladies arrive later this week, I will prep sandwich-sized bags with shredded mozzarella to top these yummy pans full of pseudo-Italian goodness and send them home to stock their freezers. I am looking forward to staring into my freezer knowing that we are working together to get a head start on the responsibilities of dinner for the coming weeks.

Sauce:

3 lbs ground beef

2 lbs sausage

2 T minced garlic

2 c minced veggies- zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper about 2/3 c each to total 2 cups

6-8oz cans of plain tomato sauce

2 jars of good spaghetti sauce

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 T oregano

1 T parsley

1 t ground thyme

1 t basil

1 T salt

Brown meats in a large pot. Drain and set aside. In the same pot, add veggies and garlic and cook on medium for about 3 minutes. Pour in tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and tomatoes. Add seasonings and bring to a low simmer. Add browned meat back to pot and simmer on medium low for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Stuffed Shells:

3 boxes of jumbo pasta shells

5 containers of ricotta

1 large container of cottage cheese

1 lb shredded mozzarella

3 c shredded Parmesan

4 eggs

1 T parsley

1 T oregano

1 t basil

Cook shells according to package directions. Cool. Mix all other ingredients together in a large bowl. Spoon 1 T mixture into each shell. Ladle meat sauce into a baking dish. Place each shell mixture-side down into baking dish. Once your dish is filled with one layer of shells, top with a generous amount of meat sauce.

From this point, you can bake them at 350 for 35 minutes and top with extra mozzarella cheese and bake another 5 minutes. If you want to freeze them, pack for freezer and label. Freeze for up to two months. When you're ready to use, thaw and bake at 350 for 35 minutes and top with extra mozzarella cheese and bake another 5 minutes.

Yield: seven 8" x 8" baking dishes of shells and sauce with a little extra sauce left over. 

I got 120 shells from this recipe for an approximate cost of $50 (including pans and bags); that's about $7.15 per baking dish.

Hamburger Joes

An unlikely crowd pleaser created out of exhaustion!

My family has been sick. The up-all-night, get-another-set-of-clean-sheets, do-I-have-to-clean-THAT-up kind of sick. It started with my husband and me a few days ago, and then this bug started picking on our kids, one by one. So when dinner time rolled around last night, I was unprepared to say the least. I was tempted to head out and buy some food, but our budgeted amount for dining out has already been exhausted, and my miscellaneous money got spent on ginger ale and bananas for the sickly crew in our house. I had to make something at home. Ugh.

We like to buy our beef from some farmer family friends who raise their cattle in a big beautiful pasture just a few miles from our home, so our freezer is stocked with beef. Frozen beef. Very frozen. By the time I remembered I was responsible for making dinner, it was too late to thaw anything the way RESPONSIBLE people do. 

My husband requested a hamburger, but I told him that was out of the question because I had not planned to thaw meat while I was washing yet another load of soiled clothes and sheets. So I went to the freezer and grabbed a pound of super solid frozen beef. I decided I would try to make some kind of Sloppy Joe without a recipe, so I plinked the solid mass of beef in a skillet with a little water, a fair amount of black pepper and some Lawry's seasoned salt, and put the lid on and turned it down low. But when I got partway through browning it, a delusional thought struck me: maybe I could just make a Sloppy Burger or a Hamburger Joe.

The concept that struck my sleep-deprived mind was that even though I can't form these into patties, I will cook, drain, and season the meat, put it on some bread and top it however each family member likes. Guess what? It worked! My super picky daughter LOVED it! She said it was better than a McDonald's hamburger with ketchup only (which is essentially a five-star rating from a picky four-year-old).

Of course, I didn't have any sandwich buns in the house, so I used plain, old wheat bread.

I like cheese on mine, especially cheddar, so I added a good sprinkling of shredded cheddar. Sliced Swiss or American would be good. Or Muenster. Mmmm, Muenster.

I am a bit of a plain-Jane as far as hamburgers go, so I topped mine with ketchup and called it quits for toppings. My husband added mustard and pickle to his, but you could top yours off with some sliced tomato, onion, avocado, bacon (mmm, bacon) or anything your heart desires.

This is how mine turned out, and it was delish! I thought about griddling these delights in the skillet with some butter to make them a combo of a grilled cheese and patty melt, but I was too tired. And the clothes dryer was ready for me.

What crazy concoctions have you created out of necessity? This one worked well!