Freezer Food Friday FAILURE!

So we did a preview of trick or treating last night at Ric's office, Great-grandma's house, and my parents' house... consequently I spaced the post I had ready to put on last night. :/ Ha! Oh well, here we go:

Lasagne Casserole

1 pound ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 t. minced garlic (I'm all for the Costco bottles of pre-minced garlic. Just know there's extra sodium, so you may need to decrease the amount of salt you use in your recipes.)

1/2 of a 1 lb. package of bowtie pasta (8 oz.)

1 can of spaghetti sauce

1 can of tomato sauce

2 T. sugar

1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach

1 cup cottage cheese (or 1/2 of a small container)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 t. Italian seasoning (or your own mix of basil, oregano, and thyme)

Brown the ground beef with the onion. Cook the bowtie pasta in salted water for half of the time recommended on the package. While the beef is browning and the pasta is cooking, in a separate bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients. Put in a gallon freezer bag. Label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw. Place in greased baking dish. Stir. Place baking dish on a baking sheet. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with more grated cheese.

*Tips:

I love the "estimate and dump" method so some of the measurements aren't very technical. Makes it faster ;).

For easier, more uniform freezing, put your gallon freezer bag in a casserole dish in your freezer. Once it's frozen, just pop it out and stick it back in your freezer. They stack really well this way.

For my family I split the sauce and noodles in half, cooking half of the noodles fully and also cooking half of the sauce fully (to cook the egg). Then I use that for dinner and follow the recipe for making the other half a freezer meal.

If you also have a husband or children that are not overly fond of spinach, it might be in your best interest to chop the spinach even more (that disguises it a bit) and maybe even decrease the amount by half!

Try it and let me know what you think!