Freezer Lasagna

Yesterday I made ahead and froze 9 individual chicken lasagnas.  I boiled up 3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs in 3 qts of water with salt ad pepper.  

When they were thoroughly cooked, I transferred them to the work bowl of my Kitchen Aid, and used the paddle to "pull" them.  I added a 32 oz jar of Prego, and allowed it to cool. 

Meanwhile, I broke my lasagna noodles in half, and added them to the already boiling chicken water, along with an extra can of broth.  I allowed them to boil for 17 minutes.  While they were boiling, I prepped my mini loaf pans, spooning a liitle sauce into the bottom of each.  Once the noodles had boiled, I added one to each pan.

Then I layered in more of the red sauce/chicken mixture, and some ricotta cheese, topped that with another cooked noodle, the remainder of the red sauce, and some Mozzarella.  I covered the tray with foil, and set it in m chest freezer for several hours.  Once the lasagnas were solid, I covered each individually with foil, and marked them with sharpie- date, contents and cooking instructions (thaw, bake 60 minutes @350)

Happy New Year!

Good morning! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday.  I'm trying to be quiet because my guys are still asleep.  They got home between four and five this morning.

Jessica over at goodcheapeats.com is having a Pantry Challenge this month, and I plan to join in.  Because my pantry is not terribly extensive at the moment, for me this means shopping the shelves at home first, working on filling the freezer with homemade "convenience" meals, planning weekly meals, and shopping sensibly (and not hungry!).

I'm also going to focus on getting pictures for the blog of our meals. That has kind of fallen by the wayside these last couple of weeks.  It's hard to remember to take pictures first when you and your family are hungry! 
Hubby finally called the home warranty people about the stove yesterday- hopefully we'll hear back from them on Tuesday, and I'll have a working oven by the end of next week.

This week's meals and shopping list  Italics are pantry items:
Sunday: Wild rice and Spinach  Stuffed Pork Loin with biscuits  and cauliflower and carrots
Monday: Calico Beans and corn bread (baked Sunday at a friend's house)
Tuesday: out
Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread
Thursday: Stir fried vegetables & chicken  with rice
Friday: soup and sandwiches
Saturday: pulled pork sandwiches, chips

Make ahead meals:
Sloppy Joe mix- ground beef, condiments, veg soup
lasagna- ground beef. noodles, cheese, sauce
beef stew -stew beef, frozen veg, onion soup mix
Swedish meatballs (build and freeze sauce) milk, mushrooms, instant coffee, beef broth, flour, butter

Shopping List:
Wild Rice
Frozen veg mixes (stock up and Thursday night)
frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs (stock up and Thursday night)
milk
frozen juice
Lunch meats
ground beef (stock up item)
onions
taco seasoning (stock up item)
Ice cream(if there is a sale on bryers)
soy sauce
hoisin sauce
chicken yakisoba
beef bones
carrots
celery
butter

Sunday - Made Ahead: Pulled Beef

I promise we'll get to Toad in the Hole next week.  Tonight, We're having the Pulled Beef I made Friday, along side the Pot Roast.

In the morning, I trimmed the 3lb chuck roast of fat and gristle, rubbed the meat down with Lipton Onion soup, and put the meat, along with the fat and gristle in the smaller of my two slow cookers. I let it cook for 8 hours on low.  I allowed it to cool for an hour or so while we ate, then removed the meat but not the fat or gristle, to the work bowl of my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer.  I used the Paddle attachment of my mixer to break down the beef, on low power.

The BBQ sauce included 1c Ketchup, 1/2c prepared yellow mustard, 1/4 c blackstrap molasses, and black pepper to taste.
I combined the ingredients in the sauce, and poured them over the beef I'd already broken down using the kitchen aid  paddle attachment. I stored the mixture in a large Ziplock bag in the fridge.  It looked a little dry, so I added 1 c of the broth from the slow cooker.  I think I let the beef go a little long in the mixer, there's more "mush" and less definition than I would like.  It's been marinating in the sauce for two days, the flavor should be great!

We'll have the meat on buns tonight, with Potato Salad and Coleslaw along side.  I might even have time to make a dessert.
Coleslaw cheat- Pre cut cabbage and bottled dressing or deli coleslaw
Potato salad cheat- Diced canned potatoes! Blanch these to take out some of the "canned"  taste.

Sorry- no pictures tonight- I had  no phone battery.