Sunday Fun Day: Fresh Veggies and Freezer Food
This Sunday Fun Day, is all about food.
First, we had fun this week as we are harvesting lots of veggies from our garden on a regular basis now.
Second, on Saturday we cooked. And we cooked A LOT! We made a total of about 25 meals for Mr. MPB and I together to put in our freezer for future busy days. Almost all the vegetables are fresh, organic and local, as we participate in a local food co-op during the summer and harvested from our own garden too. So, our freezer is now full with all of this:
More specifically, our freezer is now stocked with:
Spicy Beef Chili
(crushed tomatoes, tomato past, various beans, fresh bell peppers, onion, hot sauce, crushed red peppers, salt and pepper)
Potato, Broccoli and Carrot Soup
(potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onion, garlic, butter, olive oil, chicken broth, cream, bay leaves, salt, pepper)
Lasagna
(ground beef, fresh bell peppers, kale, tomatoes, tomatoes past, chives, hot sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, cottage cheese, parmesan, eggs, parsley, crushed red peppers, salt and pepper)
Beef Cannelloni with Extra Meat Sauce
(the same meat sauce as the Lasagna – ground beef, fresh bell peppers, kale, tomatoes, tomatoes past, chives, parsley, crushed red peppers, salt and pepper)
Three Cheese Manicotti
(goat’s cheese, mozzarella, cottage cheese, parmesan, eggs, fresh red peppers, parsley, salt and pepper)
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Wow! That is super, super organised and I really need to do something like this! I’m inspired!
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I do it about once a year, and it’s always rewarding to know that we can eat healthy during long days and busy weeks.
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Mmmmm now I’m starting for supper and it’s barely even breakfast time. It all looks so delicious!
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Ha! The funny thing for us is that we cooked so much yesterday to freeze that neither one of us wants to cook tonight. I hope you come up with something yummy tonight. 🙂
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I’m impressed and now craving all of those meals!
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We do this about once a year as its nice to have something healthy on hand for busy days. Now, the hope is that we keep some of these around for whenever we are placed with our child. 🙂
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That all looks so delicious. Great idea!!
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Thanks! As I tasted things well we cooked they were tasty, so I think they will be yummy when we eat them. 🙂
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can I be your house guest for ever and ever please 🙂
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You are always welcome my friend. 🙂
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Delicious!!
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Very much so. 🙂
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Oh wow – I don’t know whether I’m more blown away by all that wonderful food preparation … or by the fact that you were able to stop and take such yummy photographs without getting tomato juice all over your lens! I bet the kitchen was clean and tidy before you went to bed, too…
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You might have noticed the only one I took pictures of while making was the soup – it was the last one of the day and I forgot to use my camera while cooking everything else so they just got the after shots! Ops. 🙂
As for the kitchen, I refuse to wash dishes by hand so I loaded up the dishwasher and left the extra’s in the sink until this morning. But, now it is nice and clean again.
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I didn’t notice – my mouth was watering too hard… lol
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You’re making me hungry! All of those meals look delicious.
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I sure hope they will be yummy when we thaw them eventually. 🙂
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Wow! Loving all that produce from your own back yard. I so need to do this. Well done! And such a great idea to cook ahead.
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Well, really, Mr. MPB grew everything except the hot peppers. Those were mine, and they survived solely on rain as I forgot to water them all summer long. Or maybe Mr. MPB watered them for me, and so they are also his…. 🙂
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haha it’s a team effort!
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That’s awesome! You are inspiring me to get my act together and freeze a few meals.
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I totally recommend getting some stuff made and freezing it. I honestly feel so much better now that I know we have stuff in the freezer both for just busy days but also if we get placed soon then I know we can eat healthy in the first few weeks at home. Somehow I feel like it will be a huge help to have pre-made meals ready to go. 🙂
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I’ve been (much more gradually) stockpiling, mostly tomato sauce, squash-based sides, and simmered things with beans. It helps on those totally frayed weeknights to stave off pizza and Chinese!
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Yes! As much as I want to eat pizza and Chinese food, I always feel so much better after I eat one of our homemade freezer meals. It sounds like we are a lot alike.
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I’m seriously hungry right now!!! Beautiful looking veggies, I hope they taste as good as they look!!
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They do taste as good as they look, and maybe even a bit better. ☺
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Amazing! Everything looks so good!! I wish I had it in me to get meals done ahead of time like this, it would definitely save on the stress of making a meal after a busy day! Good job!
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I do it about once a year. It takes most of a day, but it always feels so good to know we have ready to go healthy meals. ☺
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Damn you are good! i would love the recipe for the lasagna with kale dish! I really REALLY need to do this for when I can’t be bothered cooking….
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I am the absolute worst when it comes to recipes for these types of dishes. I just kind of throw whatever we have in the fridge into it and call it good.
So, what I can tell you is that for this one the meat consisted of cooked ground beef, chopped up kale (I use lots of it because we love it and we have a tonne in our garden), 1 or 2 bell peppers chopped up, a small can of tomato paste, tomatoes chopped up (or a can of crushed tomatoes), red pasta sauce (I always use the cheapest stuff I can buy because I add my own flavour to it with spices), lots of hot sauce (just whatever we have in the fridge, and lots of it in our house since we like spicy), crushed dried pepper flakes (again, we like spicy), parsley to taste, salt to taste, pepper to taste. I cook the meat then I add everything else and let it simmer for a few hours. Make this the day before you plan to make the lasagna and put it in the fridge to cool over night so that it doesn’t cook the noodles when you layer everything. (I am also known to use spinach instead of kale, it really just depends on what I have on hand).
The cheese layer is ricotta cheese, shredded mozeralla cheese, parmesean, cottage cheese, parsley, and a few eggs, I have no idea how much of each – I just dump a container of each into a bowl and mix with my hands.
I used none pre-boil lasagna noodles this time. I’ve never used them before, so we’ll see how they turn out when we eat them.
To put it all together I layer as follows:
1. put a small amount of tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan (so the bottom noodles don’t burn to the bottom of the pan when cooking)
2. noodles
3. meat sauce
4. noodles
5. cheese mixture.
6. noodles.
7. meat sauce.
8. noodles
9. small amount of cheese (just enough so that when it’s cooking it can turn golden on top).
P.S. I use the same meat recipe for the cannelloni and the same cheese recipe for my manicotti. For the manicotti I just add some really finally chopped bell peppers and some kale/spinach to the cheese mixture.
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Nice work! That must’ve been exhausting. But now look at all the food you have premade! I love all the yummies!
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We do it about once a year and it’s always so nice to fill up the the freezer with some healthy quick meals! So much better then ordering pizza or Chinese on busy days. ☺
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Wow I try to be kinda organised but you’ve blown organised right outta the water. Those meals look and sound delicious too!
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Haha! We do this about once a year, and it’s always a long day in the kitchen but so worth it in the end. ☺
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