Meat Loaf

As I mentioned in my other post, tonight I did some freezer cooking for my little man.  It included yummy meat balls and meat loaf.  My husband liked the meat loaf so much, he wants some for his work lunch (and he doesnt take a lunch to work, lol)

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

2 cups grated carrot or other root vegetable (I used sweet potatoe and carrots)

1.5 cups bread crumbs

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Press gently into greased muffin cups.  Bake until no longer pink about 30 minutes for muffins.

Let the muffins cool and place in ziplock bags to freeze.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

Defrost and warm up in the oven.

Spaghetti Sauce

Sorry I have been MIA.  I was away for a couple of days.

Tonight for dinner we had another staple in our freezer, spaghetti sauce!  I normally will make a large pot and have about 10 freezer meals.  Please note that the recipe below is for one meal.  I use 3 large size cans of crushed tomatoes and wing the rest.  We also add lots of veggies!  Adding red wine to the sauce gives it a nice taste.

I also will serve this meal with garlic bread from the freezer :P

Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
3 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
3 tbsp oregano
3 tbsp basil
salt
pepper
bay leaf
dried chili flakes to taste
sugar to taste



To Prepare for Freezing


Prep your veg while your pot heats with the olive oil in it. Add the veg with a bit of salt and cook until the onion is translucent. Then add the garlic and stir for another minute or two. Throw in the ground beef and cook till brown.

Then add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir. Add oregano, basil, black pepper, dried chili flakes and bay leaf.

Bring to a boil then simmer for at least an hour. Taste the sauce. Now is the time to decide how much sugar you need to add to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

It's different every time but I usually add at least a couple teaspoons. I usually also adjust the salt now.

Allow to cook for another 30 minutes and taste test again.

Let the sauce cool.  When cool place serving amount you want into freezer bags.  Lay flat to freeze.

Cooking Directions from Freezer 

Let defrost and warm up in pot on the stove.  Serve over noodles.

Meat Pie

Last night for dinner was meat pie.  This is a staple in our freezer.  I normally will double the recipe.  I get about 3-4 meat pies for the freezer.

I use the following recipe from the LCBO but I did make some small changes.

Ingredients

1 tbsp (15 mL) canola oil
1 lb (500 g) lean ground pork ( I add a pound of beef)
½ cup (125 mL) finely chopped onion, about 1 small yellow onion
1 large garlic clove
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 tsp (5 mL) chopped fresh thyme or ¼ tsp (1 mL) dried
¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
¼ tsp (1 mL) ground cloves
¼ tsp (1 mL) dried summer savoury
¼ tsp (1 mL) freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup (175 mL) turkey, chicken or beef stock
2 tbsp (25 mL) finely chopped fresh parsley
2 to 3 tbsp (25 to 45 mL) Dijon mustard
1 cup of bread crumbs
Premade pastry pie shells

To Prepare for Freezing 

 

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, crumble in pork; sauté 5 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in onion, garlic, celery and carrot; cook 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in thyme, salt, cloves, savoury, black pepper and stock. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes. Then stir in bread crumbs and parsley; remove from heat. Cool until able to handle. 

When ready to serve, press cooled tourtière mixture into premade pastry pie shell.  Place in freezer bag.

Cooking Directions from Freezer

 

Once defrosted, cook at 350 for about an hour.