Roasted Tomato Bruschetta

My family went out to lunch the other day and one of our appetizers was bruschetta. I haven't had that in awhile and it was so good. I love the taste of fresh tomatoes, basil and red onion. Such a great treat in the summer when tomatoes are in season! This morning I was preparing some freezer meals and saw the pint of grape tomatoes in my fridge. I had originally bought them with the intention of making a pasta dish, but that didn't happen and they were starting to go bad. I thought about the bruschetta and thought that would be a tasty treat. Since tomatoes aren't really in season now, I decided to roast them. This is how I prepared this tasty treaty. 

I emptied the pint onto a baking sheet and preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over the tomatoes and seasoned with salt and pepper. I tossed them around on the sheet to get an even coat and placed it in the oven. 

I let them roast for about 20 minutes. 

I let them cool so that I can handle them with my fingers. I chopped them up and put them in a bowl. I then diced a quarter of a red onion. 

I tossed that in the bowl with the tomatoes and added a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I added some dried basil and mixed everything together. 

I let it sit in the fridge for several hours so all the flavors could meld together. When snack time rolled around, I took a slice of thin bread and brushed it with olive oil and put it in the toaster oven to brown it and make it crisp. I cut the bread into 3 pieces. I sliced 2 thin slices of Bel Gioso fresh mozzarella and placed them onto the bread. I then put a heaping spoonful on top of each piece. What a delightful snack!

Freezer Meal: Lasagna

As any working mom will tell you, there is never enough time in the day to get a good dinner on the table at a decent hour. For the 2+ years, I always did a bulk cooking day. This always helped with dinner during the week since all that was needed was to heat up. This cooking day would also take hours every Sunday. It got tiresome since I was literally wasting hours each week, preparing meals. I knew there had to be an easier way. I discovered freezer meals on Pinterest. This has really changed things for me. Instead of taking several hours a week, I only spend a few hours a month preparing meals that I just throw in the freezer. And best of all, I am not cooking! It's all raw ingredients that are tossed into a ziplock and put in the freezer. The day we will have that meal, I take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost. My husband will dump the contents of the bag into a baking dish and pop it in the oven. Voila, done when I am finished work. Slow cooker dinners get put in the fridge for defrosting the night before. In the morning, I set up the slow cooker, empty the bag contents, set the time and let it go. Delicious hot dinner ready at a decent hour. 

I am currently on my holiday break, so have some free time to do some freezer meals. One of my favorites is lasagna. This isn't something I prepared with the raw ingredients and froze because I didn't have the space to store the entire pan size dish. I baked it, and when it cooled, cut it into 3 large portions. Remember, it's only 2 adults and a toddler eating so we don't need that much!

Here is how I prepared it. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. My ingredients:

1lb. Mozzarella, shredded

16 oz. ricotta

 2 eggs

4 cups of tomato sauce (I used my own homemade sauce)

Salt

Pepper

2 boxes of no cook lasagna noodles, like Barilla

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta and eggs together. Add about 2 tsp of salt and half tsp of pepper and mix. Taste it to make sure it is seasoned. (Remember you can always add more to season, so start off with a little bit!)

Next, take a roasting pan and spread a thin layer of sauce to the bottom. You don't want to put the noodles directly on the bottom of the pan or they will stick. Place a layer of noodles on top of the sauce. 

Layer some ricotta mixture on top of the noodles and add a handful of shredded cheese. (I like to have the mozzarella as a layer in the middle of the lasagna. 

Add sauce to this layer. Then more noodles, ricotta mixture and sauce. Your final layer should go noodles, sauce, the remainder of the mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake for about 45-50 mins. Remove foil and continue to bake another 10-15 minutes so the cheese browns and the top layer is a little crispy. It should look like this perfect, mouth watering dish when it is done.

If you plan to eat it that night, let it cool for about 5-7 minutes to let juices settle. I also love adding more sauce to the top of my individual piece. Dig in and enjoy!