Cooking with What's in the House

Prior to the holidays, my husband and I made a commitment to each other that we are going to pay down our debt. Like many other Americans, we have a lot, but we are now working on fixing this. Paying down our debt means we are adjusting our lifestyle a bit. We were never ones to really go out a lot, but we would, and when you tally up the cost per month, it was several hundred dollars. Additionally, since I am the one that does the food shopping, I have to really budget my spending. Many times I would just buy things because they are on sale, not necessarily something we needed because we were out. Well that is stopping and I'm working on creating easy meals based on what is in our home already. 

When I originally thought of this dinner, I was going to do a tomato based chicken and pasta dish (which is what we'd always have), but when I opened the pantry and saw a jar of Classico light alfredo sauce, I came up with something else. I knew I had Boar's Head deli ham in the fridge and half a bag of Trader Joe's frozen peas in the freezer. So I created my own version of chicken carbonara and it was delicious!

I had 2 boneless chicken breasts already defrosted in the fridge. I cut them up into bite size pieces and seasoned them with salt and pepper. (Remember, do not use a wood cutting board when cutting up raw meats!) I had a skillet on the stove on medium heat with some olive oil in the pan and added the chicken to get it cooking.

On a separate burner, I had the water going in a pot to boil so I could add the Barilla fettuccine. Once the chicken had no pink visible on the outside, I added the peas and chopped ham and let that cook for a few minutes. Then I added the jar of sauce.

I lowered the heat on the pan and let the chicken mixture simmer until the pasta was finished. I drained the pasta then added it to the chicken mixture and stirred it together. It was such a tasty dish!

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!

Great Meal on a Cold, Rainy Night

One of my non-processed dinners of the month! It's roast chicken with carrots, red potatoes, and sweet onion. I flavored it with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, lemon zest and fresh chopped tarragon.