Sloppy Joes

As with about 1/2 of my recipes, this one is from my mom. I made a double batch last week and froze most of it. I love having this one in the freezer because it is so easy to pull out for lunch. I freeze individual servings in a muffin pan (I use a silicon one which makes them super easy to get out once frozen). After they are frozen, I just pop them out and store them in a Ziploc. Doubling the recipe gave us two meals and 24 Sloppy Joe "muffins" (1/2 cup each). I also keep a bag of rolls in the freezer to pull out for sandwiches like this.

SLOPPY JOES
2 pounds hamburger, browned
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped green pepper
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
½ teaspoon paprika
1 can (10 ¾ oz) tomato soup
1/3 cup water

Brown hamburger with onions and peppers. Drain. Add all remaining ingredients. Simmer ½ -1 hr.

Peaches

Good fresh peaches are a wonderful thing. My sister picked up a couple boxes for me this weekend. I did a bunch just sliced and in Ziplocs. I also made a lot of baby food and made a pot of peach topping/pie filling. I think my kitchen is still sticky from the mess though.

I put my peaches in very hot water (almost boiling) for 1-2 minutes. The skins come of perfectly after they have cooled a bit. Here is my bowl of peaches ready to be skinned.
I also have a bowl for the skinned peaches and all the stuff to throw away.
To make baby food I put about 5 peaches in the food processor and run it until the peaches are smooth and soupy. You can add a couple teaspoons of lemon juice to keep it from browning if you are freezing it immediately.

Just like the green beans, I use my ice cube trays to freeze small servings.
I bought these from IKEA the other day. I have honestly wanted them since my first visit to IKEA 2 1/2 years ago.
I know it's not really going to make any difference what shape the peach cubes are in.
But they really turn out cute. I also used a silicon muffin pan to freeze some baby food because I ran out of ice cube trays.
Here is everything I did from the first box of peaches. These fruit boxes are a nice easy way to store and separate things in the freezer.
With the second box of peaches, I did some more sliced and frozen in bags. I made another batch of baby food and I made peach topping. This of course was the yummiest part. I filled a pot with about 15 peaches and 1 cup of water. I brought them to a boil and then lowered heat and simmered for about 20 minutes.
After they cooked for a while, I stirred in 1 cup of sugar and about 1/2 cup corn starch. I let it cook until it was nice and thick. I kept adding sugar until it tasted right. I added about 2 1/2 cups total.
I also added about 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. This is great on waffles, ice cream, etc. After it cooled I froze it in Ziplocs.

Three-Cheese Manicotti

I have tried several different manicotti recipes over the years and have always had some issue with each one. I made this recipe the other night for dinner and really enjoyed it. It has become my favorite manicotti recipe. The big difference is the sauce. Every other recipe I have tried called for canned spaghetti sauce, but making the sauce yourself makes the difference. Although I didn't freeze this recipe, I'm sure it would freeze fine.

Three-Cheese Manicotti
from The Food Nanny by Lix Edmunds
(By the way I really do love this cookbook. It's not a freezer cooking book, but all her recipes are relative simple and many of them can be frozen.)

Sauce:
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
¼ cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2 TB olive oil
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp oregano
¼ tsp dried thyme
1 small bay leaf
¼ tsp salt

12 uncooked manicotti shells

Filling:
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ tsp salt
Pinch black ground pepper

Cook onion & garlic in oil on medium until onions are tender but not browned. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, oregano, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Decrease heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring often. Add water if needed. Remove bay leaf.

Cook pasta according to package while sauce is cooking. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Preheat oven to 350.

In medium bowl combine ingredients for filling (reserve 1 cup mozzarella). Spoon filling into a gallon size Ziploc bag, seal and cut off a small corner. Stuff manicotti shells by piping the filling in each end. Do not overstuff.

Pour half of sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Arrange stuffed pasta shells over sauce and top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with reserved mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes until bubbly.