Pasta Fagioli

Original recipe from Crockpot Tuesdays

I am alone for dinner tonight, and soup is often one of my favorite things to pull out of the freezer when I'm on my own. I pulled a bag of Pasta Fagioli out tonight and realized I had not posted this recipe yet. I love this soup, and it's great out of the freezer. I made this recipe a while back. It makes a lot, and after a day or two, it became evident that we were not going to make it through all that soup before it went bad. I put about 3 quart bags of it in the freezer to save for another day. It froze great although the pasta is really soft. If I were making this as a freezer meal, I wouldn't technically cook the pasta. I would mix it in the hot soup after turning off the heat.

I substituted Italian sausage for the ground beef. It definitely adds to the flavor.

Pasta Fagioli
1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta (to add at end)

Directions:

Brown the meat and drain well. Add carrots, onion, and celery to the crockpot. Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper and oregano. Stir in the meat. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. At end of cook time, stir in 1/2 cup pasta. Cover and cook for another hour on low.

Serve with parmesan cheese if you’d like. Enjoy! This recipe makes about 8 generous servings.

Pam's Beef and Bean Burritos

I have a few teenage boys who are always hungry when they come home from school and late night activities. I discovered that by making my own freezer burritos, they have something quick and filling to make.

Here's the recipe that I adapted mine from. I usually can get a lot more than 40 with this recipe. It's very basic, but when you cook them up you can add any topping to it you want.


Beef and Bean Burritos
(from "Fix, Freeze, Feast" by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik)
Make 40 + burritos

1 warehouse size tray (about 6 lbs.) lean ground beef
1 cup taco seasoning
3 cups water
40+ ten-inch tortillas
4 (28 oz) can refried beans

Brown beef in a large stockpot over medium hear until no longer pink, about 20 minutes. Drain and discard fat. Add the taco seasoning. Stir in water and simmer mixture over medium hear for 20 minutes, or until the liquid is almost entirely evaporated. Cool.

Spread 1/4-cup ground beef and 1/3 cup refried beans on each tortilla. Wrap burrito-style and then wrap each one individually in foil.(I just stick each one in a fold-oven sandwich bag.) Divide burritos into gallon-size freezer bags.

Seal and freeze.

To cook:
Thaw in the refrigerator or reheat them straight from the freezer.

Microwave: frozen about 2 minutes.

Oven: bake in foil at 375 for 30 minute if frozen.
300 for 30 minutes if thawed.

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.

Beef Stroganoff

Recipe found in Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer, pg 126.
2 lbs sirloin steak
1 lb fresh mushrooms sliced
1 cup onion
1/4 cup butter
2- 10.5 oz cans beef bouillon
1/4 cup ketchup
2 small cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup flour
2 cups sour cream

Cut meat into bite size pieces. In a skillet, cook and stir mushrooms and onion in butter until onion is tender. Remove mushrooms and onion. In the same skillet, brown meat lightly on both sides. Set aside 3/4 cup bouillon; add remaining bouillon, ketchup, garlic and salt to skillet. Stir to mix. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Blend reserved bouillon and flour; stir into meat mixture. Add mushrooms and onion. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil one minute. Stir in sour cream and heat, but do not allow to boil. Freeze using the freezer bag method.

Serving day: Thaw completely and warm in sauce pan until heated through. Do not allow stroganoff to boil when heating. Server over rice and noodles. If sauce appears too thin, thicken by mixing flour with some of the sauce and adding to mixture while heating.


I order to cool the stroganoff as quickly as possible, I filled a Ziploc of ice and pushed it down into the center stirring frequently. I normally freeze a large water bottle (not the cheap bottled water bottles) and put it in the sauce, but I forgot this time around. The ice bag was slower but still worked.

Tamale Soup

1 TB olive oil
1 lg onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ lb chuck roast, chopped
1 (15 oz) can tomato puree
1 ½ c tomato juice
1 (14 oz) can beef broth
½ c sliced olives
½ c chopped green chilies
1 (11 oz) can Mexicorn
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 Jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 TB chili powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 lg tomato, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 c shredded cheddar cheese
2 c corn chips

Sauté meat with onion, garlic and oil until meat is no longer pink. Place meat mixture and remaining ingredients (except cheese and chips) in slow cooker. Cook on low for 10-12 hours. Cool. Freeze in quart or gallon freezer bags. Remember not to fill too full or the bags will pop open in the freezer before fully frozen.
Thaw. Reheat on stove top or in microwave. Serve topped with cheese and chips.