Homesteading In The Pacific Northwest

Friday, March 30, 2012

Lasagna Rolls and Stuffed Shells in Mason Jars

I'm still working on meals that can pop out of  the freezer and be ready to eat in a hurry.  I've made lasagna rolls before and it occurred to me that I could use the same ingredients to make stuffed pasta shells.


Ingredients:
Lasagna and large shell pasta
Mozzarella
Ricotta (I used my homemade version with garlic scape vinegar)
Fresh basil
Garlic
Meat Sauce

For the meat sauce I ground my own beef (no pink slime!).  I used the meat grinder attachment on my Kitchen Aid ...



... and it was not only easy but money saving, too!  I got a nice chuck roast on sale ... 



... almost four pounds of ground beef for $10.20!!  



I browned the beef in a large sauce pan, added two quarts of my Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce from the pantry and let it simmer for about an hour.

While the water was coming to a boil for the pasta I made the cheese filling ...


 ... grated mozzarella, ricotta, finely chopped basil and garlic and some freshly ground black pepper.

I started with the stuffed shells ...  I cooked the pasta as directed on the package, drained them and allowed them to cool and then filled them with the cheese mixture ...



I placed two shells in half pint mason jars, added a scoop of the meat sauce and some more shredded mozzarella ...


Six jars went into the freezer ...



... and one went into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes ...


Next came the lasagna rolls ... I cooked the pasta as directed on the package, drained them and allowed them to cool and then laid each one out flat and spread it with some of the cheese mixture ...


... and then I rolled them up ...


I put six of the rolls in a dish, topped them with sauce and more shredded mozzarella ...



... I froze these overnight, popped them out of the dish and packaged them up in individual freezer bags and returned them to the freezer.


I also made two more for our dinner that night ... again a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes ...


So that was 12 meals into the freezer and one for the night I made them ... not a bad afternoon's work if I do say so myself :)

Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. How smart are you!? Wonderful ideas. I'm cleaning out one of the freezers this weekend and planning on filling with quick meals just like these...thank you. This was a very timely post. And thank you for the kind thoughts...my husband is doing well.

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  2. We are having a lasagna this weekend. I usually bake up two portions, one to freeze for later. However, I like the idea of breaking it down further to smaller portion sized meals. Less leftovers filling the refrigerator.

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  3. Can you microwave these? Looking for meals to pack for the kids for school lunches, they are allowed to use a microwave there.

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  4. Why didn't you put the lasagna rolls in the mason jars also?

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  5. Why didn't you put the lasagna rolls in the mason jars also?

    ReplyDelete