recipes – Page 3 – Annie DeMoranville

Monday Menu: Frozen or Fresh Meats and Fish

Continuing the discussions about frozen versus fresh, this time focusing on beef, pork, chicken, and fish.

This past year has been ridiculously busy, and I have found myself taking more and more shortcuts when it comes to food prep. Two shortcuts I was reluctant to embrace at first, have become go-tos.

The first is frozen chicken breasts. I would shop sales and buy bulk “fresh” chicken breasts on sale and then spend an hour packaging them into freezer bags. It was messy and time-consuming. And the not-so-fresh packages were usually previously frozen, and then sold. This meant the quality of the meat was hit-or-miss, and I would often end up with tough, chewy chicken breasts.

One day, there was a not-to-miss sale at Costco on frozen chicken breasts. Since it was soup season, I took the chance and purchased a bag (it was Costco, it was a big bag, LOL), knowing a lot of inferior meat could be dressed up in a good soup. To my surprise, they were excellent, flash frozen, tender, and so easy to thaw and prep what I needed.

Monday Menu: Harvest Recipes

The tomatoes have been coming in fast this week, so it seemed like a good time to make a nice, fresh sauce with some of them. I also had some ricotta and mozzarella in the freezer. Time to revisit Skillet Lasagna.

Fresh from the garden ingredients elevate this easy weeknight dinner menu. On the board tonight:

MENU
Skillet Lasagna
Patty Squash Sauté
Italian Bread
Peaches

Skillet Lasagna

6 oz Mafalda (mini-lasagna noodles) or bowtie pasta
1 lb lean ground beef (omit or substitute mushrooms to make vegetarian)
½ onion, chopped
½ green pepper chopped
1 tsp basil, crushed
1 tsp oregano, crushed
1 tsp crushed garlic
salt & pepper to taste
1 carrot, diced
15 oz can tomato sauce (or 1 lb fresh tomatoes, chopped or pureed)
6 oz can tomato paste
4 oz ricotta cheese
1 cup fresh spinach leaves, chopped
4 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 oz grated parmesan

skillet
saucepan

In the saucepan, cook pasta according to package directions, cooking to al dente (slightly chewy), and drain well.

Meanwhile, in the skillet, brown beef, onion & pepper. Add spices, garlic, carrot, and sauté for 1 minute. Add sauce and paste, stirring well into the meat mixture.

Add pasta, stirring gently to mix.

Monday Menu: Garden Fresh Recipes

My garden is doing okay this summer, but not spectacular. So, while I have a counter full of tomatoes, not really enough to worry about freezing this year. But I still need to them up. So I made two tomato-heavy recipes this weekend. Salsa and salad.