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Browsing tag archives: freezer meals

Perfect Whole Grain Freezer Pancakes

Every morning I ask my kids what they would like for breakfast, and their answer 95% of the time is PANCAKES. Now getting up every morning making pancakes gets tiring and on some sleepless nights it sounds terrible! On special occasions I do make my own pancakes, but in the last year I have gotten lazy and started buying pre-made pancakes. You know the one you find in the freezer section? 
There are a few problems with this:
1. They are expensive. 
Homemade anything is usually cheaper then the pre-packaged version.


2. All are made with white flour. 
I am not anti-white flour but research after research shows everyone needs more whole grains in their diet. I think it’s better to start your kids out younger eating the whole wheat flours, so as adults they have adjusted to the taste difference (because there is one) and will hopefully enjoy (and choose) the healthier version. 


3. Packed with preservatives.
Again, I am not anti-preservatives, they are necessary in some foods to help them keep longer. However, if I can’t pronounce you preservative ingredient in a simple pancake recipe (which for hundreds of years people have been making at home without preservatives) then I probably shouldn’t be feeding it to my kids. 


4. Environment Impact
Ok, yes I know my hippie self is coming out, but all of the pre-made pancakes come in a cardboard box and about every 3 pancakes are wrapped in a plastic bag. Just imagine how much garbage goes into landfills each year? I am just adding to that with each plastic bag I unwrap because I have been too lazy to make my own pancakes?
With all those reasons listed, I have been on a hunt for the PERFECT whole grain pancake recipe. I have tried many other recipes on the internet and have been highly disappointing with most of them. Either the whole wheat flour alters the flavor too much, the texture is off, they are flat, or too fluffy. Finally, I can say I have found the PERFECT recipe! The kicker to this recipe is the dry mix can sit pre-made in your cupboard for weeks if you feel like stirring up a batch of fresh pancakes OR you can make a bunch of pancakes and freeze them! Here’s my recipe and I hope you enjoy!
{now only if I could learn to pour the perfect pancake}
Perfect Whole Grain Pancakes


Dry Mix:
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
4 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1. Pulse old fashioned oats in food processor so they are broken up a little. Do not puree into a flour. 
2. In a large bowl, mix oats, flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. Store in airtight container.
To Make The Pancakes:
1 Cup of Dry Mix above
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk or unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon of orange juice
1 large egg
1. Place 1 cup of dry mix into a bowl.
2. Whisk in vegetable oil, buttermilk/almond milk, orange juice, and 1 large egg.
3. Cook on a oiled skillet or griddle.
TO FREEZE YOUR PANCAKES:
1. Lay pancakes out on a cookie sheet. Do not overlap them.
2. Place in freezer for 1 hour or until completely frozen. 
3. Remove from freezer and place 3-4 in plastic freezer bag. 
4. When ready to eat, place in microwave for 60 seconds or until hot.
Tip: Save your plastic bags to reuse when you make them. 

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22 Healthy Freezer Meals for Maternity Leave

Many of you might not know this, but my little sister Christi (who also writes for this blog) is 9 months pregnant. Here is her beautiful pregnancy photo here:

{Adara Photography~She is AMAZING!}
With her expecting her first child, one of the main pieces of advice I could give her is to make some freezer meals. I didn’t make them with my first child but I stock piled them with my second and honestly it was a HUGE lifesaver! **PS- This is going to be the longest blog EVER!!**
Over the last few months we both have pinned quite a few freezer meal ideas but there were a few problems with some of them:
1. They Are Unhealthy
 Many of them use bricks of cream cheese, loads of shredded cheese, and lots of white pasta. We really wanted meals we felt like we could eat and not feel super guilty for just eating enough calories to support a normal sized human for a week. 
2. The Prep Time Is Ridiculous
There are a lot of recipes out there that the prep time is crazy. I don’t want to sit there and wrap each individual thing, saute this for 2 hours, etc. We wanted some that we could throw together and be done! 
3. Cheap Protein & More White Pasta
Many of the bulk freezer meal recipes out there claim to make ’20 Meals for $50′ or some other cheap amount of food. I looked into some of them and when you tell me to use 1 frozen chicken breast to make 4 meals, that just seems crazy. Protein is a good thing, it keeps you fuller longer and makes you eat less. And last time I checked, adding more white pasta to a meal to make it “stretch” is honestly not good for you. With our meals here, we used protein and we used GOOD protein. We used lean beef, boneless skinless chicken, and cut our own pork loin. 
4. Sweet Meat
Christi does not like sweet sauces on meat. I don’t mind them. However, in keeping with the somewhat healthy theme, adding less sugar is always a good thing in my book. 
5. Many Freezer Meal Are Gross
Some things DO NOT freeze well. It’s true. I would say about 50% of the meals I have tried to make into freezer meals just didn’t thaw and bake up as good as they were the first time. We wanted to try to find recipes that actually taste good after they were frozen and I am confident we did. 
With all that said, we had a little bit of a challenge picking out the meals, but because I have made frozen meals in the past I had an idea of what froze well and what didn’t. So here is our list of 
 Healthy Maternity Freezer Meals*
{Prego Christi preparing for 2 hours of freezer meal prep!}

*Disclaimer- I am saying healthy because the calorie content of these meals is very reasonable for the portion size. You will notice in many of the meals we did use *Cream of Whatever* soup which many people do not find healthy. We used the 98% Fat Free soup, as a means of simplicity in preparing these meals. If you are not a fan these canned soup, feel free to look up a recipe to make a homemade version. I was unsure how the homemade version would freeze up so I stuck with the canned because it has worked in the past for me. 

Chicken and Wild Rice  x 4
Chicken Taco Soup  x 4
Goulash  x 4
Tater Tot Casserole  x 4
Creamy Ranch Pork Chops  x 4
Parmesan Pork Roast  x 2
That’s a grand total of 22 meals!
{We did not use all that cheese (only a half of one bag) but we did use the rest of the ingredients!}
Now before you begin, here are a few tips for you:
Tips For Freezer Meals:
If you haven’t ever prepared a bunch of freezer meals, I can give you a few tips:
1. Buy Half Size Aluminum Steam table pans and lids.
They are about $5 for 15 of them and $5 for the lids. They are great to keep on hand and less dishes are always a good thing with new babies.
2. Buy Crock Pot Liners & Gallon Bags
Again, less crock pot cleaning is always a good thing. You will need the gallon bags for some of the meals. 
3. Buy In Bulk
We purchased a large pork loin and cut our own pork roast and pork chops. You get so much more meat for a lot less cost. Also, we bought boneless, skinless chicken, and 88% lean ground beef to keep things healthy. Large bags of frozen veggies are the best and cheaper then the canned. 
4. Prepare throughout the week
–Dice up onions (or other veggies) 
– Brown ground beef
– Use a crock pot to cook your chicken (just throw it in for 8 hours with no water) and then use a Kitchen Aid Mixer to shred it (or two forks)
– Cook up rice another day
– Do not cook up pasta in advance. It will stick together. 
5. Make a Recipe List
Know how much you need of each item and organize your ingredients at home by recipe. 
6. Make a Shopping List
Go to the store with a list of what you need organized by department.
7. Print Labels For Your Containers
Label your containers earlier in the week and set them with the ingredients. Each label should give you the recipe name, calories, how to prepare, and if any other ingredients are needed. 
After you have all that done, you are ready to begin. It took us about 2 hours to assemble all of these. Now the recipes below are in one meal quantities. I left them this way so you can decide how many meals you want to make and just double, triple, quadruple…whatever the recipe. 
So without further adieu here are the recipes:
Chicken and Wild Rice 
1.5 cups wild rice 
10.75 oz  cream of 98% fat free mushroom soup
10.75 oz  cream of 98% fat free chicken soup 
1 small can mushrooms, drained
16oz chicken breast
1 cup slivered almonds, optional
1. Cook rice according to package. Mix in both cans of soup and mushrooms. 
2. Pour in to freezer dish and top with 1 pound of chicken pieces and sprinkle with slivered almonds. 
3. Double wrap in heavy duty foil, label and freeze. 
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS: Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 for 1 hour until chicken juices run clear.
Serves 4 @ 456 calories
Chicken Taco Soup
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can of chicken broth
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
12 oz chicken breast
Combine all ingredients into a Ziploc bag. Freeze. 
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS: Thaw and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, sour cream, or tortilla chips, if desired
Serves 6 @ 391 calories
 
Goulash
1lb ground 88% lean beef
10 oz  tomato soup
6 oz Tomato Paste 
2 cups uncooked whole wheat elbow macaroni
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 can (15oz) corn, drained
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1. Brown Ground beef (earlier in week)
2. Cook noodles according to package, drain (on day of)
3. In a large bowl, combine soup, garlic powder, onion powder, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, noodles and ground beef.  Stir in corn.
4. Transfer to freezer baking dish and top with cheese. 
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS: Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until heated through and melted cheese.
Serves 4 @ 390 calories
Tater Tot Casserole
1 lb. ground beef 
1 small onion, finely chopped 
10.75 oz  cream of 98% fat free mushroom soup 
1/4 cup skim milk 
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
4 ounces Shredded Cheddar Cheese 
1 lb. tater tots 
1. Brown Beef (earlier in week)
2. To the ground beef stir in frozen veggies, soup and milk. Mix well. 
3. Pour soup mixture into bottom of pan. Top with potato nuggets and then shredded cheese.
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS: Thaw the meal in the fridge overnight and then bake at 350 covered for the first 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until hot. 
Serves 6 @ 369

Creamy Ranch Pork Chops
4 Pork chops
1 Can Cream of chicken soup
1 Package Ranch dressing (dry)
*Cut the bottom 6”off both ends of loin for roast and then cut the center 1″ thick to make pork chops
1. Mix cream of chicken soup and ranch powder together.
2, Place Pork Chops in crock pot bag. 
3. Pour soup mixture on top. 
4. Twist crock pot bag and tie. Place in labeled gallon freezer bag. 
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS: Thaw over night. Place in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. 
Serves 4 @ 473 calories
Parmesan Pork Roast
1 boneless whole pork loin roast 
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
*Cut the bottom 6” off both ends of loin for roast
1. Place pork roast in crock pot bag. 
2. In a small bowl, combine the cheese, honey, soy sauce, basil, garlic, oil and salt;
pour over pork. 
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS:  Remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours.  Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours. Remove meat to a serving platter; keep warm. Skim fat from cooking juices; transfer to a small saucepan. Bring liquid to a boil. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir into pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Slice roast; serve with gravy. 
Serves 6 servings @ 518 calories

So that’s the meals! I know many of you are wondering how much the meals cost us, so I will tell you. We made 22 meals for $214.04. That’s $9.73 for a meal that feeds 4-6! I know that is a little higher priced then some other websites claim to be, but our meals have a lot of protein in them and we bought the healthier version of ingredients which always cost more

{I feel like Yeti should give me some sponsorship money for this pic!}

Also, for your convenience I have uploaded a few documents for you.
1. Freezer Meal Labels ~Just print them on sticker paper
2. The Recipes
3. Excel Shopping List ~Just plug in servings for each meal and it will calculate how much to purchase

Well, I hope I have inspired some of you out there to make some meals ahead of time! I know that when it comes to a new baby, the last thing you want to be doing is slaving over the stove in the kitchen! If you have any question on making these meals, feel free to email us!

Happy Cooking!! 


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Make Ahead Meals: Quesadilla Casserole

I am starting a series of blogs for Make Ahead Meals that I am preparing before Baby 2.0 arrives. Every night when I make dinner, I am doubling the recipe and putting the second in the freezer. I am hoping that the prepared meals will help on those totally exhausted days when cooking sounds like no fun. I am hoping many of the meals I will be preparing will be somewhat healthy and low calorie, but I know there will be some meals mixed in that aren’t. To prepare for the freezer meals, I purchased some slow cooker liners (for the crockpot meals), gallon freezer bags (for the freezer skillet meals), and Aluminum Foil Steam Table Pans with matching lids (for the freezer casseroles).

First of all, I like to buy meat in bulk when it’s on sale. When it comes to ground beef, I usually buy large quantity and brown it all at once. Usually I will end up with a giant container of browned ground beef in my freezer like this:
I was on the hunt for another ground beef recipe and I came across this recipe for Joyful Momma’s Kitchen for Quesadilla Casserole (Freezer Meal) and thought it sounded like a pretty easy and yummy meal to add to my deep freezer. (You can check out the full recipe here.)

To start this meal, dice the onion and caramelize over medium heat. 
Next I assembled the ingredients to make the inside of the casserole: chili powder, ground cumin, dried minced garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, 16 oz tomato sauce, 1 can of black beans, 1 can of whole kernel corn, and 1 can of green chilies. 
 I added the ground beef to the cooked onions.

Then I mixed in all the ingredients and let simmer for 20 minutes.

To start the casserole, spray oil spray on the bottom of your foil pan and then spread 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom. Top with 3 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed.

Layer with 1/2 of the remaining beef mixture and 1/2 of the cheese.

Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Top with remaining beef mixture and cheese.

Top the pan with foil and cover with pan lid. Label with the following instructions:
– Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. 
Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 
And just if you are wondering, here is the calories count on this meal. 
Not the lowest calorie meal, but I have a feeling it might end up feeling more like 10 people instead of 8.

Meals to date:

1 x White Baked Penne Pasta
1 x Curried Pork Loin
1 x Honey Orange Pork Loin
1 x BBQ Pulling Pork Loin

2 x Spaghetti and Meatballs (really just frozen meatball)

1 x Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
1 x Quesadilla Casserole

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Make Ahead Meals: Meatball Meals

I am starting a series of blogs for Make Ahead Meals that I am preparing before Baby 2.0 arrives. Every night when I make dinner, I am doubling the recipe and putting the second in the freezer. I am hoping that the prepared meals will help on those totally exhausted days when cooking sounds like no fun. I am hoping many of the meals I will be preparing will be somewhat healthy and low calorie, but I know there will be some meals mixed in that aren’t. To prepare for the freezer meals, I purchased some slow cooker liners (for the crockpot meals), gallon freezer bags (for the freezer skillet meals), and Aluminum Foil Steam Table Pans with matching lids (for the freezer casseroles).

We had another great sale at the local store, 93% lean ground beef, and I promptly went out and purchased 4 pounds of beef.  I knew exactly what to make with all ground beef— MEATBALLS! Growing up, I can’t remember ever having meatballs, but when I met my husband he showed me his Mom’s recipe and I have been making them ever since. I know they freeze well, so I thought they would make a great freezer meal!
I started off with:
4-pounds of 93% lean ground beef
4 onions, chopped small
8 slices low-calorie bread, crumbled
4 eggs, beaten
4 teaspoon Italian Seasoning 
Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with hands. 
3. Form into balls and place on two cookie sheets. 
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

The Meals I Made:
I divided the meatballs into 4 freezer bags. Two of the bags I just stored in the freezer. It’s always easy to keep spaghetti sauce on hand, heat it up, and throw the meatballs in for a quick meal.

The other two bags I used to make Sweet & Tangy Meatballs from OnceAMonthMom.com.

Here are the ingredients you will need:

Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
2 pounds of meatballs (see above for recipe)
5 cups canned pineapple chunks, juice reserved
6 cups sliced carrots
3 large chopped onion
2 teaspoon minced garlic
3 cups reserved pineapple juice, plus water
12 Tablespoons vinegar
12 Tablespoons brown sugar
8 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
And you can see the complete recipe here at her website: Sweet & Tangy Meatballs
I doubled her recipe and made one for dinner that night and one for the freezer.
I mixed up all the sauce ingredients as she directed in her recipe:
I then removed half of the sauce mixture and put half of the meatballs in the skillet to warm them up and served it over rice for dinner. 

The sauce I removed from the pan, I poured over the meatballs in the freezer bag and labeled them.

I can tell you, this recipe is a keeper! It was really good and my toddler loved it! Next time though I would make the meatballs out of ground turkey just to cut the calories a little! 
Meals to date:
1 x White Baked Penne Pasta
1 x Curried Pork Loin
1 x Honey Orange Pork Loin
1 x BBQ Pulling Pork Loin

2 x Spaghetti and Meatballs (really just frozen meatball)

1 x Sweet & Tangy Meatballs

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Make Ahead Meal: 8 lbs of Pork Loin = 4 Dinners

I am starting a series of blogs for Make Ahead Meals that I am preparing before Baby 2.0 arrives. Every night when I make dinner, I am doubling the recipe and putting the second in the freezer. I am hoping that the prepared meals will help on those totally exhausted days when cooking sounds like no fun. I am hoping many of the meals I will be preparing will be somewhat healthy and low calorie, but I know there will be some meals mixed in that aren’t. To prepare for the freezer meals, I purchased some slow cooker liners (for the crockpot meals), gallon freezer bags (for the freezer skillet meals), and Aluminum Foil Steam Table Pans with matching lids (for the freezer casseroles).
8 lbs of Pork Loin = 4 Dinners
I have been at it again, slowly but surely making some meals for when baby 2.0 arrives. I honestly am not much of a pork eatin’ kind of girl, but when I saw boneless pork loin on sale at my local grocery store for super cheap ($1.99/lb) I decided to turn it into some crockpot meals for the deep freezer. They only offered the pork loin in huge packages, so I threw an 8 pound chunk of the meat into my cart and made my way up to the checkout. 
I ended up making four meals out of the 8 pound of pork loin. In all, I made three recipes, but one of them I made twice because it sounded so good (and it was!)
Curried Pork Loin (2x)
Honey Orange Pork Loin
BBQ Pulling Pork Loin
To start, trim up your pork loin. I hate a fatty piece of meat and as much as good chefs say it adds flavor, I don’t like it…. especially in my crockpot. I find whatever sauce you have in there ends up being super greasy, so I am a fan of trimming off the fat. (Looks yummy doesn’t it!)
Since I had 8 pounds of pork loin and needed 2 pounds of loin for each recipe, I cut the big chunk of meat into 4 equal parts.
Then I started assembling the ingredients: 
Curried Pork Loin
4 lbs pork loin (cut in two pieces)
2/3 cup apricot preserves
4 tsp mustard
3 tbsp curry powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1. Mix the apricot preserves, mustard, curry powder, and garlic powder all in one container.
2. In crockpot, place one piece of the pork loin.
3. In crock pot liner, place other piece of the pork loin.
4. Divide sauce evenly over the the top of both pieces of pork loin. Twisty-tie the crockpot liner bag. 
(I forgot to put this one in a crockpot liner, so it’s going to be a messy clean-up!)
5. In the crockpot, cook on low for 6-8 hours.
6. For freezer bag, cover crock pot liner bag with freezer bag and freezer label the bag with the following directions:
– Thaw completely
– Place in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours
– Serve over hot brown rice.
Honey Orange Pork Loin
2 lbs pork loin
1/4 cup honey
Juice from 1 orange 
Zest from orange above
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup chicken broth
1. Mix honey, orange juice and zest, olive oil, thyme and chicken broth together.
2. In crock pot liner, place the pork loin.
3. Cover the pork loin with marinade and twisty-tie the crockpot liner bag. 
4.  Cover crock pot liner bag with freezer bag and label the freezer bag with the following directions:
– Thaw completely
– Place in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours
– Serve with a side of quinoa 
Pulled BBQ Pork Loin
I know, I know– I am cheating with this recipe, but pulled barbecue pork loin is super easy and can be eaten over bread. I don’t always have barbecue sauce on hand so I wanted to make sure this was ready to go right away. The directions are pretty obvious:

 2 lbs pork loin

1 bottle of your fav BBQ sauce
1. In crock pot liner, place the pork loin.
2.. Cover the pork loin with BBQ sauce and Twisty-tie the crockpot liner bag. 
4.  Cover crock pot liner bag with freezer bag and label the freezer bag with the following directions:
– Thaw completely
– Place in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours
– Pull pork and serve on buns.


At the end of this very short prepping process you will end up with dinner for that night and three meals for your freezer!!

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Make Ahead Meals: White Baked Penne Pasta

I am starting a series of blogs for Make Ahead Meals that I am preparing before Baby 2.0 arrives. Every night when I make dinner, I am doubling the recipe and putting the second in the freezer. I am hoping that the prepared meals will help on those totally exhausted days when cooking sounds like no fun. I am hoping many of the meals I will be preparing will be somewhat healthy and low calorie, but I know there will be some meals mixed in that aren’t. To prepare for the freezer meals, I purchased some slow cooker liners (for the crockpot meals), gallon freezer bags (for the freezer skillet meals), and Aluminum Foil Steam Table Pans with matching lids (for the freezer casseroles).
White Baked Penne Pasta
This is an example of a NOT healthy meal. I ran across the original recipe for Baked Ziti and Sausage Recipe at Taste of Home, and didn’t realize how sooo not good for you this recipe was for you! It’s loaded with lots of cheese and pasta, which might be why it turned out really good! I of course, changed the recipe from the original– used whole wheat penne pasta, added some different things, and amounts of ingredients from the original. I doubled the recipe and cooked one in a casserole dish for dinner and put the other in the freezer pan for next month. We really liked this recipe and can’t wait to have it again! 
6 cups uncooked whole wheat penne pasta
5 chicken brat sausage links (I used chicken and asiago cheese.)
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups skim milk
2 cups whole milk
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 egg, lightly beaten
4 cups (16 ounces) 2% cottage cheese
2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
2 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
4 tablespoons of red pepper flakes, depending how spicy you like it
2 tablespoons of Paprika
salt and pepper
1. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and put in a large bowl.
2. Cook the sausage according to directions. Mine were already precooked so it’s just a matter of heating them up. Once cooked, sliced them into 1/2 pieces.  
3. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper. Don’t over salt, there is a lot of cheese in this recipe which will add enough salt for you.
4. When you rue is made, gradually add in milk and bring to a boil. Cook for a few minutes until milk is thickened and stir often until thick.
5. Stir in 1 cup of Parmesan cheese.
6. Pour milk mixture over pasta in large bowl and stir to combine.
7. In separate bowl– combine egg, cottage cheese, parsley, and remaining Parmesan cheese. Again salt and pepper.
This part of the recipe, we will divide the ingredients into two dishes– one for the oven for dinner, one for the freezer.
8. Grease a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish (or a dish a smaller then a 9×13 pan) and grease a aluminum foil steam table pan for the freezer.
9. Spoon 1/4 of the pasta/milk mixture into each pan. Add sausage to remaining pasta mixture in bowl and stir.
10. Top each pan with half of the cottage cheese mixture.
11. Sprinkle each pan evenly with red pepper flakes.
12. Divide the rest of the sausage/pasta mixture into both pans.
13. Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese on each pan and sprinkle paprika on the top.
14. If you plan on eating the dinner that night– Bake,  uncovered, at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until a thermometer reads 160°.
15. For the freezer casserole, cover with tin foil and matching pan lid. The two layers will keep the casserole from getting freezer burn. Write the following directions on the pan lid:
Date
Thaw, bake uncovered at 350° for 30-35 minutes, until 160° in center

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