I try to sneak some extra veggies into pretty much everything, in the past I've used frozen chopped spinach but since spinach will hopefully grow in our garden this year, I wanted to try making it with fresh. Don't they look yummy?
Want to stock your freezer up? Here's my recipe:
- 3 lbs of 93% lean ground beef (I prefer organic, grass-fed)
- 1 package ground turkey (I find it in 20 oz packages by me)
- 11 oz organic baby spinach, chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1-2 cups oatmeal
- 1 chopped onion
- 3 Tablespoons chopped garlic
- salt, pepper, basil and oregano to taste
Mondays in our house are typically pasta night, alternating between cheese raviolis and penne with meatballs. On meatball days I toss the frozen meatballs into my crock pot with marinara sauce (or whatever pasta sauce you like) and leave it on low all day. If the sauce seems to get too dry add a bit of water occasionally. The house smells awesome and all I have to do is boil water for the whole wheat penne!
Remember how I said the meat was buy one get one free? I actually doubled this recipe but when I ran out of containers for my meatballs, I still had enough to make 3 meatloafs! I freeze my meatloaf uncooked, so I didn't take a picture of it. I'll share that recipe too:
- Whatever is left of meatball mix (I probably had 2.5lbs of it)
- 2-4 diced tomatoes or 1-2 cans of chopped tomatoes (I'm trying to use up my inventory of canned tomatoes and move to using fresh or jarred... whole other story)
- 1/2 cup of parmigiana cheese (or more if you like)
The best part about meatloaf in my freezer is easily tossing it into my crock pot in the morning and letting it go until it's dinner time! When frozen in a pan, just put the pan straight into the crock pot and put a bit of water around the pan in the crock pot. Works like a charm! In the past whenever I made meatloaf, even if it wasn't frozen, it always seemed to take 10 times longer than I thought it would to cook all the way through. Ever since I learned the crock pot trick, our meatloaf is always ready when we are for dinner (takes about 6-8 hours on low, but I have also done it in 4 hours on high).
I spent $28 on the meat, turkey, spinach and onion ($13 in savings). I probably used $5 worth of supplies I had in my pantry already. Eleven meals for five people for $3 each is pretty good in my opinion. Whole wheat pasta is about $1 a box here and I usually add a veggie as a side to meatloaf, maybe potatoes or rice also bringing each dinner to $5 or less and there is almost always enough left overs for a lunch for my husband. I'm happy!
I'll be linking up to these Monday parties!
Peace be with you,
3 comments:
I love freezer cooking on the cheap! Thanks for the great ideas and recipe.
Meatballs are my daughter's favourite - and she loves getting in there with her hands to roll and squeeze them!! :)
Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
Hope you have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/
Looks and sounds very yummy, I am so going to try these my little guy loves meat balls and would gobble these up! Thanks for linking up!
Crystal
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