Cooking Day!!!

My Sweet Bees! How are you this wonderful day?!? GREAT I hope :)

This is my first freezer cook day since starting the blog!!! SuperBee is taking home ec this year and so he and I did the cooking :).

As per my usual, my ambition and my ability did NOT match up :). So whilst I envisioned making a good 5 dishes, we settled for three: make ahead been burritos, sauce (and then lasagne), and broccoli cheese rice casserole. I prebaked italian sausage and pork sausage in the oven. The lasagne recipe was slightly abbreviated in that we did not do two FULL ricotta layers, but only one ricotta layer. There were enough layers that I thought it would be ok if we SSTTREEETTCCHHHEDDDD it out to make another couple of lasagnes :) I think it will be better that way. I also ended up with no tomato paste, but i think it was ok....I just kept the sauce on the stove for several hours for the tomato flavor to develop. I figure that the old italians did not have tiny little tins of tomato paste and still managed to make good food :)

Let me tell you that the Burritos 1)were a hit and 2)make a TON of 8" burritos, especially if you are new to rolling burritos :). The final count was ....37, I think. That was for ONE batch of the burrito mix!!! (I was going to "start small" in case PeekieBee did not like them....well she has a lot to plow through now :) )

I had gone shopping yesterday and did NOT make an actual list of the amounts of necessities, just sort of what I needed. So I ended up with too much mexican cheese and not enough mozz cheese. BUT we are nothing if not resourceful, so some of my Italian lasagnes turned into sort of a mexican lasagne :)

I also realized I had to clean the freezer out from the watermelon that I had frozen a good...oh....5-7 years ago? A quick run to the transfer site, and I had room to put in several broc cheese and rice casseroles and several lasagnes, all in 8x8 pans and all in gallon baggies and labeled. We used down time to both eat cookies and run the dishwasher, so there is not a huge mess. (for which PeekieBee is thankful :) ).

Tomorrow I hope to do muffin tin meals :) Though the week IS filling up, so it might be next week. I am DYING to try the mini cherry pies :)

Blessings and love to all y'all!

Make Ahead Bean Burritos

Make Ahead Bean Burritos (adapted from taste of home cards, Jennifer Shafer)

1 batch 2 batches 4 batches

1 jar (16 oz) salsa 2 jars salsa 4 jars salsa
2.5 cans (16 oz each) refried beans 5 cans refried beans 7.5 cans refried beans
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilis, drain 2 cans green chilis 4 cans green chilis
1 envelop burrito seasoning 2 envelopes burrito seasoning 4 envelopes burrito seasoning
½ cup water 1 cup water 1.5 cup water
16 flour tortillas (8 inches), warmed 32 flour tortillas 64 flour tortillas
16 oz Monterey jack cheese 32 oz cheese 64 oz cheese

Optional: 3 cups shredded chicken or beef. If using, these, then reduce cans of beans to 1, 2, 4 depending on batch.

In large skillet, combine salsa, beans, chilis, seasoning, and water (and meat if using). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until heated through.

Spoon about 1/3 cup of mix off center in each tortilla. Top with some cheese, then roll into burrito shape. Wrap individually in foil. Freeze.
To use: Place foil packets on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. If thawed, bake for 25-30 minutes. Can also be heated through in microwave (take off the tin foil) and extra cheese added on top.