Back to School Meals

If you have kids of any age who have started back to school, I am pretty sure you are trying to figure out ways to make the evenings run smoother.  If you don't have kids headed back to school, I am pretty sure you are trying to figure out a way for evenings to run smoother.  Aren't we all just trying to simplify our days no matter what stage we are in?

So I am going to share a couple of go to recipes with you today and next Monday.  Both of these are good crock pot meals AND good freezer meals.  I gotta tell you, sometimes I have 3 or 4 crock pots going at one time.  I sometimes get in the mood to do cooking in bulk, stash some meals in the freezer and know I am ahead of the game.

First up, this in one of my FAVORITE recipes, primarily because my Grandma Gracie gave it to me when I was in college.  I remember talking to her on the phone and her reading me each of the ingredients and giving me all the directions as I took notes.  Well I knew mine would never turn out as great as hers because some people can just cook, she was one of those people.  But I have cooked this recipe for the last 30 years and we never tire of it.

Italian Vegetable Soup
Ingredients:
2 cans Itailian Style Stewed Tomatoes
1 large can Veg-All drained
2 cans Beef Broth
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cups egg noodles
1/2 tsp. oregano

Brown ground beef with onion and drain.  Dump everything (except egg noodles) into a pot or a crockpot.  If cooking stovetop, allow all ingredients to come to a boil, add egg noodles and then simmer 10 minutes.  If cooking in crockpot, allow all ingredients (exept egg noodles) to cook on low 6 hours, add egg noodles 30 minutes prior to serving.

This freezes well.  Also, there are several variations you can do
1) If you occassionally want a vegetarian meal, just leave out the ground beef
2) If you don't like Veg-All, just add canned veggies of your choice
3) If you don't like using canned veggies, frozen ones work just as well

Over the course of time, I have used all these variations and never been disappointed.

I now have a couple of quarts of this soup in my freezer and also ready to head back to college for my daughter's freezer.  She likes being able to have a meal from home sometimes and I am super happy to provide it.

Have a wonderful week.  I will talk to you on Wednesday.