Tonights frozen dinner, Casserole

I like to have a meal in the freezer for times when I’m out all day and I can’t be bothered cooking that night. When I was going through my freezer yesterday I found this tomato beef casserole I made a couple of weeks ago.  Perfect, that is now one big dish out of the freezer, and dinner is easy.

Make a double batch and you have a dinner for tonight and a dinner in the freezer for another, sure beats take away and much cheaper.

Tomato Beef Casserole

 

Tomato Beef Casserole

One pot dinner
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 12 minutes
Course Mains

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Cubed beef
  • 1 can Crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tomato cans Water
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
  • 1 Apricot chicken sachet Mine was Maggi
  • 1 Onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 Carrots, cut chunky
  • 2-3 Potatoes cut in quarters
  • Vegetables of choice

Instructions
 

  • On the stove top brown beef in a little olive oil, add onion and carrot and stir for a minute or 2.
  • Turn down heat to half. Pour in tomatoes, water, worcestershire sauce, sugar and potatoes.
  • Sprinkle over the apricot chicken sachet stirring to make sure there are no lumps.
  • Preheated oven 170*C. Cover and casserole in the oven for approx 90 mins.
  • After 90 mins take out and stir, add a bit more water if you think you need it. (the apricot chicken sachet will thicken the sauce). Add either frozen or fresh vegetables, mine were broccoli and cauliflower. Cover and bake for another 30 mins or until veg are tender.
  • I served with mashed potato.

Notes

Yes you can freeze but I'd suggest when defrosting to put in the fridge over night or during the day.  Pop into an oven proof dish and reheat until just heated through to avoid over cooking the veg.
Don't put the potato in the dish and serve with mashed potatoes.
Can you do in the crockpot or slowcooker, probably but I've not tried it that way yet.
My non stick stainless steel pot for the stove is oven proof, the dish was taken from stove top to oven.

Freezer check time

As I was putting my groceries away after shopping today I decided it’s now time for a freezer clean out. It’s full.  At the store there were some bulk bargains and marked down bread and buns (the end of day) and I couldn’t help myself, now I have to find room for them in my freezer.  It’s time to check those small leftover bits and pieces, are they still usable, what needs to be tossed out?

So it would appear for the next few weeks I’m doing shopping nothing but fresh fruit and veg, bread and milk.  This usually ends in some very interesting meals … Kinda like the Mystery box on Master Chef.

I’m lucky that my lot will eat anything that is put in front of them, as long as they don’t have to make it, they are happy. I could ask what they’d like for dinner but the answer would come back as, something with chicken or  maybe something with steak?

Don’t forget to check your dates on your freezer packets.  When putting new food in try to put the old food to the front to be used first.  My freezer is frost free so I’m lucky I don’t have to defrost, I just need to remember to clean it out.

Repurposing an over cooked cake

I made a vanilla cake today, nothing special just a cake. When I came back to see how many minutes were left on the oven timer, ooops I’d forgotten to put it on. I took a guess and was wrong.  Ok so my cake came out a little dry and over cooked. So instead of a cake I ended up with dessert.

I found a carton of custard in the pantry ( I make it from scratch most times but today was not one of them).  I cut up banana, some strawberries and a mango.

I layered them in a dish and made it look pretty,  sprinkled shredded coconut on top, popped it in the fridge for a few hours and  voila a trifle for dessert.

You can also add mostly set raspberry or any flavoured jelly. Just scoop out spoon fulls and layer with the cake and custard, still with the fruit or instead of the fruit.

I bagged and labelled the rest of the cake, to be served with custard, for the freezer.  I’ve now not wasted my ingredients and I’ve part of a dessert for next time.  No one knew I didn’t mean to make trifle for dessert, the custard has softened and put moisture back into the dry cake!

Australia Day

I’ve covered the lamingtons, I’ve covered the damper, now I have to cover the lamb chops, we love these lemon mint and rosemary lamb chops. They are so tasty and if cooked in an oven bag, clean up is easy, or try them on the bbq.

I hope you all enjoy your Australia Day celebration.

 

Load more