In the Kitchen: Italian Spaghetti Bake & Freezer Meals

Italian Spaghetti Bake

I have made this tasty baked spaghetti dish many times over the years. The most recent time was in late September when we had two grandsons (who live nearby) over for a meal while their parents were out-of-town. Being busy, active seniors in high school, they were quite hungry when they came over, and they both absolutely loved this dish. 

This recipe makes two 9x13 pans of Italian Spaghetti Bake.

Ingredients

2 packages (one 16 ounces, one 8 ounces) spaghetti
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans (15 ounces each) tomato sauce
1 package (8 ounces) sliced pepperoni
1 can (8 ounces) mushroom stems/pieces, drained (I use a 4 ounce can, or sometimes leave them out)
1 can (3.8 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained (I usually leave these out)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook the beef, green pepper and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the tomato sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, and seasonings. Drain spaghetti.

Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into each of two greased 13x9 inch baking dishes. Top each with about 2 1/2 cups spaghetti, 1 1/2 cups meat sauce, and remaining spaghetti and meat sauce. Sprinkle with cheeses. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

Bake both dishes, or use one now, and then freeze the other one, unbaked. When using, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and bake as directed.

Yield:  2 casseroles (8-10 servings each)

Click here to print from the Taste of Home website, which is the source of this delicious recipe.

Though you can prepare this recipe for two 9x13 pans of Italian Spaghetti Bake (as the recipe suggests) and bake them right away, my preferred way to prepare this now is to use one 9x13 pan, and split the other half into two 8x8 inch square pans.

I like to bake the 9x13 pan right away, and place the two 8x8 pans in the freezer to use at a later date. This is what I did last month. After serving our two grandsons, I now have two smaller pans in the freezer to thaw and bake later.

UPDATE: This recipe post replaces an earlier one with this recipe. (Click here for my earlier post for Italian Spaghetti Bake back in 2012.)

Freezer Meals

Do you like to prepare "freezer meals"? It's the secret to enjoying homemade, nutritious meals each day of the week. I do love to be "in the kitchen", preparing tasty meals, and also baked goods. But also, I don't love to do this every day. Some days I have other things to care for, or may be gone most of the day and don't have time to prepare a meal. And especially now in this season of life, I just don't want to be cooking every day. 

I used to prepare dishes specifically for the freezer, even when some of our six kids lived at home. For a few years, a few friends and I used to make quantities of favorite recipes in our own homes, package them up for the freezer, and then share these "freezer meals" as friends, giving each of us a variety of dishes to add to our own freezer meal collection. 

And also for a number of years, some of my daughters who lived nearby, would come over for a big "freezer meal" day, where we would prepare quantities of favorite recipes and freeze them, some for each of us to keep in our own home freezers. Those were full and fun days, with little ones (our grandkids!) playing together while we cooked together. 

Click Our Family Recipes page tab & scroll all the way to the bottom to see posts from the past of "freezer meal days" (from 2010-2015) with my daughters. Lots of sweet memories for me!

Today I continue to prepare "freezer meals" just for the two of us. 

This photo (taken today) shows the top two shelves of my upright freezer in our pantry room. The top shelf holds baked sourdough breads, plus other baked items, and to the left of the lower shelf that you see, is my current supply of "freezer meals". It's actually a little less of a supply than normal, but soon, I'll be filling it up with various soups, as well! 

My current "freezer meal" methods ...

One current "freezer meal" method is to make larger quantities of recipes, as described above with Italian Spaghetti Bake, keeping a portion in the freezer to use on a future day. 

And another method is to continue to make the full recipes (amounts that would feed our family of eight), instead of cutting the recipe back to a smaller size, that would work good for just the two of us now. This is what I do all the time now, each time I prepare a meal. I make the full amount of the recipe, even though it is just the two of us here. Actually, sometimes I will even double a regular recipe, so I will have even more to keep in the freezer for a future date.

My husband and I will enjoy a meal together at the time of preparing the dish. After our meal, I'll divide up what we did not need for one meal for us as a couple, and place two-serving portions in containers for the freezer from what is left. This works amazingly well for us. I love to cook and bake, but there are also many days when I am involved in other things, and love to just pull a home-made meal out of the freezer, let it thaw, and then either heat it in the microwave, or as with Italian Spaghetti Bake, bake in the oven.

I hope this has been encouraging to you as you spend time "in the kitchen", no matter what season of life you are in. Writing this has brought back memories for me of "freezer meal" prep in the past. 

Preparing meals is what we do all through the seasons of life, and so many memories are made as we gather around the table sharing good food, and making sweet connections with those we love. 

Click to read another post on this topic: Easy Freezer Meal Prep