cooking dinner

I actually don't mind fixing dinner (as long as I can do it in the morning). I love crock pots! I also love freezer meals that I do ahead of time. I have been known to freeze meals for an entire month. My biggest requirement is that I have to have planned ahead. I detest trying to fix dinner when it is already dinnertime and I am scrambling to come up with an idea (especially one that I actually have the ingredients for).


Currently I am operating on a 2-week menu plan. Tonight's dinner is one of my favorite soups -- Pasta e Fagioli (think Olive Garden).

1 lb hamburger
1 small onion, diced
1 lg carrot, julienned
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz tomato sauce
1 1/2 t salt
1 t oregano
29 oz diced, stewed tomatoes
15 oz canned red beans w/juice
15 oz canned Great Northern Beans w/juice
12 oz V-8 juice
1 T white vinegar
1 t basil
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t thyme
1/2 lb ditali pasta


Brown ground beef. Drain. Add onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and saute for 10 min. Add remaining ingedients, except pasta, and simmer for 1 hour. About 50 minutes into simmer time, cook the pasta. Cook for 10 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Drain. Add pasta to soup and simmer 5-10 minutes.


This recipe is relatively quick and painless and made more so by the fact that I brown all my hamburger at once and freeze it in one-pound portions. I also use dried onions (no chopping involved) and I put the soup in the crockpot for the day. The only thing I have to worry about is cooking the pasta at dinnertime. Yum!