Hi welcome to Freezer Meals 101 I'm Sharla and I'm Christie today we are doing sausage-o-rama.
Totally we are again there was a sale on sausage it was not like the beef strips sale where it was
two for one like that was amazing that was amazing so we have a video for that video
for beef strips 10 separate recipes because we had to buy all the beef drops yeah yeah
that's right we didn't actually buy them all because that would not be kind but we've had
a lot but sausage was on sale and we thought hey good time to make sausage recipes so we're
actually we're going to be making all the sausage recipes today but we're gonna split it into two
videos yes because there's a lot we don't want it to be too overwhelming and when we do our
Mega sessions that's one thing because you know what's going to be over with yeah you're asking
overwhelm me but you know like we'll divide these for you first yeah ease of viewer viewing yes and
then if you have like like the you know ground Italian sausage versus the sausage meatballs
because that's how we're going to divide the videos then you know which video to watch and
if you just like to watch our videos then watch them both they're here for you we're here for you
so in this video we're gonna do ground Italian sausage recipes right so at our house we like
mild and Sharla's house they like spicy the spicier the better red so the good news is we
have mild and we have spicy totally and we just um we have systems like when we make multiple
recipes where we know like which side the bag is on check out some of our Mega meals because
you'll see four bags there and they're like how are they keeping track well Sharla's always on
the left and I'm on the right but when you do it yeah it's opposite it's opposite yeah isn't that
funny but we keep track it's all good we know so it always ends up in the same house same with like
Christie their family eats beef like ground beef and I don't eat ground beef so sometimes I make
some ground beef recipes for my kids and stuff but mostly I do mine with veggie beef so again
we have to keep track of the right bags yeah it's all good it's all good we have a system yeah what
we're doing so you could do what works for you because this there's no procedure no there's no
I mean there's guidelines they have a system of some kind there's no set procedure you do what
works for you all right what do we have today first thing we're gonna make is the tater tot
casserole the reason we make it first is because you're using frozen tater tots and if you get them
out of your freezer you make some space for the meals so it's just a system that we always go by
you're gonna put your ground sausage in a medium sized freezer bag seal that and set it aside then
you're going to whisk together the mushroom soup condensed milk and your paprika salt and pepper
in a bowl you're gonna put your frozen tater tots in a large freezer bag
pour the sauce over top of that take out all the air that you can because when your freezer
cooking air is your enemy we want to avoid that at all costs then you're going to staple your
bag of cooked sausage onto your large bag and you want to staple that above the seal so that
you don't put a hole in your bag and freeze it this is some of my kids absolute favorite
thing to eat in the world not the healthiest thing to eat but they love tater tot casserole
this is a new family favorite for us it is candies baked sausage and cheese rigatoni
we'll put the link below start out with your cooked pasta and your cooked sausage
and we're going to layer this so first we have to build our sauce we're going to add in a pound of
Italian sausage and your onion and some garlic and I'm not talking some garlic this is a lot
of garlic because this should have a lot of garlic crushed tomatoes and then heavy cream and a little
bit of dried basil some salt and pepper and that is our sauce we're gonna mix that all together
and then in our tray you're going to start by putting a cup of the sauce in the tray and kind
of spread it around evenly and then take half your pasta that's already been cooked and lay it out
then you're going to add the mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some Parmesan and then half of your sauce
then you're going to do another layer of your pasta then the other half of your sauce then
top it with mozzarella and the Parmesan we're going to put Saran wrap on this but then we're
going to make a note on the foil very important so that we remember to take the Saran Wrap off
before we cook it and you'd want to cook it uncovered anyway so you'll notice but
we put the Saran wrap on the plastic wrap on to help with freezer burn and stuff
we both may have learned that lesson the hard way so we always write that on top now sometimes the
hard way is the only way to learn one of the great things about when you find something on
sale is that normally if you're just if you cook like regular people I don't want to say
we're not regular but if you look like stars no you cook like you know the average person
where you're doing something every night you know you have to think of something at three o'clock
totally if you're doing that kind of cooking then you can oh like presents
peasants and you've scraped together enough for stone soup today no yeah no then every day
then you would only be able to buy like like see I'm so distracted by The Peasant comments right
um she's funny and you would only be able to buy like a certain amount of the like you could
only buy them and then you're gonna throw it in the freezer anyway or and like it gets freezer
burnt if you just throw your sausage and like a raw sausage in the freezer because you know you
buy it with good intentions oh and then you don't really it's like lettuce you don't really get to
it and then it's like oh I've had this here for oh look a year It's gotta go totally but if you bring
it home and you have a plan and you make it into something you're gonna eat it and oh it's so much
better it doesn't get freezer burnt because it's in a meal and it's properly stored and so you're
gonna have this so then and you eat it in that three month window fully take advantage of the
sales and so we're excited about this guitar it's it's so fun so so don't be peasants be like us
make all the meals and so if you're looking for recipes with like one particular ingredient then
come join our Freezer Meals 101 Club because then you just click on whatever ingredient that is like
if there's a sale on well there was sausage today so you could type the word sausage in and all the
sausage recipes would pop up or you could click on pork and all the pork recipes including the
sausage would come up or whatever but that's the way to do that is the best way to do that that's
the best way to do that and so link is down below come and check out the club you're gonna thank
yourself for looking at that because it's great because then you're not you know you're not a
peasant you can stop being actually we joke about that but honestly it is oh it saves you so much so
much money because then you're not stabbing stone soup you're you're happy right the caviar okay I
don't really like caviar but something you like totally no you can you can have sausage and eat
like kings so it's it's really great that yeah for the lasagna soup you can use ground beef if
you prefer but we like ours with ground Italian sausage and this is an Italian sausage video so
we're doing Italian sausage of course so that's been browned then you're going to add that into
a large freezer bag you're going to add oregano basil garlic crushed red pepper flakes salt pepper
two bay leaves fennel nutmeg there's so many spices in this and that's what makes it taste
amazing onion fire roasted tomatoes two cans a can of tomato paste and you can add four cups of
chicken or beef broth now or you can add a note onto your bag to add it on the day of cooking
I wanted to save some freezer space make my bag thinner so I'm choosing to add that on the day
that I cook it on the day of cooking you're gonna bring this to a boil on the stove top and then
you're gonna simmer it for 20 minutes and just allow all those flavors to meld and become amazing
then you're going to add in five broken lasagna noodles five is the right amount six is too many
and four is not enough yes we have experimented five is the right amount and then when you go to
put this into bowls you can top each bowl with some ricotta cheese and Parmesan and that just
freshens it right up and this one is awesome this is the spinach sausage pasta bake save that one
five times fast we're gonna have brown our Brown sausage and we're going to pre-cook our pasta
here's a note about cooking pasta when you're using it in a freezer meal you want to cook it
a couple of minutes under the Al Dante time that they list on the packaging because we are going to
cook this again and it would be soggy and quite floppy if we cook it all the way to Al Dante or
a little bit past so you want to make sure that you have a bit of moisture in there and know that
it is going to cook a little bit more when you are doing it in the oven or in the skillet or however
your meal is happening we're going to start out making this in a bowl because it will mix a little
bit better and then we're going to transfer it to the bag so we start it with our sausage
we add our onion our garlic and these Italian style plum tomatoes they are so delicious we're
going to add a lot of cream because it's cream and our chopped up spinach to counter the cream
we gotta have something healthy we gotta have something healthy in there and we're gonna mix
it all around really well and then we're gonna add it into our bag a few ways you can do this
you can stabilize your bag in a container or you can have a friend hold it open for
you or you can just tough it out and Spoon it in there spoon after spoon you're welcome
and then we just come and we cover it and put it in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes and just let
it bubble up so we had some sausage left over and I decided to make some sausage quesadillas
with it so for these I just used flour tortillas mozzarella cheese the ground sausage some Jarred
roasted red peppers and onion I was thinking later that some fresh basil from my herb garden
would have gone really well but I thought that too late so they are they are already frozen in the
freezer when you make quesadillas you want to lay them on a cookie sheet to freeze flat before you
transfer them into a freezer bag you could also add Serrano or jalapeno peppers to this or green
chilies I think these are going to be amazing it's our first time doing sausage quesadillas but we do
quesadillas pretty often they're a great after school snack they're a great late night snack
they're just they're just great they're nice lunch they're a great oh I know they are a bay
and I guess feel like having some perfect total comfort food and you can serve it with guacamole
salsa or sour cream you can heat these in the oven or the skillet so they're really easy and
then we had a tiny tiny bit of sausage left over and it was the mild variety so it's Christie's
I'm not sure why we had an uneven amount but maybe when we bought them they didn't have as
many spicy that's it yeah I think I maybe had one more package so regardless if you want to you can
throw your browned sausage into medium-sized bag and toss it in the freezer because oh it's good
with your hash browns it's good to mix in with your eggs you can make little mini um burritos
for breakfast breakfast burritos with scrambled egg and sausage it's like you did like McDonald's
drive-through or something and because we do so much prep for our stuff there's often you know
a little baggie in the fridge that has some minced onion or some chopped up Peppers yeah and you just
add that in there and you have breakfast like a king it's pretty great make some quesadillas
nachos like that totally kind of thing oh yeah so this is Handy to have in your freezer or of course
because this goes on the tater tot casserole all if you have the other ingredients at home for
tater tots another one you could just make another one and make it up fresh the day of so the other
thing we considered making is a sausage gravy but we haven't figured it out it's in the works yeah
there's there's some ingredients in there that don't traditionally freeze well so we're trying
to adapt it we've heard that people freeze this and use it for months yeah but we're working on
it because the freezer meals 101 Test Kitchen as we speak exactly so when we get there we'll let
you know we'll let you know how it goes but that is another possibility for ground sausage but yeah
we're not quite there yet and then in the testing phases and then you eat it with the sausage on
homemade biscuits totally and you can do freezer biscuits so I have a really good baking powder
biscuit from my aunt it's Auntie Doris's baking powder biscuits and my it's my grandma cages
I come from Long Island have really good bakers and cooks and she would make biscuits right in
the Flower Bin wow she could and she would do it between hands of crib like she could do it it was
kind of crazy and it was wonderful to watch and a really great person to learn how to cook from
yes so there's my trick for biscuits but I want to know about the freezer biscuits
yes I I've I'm adapting a recipe back to the freezer meals 101 Test Kitchen right the Freezer
Meals 101 Test Kitchen has been very busy lately it has been very busy lately so we're working
on things it's Sharla's house but we are figuring it all out that's true we're getting there so let
us know what your favorite Italian sausage recipes are when the video is done for the
um meatballs like the sausage meatballs and we'll put it right there you'll want that one in the
meantime we'll have another Italian sausage video there it's got some million dollar shells and oh
yeah that's a good recipe so thanks for joining us today make sure you click subscribe make sure you
click like join us on our Facebook page because it is the nicest Facebook very sweet in the entirety
of Facebook and we have a club you can click on there and join our club and then you don't have
to be peasants anymore you could be Kings like hahaha all right happy cooking see you next time.