Yummy Freezer Meal Spaghetti Casserole

We have tried the freezer crock-pot meals for a while now. It has been a huge blessing. We usually do the "throw food in a baggie and freeze it" method. That works great except when you get into a hurry and throw the bags in the freezer all on top of each other and then shove more on top of those. They all freeze in one big clump and then when you want to take something out its like a tug of war with a big block of food. I know, I know, just don't do that right? Right! But alas it happens and then it's frustrating.

So the hubby and I decided to get the metal pans with the lids at Sam's club and give this a go. We got the medium size I believe. There were 30 pans in a package and then we bought 30 lids. Easy peasy.

My first meal in these pans I made and cooked one that night and froze the other one. We just ate the frozen one last night and I must say it tastes the same as the one that wasn't frozen (always a good sign) 

So here's the recipe I used. I did make a few changes but I got the idea from here.

It is pretty simple but since it does require ground meats you need to do some cooking prep work. Not that big of a deal if you are making this for tonight's dinner and planning on freezing the other half.

The recipe called for

 1 pkg (16 ounces) angel hair pasta

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 jar (26 ounces) spaghetti sauce ( I use Hunts 4 cheese)

2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce

1 can cream of mushroom soup

16 ounces sour cream

4 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese

I didn't have all of the things it asked for and couldn't go to the store right away cause it was nap time. I made a few substitutions. It turned out great.

Instead of 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef I used 2. We buy those 1 lb pre packaged "tubes" of hamburger. I didn't have 16 oz of sour cream but I did have 8 (since the hubby isn't crazy about sour cream I didn't feel bad skimping on this) To make up for the shortage of the sour cream I added another can of cream of mushroom soup. 

So first things first I cooked the noodles. The recipe says to cook for a few minutes less than the package requires. I did about 10 minutes. While the noodles were cooking I cooked the hamburger and added the pasta sauce and the tomato sauce (I used 1-15oz can). Once that was done I put the meat and the sauce in the pan first like so:

Then the noodles. They kinda clumped together but were easy enough to move around. A full package makes a lot of noodles.

While the meat and noodles were cooking I mixed the soups and the sour cream. 
That mixture went next into the pan. I just layered it onto the noodles. It spread nicely. 

Finishing touch is the yummy cheese. I used what we had left so I am not sure if it was the measurement required for the recipe but it was perfect!

Lids on and ready to cook or freeze... or BOTH. 

When cooking make sure they are thawed. I just pulled the one out of the freezer and put it in the oven and it took over 2 hours to cook. So make sure they are THAWED. Most things don't matter but these are rather large pans and it seems to make a difference.

Set temp at 350* and cook for an hour. Eat and ENJOY!

The recipe says that it will stay good in the freezer for up to 3 months. My food never lasts that long but it's good to know.

I really like this meal because it was easy to make (I did mine during naps) and when life gets a little much for me and making dinner for the family is hard to accomplish I just pull out a pre-made meal and I feel like I have done the impossible :)

Let me know what you think.

This is what we thought! Just myself and the hubby :)