These Cheesy Lasagna Roll Ups are an easy weeknight meal your whole family will love!
Hey, y'all! Welcome to my latest series on the blog; Make Ahead Mondays! Let me tell you, meal planning and meal prepping has been a game changer for me. Just last month our family grew from a family of 2 to a family of 5 when our latest group of foster children joined us.
Before, when it was just the two of us, I'd meal plan- meaning I'd sit down on the weekends and figure out what meals I was going to prepare throughout the week. I'd jot down a grocery list and head to the store to stock up for the week. Now that we're moms to a 5-year-old and 1 1/2-year-old twin boys, I had to switch over to meal prepping. Meal prepping, for me, means planning out our menu, grocery shopping, and then spending a couple of hours 1 day a week whipping up all of our meals for the week and tossing them into the freezer until we're ready to use them.
Ya'll, I have so much more time on my hands doing things this way AND there's a hell of a lot less dishes. Last week, I carved out 5 hours of my day (while the kids were at daycare) and planned out 15 meals. Yes. 15. I then headed to the grocery store, loaded up my shopping cart, and came home and prepared all of them. All 15. This 5 hour period covered everything from searching for recipes to cleaning up any messes I created.
Throughout this series, I'm going to share with you the recipes I use to on these meal prep days. Up first, Cheesy Lasagna Roll-Ups!
Lasagna is one of my family's favorite dishes. In fact, it's been a staple in my life for as long as I can remember. No kidding, my mom makes the absolute best lasagna in the world. For real. Now, this recipe is not my mothers- in fact it's a much simpler, cheaper, and efficient way of creating my favorite dish.
To help make this recipe be freezer friendly, I cut meat out of my mom's recipe. I also use a jarred red sauce to help cut down on prep time.
In all honesty, this is one of the ONLY meal prep recipes that I use that requires any cooking before it gets tucked into the freezer. But ya know... nobody likes a crunchy lasagna noodle. Because of this, though, this dish does require a bit of extra time. So, while I wait for the water to boil and the noodles to cook, I prepare another meal (yes, another ENTIRE meal).
What I love most about this dish is that it is something the whole family loves. The Cheesy Lasagna Roll-Ups freeze really well and they are great for portion control (wink, wink). If you keep them in one of those metal disposable pans, you can simply pull out what you need for a quick lunch or an easy dinner.
Tips for Making Freezer Crock Pot Meals:
- Keep an eye on your grocery stores sale flyers and stock up on meat when it's on sale.
- Print off recipes your family likes so you don't have to hunt them down or create a special Pinterest board with all of your favorite freezer meals.
- Label each Ziploc bag with the name of the meal, simple directions and cooking time.
- Make sure you have all of the essentials before you get started- bag holders, gallon size bags, quart size bags, permanent markers, bag holders, and slow cooker liners are great to have on hand.
Kitchen Essentials:
Ingredients:
12 lasagna noodles 15 oz container ricotta cheese 1 egg 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided 1/3 cup grated Romano cheese 1/4 tsp garlic salt 3 tbsp chopped parsley, divided 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided 1 23 oz jar pasta sauce
To Enjoy Now:
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Spread enough pasta sauce to lightly cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
3. Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of water until al dente, according to package instructions.
4. Meanwhile, lightly beat an egg in a medium-size bowl . Add in ricotta, garlic salt and salt and pepper, to taste. Mix well.
5. Stir in 2/3 cup Parmesan, 13 cup Romano, 2 cups mozzarella, and 2 tbsp parsley.
6. Lay the cooked lasagna noodles on a flat, clean surface. Evenly spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture on top of the noodle. Spread a spoonful of the sauce on top of the mixture.
7. Roll each noodle up. Place the rolled noodle, seam side down, in the baking dish.
8. Top the rolls with the remaining sauce. Top with the remaining cheeses. Loosely tent with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.
To Enjoy Later (as a freezer meal):
1. Spread enough pasta sauce to lightly cover the bottom of a disposable 9x13 pan.
2. Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of water until al dente, according to package instructions.
3. Meanwhile, lightly beat an egg in a medium-size bowl . Add in ricotta, garlic salt and salt and pepper, to taste. Mix well.
4. Stir in 2/3 cup Parmesan, 13 cup Romano, 2 cups mozzarella, and 2 tbsp parsley.
5. Lay the cooked lasagna noodles on a flat, clean surface. Evenly spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture on top of the noodle. Spread a spoonful of the sauce on top of the mixture.
6. Roll each noodle up. Place the rolled noodle, seam side down, in the baking dish.
7. Top the rolls with the remaining sauce. Top with the remaining cheeses.
8. Secure the plastic lid to the pan and stash away in the freezer until you're ready to enjoy it.
9. Thaw the lasagna roll-ups in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Preheat the oven to 350. Loosely tent with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes.
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