Cook-A-Thon

Do I like to cook? Not particularly. Do I like to eat good food? ABSOLUTELY! Actually, I don't mind cooking when I have time. However, when I am working 40++ hours a week teaching second graders, coming home and having to cook dinner stinks. This is the reason I periodically have Cook-A-Thons. A Cook-A-Thon is when I cook large servings of food that can be frozen and pulled out on nights when I know I don't have time to cook or are just too tired to do much more than turn the oven on. That is what I did a few days ago. I made Italian sausage casserole, tomato bisque soup, chicken crescents, taco soup, meatloaf, chicken pot pie filling, and chicken salad. I didn't freeze the chicken salad, but had to do something with the extra chicken I had left. It turns out that I made enough food for 15 meals and 4 lunch size servings of soup. This how the idea for this blog was born. I had written on Facebook what I was doing and everybody commented that they wanted the recipes and details about the Cook-A-Thon. Hopefully, this blog will help you simplify your life at dinner time. The recipes are actual recipes that you can prepare easily for you and your family. I have been married for over 30 years and have collected recipes during this time from many different places. The recipes are not necessarily fancy, but they are the types of foods your family will eat. Below are the recipes I made during the Cook-A-Thon. I hope this inspires you to have your own Cook-A-Thon!

Italian Sausage Casserole

3 cups uncooked Rigatoni or Penne Pasta
1 pound regular sausage or Italian sausage
1 cup of chopped onion
1 can (14 ½ oz.) Italian diced tomatoes – do not drain
1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen spinach – thawed and well drained (fresh spinach works too!)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese
Cook the pasta and drain. Brown the sausage and drain. Chop sausage up finely (I used a mini chopper). Add to pasta. Stir in onions, tomatoes, spinach, cream cheese, and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. You can freeze it at this point if you wish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining Mozzarella and bake an additional 10 minutes.