Pasta Fagioli

I love my Freezer.

This is only a recently developed relationship.  It has only been within the past year that I have truly come to embrace and utilize this under-appreciated half of the appliance.

You see, the Freezer was the Black Hole of my childhood kitchen.  Once something was placed in the freezer, you could forget it. It was gone-- if not forever, at least long enough that you would wonder how long it had been in there when you did see it again.

Chicken breasts that were on sale and required buying them in bulk? Forget about those for another year. 

Pork chops that we could grill out?  Forget about those for at least a couple of months.  

A gallon of ice cream? Well, we never let that get too far out of sight:)   

(Right now, my Mother is reading this and cringing, or laughing, because that's exactly how it was. Sorry Mom! :))

Now that I'm cooking for The Mr. and myself, we often have leftovers.  I will eat leftovers for days and days, until it is all used up.  The Mr., on the other hand, will only eat leftovers for 1 or 2 days before he begins to worry about food poisoning.  There would be recipes that would make so much food we couldn't finish it all before we'd have to throw it out. 

I. Hate. Throwing. Away. Food.

Enter the Freezer. Once I realized that many recipes' frozen/reheated leftovers tasted as good as the first time, I fell in love.  Some soups and chilis taste even better than the first time.  This revelation changed my whole outlook on recipes yielding 8 servings or more.  Now, on days when I don't feel like doing anything, I can pull something out of the Freezer, heat it up slowly on the stove, and dinner's ready. 

Seriously people, that's about as close to food-magic as it gets.

Tonight I reheated Pasta Fagioli, a recipe I tried about a month ago.  As expected, it was (magically) as good as it was the first time.  Just another reminder of why I love my Freezer so much.

Source:  Crockpot Tuesdays (slightly altered, since I don't like to measure veggies)

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta (to add at end)

Directions:

Brown the meat and drain well. Set aside

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT PASTA in the CrockPot.  Stir.

Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours). At end of cook time, stir in 1/2 cup pasta. Cover and cook for another hour on LOW.

Serve with parmesan, mozzarella, or any other kind of cheese you like.  Enjoy!