This was last night's dinner, spaghetti pasta, topped with meat and vegetable tomato sauce, braised red cabbage and carrots sticks. I deliberately made double the pasta and double the meat and vegetable sauce.
Our family has always topped the pasta with sauce, instead of mixing it all together. It is what I grew up with, and it is what I prefer.
In the past, I would have taken the leftovers and placed each separately into food storage containers. As of late, I've been packaging up these deliberate leftovers as a meal.
As I was cleaning up the kitchen last night, I put the pasta and sauce in a casserole dish, tossed together, then topped with grated cheese. Tonight, regardless if I am busy or not, dinner is made. All someone -- anyone -- needs to do is heat it through. It's the convenience of a Stouffer's-type meal, without the cost. And it did not take any more time to package the meal this way. This sort of thinking ahead, while I clean up the kitchen, has been a game changer for my meal preparations.
