Work and life patterns have started their annual change, which always seems to happen in Autumn for us.

One for now, one for later cooking is back in action!

Curry using chicken thighs and veg was double batched, and since I was already chopping onions and garlic and opening a giant bottle of passata, and had the mince in the fridge, I put on a giant pot of beef ragu to simmer at the same time.

I’d overbought cheese for the last pizza night so had mozzarella to use up. A pot of bechamel later, I’m feeling very smug, especially as most of this looks after itself aside from the odd stir.

I’m a fan of lots of layers in my lasagne. I’m also a fan of freezing an unbaked one to have later. I used to make one giant one and we’d be eating it for days, but the two dish approach is much better. No one gets bored of it and it freezes much better uncooked than cooked, or at least the end result is better that way.

This size dish is enough to feed us, plus have a small leftover portion for lunch the next day, which is perfect for us. I’d imagine in another couple of years it’ll be gone in one mealtime, easily (and then some!)

I’m a semi purist with lasagne. I’ll happily use up some mushrooms and bits and pieces of cheese from the fridge – it’s great for ends of bags of grated cheese. I draw the line at peas or carrots though, which were definitely a feature of childhood versions. No thanks. It’s not savoury mince with a squeeze of tomato puree in it. Blargh.

Definitely not blargh.

Plenty of layers, and gooey but not sloppy. Pretty perfect, if I do say so myself.

The rest of the ragu was bagged, in one-family-dinner sized portions, flattened out, and frozen in a baking tin. When they’re solid I’ll pop them out and store standing up on a freezer shelf – it’s amazing how much will fit that way.

So from three pots and an afternoon, I’ve got two curry dinners, two nights and a couple of lunches of lasagne, and four pasta bolognese dinners all sorted, and I’ll just need to do a one pot pasta/rice/veg to complete.