When your freezer meals come in handy

I have even more awe and respect this week for those that deal with chronic pain. I have been living with severe shoulder pain for the past few weeks. Some trigger point injections will hopefully improve this situation, but it is amazing how something like that can affect everything. Your mood, your energy level, your ability to do even simple things around the house. You can take pain medication, but I find that taking enough to kill the pain makes me even more ineffective around the house.

After the doctor nagged at me yesterday, I decided to actually listen (what a concept, huh?) and take it easy for the day, despite the bags and bags of tomatoes and cucumbers building up that need to be processed into sauces and pickles.

I also deviated from my dinner plan, as I'd already spent some time in the kitchen yesterday morning making a batch of sausage and cheese biscuits for the freezer for the boys' breakfasts, and didn't particularly feel like spending more time than necessary. (I'm left-handed, and this is my left shoulder, so even chopping gets to be painful)

So I finally got to use the lasagna that I'd made for the freezer back in mid-April. Right after I made the pans it got really hot and I've been avoiding the oven as much as possible. Yesterday was not so bad, though, so I took on of the lasagnas out, barely thawed it, added about a 1/3 cup of water, sealed the foil down tightly and baked it for about 90 minutes at 350. It was awesome!

Taking the time to make some meals and freeze them can really save you when you need it the most. Often I will just make double what we plan to eat and freeze half. Takes you no extra time, yet you have something ready to heat and eat.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all these tomatoes and cucumbers! :)