Ok, we did a DOZEN lasagnas today..
It sounds like a lot, but really we used the 8 x 8 tin foil "brownie pans" so they aren't the huge ones that people usually make.. will make 9 pieces each though which is plenty for us.
We used about 7 lbs of ground beef
3 lbs of italian sausage
1 box of egg beaters (which we bought but ended up not using, my recipe asked for it though)
4 boxes of lasagna noodles
10 cans of spaghetti sauce (various flavors bought on sale!)
4 cottage cheeses (although I think we only used 2 of them)
1.5 blocks of yellow cheese (these are free for me)
4 bags of shredded mozzarella (I had one large opened bag that we used up, my mom had another one just like it and then two regular sizes that we used as well)
1 large opened bag of spinach that we used up.
12 tin foil pans (I bought 15, but didn't need them all)
Gallon size freezer bags for the sealer machine. These were $19!!! on sale (a lot of money and basically blew the cost factor, but then on the other hand, I only needed 12 of them, and still have a lot left over.. ok.. so I will try to figure out what I spent and how much this cost me per dish in a minute.. gotta find that receipt!
Ground beef (can often find for $.99 a lb- mom gave me 6 lbs free so I will say $.50 each is what this will usually cost me) in this case free.
Italian sausage cost $3.33/lb That equals $.83 each (although I get some of this in my annual meat pack I buy which comes out cheaper- unfortunately I had already used it all up).
1 box of egg beaters $6.99 (will completely skip this in the future, mom said she never put egg in lasagna in her life although she has heard of others doing so- seemed unnecessary) so this cost me $.58 each (in future will be $0)
lasagna noodles (in reality mom gave me one box but I did buy 4 additional boxes of the no boil type and we ended up not using one box) Anyway, these cost $1.23 each and I expect this will stay the same in the future.
10 cans of spaghetti sauce.. (my mom gave me 6 free and I added 4 more from my pantry. I bought these for $1 each) so $.33 each but in future will probably cost $1 each
cottage cheese I bought 4 but we didn't use them all I think we used three. $.42 each will cost $.31 in future each
Mozzarella- I will say we used about 4 full bags.. $.67 each in future will cost more I think $1.50 each
foil pans I paid for 15 $.79 each, but only buying 12 would have cost $.63... it is possible I could reuse them.. I will have to see as that would give me a repeat cost of $0 each.
lastly the kicker.. the freezer bags... I paid $19.99 for 32 bags. That comes to $.62 each (I only used the 12 and will use the others for other freezer items.. but still!)
So let's see what each lasagna cost me.. $6.97 each..
I can find the (not the "family size" but a 6 piece size) frozen ready made one for $7.99 on sale.. so I saved about $1 each and will have 3 additional pieces, so per piece that is $1.33 vs $.77 a slice (not counting the ground beef which was free at this time, but counting the egg beater that I didn't use- so that might almost balance out)
Obviously there will be some give and take on price.. I will have to pay for ground beef in the future, and I THINK there has to be some kind of way of getting mozzarella cheaper (I used a coupon, but still!).. on the other hand, I still have a box of noodles and cheese, and cottage cheese on hand, boxes and freezer bags.. I COULD box up another lasagna or two from future leftovers of meat and freeze them as well.... perhaps that is the way to do this rather than trying to buy with the purpose of bulk cooking lasagna? Not sure... will have to give that some thought..
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