Until recently, I really didn’t know how to cook properly.
One of the things I used to make often was spaghetti bolognese. It was high in protein, fit my diet well, it was reasonably healthy, and so I made it about twice a week. The recipe was very simple: mince, onions, spaghetti, and a bottle of pasta sauce from the store.
Over time I started experimenting. I tried different recipes, added more ingredients, cooked parts separately, and let the sauce simmer longer. Bit by bit it evolved.
Now I make the sauce from scratch, cook the mince in a separate pan, add finely diced carrots and a do a bunch of extra steps I never used to, as well as letting everything simmer for a two hours.
The result is honestly fucking delicious and better than any spaghetti bolognese I’ve had in restaurants.
The problem is that it went from being my easy go-to meal to something that actually takes effort. I used to make it multiple times a week, but now I barely do.
And the worst part is I can’t go back to the old version anymore, because it just tastes disappointing.
I just wanted to rant, I’m frustrated because I want the dish more, but don’t want all of the added effort.
Yeah the marinara is probably not going to change much from being frozen; it’s the meats and veggies I was thinking mostly about.
In OP’s shoes, I’d make a big batch of the the most basic version of the marinara sauce, portion it out and freeze it; then prep the meat and veggies up to being ready to be sauteed and freeze them separately.
When it’s time to cook a meal, thaw out a block of each and get some noodles going, sautee the meat and veggies, mix with the sauce, add the noodle when they’re ready, and nom.
When I do meal prep, that’s usually my approach: don’t cook it up to completion and then freeze (works, but the taste/texture is often a bit off); but prep it up to the last couple of steps so that when my lazy ass gets off of work later in the week, I’m 10 minutes and a single frying pan away from an actually decent meal.