Super-Frugal Recipe: Baked Ravioli

Helloooooo Frugal Ima readers!  Sorry I ditched you for a full WEEK (oy, oy, I know) but I was pouring all my free time and energy (ha!) into using my family blog to create a year-in-review keepsake for my three sweeties.  There was a super-fab deal at Picaboo that gave us buy-one-get-one-free that expired yesterday and it wouldn't have been frugal of me to miss the deadline.

Anyway. 

I'm about to knock your socks off with one of our all-time favorite recipes.  It is super-frugal and super-easy.  I'm not kidding - this recipe costs right around $4 (yes that's FOUR DOLLARS!!!) to make, yields lunch leftovers, and takes less than ten minutes to put together.  Remember, friends, when I say "easy," I mean EASY, because you know how I hate hate hate standing over a hot stove for any amount of time. 

Get a bag of frozen raviolis.  We are a kosher-by-ingredient household, so we can get away with the Great Value brand three-cheese raviolis frrom WalMart for $2.27 a bag.
Line a pan with aluminum foil (just to aid in your cleanup) and pour some spaghetti sauce into the pan.  Spread it around to cover a thin layer.  Then line up the frozen raviolis in a neat row.  Cover those with another layer of spaghetti sauce and another layer of raviolis.  Do that until you run out of raviolis - depending on the size of your pan, you'll get two or three layers.


Top the last layer with sauce, then a liberal sprinkling of shredded cheese.  I was thinking you could also put some bread crumbs on top of this and it might come out with a "toasted ravioli" feel.
Throw it in the oven, then turn the oven on to 350 degrees.  (The raviolis will be fine in there while the oven heats up and it'll save you a bit of energy too.)  Leave the pan in there for as long as it takes you to get your insane monsters children in and out of the bathtub, into their pajamas, and into bed thanktheLord.  (anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes, I'd say.)  Here's what you'll get:


Serve it with steamed broccoli or whatever else you can throw into the microwave using your last ounce of energy. 

(Here is the handsome David serving me dinner, on the couch of course.)

This is also an awesome make-ahead meal.  You can throw it in the pan in the morning and keep it in the fridge all day long for your husband, or wife, or very obedient child to put in the oven while you work late.  It won't be any the worse for wear and you'll come home to a hot meal.  Put your feet up and enjoy!