The flu season sneaked into our home this past week. We thought we would avoid it, but a sneaky bug crawled into our front door right before the storm dumped snow on our streets. My son missed out on his Valentine's Day parties, I missed quite a few days of work and we're all slowly getting back to good health.

I was lucky to have a few frozen tricks up my sleeve. After all, I cooked up a storm as the snow kept us indoors as a treat for my husband for Valentine's Day. I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce on my big cooking day. I threw in a package of frozen spinach, a ton of fresh mushrooms and the last pound of my grass-fed ground beef I bought in the fall. I used fresh tomatoes frozen from the summer and about 5 cans of tomato puree. All my best, healthful stuff went into that pot. I simmered it for hours and picked up some tin containers to freeze my concoctions in.

My son got some "goulash," which was simply a box of gluten free rice penne cooked and tossed with the sauce (photo on top of page). I spread a couple slices of Tofutti white cheddar cheese on top, wrapped and froze. I made my husband a lasagna (which can be made with gluten-free noodles) or two and froze them with a few containers of the remaining sauce.

It was a good thing I worked ahead, because after my picky eater got sick, and then me, there wasn't time or brainpower to think about dinner. My husband has been living on lasagna and I popped a spaghetti squash in the oven at the beginning of the infestation. I simply cut in half lengthwise, then placed skin side up on a tinfoil-lined baking tray. I baked at 375 F for 35-40 minutes, then scraped a fork across the flesh (photo at right). My kids thought it looked so cool, they gave it a try.

My picky eater -- to my amazement -- ate an entire bowl of it, which I would like to credit for making him feel better.

I topped mine with some sauce and sprinkled with Romano cheese (photo at right). It was delicious and healthful. But a little too late. I woke up with a fever the next morning. Luckily, the others had leftovers to keep them fed while I recovered.

Another thought if you need to keep it easy while people are recovering from illness:

Chef John Yaquinto, owner of C.F. Cucina's just announced that the gluten-free restaurant now offers pizza, lasagna and eggplant dinners in the frozen food aisle at Hillers markets and Foods For Living in East Lansing. I recommend the pizza. It's the only restaurant I trust to have completely gluten-free pizza since cross-contamination is not an issue.

Take care and be well.