Cooking Tip of the Week
For most of us, creating a good simple meal in a short period of time usually creates a plethora of dishes, pots, pans and utensils. I hate cleaning up after cooking, even though I have a dishwasher. So for the most part, I strive to create dishes that are simple, one pot or one pan meals. I have a bunch of friends that have liked my ideas and hints so I decided to start posting some of them here, along with recipes (not all of them one dish meals) that I like.
Tip of the Week:
Ground Meats - Beef, Turkey, Chicken, Bison, Pork, etc. Including sausage made of ground meats. Ground meats seem to be one of the staples of most diets. It's easy to find, can be included in many recipes and are often times more affordable than any other cut of meat.
If you have the freezer space then this tip might be one you would want to try. I'll use beef as the example because I think it's one of the most widely used ground meats. However, this tip can be used with any kind of ground meat that you use often.
It usually takes about an hour or so. I set up a collander inside a bowl so that the fat can drain out of the meat as it cools. Then in little batches I fry up all the ground beef, adding each new batch to the collander. Once the beef cools you can divide it up into freezer bags and then freeze. If you don't have enough time to cook the beef and then wait for it to cool completely you can always do the parceling out the next day. I allow the meat to cool until it's just warm, and then cover the whole contraption with foil or plastic and place in refrigerator. Then the next day you can divide it up. I use the measurement of 2 cups of ground beef per bag. I try to limit the amount of meat in our diet and this seems to be more than enough for a big pot of chili or soup. You can adjust per your taste or depending on what you're going to use it for. The amount of meat you'd need for chili would be different than the amount for tacos.
When you want to cook with it, you can just pop the frozen beef into the pan or pot. Or you can defrost in the refrigerator or your microwave. Also, this is a great way to do crock pot meals. One of the problems with slow cooker meals is that they require you to brown the meat prior to putting into the cooker. This way, the meat is already browned and ready. Just pop in the frozen meat, add the rest of the ingredients per your recipe and you're good to go.
Tip of the Week:
Ground Meats - Beef, Turkey, Chicken, Bison, Pork, etc. Including sausage made of ground meats. Ground meats seem to be one of the staples of most diets. It's easy to find, can be included in many recipes and are often times more affordable than any other cut of meat.
If you have the freezer space then this tip might be one you would want to try. I'll use beef as the example because I think it's one of the most widely used ground meats. However, this tip can be used with any kind of ground meat that you use often.
It usually takes about an hour or so. I set up a collander inside a bowl so that the fat can drain out of the meat as it cools. Then in little batches I fry up all the ground beef, adding each new batch to the collander. Once the beef cools you can divide it up into freezer bags and then freeze. If you don't have enough time to cook the beef and then wait for it to cool completely you can always do the parceling out the next day. I allow the meat to cool until it's just warm, and then cover the whole contraption with foil or plastic and place in refrigerator. Then the next day you can divide it up. I use the measurement of 2 cups of ground beef per bag. I try to limit the amount of meat in our diet and this seems to be more than enough for a big pot of chili or soup. You can adjust per your taste or depending on what you're going to use it for. The amount of meat you'd need for chili would be different than the amount for tacos.
When you want to cook with it, you can just pop the frozen beef into the pan or pot. Or you can defrost in the refrigerator or your microwave. Also, this is a great way to do crock pot meals. One of the problems with slow cooker meals is that they require you to brown the meat prior to putting into the cooker. This way, the meat is already browned and ready. Just pop in the frozen meat, add the rest of the ingredients per your recipe and you're good to go.