What's Cooking? Wednesday

Welcome to the ninth weekly edition of ....

I'm sorry I didn't do it last week. I just couldn't. Too much sickness, too much holiday, too many kids... too much of a good thing is still too much. But, I'm back this week and raring to go! Kind of.


During my college years I was known as "The Hamburger Helper Queen". That title continued through the early years of my marriage. Thankfully, I learned to experiment with cooking a little more and found some other types of things to cook that were quick, easy, and cheap. Having said all that, we still do have Hamburger Helper on occasion. It's quick, it's easy and it's cheap (especially if I have coupons). Two nights ago I went down to our food storage at the last minute to try to come up with something - anything - to eat that wouldn't make me ill (I'd been suffering from stress-induced "bathroom" issues all day long - I told you last week was bad). I found my stash of Hamburger Helper and remembered I had a pound of browned hamburger (instructions here). Frozen peas completed the meal (you've gotta have a protein, carb and a vegetable for a balanced meal, right?).

So, I guess that the menu "idea" for today is ... There's a time and a place for everything ... even Hamburger Helper!

(Next week I'll share my new favorite cookbook and maybe even have a guest review from my dear friend, Alice!)

(By the way, we made the oreo truffles for New Years. D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!)

What are you cooking this week? (Please be sure to check the comments section as well as the links.)

Browned Hamburger

I really don't like to cook. It takes a really long time and the clean up is a pain, too. In analyzing this a while back I decided that I prefer making recipes that are just "dump and go". That's not possible with recipes that call for browned hamburger or cooked chicken.... or is it????

Today's tip.... Browned hamburger - frozen and ready to go.

1. Buy a lot of hamburger meat. I usually buy at least the 5 lb package.

2. Brown the hamburger meat in a big skillet. I never add any onions or flavoring because it will be used in a variety of recipes. I can always add the flavors when I defrost it later.

3. Rinse the browned hamburger in hot water. I'm very serious - this is the trick so it doesn't go rancid. I put the browned hamburger in my colander and run hot water over it until the water draining out the bottom runs clean. Sometimes I need to stir it a couple of times to make sure I get everything rinsed.
4. Spoon the browned, rinsed hamburger meat into ziploc bags. For most of my dishes, 1 1/4 lbs of hamburger is about the right amount. The five pound package of hamburger meat yields 4 bags of browned hamburger. Now, when I am cooking dinner I don't have to worry about pulling the meat out the night before and putting it in the fridge or browning it in the afternoon so I can have dinner ready on time. I can just grab a bag of cooked meat, throw it in the microwave to defrost for two minutes and put it in my casserole.

I do something similar with chicken. HERE
Happy to post this tip on....

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