Buy a few pounds of ground turkey/beef at the grocery. Come home and brown the ground meat before putting it into containers to freeze – about ¾-1lb. per container. This is a huge time saver for me. When I’ve had a long, hard day at work, I can simply microwave that ground meat and make several very, simple, kid-friendly dinners with it – in about twenty minutes.
Examples:
Upside down pizza –
Coat microwaved ground meat in pizza sauce. Spread in bottom of rectangular, glass baking dish, and cover with cheese. Top with crescent roll triangles. Bake until crescent rolls are lightly browned.
Tacos –
Buy a taco dinner kit. Season your heated ground meat. Bake your taco shells. Shred some lettuce and cheese.
Shepherd’s Pie –
Heat ground meat. Mix some instant mashed potatoes – spread in baking dish. Cover with ground meat, salt, pepper and cheese – bake until cheese melts.
Spaghetti and meat sauce –
Buy whatever pasta sauce you like. Heat ground meat and add it to your sauce. Boil the pasta.
Soft tacos –
Heat ground meat. Spoon into flour tortillas. Add cheese, etc. Roll tortilla.
EZ Chili –
Heat ground meat. Dump into saucepan. Add a can of dark red kidney beans, pinto beans, and a can of black beans. Don’t dump out the bean juice. Add a can of Rotel tomatoes and a small can of tomato sauce. Sprinkle chili powder to taste. Simmer 20 minutes.
*When I serve Tacos, our family often lights a holy candle bearing Our Lady of Guadalupe’s picture (The Mexican image of Mother Mary), and we have a candlelight dinner. It serves as a great reminder for us to pray for the unborn together. Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the Americas and of the unborn!
Catholic Working Mom 