Culinary Ramblings

I was in a culinary mood today. I suppose that it was my way of putting off all of the cleaning and straightening that I need to be doing. I bought a five pound package of hamburger meat, so I decided to cook some things to put in the freezer. I love the feeling of having meals in the freezer that I can just thaw and serve!

I am trying to simplify meal planning, so I am going to try having several nights a week that have a set theme. The children really like Mexican, so one night will be Mexican night. We will have some variety, maybe quesadillas one week and tacos the next, etc. Friday night will be homemade pizza night. I may do breakfast another night. Then, I only have two or three other nights to come up with something to cook (we usually go out one time a week). I am going to try this plan for a month or so and see how we like it.

So, back to my cooking. First, I put on my Mexican hat. I started by cooking a pound of black beans and about two pounds of pinto beans. I mixed the black beans, diced tomatoes and hamburger together with some homemade taco seasoning for tacos and burritos. I also made a second attempt at refried pinto beans. They were pretty bland the last time I made them, so I added garlic and onion when I cooked the pinto beans today. When the beans were soft, I added a little bit of butter and some salt and then mashed them with a potato masher. They were quite a bit better this time.

Then, I switched to Italian. This is a great time of year to buy tomatoes! They are cheaper and yummier than normal, so I bought quite a few at Fresh Pickens yesterday. I pureed them with carrots, green pepper, onions and several cans of processed tomatoes to make spaghetti/pizza sauce. I have a recipe that I loosely followed. I like sneaking in lots of veggies on my children!

I ended up with eight meals in the freezer (two spaghetti, two taco/burrito and refried beans, and four pizza) plus dinner tonight. I do not think that anyone would confuse me with an authentic Mexican or Italian cook, but everything tasted ok. Best of all, I have eight meals I can pull out of the freezer!