Cook Once, Eat Twice: What We Ate Last Week
I absolutely love to cook. Cutting, and chopping, and throwing herbs and spices all together to create something delicious says “love” to me. I especially love to make and eat soups and stews. In fact, anything with sauce is my favorite food! That said, I also keep myself very busy during the day, even in this time of social distancing. I’m not one of those people who struggle with alone time. I never turn the TV on in the daytime. Besides writing, I have plenty to fill my days. It really annoys me to have to interrupt a project to make dinner and get it on the table at a reasonable dinnertime. My solution for this is to cook once, eat twice.
Cook Once, Eat Twice!
I love making things that can be re-imagined during the week, or even eaten again as leftovers. My hubby is also a good cook and he will usually grill/cook during the weekends, or once during the week. I’ll share what we ate last week.
- Monday – Tacos (I cooked 3lbs of meat, and tripled the seasonings below)
- Tuesday – Sausage and White Bean Soup (from our freezer)
- Wednesday – Grilled Hot Dogs
- Thursday – Chili Mac (using beef from taco night)
- Friday – Pizza night! We eat pizza every Friday night.
As you can see, I usually make enough to save for another meal, or to pop into the freezer for the next week, or so. It’s even better when we can eat it again that week AND pop leftovers into the freezer for the following week, which is exactly what I did here! And that’s what it means to cook once, eat twice, or even three times!
Below are the recipes for both the taco meat, and then the Chili Mac for Thursday. I’ll post the Sausage and White Bean Soup recipe at a later date.
Taco Seasoning
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika If you don’t like smoked, then use the sweet, or Hungarian paprika, but do try the smoked.
- 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Cook 1 lb ground turkey or beef in a skillet, breaking it up until no pink remains. I like mine really crumbly, so I break the meat down into very small crumbles, but if you like larger bites of meat then you can leave it chunkier.
- Drain any fat from the pan. Sprinkle the entire batch of homemade taco seasoning evenly over the cooked and crumbled meat. It will look like a lot, but it’s perfect, you’ll see. Bring the heat up to medium-high and add 2/3 cup water. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the water has reduced.
- While this is cooking, you can grate cheese, chop tomatoes, and onions. Whatever you love to eat on your tacos. I sometimes serve them with rice and beans.
What to cook later
I use this taco meat as a base for lots of different recipes. The obvious are tacos, burritos, taco salads, or Spanish omelets. My small family will eat about 1/3 of this recipe (or less) on taco night. Then we have a bunch left over to use later in the week or freeze for next week. Sometimes I’ll make double the recipe on Thursday night for tacos, then use the leftovers to make omelets for brunch on the weekend. But you can also gussy up the meat with canned diced tomatoes, and chilies and use it as a filling for zucchini boats, or for stuffed peppers. It’s a delicious start to another great meal! This time, I chose to make Chili-Mac, and I wanted 2 pounds of leftover taco meat as a start.
Chili-Mac
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. prepared taco meat I make extra on taco night
- 1 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil
- 1 cup chopped red bell peppers Or use yellow, orange, or green bell pepper (I usually use a combination of what I have to equal 1 cup.)
- 1 cup chopped peeled carrots
- 1 cup chopped onion I like the sweet onions
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes, in juice
- 1 2.25 oz can sliced olives or ¼ of a 14oz can of whole olives, broken up.
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups water
- 3/4 pound dried elbow macaroni
- Grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Add oil to preheated skillet on med heat. Saute the peppers, carrots, onion and garlic until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add in prepared meat, oregano, chili powder, cumin, crushed tomatoes and juices, water, and olives. Season with salt and pepper, turn the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Add the macaroni, stir and cover. Lower heat to medium and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, and most of the liquid is absorbed, 8 to 10 minutes. Taste, and season again if needed. At this point, you may sprinkle cheese over the casserole then cover for another minute, until cheese is melted. But I prefer to just serve it right up and pass the shredded cheese at the table.
After this meal, I will place the leftovers into a freezer container and pop it into my freezer to reheat another week. Cook once, eat 3 times!
Enjoy!
