Post an unusual meal prep or meal idea for busy home cooks

[Anonymous]

Even if I can't get two family dinners out of a cooking session, I plan enough leftovers to pack for a lunch or two. It helps in the evening if I don't have to think about my lunch, and can just focus on prepping the next night's dinner!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never end up using things I freeze so I quit doing that.

We get half a beef every year, so around this time of year I pressure can whatever meat I leave left.

Canning burger and beef cuts give the meat a really developed flavor. My kids prefer spaghetti sauce made with the canned beef, because it tastes like Sunday sauce that cooked for hours and hours. I use the Marcella Hazan marinara with a jar of canned ground beef, delish. I brown the ground before canning.

I also use raw pack method for canning roast beef cuts. You can make a roast beef dinner in 30 minutes start to finish, and again it tastes like you slow roasted all day.

I also prep and can apple pie filling from our orchard. It makes a delightful, low sugar, not too sweet apple pie with 5 minutes labor (making the crust). I guess you could do storebought crust too, but that’s never good.

good god.so is the meat still raw after the canning process or does it get cooked...?

canning apple pie filling is genius, btw

Oh no, it is thoroughly cooked and fall apart tender. You pressure can any sort of meat for 90 minutes to make it shelf stable.

Raw pack just means that you prep with chunks of thawed meat that is not cooked. Ground beef cannot be raw packed because of texture, you need to brown it first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never end up using things I freeze so I quit doing that.

We get half a beef every year, so around this time of year I pressure can whatever meat I leave left.

Canning burger and beef cuts give the meat a really developed flavor. My kids prefer spaghetti sauce made with the canned beef, because it tastes like Sunday sauce that cooked for hours and hours. I use the Marcella Hazan marinara with a jar of canned ground beef, delish. I brown the ground before canning.

I also use raw pack method for canning roast beef cuts. You can make a roast beef dinner in 30 minutes start to finish, and again it tastes like you slow roasted all day.

I also prep and can apple pie filling from our orchard. It makes a delightful, low sugar, not too sweet apple pie with 5 minutes labor (making the crust). I guess you could do storebought crust too, but that’s never good.

good god.so is the meat still raw after the canning process or does it get cooked...?

canning apple pie filling is genius, btw

Oh no, it is thoroughly cooked and fall apart tender. You pressure can any sort of meat for 90 minutes to make it shelf stable.

Raw pack just means that you prep with chunks of thawed meat that is not cooked. Ground beef cannot be raw packed because of texture, you need to brown it first.

I suppose I should say you can technically raw pack ground meat from a food safety perspective. It supposedly is mushy, though. That’s. Hard no from me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prepare my dinner while I bathe

Kramer!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never end up using things I freeze so I quit doing that.

We get half a beef every year, so around this time of year I pressure can whatever meat I leave left.

Canning burger and beef cuts give the meat a really developed flavor. My kids prefer spaghetti sauce made with the canned beef, because it tastes like Sunday sauce that cooked for hours and hours. I use the Marcella Hazan marinara with a jar of canned ground beef, delish. I brown the ground before canning.

I also use raw pack method for canning roast beef cuts. You can make a roast beef dinner in 30 minutes start to finish, and again it tastes like you slow roasted all day.

I also prep and can apple pie filling from our orchard. It makes a delightful, low sugar, not too sweet apple pie with 5 minutes labor (making the crust). I guess you could do storebought crust too, but that’s never good.

good god.so is the meat still raw after the canning process or does it get cooked...?

canning apple pie filling is genius, btw

Oh no, it is thoroughly cooked and fall apart tender. You pressure can any sort of meat for 90 minutes to make it shelf stable.

Raw pack just means that you prep with chunks of thawed meat that is not cooked. Ground beef cannot be raw packed because of texture, you need to brown it first.

thanks for the explanation. well, that's about the healthiest canned meat I've ever heard of!

[Anonymous]

I've posted before but I grill extra hamburgers and hotdogs, wrap individually and freeze. I keep fresh buns in the house for when my teens need an early dinner.

I slice and freeze leftover grilled chicken breast or steak and use for fajitas or soft tacos or quesadillas on a night nothing else is ready.