Today's households seem to rush from one thing to another. From school
to some activity and then to another activity, and if there are more
than 3 children involved in this, mother spends most of her time
driving! So this is not a criticism, believe me, but an observation,
and a helpful suggestion to get the entire family fed without the cook
becoming completely demented!
If the mother is not working (oh wow, if that were so!) then morning
time twice a week can be devoted to bulk cooking for freezing or
refrigeration. If the careguver in the household - and it may NOT be
the mother of course - has a morning with some domestic spare time,
then the same applies.
One of the easiest - and money-stretching - meals I know of is the old
meatball (or hamburger, or bolognese) recipe. Recently (and I am a
grandmother!) I decided to do this to help out one of my daughters who
lives this sort of very stressed life. She got four days meals for 5
out of the result. The family are not big eaters, and two of the
younger children eat small child portions. As a family they
concentrate on protein and fresh vegetables as opposed to anything
deep fried, and always accompany a meal like this one with a fresh
green salad.
For those who are interested this is what I did:
800g very lean ground beef
500g lean ground pork meat
2 eggs
1 cup dried breadcrumbs
3 tbps finely grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
2 large onions finely minced
All ingredients were combined by hand in a large bowl. You could use
a large food processor of course. Part of the mixture was
shallow-fried in extra-virgin olive oil as meat balls and set aside.
Some of the mixture was made into hamburger patties and the remainder
was combined with a fresh tomato salsa as a bolognese.
Another option is to cook portions of the mixture in the shape of
small hamburger patties and pour over brown onion sauce and reheat as
a meal to be eaten either with couscous or mashed potato.
This was an economical way to feed 5 people for 3 days. The portions
were of average size - but this is a subjective view. Some people
eat much larger meal portions than others, but in this day and age of
weight consciousness, the smaller the helping the better. The
addition of a fresh salad made a difference. If it is winter, then a
large bowl of either fresh green beans, broccoli or spinach will do
the trick also. Should I mention brussels sprouts? I love them,
but none of the others do!
I'd like some feedback if people try this and find it successful.
Cheers
Daisy
Carthage demands an explanation for this insolence!