HO, HO, HO, GETTING READY TO GO!

I thought I'd share my practically productive weekend with you! After the laundry got almost done and the last of the Christmas decorations were put into place late Friday evening, I decided that I'd implement a "cook-ahead" plan that I'd read about in a food blog a while back. I would really love to give credit where credit is due, but unfortunately I can't remember where I found this fabulous nugget of cook-ahead wisdom. If by chance you are reading MY blog, leave me a comment and I will gladly link your blog to mine! It was a "cook once, eat 10 times" post, and WHO DOESN'T LOVE THAT IDEA, I ASK YOU?!!! I bought about 6 lbs. of hamburger today at Target Superstore--if you live in the Peoria area, it was on sale for $3.79 for 2 lbs. One 2 lb.-er was fried up and left plain, the next 2 lbs. were fried with onion and green pepper (cook these separately and add when hamburger is finished browning), and the remaining 2 lbs. were made into meat balls. I followed "fab. blogger's" recipe, which was to add 1 cup of breadcrumbs (left over from Thanksgiving!), 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 4 eggs, and basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste (eyeball it). I mixed this up and made 53 medium-sized meatballs. I flash froze them for about 2 hours on a cookie sheet, and then bagged them into 6 ziploc baggies. The ground beef was put into ziplocs as well, about 2 1/2 cups per bag. I have about 8 meals ready to go--the precooked burger can be added to pasta, soups, chili, tacos, etc. when I don't feel like starting dinner until late (or at all)! I used to do this with chicken as well (back in the day!), and plan to do so again. It's cheap, quick, and easy, and prevents a last minute decision to do a McDonald's "drive-by"! I'm looking more forward now to Christmas crafting and baking, now that dinners should be relatively simple! I hope you all have a groovy Monday, I'll be back soon!