Save Time and Energy: Go for EASY!

Every cook (foodie or not), needs a break once in awhile. Hence the reason to store up lots of fast and easy recipes. Thumbing through my 40-year-old recipe box, I ran onto a very easy dinner my seven children just loved. We called it "Fritos Banditos" and the thing I liked about it most, was that the kids were so jazzed we were having it, that they were more than happy to help with the preparations.

Here's the recipe, then let's talk...

FRITOS BANDITOS (serves 10, unless I'm at the table, then it serves 5)

3 C corn chips
1 lb ground beef
1 pack taco seasoning mix
2 C water
1 onion, chopped
2 C shredded cheese
1 head lettuce, shredded
2 tomatoes, diced
1 can ripe olives, chopped or sliced
2 C sour cream

Cook and stir ground beef and onion, until beef is brown. Drain off fat. Stir in seasoning, water, and onion. Heat to boil; reduce heat, simmer uncovered 10 min. Spoon mixture onto corn chips. Top with remaining ingredients. We liked to add homemade guacamole, too, but this is delicious without it.

OK, now let's talk. Here's the deal: If you really want to easy-atize (not a word, I know) your cooking routine, get in the habit of keeping "gravels" in your freezer. "Gravels" are pre-cooked/pre-chopped/pre-shredded food that's been set out on cookie sheets, frozen, then repackaged into freezer bags or containers. Hamburger and sausage gravel, diced chicken gravel, shredded cheese gravel, chopped onion gravel, chopped celery gravel, chopped green pepper gravel...you get the idea.

Can you see how super easy it is to get dinner on if first, you're using an EASY recipe, and second, most of the ingredients are already prepared? So sometime soon (maybe not this weekend, cuz we're getting ready for Super Bowl Sunday, right?), but some weekend, devote some time to cooking up a whole lotta ground beef, Italian sausage, chicken breasts; shred some cheese, dice some onion and other veggies, freeze, and package it all up. If you're not inclined to tackling the preparing of 30 meals in one day as a means to saving time, this "gravel" approach will still do the trick.

Do you have an EASY recipe you could share? We're all in this together, remember, so let's share the good stuff. Until next time then, here's to saving time and energy by goin' EASY, and happy cook'n!