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The Big Beef Burrito
Makes 8 Big Burritos
Kids and adults all love the Big Beef Burrito. And
it's Homemade Take-out at its easiest. The burritos are simple to make in large
batches and take only minutes to warm up for lunches, snacks, or dinners. This
is definitely a dish to experiment with-try pulled chicken, ground beef, all
veggie, or rice and bean. The recipe below is our favorite Big Burrito basic.
Make sure you offer a toppings bar of sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and
onions, and include your own guacamole and salsa.
1 pound 90% lean ground beef
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and minced
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked rice
8 Flour Tortillas (10'' large size)
2 1/2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, or a blend)
½ cup cilantro, chopped
In a large saucepan, begin to brown the beef for a few minutes while seasoning with chili powder, salt, cumin, onion powder and chili powder. Add the onions, garlic and jalapeno peppers and cook for 7 minutes. Add black beans and heat through. Add rice and mix well.
Warm the tortillas slightly so that they do not break apart when folding. (The microwave works well. Simply place the tortillas on a plate, cover with a damp paper towel and heat for one minute.) Keeping the tortillas covered so that they don't dry out, remove one at a time and begin filling. Spoon about ¾ cup of filling into each tortilla and follow with ¼ cup of cheese on top of each, followed by a sprinkling of cilantro.
Fold in two edges and roll burritos carefully making sure to enclose all filling. To freeze, wrap each individually in plastic wrap after you fold each one so they don't dry out. Then, place in freezer bags and lay flat in the freezer. To reheat the burritos, unwrap, place burrito on a plate and microwave on high for 1 ½ to 2 minutes on each side, checking to make sure edges do not become hardened.
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Hawaiian Pizza
Makes 6 Individual Pizzas
There's something about Hawaiian Pizza that trips our fancy, but feel free to substitute your favorite toppings and you'll be reaching for that freezer door before you know it. We are providing a "from scratch" dough recipe, but prepared dough works fine.
For the Dough:
4 cups white flour
¼ cup wheat flour
1 ½ cups warm water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons honey
1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
For the Toppings:
4 cups pizza sauce
3 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 cups Canadian Bacon or Ham, chopped in large pieces
2 cups pineapple, chopped
You can blend the dough either by hand or with a mixer. Simply mix the two kinds of flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a small well in the center of the flour mixture. Add the yeast, honey, olive oil and water into the well and mix together quickly until a ball begins to form. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Let the dough rise for about 30 - 40 minutes. Divide dough into 6 small pieces and roll the balls out thinly on a floured surface.
Spread pizza sauce evenly on the pizzas, then sprinkle cheese and arrange ham and pineapple.
You will first want to "fresh freeze" each pizza so that the toppings don't stick to the tin foil. To do this, simply place uncovered on a baking sheet and freeze until hard for about 2 hours. You can then wrap each pizza well in aluminum foil, and then place in gallon-sized freezer bags. To cook, place in a preheated 400 degree oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, checking often for doneness. |
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 Dear Friends,
We all have an image of
the ideal weekday evening. For some, it's the effortless preparation of a
delicious, healthy meal, time sitting down as a family to dine and having the
entire kitchen clean before bedtime. Unfortunately, kids' after school
activities, work obligations, the doorbell-life in general-intervenes. That's
when many people are tempted to reach for the phone and call for take-out or
delivery-pizza, Chinese, you name it.
In this issue we challenge
you to cook with friends to prepare ahead of time for those inevitable crazy
nights. Making what we call "Homemade Take-Out" and storing it in your freezer
saves a substantial amount of money and time, and the food will be full of
healthy ingredients you know and love. You might even give yourself a night off
cooking every now and then, with your Homemade Take-Out ready at a moment's
notice. Put down that phone and open your freezer!
Alison and Shannon
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Tips on Making Your Own Homemade Take-Out
1. Choose a friend or two to cook with who you think would also benefit from the concept.
2. Think about what you desperately dial for the most, and what your family likes to eat, and choose one "Freezer Friendly" dish to start with.
3. Arrange a time to cook, choose a kitchen to cook in, and assign one person (or split up duties) to shop for ingredients. Don't forget to reimburse the shopper.
4. At the end of your cooking date, make sure all food is well wrapped and labeled for the freezer. If there are dishes that go together (say Wontons and a Stir Fry, or an Italian dish and garlic bread, place them together in the freezer).
5. Repeat (choose a different favorite).
6. Enjoy your stress-free, money-saving evenings!
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Our Top Ten Homemade Take-Out Dishes
You might love Indian food, or consistently have a hankering for Italian, or realize your Thai habit is getting a bit too pricey. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Asian Skillet Chicken (this month's featured recipe on www.cookingwithfriendsclub.com)
- Pizza (Hawaiian, Plain, Chicken Pesto, Veggie, whatever you like!)
- Burritos
- Buffalo Chicken Wings
- Beef, Broccoli and Bok Choy Stir Fry
- Lemongrass Shrimp
- Egg Rolls and Wonton Soup
- Lamb Curry
- Saag Paneer
- Veal Parmesan and Garlic Bread
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Watch the Savings Add Up
Having foods in your freezer ready to re-heat will certainly help you resist the urge to order in, but it will also leave more bills in your wallet. If you can eliminate even just one weekly meal from your take home habit, you'll be well on your way to saving money. Sometimes the best way to see your cost savings is to do a cost comparison of a homemade meal versus take out. We did just that with our Big Beef Burrito (see recipe left). Here's what we found:
A single burrito from our favorite Mexican take-out would cost $7.95. To make a batch of eight very stuffed ones ourselves, it would cost a total of $15.00 -- a mere $1.86 per burrito. If we purchased eight, it would cost a whopping $63.60 - and that's without tax and delivery costs.
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How to Make Homemade Take-out
Part of Your Life
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If you're eating and enjoying these meals as much as we think you'll
be, you'll have to keep booking cooking dates to keep the freezer
stocked. That'll surely be fun.
You'll also want to make sure to have staples on hand in your pantry and fridge such as dried pasta, rice, toppings for Mexican dishes, or anything else that completes your meal. You don't want to happily be warming up Lamb Curry one night only to find no rice in the pantry! And as you start to make some delicious dishes, make sure you double the batch-one for dinner tonight and another to freeze. Be sure to keep some extra loaves of Italian bread in the freezer too!
Look everywhere for more cooking inspiration: When you read menus or go to restaurants, think about what you see that you'd love to pull out of your freezer at the end of the day. Experiment with recipes and ingredients, and keep a list of what works so you can recreate it another day.
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 Tool-of-the-month:
The In-Drawer Spice Rack
If your spices are getting lost in the shuffle, consider dedicating a drawer to your favorites. It's by far the easiest solution we've found to keeping spices organized, a necessity for efficient and flavorful cooking. |
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Alison Bermack and Shannon Henry
Visit our web site at www.cookingwithfriendsclub.com.
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