Works for Me Wednesday: Last Minute Meals

http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/

Shannon over there at Rocks in My Dryer has a cool topic for this week's "Works for Me Wednesday." What do you do when you have a headache, the kids and husband are hungry, it's dinnertime--and there are 3 ingredients left in your pantry? There are quite a few fun and interesting solutions over there, so please visit!

Here's mine:

Ground beef
Jarred spaghetti sauce
Pasta--usually spaghetti

Yeah, this is an Italian house. And my husband makes 'from scratch' sauce that would knock your eyes out. But that's for Sunday. It simmers all day long and is generally loaded with sausage, beef, meatballs, brasciole or any combination of these. Definitely not a last-minute meal!

Another easy one:

Cut up chicken or pork--brown it first, please! Or use leftovers
Gravy a la Alton Brown*
Noodles

Alton Brown makes the easiest gravy on earth. It wasn't until I saw this on "Good Eats" that I could make gravy. All you need is: 1/2 stick butter (2 oz.)--1/4 Cup flour (2 oz.)--1 can broth (about 2 cups.) See the 2-2-2 theme? Just keep that in mind if you want to double this! Melt the butter. Add the flour and stir with a whisk for 2 minutes or so to make a roux. Dump in the broth and stir until thick. Dump in the meat. Cook about a half hour, maybe less. I rely on my meat thermometer for everything.
Serve over noodles.

Both of these meals assume you either have salad or vegetables in the house!

Now...the real trick to surviving last-minute meals? Prepping ahead! If you bring home ground beef, don't put the package in the fridge. Brown it first, then bag it according to how much your family would need in a recipe. I even add my spices and label the bags (Taco Meat or Chili Meat, for example). The only time I don't brown my g.b. is if I plan to make meatballs with it. Meatballs are more of a production, since I also add freshly ground pork tenderloin to the mix. I make those when I'm ambitious.

If you bring home chicken, clean and trim it! Mike brought me home 2 nice Top Round steaks this week, and I picked up 2 more on the way home from the doctor yesterday. (Half price, btw!) One went into last night's dinner. The others I cut up for stew and chili, then put in the freezer.

Take a tip from Rachel Ray: Prep your fruits and vegetables ahead of time, too. (I don't know why, but I hate the word 'veggies.') Just don't do this with berries, since they'll get moldy.

Believe me, in this past week when I was sick, it was a blessing to take things out of the freezer and have them 85% ready to go! You don't have to prep the moment you get back from the grocery. Hey, I'm a mom--I know you're tired! Just make sure you do the meat within a day or two.

PS--we eat pizza almost every week. And there are nights that mom's line is: "if you can find it and make it yourself, you can eat it." Believe me, much as I like to cook--I don't cook every night!