Cooking Meat Ahead of Time

This is exactly what it sounds like, and it is the most important thing I do to keep my dinner-making in the 20-25 minute range each night.  Cooking meat is usually the longest part of any dinner preparation, so if you can get it done ahead of time, you'll always be ready for a quick meal in a pinch.

I cook ground beef, at least five pounds, but more often ten pounds, at a time.  Maybe that sounds crazy, but it really takes almost the same amount of time to do as two pounds.  Then I drain the fat off, and let it cool.  If I'm really feeling lazy (did I say lazy?  I'm sure I meant busy...) I just dump it in the crock-pot instead.  Ground beef cooks beautifully in there - just chop it up with a spatula after it's done.

Thanks to Amy for cooking ground beef for me, so I could take a photo!

Chicken?  I crock-pot it, too.  I have a kind-of big crock-pot: I think it's 8 quart?  At any rate, I can fit at least 10 pounds of chicken in it.  I put it in and turn it on in the morning (even starting from frozen!) and it's done by late afternoon.  I might use some of it in dinner that night, but most of it I pull out of the beautiful golden chicken stock (which I also save and freeze), put it into a large bowl with a lid, and refrigerate until the next day.  I used to just chop it up right then, still hot.  But then one day I guess I was in a hurry and didn't have time to chop ten pounds of chicken so I put it in the fridge until the next day and made a wonderful discovery: cold chicken chops SO much more easily (and prettily) than hot chicken.

No matter what kind of meat you're cooking, you can almost always cook a whole lot of it in about the same amount of time as a smaller amount.  Then just divide it into Ziploc bags, and pop it into the freezer to wait for the next time you need to make dinner in a hurry.

Which as I've said before, is always.

Kate