Morph Your Meals!
One great tip for reducing meal prep time is to “morph your meals”. This means you start with one thing and make some extra. With the extra, you add some ingredients to make a second, different meal. With the extra from meal 2, add a few things for a third meal. I also call it “rolling your meals” because you start with something, get on a roll, and go for a while. Here’s an example of my “Bean Roll” or how I start with beans and hamburger and make three different bean recipes.
Meal 1: Pinto Beans
For meal 1, I make a big pot of pinto beans. I use 2 cups of dry pinto beans, add a slice of onion or some dried minced onion, a chili (dry, fresh, or frozen), a couple of garlic cloves, and spices like salt, pepper, and mild chili powder. Then I pressure cook the beans for one hour including warm up time. I turn off the heat and let the pot cool until no steam comes out of the top of the pressure cooker. Then I take off the lid, taste the beans, adjust the seasonings, and call it dinner. I often serve it with fresh vegetables and toast. You could also make burritos out of it.
Meal 2: Chili Beans
While the beans are cooking, I cook up two pounds of ground beef with some salt. I sometimes take a half pound out to make my husband green chili. He loves it, but no one else much cares for it. I just add some spices and cut up green chili to the meat. Super simple.
When the beans are done, I take a couple of cups and add them to the cooked ground beef. I blend up whatever mild vegetables I have on hand to add to the pot. Some common ones I use are zucchini, yellow squash, cauliflower, and spinach. If I use spinach or unpeeled zucchini, I add tomatoes to neutralize the green color since my family doesn’t like it to be green. (They all know I add the vegetables, they just don’t want the chili beans to look green at the end!) Then I add a mexican flavoring spice mix I have or just some cumin. (Sorry about the lack of measurements! I have no idea what I use!)
I serve the chili beans with chips and cilantro and sour cream if I have it. Yum!
Meal 3: Mexican Pot Pie
I fill up the bottom half of a pie plate with chili beans. Then I make some corn bread batter and spread it over the chili beans. I bake the Mexican Pot Pie at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes or until the corn bread is done. This is a family favorite!
I hope you enjoy these ideas for how to morph your meals!
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