OAMC / Bulk Cooking: The Hamburger Plan

By Kim Tilley

Hamburger Plan page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Taco meat

Use the chili as is! It makes a great taco meat! I serve it in "soft tacos" (burritos!) with cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa and sour cream. MMM

5-way chili

Serve Perdenales chili over cooked pasta. Top with cooked kidney beans (canned is fine), cheese, and chopped onion. Just like the Hard Times Cafe (a great chili restaurant out East!)

Burritos for the freezer
Perdenales chili
flour tortillas
cheddar cheese
refried beans (optional)

Put about a 1/4 cup of meat (eyeball it) in the center of the tortilla, top with cheese and beans. Roll up tightly and place seam side down on a cookie sheet and freeze.

When frozen, put in Ziploc bag.

To reheat, microwave on high for 2-3 minutes.

Ravioli

I have a half-moon shaped press I use to make these called the "Pocket Gourmet." Here is the recipe from the booklet, with my modifications to make if you don't have this press (has three sizes, really neat to do turnovers, pastries, all kinds of stuff!)

For the dough:

• 3 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Beat eggs. Add flour and salt, mix together. Use hands to press into a firm ball of dough. If too moist, add more flour.

Place ball of dough on a lightly flourd surface and knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth. Cover with a towel and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

Roll dough with the rolling pin on a lightly floured surface until paper thin. Dough should be used immediately to avoid drying out.

How to assemble ravioli:
If you don't have the press, place the filling in small mounds (according to the size you want) about an inch apart from each other on HALF of the dough.

Take a basting brush and lightly brush water between each filling mound but not on it. The water is your "glue" to stick the pasta together.

Fold other half of dough (with no filling) over top the half with filling on it, pressing AROUND each filling mound to seal in the filling. Cut into squares between the sealed filling mounds.

Place on waxed paper or greased cookie sheet and freeze (make sure they don't stick to the cookie sheet and rip!) When frozen, place in ziploc bag.

To serve, bring water to a boil. Put in frozen ravioli and cook 3-5 minutes or until al dente. Top with hot tomato sauce, alfredo sauce, whatever you like! Enjoy! I have also just cooked them in sauce instead of water and they cook up fine.

(If you have the press, cut out the circles of dough with the bottom of the press, place one circle in press, add a little filling and brush water on one half of the dough edges. Press closed, making sure the filling is sealed in. Freeze on cookie sheet)

South-of-the Border Lasagna

• 1 pound ground beef (or perdenales chili)
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (1 1/4-ounce) package taco seasoning mix
• 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, divided
• 4 (12-inch) flour tortillas
• 1 (8-ounce) container refrigerated guacamole dip
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
• 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced and seeded (optional)

(Don't have to do this step if you use the Perdenales chili) Brown ground beef in a skillet, stirring until it crumbles; drain.

Bring tomato sauce and taco seasoning mix to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and reserve 1/4 cup mixture.

Add beef and half of green chiles to remaining tomato sauce.

Place 1 flour tortilla on a greased 12-inch pizza pan.(I would use a casserole dish or cake pan, lined with foil so you can lift it out later to freeze) Layer with half of meat sauce, 1 tortilla, guacamole dip, half of Monterey Jack cheese, and remaining green chiles. Top with 1 tortilla, remaining meat sauce, remaining tortilla, and reserved 1/4 cup tomato sauce.

Bake lasagna at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with remaining half of cheese, and bake 5 more minutes. Top with jalapeno slices, if desired. Makes 4 servings.

Kim's note: You can skip the guacamole if its presence causes a riot at your house. I love guacamole, but not the mutiny it inspires in the rest of my crew! Mild salsa would be a delicious substitute. I am going to tinker with this recipe, I will post the results.

Deep Dish Mexican Pizza - from "Fresh N' Easy Cookbook" pamphlet from Wyler's Bouillon)

For Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups biscuit baking mix (use bisquick or following recipe)
• 1/2 cup cornmeal (any kind, masa harina is best)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl (or food processor) , combine above ingredients, mixing well.

Grease a 15 x 10 inch baking pan/ casserole dish (this recipe makes a lot, you could use two smaller dishes, like pie plates)

Pat dough on bottom and up sides of well greased pan/casserole dish. Bake 10 minutes, remove from oven.

For Pizza:

• 1 pound ground beef (or Perdenales chili)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 can (8 oz) your favorite tomato sauce
• 1 can green chilies (optional)
• 2 tsp or 1 cube beef bouillon
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1 can (16 oz) refried beans
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• chopped tomatoes
• shredded lettuce
• slice pitted olives
• any other toppings of your choice

Prepare beef filling as follows or use your own (leftover chili works great!): brown onion and beef in large skillet, pour off fat. Add tomato sauce, chilies, bouillon, chili powder and cumin.

Cook and stir until bouillon dissolves.

Spread beans over crust, spread meat mixture evely over beans. Top with cheese. Bake 10 minutes.

Garnish with tomatoes, lettuce and olives (or other toppings). Serves 6-8, refrigerate or freeze leftovers (this recipe is even better after a day or two in the fridge!)

Notes: I use whatever I have on hand for this recipe. I have use the following made biscuit mix, but I have even made biscuit diugh and added the cornmeal, and then done the recipe. For the beans, I have used all kinds, they all work good as long as they are kind of thick for spreading. For the meat, I have used leftover chili, goulash, ground turkey, Italian sausage, whatever you have on hand! The cheeses can be any kind, a little cheddar can go a long way if mixed with other cheeses. Do not worry if you are missing a few spices. It tastes great even if you don't have cumin or (heaven forbid!) if you run out of chili powder.

Basic Biscuit Mix

• 10 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup baking powder
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 cups shortening

Mix dry ingredients in a huge bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender, OR (this is what I do), combine 2 1/2 cups of the dry ingredients and 1/2 cup shortening in the food processor, gradually combining all of dry mix with shortening.

Keep tightly sealed. At room temp, it keeps a few months, longer in the fridge. I usually use all of my mix up in a month so I keep it in my baking supplies.

Use the mix to make the following:

Pancakes: 2 cups mix, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs
Waffles: 2 cups mix, 2 tbsp veg. oil, 1 egg, 1 1/3 cups milk
Dumplings: 2 cups mix, 2/3 cup milk
Other ideas: use in place of Bisquick in recipes

Chili pot pies

Prepare a double recipe for the cornmeal biscuit crust (from Deep Dish Mexican Pizza). You can make one large pot pie or individual ones (those pans to make jumbo-sized muffins are perfect for this).

Grease the muffin pan (or cake pan, whatever you are using), line bottom and sides with half of crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, fill with Perdenales chili, add top crust, bake again another 10 minutes or until top crust is done.

When cool, carefully take out of muffin pan (you can use liners if this is too difficult, or line big pan with foil if you are making one large chili pot pie).

Freeze.

To serve, microwave for a few minutes on medium or reheat in oven for 1/2 hour at 300 (I am guessing here) degrees.

Other suggestions: Fill with ground beef and cheese, shredded barbecued chicken, shredded bbq pork, bbq beef (beanless sloppy joes).

Empanadas (ehm-pah-NYAH-dahs)

This is not the "authentic recipe" but it is good and not too labor intensive.

You need:
One recipe of your favorite pastry dough
Perdenales or other favorite chili

Make up pastry dough. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thick. Using a cup or biscuit cutter, cut out small circles.

Place a small teaspoon or less of chili in the middle of each one. Brush one edge with a little water. Fold edges together to seal. Bend to resemble a crescent moon and crimp edges with side of fork.

At this point you could freeze them or you could bake then freeze them. Bake for whatever your pastry recipes indicates, 400 degrees for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned and crispy. Freeze on cookie sheet. Serve as an appetizer or main dish with other Mexican/Spanish accompaniments (ie refried beans, spanish rice, etc)

(All of the next 7 or 8 recipes came from Busy Cooks and links from there. Please check out Lynn's site, she is a wealth of information!)

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About the Author

Kim Tilley, a tightwad at heart, is a wife, a mother of three active boys and the founding editor of Frugal-Moms.com. Frugal by force and later by choice, Kim cut her income by 60% to stay at with her children and discovered that anyone can live better for less. Her work has appeared in print publications such as The Tightwad Gazette. In her free time, she entertains herself by chasing kids and finding ways to create something from nothing!

© 2002-2006 Fractured Frugal Friends (F3). All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.