I don’t have to tell you, weeknights with young kids in the house are busy.
After picking them up from school, sports practices, and day care, cooking supper and cleaning the kitchen, there isn’t much time left over for yourself.
How many times have you mixed up the supper menu with a new meal and then ended up spending your whole evening in the kitchen. The kids refuse to eat it, you spent a lot of time prepping it, and you have an enormous pile of dishes to clean up afterwards.
There went your evening.
Who wants to spend their whole evening cooking and cleaning. I know I don’t, my wife sure doesn’t, and I bet you don’t either.
We do however, want to offer our kids a clean healthy meal option without resorting to junk food when we want something easy.
Our favorite way to save some time in the evening is to use simple ground beef recipes. They require limited prep time, very few dishes, and the kids love them. Cooking and clean up can be fast and easy leaving you with time to hang out with your kids, get some exercise, or relax with a glass of wine.
Simplify your evenings.
Variety is nice once in a while, but when you have something that’s quick and easy and everyone enjoys it, why not keep it on the menu regularly.
When you have a freezer full of grass-finished ground beef, these meal options are a no-brainer.
Hamburgers, Burritos, Black Beans and rice with burger (Dirty Rice)
When I want to make something quick that I know the boys will enjoy, these are the meals I choose. I typically make one of these meals at least once a week.
I love the response I get from our boys when I make these meals.
Last week I made hamburgers, and one of them thanked me after supper for making them hamburgers. Then the other two chimed in “yeah, thanks dad!”.
When burritos are ready to eat, I only have to tell them once. They will drop what they’re doing and come running to get one.
I don’t really use recipes for these since they are so simple, but I’ll share a few tips.
Hamburgers:
This goes for any meal using ground beef, and especially for burgers. If you’re going to thaw your burger in the microwave, don’t overdo it. Keep an eye on it so you don’t end up cooking the beef. If your beef is partially cooked it won’t stick together to make a good hamburger patty.
Seasoning options are endless. I like McCormick’s Hamburger seasoning, and we’ve also been using Hank & Stew’s All-Purpose seasoning from Fleet Farm.
Grill your burgers to a medium doneness to keep them juicy
Burritos:
Fry hamburger with garlic, cumin, and salt. When beef is browned, add mashed pinto beans and fry them together. Add butter if needed. La Banderita flour tortillas are the best in my opinion. They’re the most similar to the tortillas my grandma made from scratch. Heat the tortilla on a griddle and add the burrito filling and cheese. You can also add chopped onion here if you like, but I would skip it for kids.
I often use canned pinto beans for something fast, but if you want to elevate this burrito to the next level, prepare dry pinto beans. Boil the dry beans for 3 to 4 hours with garlic, cumin and salt. These will make the creamiest and most flavorful burrito filling. You can also make dry beans in a slow cooker. Start them in the morning and they’ll be ready to mash after work.
One of the best parts about burritos is that they’re easy to store and they’re great reheated, so make plenty of extras.
Dirty Rice:
Browned hamburger, brown rice, and black beans. Cook the rice and hamburger separately and then mix everything together. We typically add chicken stock seasoning to the rice while it boils. Salt, garlic powder and onion powder with the hamburger.
The boys like the simple mixture by itself and also with avocados added on top. They also like leftovers the next day.
Lastly, here is our favorite winter side-dish to go with almost any meal:
Oven roasted vegetables
Raw, canned, steamed or cooked frozen vegetables don’t hold a candle to the flavor and palatability of oven roasted vegetables. Even broccoli and cauliflower become a tasty treat that you’ll want more and more of when they’re browned in the oven.
When it comes to vegetables to use for this, almost anything goes, so you can mix and match based on what you like. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Winter Squash, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Brussel sprouts, snap peas, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, and zucchini are some of the most common ones that we use.
Chop the vegetables into roughly ½ inch pieces for even cooking. Use a generous amount of olive oil, and seasoning of your preference. Spread the vegetables evenly on a large baking sheet in a single layer with a little space in between. This is important to make sure you get the proper browning and flavor out of the vegetables. If they’re too crowded, they won’t brown. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and roast for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
Herman