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Cook More Efficiently

Want to conserve your physical energy and help keep your monthly energy bill from soaring? Try this method of cooking. It will help you make a second meal when preparing one. Here’s how.

• When frying ground beef in a skillet, fry enough for two meals instead of one. Store the extra in the refrigerator to use within the week or bag and place in the freezer.
• Boil or bake a whole chicken in the oven until done. Remove the meat from the bones with tongs. Separate the breast meat from the darker meat if desired. Measure enough meat to make your favorite chicken dish or entrée. Bag up the extra in quantities needed for your favorite recipes and freeze.
• Bake two meatloaves at a time instead of one. Bake two casseroles at a time. Wrap the extra one in freezer paper and freeze.
  
• Double or triple the ingredients in a meatball recipe. Roll the meat mixture into balls and place on baking trays. Bake in the oven until done. Drain off the grease and place enough meatballs for one night’s meal in each freezer bag. Freeze extra.
  
• Boil enough rice for two meals. Store the extra in the refrigerator and use within the week to make stir fry, egg fried rice, add to chicken broth with chicken to make soup or use in your favorite casserole.
  
• Boil macaroni for two meals in a large pot. Drain and store the extra in the refrigerator and use within the week to bake macaroni and cheese, goulash or your favorite casserole or add to vegetable soup to add variation to your weekly menu.

Preparing the meat or longest cooking item ahead of time is a great shortcut for nights when you need to get dinner on the table in a hurry.

©By Deborah S. Tukua, author of Pearls of Kitchen Wisdom
www.hollycreekbooks.com