Making Dinner Easy

Section: Food

SOURCE: Dinner Made Easy

Family Features) - Busy lifestyles make it difficult for families to spend time together on a regular basis - but parents overwhelmingly agree dinnertime is the best time to nurture and nourish their kids. A recent survey found that 78 percent of respondents feel eating dinner together as a family is important, but the majority (55 percent) said they are only able to have dinner together as a family four times - or less - each week.

Simple ideas to get dinner on the table are the key to making dinnertime together a habit. Try this simple idea - cook once; eat twice. By cooking the meat and turning it into two or three great meals, you can cut down on kitchen time and have plenty of room for more family time. For more ideas and shortcuts for dinnertime planning, preparation and cleanup a great resource is DinnerMadeEasy.com.

Bring one of these great complete dinner ideas to your family dinner table tonight! It's easy as 1 + 2 + 3 = a great meal.

Make-Ahead Seasoned Ground Beef
Cook a batch of ground beef now, then package to use for quick
meals later.
Makes 10 cups

5 pounds lean ground beef
1 package (1.25 ounces) Old El Paso taco seasoning mix

Sprinkle taco seasoning mix evenly over ground beef; pat lightly. Cut beef in half. Heat 4-quart saucepan over medium- high heat about 2 minutes. Cook half of beef about 10 minutes, breaking up and stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Repeat with remaining beef.
Divide Seasoned Ground Beef into DixieWare containers for future meals. Use 3 cups to make Crescent-Topped Burger Bake, 2 cups to make Quick Italian Soup and 2 cups to make Tomato-Vegetable Stroganoff. Label containers and freeze up to 3 months.
Note: One pound of browned, drained ground beef equals approximately 2 cups cooked ground beef.

Note: Taco seasoning used to season the beef will not overpower the flavor of individual recipes.