SOUTHWESTERN BEAN SOUP AND BATCH COOKING TIPS

I have a weekly routine that I stick to pretty closely.  Friday is my shopping/errand day.  I am learning that after spending a full day out running, then putting away groceries - the last thing I want to do on Friday evening is spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning.  I used to solve this dilemma by either bringing fast food home or ordering a pizza.  I'm trying to stop this bad habit for 2 reasons; 1) to be a better steward of our finances, and 2) to be a better steward of our health.  This means I have to do some planning.  I need to have an arsenal of quick, simple recipes that I can pull off without much mess.  This Southwestern Bean Soup recipe has GOT to be the winner of all categories.

SOUTHWESTERN BEAN SOUP

1 - 48 OZ JAR GREAT NORTHERN BEANS
2 - CANS MEXICAN STYLE CORN
1 - 28 OZ CAN DICED TOMATOES (I USED 1 QT. OF MY CANNED TOMATOES)
2 CUPS WATER
1- PKT. TACO SEASONING
1 - PKT. RANCH DRESSING MIX

PLACE ALL INGREDIENTS IN A STOCK POT, BRING TO A BOIL, THEN SIMMER FOR 30 MINUTES TO AN HOUR.

This soup is good and easy.  It's also good and easy.  :0)  It takes less than 5 minutes to throw it all together. 

When I got home from shopping Friday, I took a couple minutes to get my soup going, then I started putting away my groceries.  It was the ultimate in multi-tasking.  All I had to do to finish dinner was throw a quick salad together and heat up some French Baguette.  There were also plenty of left-overs - which leads me to my next topic...

________________________________________________

I have been working on learning the art of cooking once and eating twice.  For instance, instead of sticking the soup in the fridge for left-overs, I divided into two different gallon sized freezer bags, labeled them with it's contents and the date and layed them flat in the freezer (once they had cooled down).  I now have 2 more quick meals just waiting to be re-heated. 

I did the same thing on Saturday.  Saturday was to be my baking day.  I knew that I wouldn't feel like messing with dinner after baking bread all day.  So, that morning I cooked up some hamburger and threw it in a crock-pot with some vegetables, broth and V-8 juice. 

I doubled my bread batches, which doesn't take any more effort than making a single batch.  So, by the time I had finished my 6 loaves of French Baguette and 2 loaves of Multi-grain Bread - dinner was ready and we had fresh baked bread to go with it. Mmmm... Just like with the Southwestern Bean Soup, I bagged up the left-overs and sent them to the freezer for future meals. 

I also made mostaccoli one night this week.  Instead of cooking 1/2 box of pasta - I cooked the whole box and doubled it.  Half of the finished meal got wrapped tightly in aluminum foil, labeled and sent to the freezer.

In three days of my regular cooking (aside from the bread, which I don't do every day) I was able to add 1 meal of mostaccoli and 5 soup meals to the freezer.  Plus, by spending 1 day making bread  I was able to have 2 weeks worth of a slicing loaf of bread (toast, sandwiches, etc.) and 5 loaves of French Baguette in the freezer. 

*A note on the soups; It's easy to make a large pot of soup by adding more veggies or what-have-you.  But, if you have a larger family and don't have enough left-overs to make a whole meal, simply freeze into individual sized portions.  This would be great to have on hand for snacks, or to heat in the morning and send in a Thermos to school or work. 

I'm learning that by changing the way I view left-overs and utilizing my time in the kitchen for maximum efficiency (batch cooking) - I'm able to save myself a lot of work in the long run and build up a stock pile of freezer meals for those days (like my Fridays) when I know that I won't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen making supper. 

I challenge you to start thinking about doubling your recipes sometimes when you're in the kitchen.  It will save you time down the road.

Happy Homemaking!