Big Batch Cooking 102

Now that you've got ground meat cooked up and stored for later, lets talk about chicken, steak, pork chops. I love to grill and do so year round in Oklahoma. But it does take some prep time and quite frankly, I don't have the time somedays.

Big batch cooking saves me when I feel like I need a grilled chicken taco salad on a rainy, foggy day...like this weekend! A few weeks ago, on a nice December day, I grilled 10 pounds of chicken breasts and about 6 steaks. We had grilled chicken for dinner and I put the rest in a freezer bag for later. It doesn't take much more time to grill that much and it's going to really save me time! I sometimes marinate all of the meat in italian dressing or a special Okie marinade overnight but most of the time I just sprinkle Lowry's grill mate on them.

I use grilled chicken breasts in salads, tacos, soups, anything that needs a little pick me up sure tastes better with grilled meat on it. If you need something quick for after church, put some grilled meat; chicken, steak or pork, in the crockpot on low with about 1/2 cup of broth, juice or water and the meat will be thawed and ready to eat when you get home.

If I'm grilling for a dinner party, grill before the guests arrive and put the cooked meat into your crockpot on low. This allows you to visit with the guests instead of slaving over the grill. I do this often because our grill is in the afternoon sun and in the summer, it gets HOT! Don't really have to worry about that now but sometimes it is dark outside when I'm cooking dinner.

Now that you've got pre-cooked hamburger, chicken, steak and pork in the freezer all you've got to do is be creative in getting it to the table. In the next few weeks, I'll share some tried and true recipes that will get dinner on the table in just a few minutes!