Start no later than noon. Brown ~1 to 1.5 pounds lean ground beef in a large pot (a "Dutch oven" is what we usually use; ~12-14" diameter, ~6-8" tall). Add ~3-5 tomatoes (canned, fresh, or frozen; fresh/frozen usually homegrown) and tomato juice to ~5" depth. Season to taste (parsley, sage, bay leaf, garlic powder and onion powder usually; varies depending on the cook). Stir every so often during the day (you *could* just leave it as-is on the stove while you head off to work, but that's probably a Bad Idea).
By 6pm it should have cooked down suitably, and you can package it up in empty (cleaned) margarine containers to be frozen. One tub is ~ one meal for 3; you can usually get 4-5 full meals plus one or two smaller containers for one person's dinner. (One large-plate-full dinner, anyway. <g>)
I like the frozen-and-thawed version a little better; freezing seems to pull out a bit more of the water making it nicely chunky. |
