Big cooking session

I had some free time last week and found a sale on lean ground beef so it was the perfect time to do some bulk cooking for the freezer. 

With the 10 pounds of ground beef, I cooked up taco filling and chili.
I also soaked 8 cups of pinto beans, then cooked  6 cups for refried beans and  cooked the other 2 cups to add to the chili.

the dishes ready for the freezer look really neat, don't they?  

FlatLander chili recipe

I base my chili on this recipe except I use home cooked pinto beans instead of canned red beans and I use a couple cans of finely diced tomatoes instead of the tomato juice. 

Taco seasoning

This is our favorite taco seasoning.  I multiplly it by 20 (and the AllRecipes.com site will do that for you) except I use only about 1/3 of the black pepper the recipe calls for.
How I make Refried-beans 

while I had the spices out,  I mixed up extra taco seasoning as well as a jar of spice mixture that my husbands uses for rub when he smokes meat.
Frugal tip- I buy many of my spices at Big Lots.  The containers that hold about 1 cup of spice sell for $1 at the Big Lots in my town.  I use lots of chili powder, paprika, cumin, onion and garlic powders in these 2 recipes and am really glad I can get them at a good price.

Keeping it Real

all that cooking makes for lots of dishes to wash afterward.  I really don't mind washing dishes and am thankful I have plenty of heated safe water that comes right in my kitchen.  My mother says her home did not get inside running water or electricity until she was in high school.  My great grandmother came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and lived for years in a sod house.  She did not have the luxury of running water.  

Below is a photo of my great grandparents, around 1900, on their little homestead near Cordell Oklahoma.  Real Pioneers!

All that cooking and cleaning was work, but now when we need a fast meal,  I can just heat up some taco meat with refried beans or chili, serve with some salad and chips or crackers and we will have an easy and delicious meal with very little effort.