Instant Dinner! Beef & Mac From Freezer to Family in 30 Minutes
JUMP TO RECIPE
This blog post is dedicated to Becky and her family.
Becky is a friend of a friend in another country, whom I have never met, but I can really relate to her. She is a working mom who needs to feed her family every day. If coming up with the answer to “What’s for dinner?” could be settled once and for all like “What’s two plus two?” life would be exponentially simplified. But we have to keep answering that same question every day and come up with a variety of answers. That, friends, is exhausting. Add long work days, limited shopping time and the ever-present budget concerns, and it can also get to be a real headache.
There are many strategies for helping with this daily duty. Planning menus, creating a printable shopping list, purchasing in bulk where possible and batch cooking are a few. Finding simple meals that can be quickly prepared is one of the best.
The Changing Home Front
Before two world wars, most women worked only at home. That changed dramatically by the 1940s. Many cookbooks from the era like Double-Quick Cooking were a direct response to the new women’s workforce “leading a double life” of employee and homemaker. Thousands of other women had already been working away from home in demeaning jobs such as household domestics or sharecroppers. They needed all the inspiration they could get. For both groups, World War 2 opened a whole new world of unprecedented opportunity for meaningful work and economic independence.
During World War 2 all the problems associated with getting dinner on the table were compounded by a lack of cooking fuel. In fact, “the fuel crisis was considered the second battle on the domestic front (after starvation) with gas, petrol, electricity, coal, and water being severely restricted.” England’s government shared ideas like hay-box cooking and tying a second dish to the saucepan lid in order to cook two items separately in the same pot.
This week’s blog post is in memory of those enterprising—and perhaps desperate—women who fed their families every single day in spite of so many hurdles. And, it is in honor of all the ones who manage the same feat today. Like Becky.
An Answer to “What’s for Dinner?”
Beef & Mac is a family-friendly one-pot meal. It can be prepared in a variety of ways but is especially easy in the Instant Pot. Aside from the energy and time savings, this recipe uses only a few ingredients and you can even make it when you come home and realize you forgot to thaw out the ground beef. The Instant Pot is a master tool for handling frozen meat. It means you can make a fresh meal even quicker than you could thaw out a batch-cooked freezer meal. It not only thaws the ground beef but also cooks the pasta separately at the same time!
In her article “5 Ways the Instant Pot Saves Money” Chrysti at marginmakingmom.com writes that these wonderful appliances quickly prepare a scratch meal while you are free to walk away and take care of other things. They allow you to pull practically any meat from the freezer and have it cooked, pronto. And according to her research, “using an electric pressure cooker can save as much as 70% of energy compared with boiling, steaming, oven cooking, or slow cooking.” It uses less water, cooks very quickly and is fully insulated. All of the energy goes toward cooking your food. Pressure cooking is also one of the best ways to prepare tender, fall-off-the-bone meats and perfectly cooked beans or rice.
An Instant Pot is a bit of an investment and pressure cooking can be daunting. It took a while for me to gather the courage to get one. But now I will never look back. My Instant Pot is in use nearly every day making bone broth, cooking grains and legumes, preparing delicious meats straight from the freezer, making perfect hard-boiled eggs…and the list goes on. It conserves energy and time, and helps me cook at home instead of getting take-out when I’m too weary to find today’s answer for that nagging “What’s for dinner” question. It is one appliance that would do the 1940s homemaker proud.
References:
Ginn, Peter, Goodman, Ruth and Langlands, Alex. Wartime Farm. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2012, p. 214.
Beef & Mac
Ingredients
Instructions
- Pour 2 cups of beef broth OR 2 cups of water plus 2 teaspoons beef-base Better Than Bouillon into the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Add dried macaroni. Be sure pasta is completely submerged in the broth. Add a bit more water or broth if needed.
- Place the Instant Pot trivet over the pasta, making sure the handles are up.
- Then, place the frozen ground beef on the trivet. Secure the lid on the Instant Pot; be sure the vent is set to sealing (not venting); and pressure cook for 5 minutes.
- Allow steam to release naturally for five minutes; then, release pressure and open the Instant Pot.
- Lift the trivet with the beef onto a plate (it will not be fully cooked at this point).
- Drain the pasta into a colander. Replace the inner pot into the Instant Pot; then, press the Sauté button.
- Add the oil to the Instant Pot; then, add the beef and sauté 2-3 minutes or until fully browned. Drain fat if necessary.
- Sprinkle dried onion, garlic powder and dried basil over beef. Add marinara sauce. Add cooked macaroni, plus salt and pepper to taste.
- Stir well to combine. Continue to sauté, stirring constantly, until all ingredients are heated through. Enjoy!
“A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.”
Proverbs 15:17 (NLT)