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Thursday, May 2, 2019

Five Days of Mexi-Foods Began Last Night!

Our family is trying out something fun to liven up the cooking around here. For five consecutive nights leading up to Cinco de Mayo, we're dining on Mexican-inspired cuisine every night. While this may sound redundant, the motivation is to minimize our meal-prep for this week. We're all pretty busy right now, so making meals simpler while staying on a tight budget is a priority.

How we are doing this:

Each night, the dinner-cook prepares a large quantity of one or two Mexi-themed items, as part of their menu. There should be leftovers of these basic foods, from one night to the next, so that the other cooks can quickly and easily put together their Mexi-dinner.

Here's an example of what we're doing: last night was my cooking night and I made a large batch of refried beans, a large pot of Spanish rice, and a large jar of quickie salsa (quickie salsa uses chopped canned tomatoes, vinegar, salt, garlic, oregano, chopped onions, chili powder, red pepper flakes, pinch of sugar, and lemon juice, all cooked on the stove for about 15 minutes, following the proportions in this post).

My dinner plan for last night was for burrito bowls. I set out the refried beans, salsa, seasoned rice, shredded cheese, and plain yogurt. Everyone assembled their own bowl. Dinner was hearty and filled everyone. (I also made a batch of vanilla blackberry-rhubarb sauce, as a side/dessert.)

Tonight is my daughter's night. She's planning on making enchiladas. So, she'll use some of the leftover beans, rice, and shredded cheese, along with packaged corn tortillas and a homemade enchilada sauce. She'll make enough extra enchilada sauce for another night, too.

Friday is my night, again. I'll make a large batch of taco meat with some ground beef and seasonings. Then, I'll put together a casserole of sorts using many of the leftovers, along with the beef.

Saturday is my husband's night. He'll take any leftovers, make a large batch of fried tortilla chips, and make a family meal.

Sunday is Cinco de Mayo. We'll take all of the leftovers and make a Mexican buffet, using up as much of everything as we can.

The whole idea is to shake up our menu planning for the week, use budget-friendly foods, make cooking a bit easier for all, and celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Maybe I'll even get out the maracas!

Do you make anything special for Cinco de Mayo? Or is it just another day for you? Do you make salsa yourself? We have discovered that while we like to have jalapenos in salsa, our quickie salsa is equally tasty.
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