Family Briefs

I was recently invited to a Pampered Chef party by a friend of mine. She told me if I couldn’t go, I could just order online. Now, I know, these parties can be fun sometimes and often are opportunities for neat free gifts. I’m just not a party girl. The whole socializing with people I don’t really know just ain’t my thang.

I’m not a regular Pampered Chef shopper (remember, sometimes I’m too frugal for my own good), but some of the proceeds from this particular party were going to support breast cancer. Now, as a woman, how can I pass that up?

As I flipped through the magazine, I spent hundreds of dollars - in my head of course. I finally decided that one item in particular might make a difference in my life. They call it the “Mix ‘n Chop, ” but I call it the best thing since sliced bread! (And they aren’t paying me to say that, either)

We make spaghetti at our house almost every week (when 3 out of 4 kids will clean their plate and ask for seconds, you know you’ve got a winner). Between the spaghetti meal and hamburger helper meals, we cook with ground beef often enough to have invested in a cow (or two). Because I’m frugal, I buy it in the 5-lb. “sausage rolls,” break it apart into 1-lb. segments, and freeze each in their own individual bag. Then I just defrost however much I need for a given meal.

Sounds like a lot of work, but the part I HATE is actually cooking the ground beef - trying to separate the stuff is often like trying to get rid of the huge wad of already-chewed gum that you stepped in in the grocery store parking lot on a hot summer day while wrestling buckling your squirming 10-month-old into her car seat (too bad I wasn’t blogging back then, or you’d know the whole story). A spatula just can’t manage to break up the beef - certainly not small enough for me to feed my toddler!

The “Mix ‘n Chop” takes most of the work out of breaking up the ground beef as it cooks (the little bit of arm workout you get making the pieces minuscule is actually good for you - and what do you expect, you’re cooking ground beef!). It made cooking the ground beef for our spaghetti last night most enjoyable - I can’t wait to use it again! I might even put more dishes that call for ground beef on our menu - order up another cow!!

Head over to Elaine’s for a Pampered Chef round table discussion and find out what everybody’s favorite Pampered Chef item is!