Three pound package of ground beef needs to be used. It’s Saturday and the family needs to be fed. So here’s what I made!

(1) Chili! Hands down the best chili powder to use is Gebhardt Chili Powder. It’s hard to come by in my area, so I have it flown in from Texas by my family. Since no one is headed my way though, and since I’m now out of Gebhardt, I will purchase online. (See links below). If you don’t have a recipe, use the on the Gebhardt Chili Powder bottle. An entire separate discussion could be had about whether or not to include beans in your chili. I tried once, for the sake of my husband, to add the beans separately. But the flavor is not the same. So he has to pick out the beans.

(2) Spaghetti! I dream of spending weekends in the summer canning fresh tomatoes from my garden into spaghetti sauce. However, I don’t have a garden and I have only ever managed to use tomatoes to make fresh salsa. That was an event to be sure! It was hours of great fun with my friend in her gourmet kitchen, chopping and chopping and chopping. So sad to split the yield two ways and walk away with a few pints of salsa after all that work. But this is about spaghetti. I just browned the meat and added jar sauce.

(3) Easy Weeknight Enchiladas! But wait…it’s Saturday, shouldn’t they be harder? No way. Out of my entire, wonderful Southern Living Cookbook, Easy Weeknight Favorites, I’ve only managed to regularly incorporate two recipes into my repertoire over the course of 20 years of marriage and cooking.

So yes, I started out with two pans containing fresh, minced garlic and chopped onions sauteing in each pan. Then added the rest of the ingredients for Chili and Weeknight Enchiladas to their respective pan while also starting the other pound of ground beef in a third pan for the spaghetti.

Son opted for spaghetti for immediate gratification, so I had to cook some noodles to go with it. Chili was scooped into Mason jars with plastic lids and labeled. Enchiladas are sitting on the stove cooling. I’ll probably pack away half for the freezer because we have limited tolerance for repeat leftovers in my household (not me…others).

If you stuck with me this far, thanks! I’ve saved my affiliate links for this section so you can read and enjoy without otherwise being distracted. If you are inspired by anything I’ve suggested, I’d be ever so grateful if you used the links below to make any purchases.

And that’s how I used three pounds of beef on a Saturday night. Living it up in Jackson, TN.