Tuesday Tips-Make life easier!
Today’s tip is time-saving and money-saving.
Whenever I find ground beef on sale, I buy as much as we can afford in that week’s budget and prepare it for the freezer.
I use some of the meat to make hamburger patties which I freeze on cookie sheets for a couple of hours and then place them in plastic freezer bags. These burgers are plain, but click here for a great recipe for BBQ Burgers.
I brown the rest of the meat with onions, drain it (click here for a great tip!) and freeze it in zipper freezer bags. (You can see a video here about how I do this to maximize storage space.).
When it’s dinner time I can pull out a pack and take half of it to use in recipes like Easy Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce (substitute ground beef for sausage), Cheeseburger Casserole, Mexican Stuffed Peppers, Taco Cups or Gluten Free Lasagna Bake.
This week I made taco meat with part of the ground beef. Click here for the recipe I used.
You can also check out my Ground Beef Recipe Pinterest Board here.
Do you have any delicious ways to use ground beef? Share in the comments. 🙂
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I was talking to a doctor I know and she mentioned adding carrots to the meat that you’ll use for burgers. The added amount makes it stretch just that much farther AND the kids get veggies they’re unaware of!
Great idea Katharine – I have also heard of people adding shredded zucchini.
how long does frozen ground beef or frozen chicken last in the freezer?
I think the “official” answer is 6 months. I know that in a non-frost free freezer (some models of chest freezers are non-frost free), you can keep food longer. I usually use ours before the six months is up.
thanks. will it still last for 6 months if it is cooked before hand and then frozen?
As far as I know. I think the problem isn’t that is spoils when frozen for a long time, it just dries out and taste stale.
When I buy large quantities of ground beef, I cook it all in a slow cooker with the spices. It’s so much easier for me especially the cleanup! Then I measure one cup into baggies to freeze flat. It sure does make dinner prep go faster!
I never tried cooking it in the crock pot Kirsten. Do you have to stir it to get it to brown evenly?
Yes, you do have to stir a couple of times so that you don’t get huge clumps of meat and to insure even cooking.
My favorite ground beef recipe is what I like to call stretched taco meat. I stretch it with black beans and sometimes even potatoes. It can be used in tacos, taco salad, burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas or even on top of nachos.
Here’s the recipe:
http://purposelyfrugal.com/2011/03/09/recipe-taco-meat/#.T4WJGx1KLZQ
And by the way, I’m loving your blog!!
I did this,with our own personal ‘twist’- I buy only organic ground beef,and it is $$$(sigh) so I stretch it f-a-r by blending a can of kidney beans in the blender and adding to the initial gr. beef/onion mixture,then freeze in bag portions. Another good way to ‘stretch’ that beef is adding some extra firm tofu or tvp before making into burger patties and freezing (did that)
Last time I did this I stretched 3 lbs gr. turkey w/ 3 lbs. gr. beef,added the ‘extras’ and made 2 meatloaves, 18 meatballs,2 bags beef,and 8 premade cheeseburgers for the freezer. Of course, it goes without saying that the meatloaf recipe gets even more added,like bread,etc. to stretch.
I find that lovely spices make things taste good, not necessarily heavy portions of meat….. we rarely eat just ‘burgers’ as it doesn’t go as far that way…..thanks for all your posts- love them!
I have a quick and easy way to make meatloaf. After combining all ingredients for the meatloaf, simply put into a muffin pan and they cook much quicker and the kids love them!
Love it! Portion control!
I do the exact same thing!!! This is such a great tip and I tell people about it all the time 🙂 It’s actually in my queue (along with about 20 other things) waiting in my “to-be-posted” folder with pics and instructions for my blog 🙂