What to Do with Ground Beef

Much like my previous post, What to do with chicken, this post will have some ideas for once a month cooking and stockpiling while using current store sales.

Our local Fareway often has a tube of 93% lean ground beef for around $1.79 a lb, sometimes even less. You have to purchase the whole tube, which is 10 pounds. Some people see this and think, what would I do with 10 pounds of ground beef? I have several ideas. First, you can usually have the butcher divide it up into 1-2 lb packages if that is how you would use it. I don't do this, because how do you use ground beef when you buy it? I will make meatloaf occasionally, but for the most part I brown it for Italian style dishes or I make meat for tacos or enchiladas.

Here is what I do when I find myself with 10 pounds of ground beef. I bring the tube home and start preparing it to freeze.

• Ground beef for casseroles or "helper"--For two pounds, I add a chopped onion and a few cloves of minced garlic, then some salt and pepper to taste. I brown two pounds at a time and put it all in my large Tupperware bowl in the fridge to cool. I may do this with all 10 pounds, or sometimes only half of it. 2 to 2.5 cups is equal to 1 lb for recipes, so I freeze that much into a quart sized freezer bag.
  
• Taco meat--For three pounds, I add enough taco seasoning packets (or your own mixture of seasonings) to season, plus a chopped onion. I brown it up and cool it in a separate bowl. Because the prepared taco seasoning often has a lot of salt, I use 2 packets for 3 pounds so there's slightly less seasoning in it. Sometimes I will do 2 pounds with one packet of seasoning. Do what works for you. 2 to 2.5 cups is equal to 1 lb for recipes, so I freeze that much into a quart sized freezer bag.

I actually use this measuring cup filled to the brim to fill the bags. It's a two cup measure, but if you fill to the top it's pretty close to 2.5 cups which is "officially" 1 pound. Also pictured below is the large Tupperware bowl I use for any time I cook large batches of anything. I love that it has a lid, and I can let the food cool in the fridge till I'm ready to freeze it.

• My meatloaf--For two pounds, mix up the meatloaf of your choice. I do not use a set recipe for meatloaf, but I try to make the most of it healthwise by using the leftover heels or crusts from my whole grain bread instead of white bread crumbs. I have also used oatmeal with great results. I always use a can of diced tomatoes without draining it. In addition, I will finely grate or chop a zucchini or some carrots (or both) to get more veggies into our meals. You can add pureed veggies as well, and I often "stretch" the meat by adding a can of black beans. I add one or two eggs to bind it together, then season to our family's taste. I divide this into 2 or 3 disposable (but not) 8x8 pans and freeze without cooking it. When I am ready to cook, I thaw it overnight in the fridge and bake for 45 minutes in a 350* oven.
• If your family likes meatballs, this works the same way. I form the meatballs and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer with wax paper or parchment paper, then remove them and put them into a ziploc bag once they are frozen. This way, they don't all stick together. Again, don't cook them until you are ready to serve, which helps keep them from drying out.
  

These are the freezer containers I use. I buy several at a time and use them over and over till the lids break or they get too rough looking. These are both freezer and oven safe, so they work great. I mostly use the smaller one because it is a size that works great for our family of two adults and two small kids, but the larger ones work well for larger families or for taking to potlucks.

The best part about this is that it might take 2 hours to prepare all this meat, but it saves so much time later on when you need something fast to cook for dinner. Just like the chicken, you can do whatever your family likes. I adapted recipes to the way our family likes to eat. This 10 pound tube of ground beef may have saved us up to 50 cents a pound and also saves us a lot of cooking time. I decide when I get the meat how I want to prepare it. You can also make patties for hamburgers and freeze those in the same way I described for meatballs.