Cooking and Freezing - Works for me Wednesday

One of the things that I have done forever to make my meat budget stretch and save me TONS of time is to buy a family pack of meat, cook all of it, bag it, and freeze it. This is what I did this weekend:

This is 6 pounds of ground beef that I have divided into 13 meal size portions for my family! I usually brown half of it and bag it as is, then make 1 meatloaf, and either taco meat or sloppy joes with the rest. I bag all of them into individual ziploc bags then put all the bags into a one gallon bag in the freezer. Here is what I was able to get this time:

1 meatloaf

2 bags of sloppy joes (2 meal sized portions for all of us)

3 bags of taco meat (3 meal sized portions for tacos or taco salads)

7 bags of cooked ground beef

This saves so much time!

Here are some quick meals you can make with a bag of ground beef:

1. Hamburger Helper - read what I recently wrote about how to dress up a boxed dinner here.
2. Spaghetti - add to a jar or can of spaghetti sauce
3. Haystack Casserole - a family favorite, get the recipe here.
4. Taco Soup - also a favorite, get the recipe here.
5. Beef Stroganoff - Thaw ground beef, add a can of cream of mushroom soup, a 1/2 c. of sour cream, and 1 envelope onion soup mix. Heat through, serve over noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice. Yum!

I love the convenience and time savings this provides, it also allows me to stretch my meat budget by pre-portioning meals. Also, say it with me...it works for me!

Check out Rocks in my Dryer for other great Works for me Wednesday ideas!