Freezing Beef can Save you Dough

Every few months I’ll see a great deal on meat and I stock up.  Last summer a friend negotiated a great deal with our local Sam’s Club.  She was able to get 90% lean ground beef for $1.72/#!  The catch?  I had to buy in 10# rolls.  I bought 6 rolls or 60# of beef.  You may think I’m crazy,  but I had a plan for all that ground beef.  I started processing right away.  Some of it I browned for easy meals like tacos, taco soup, spaghetti, and cheeseburger pie.  I packaged some as is for who knows what.  I also made lots and lots of meatballs as well as some Alton Brown meatloaf/ravioli mix.  The key to dealing with this much beef is to have a plan.

1. Know what your family likes.  I don’t can ground beef because we don’t like the texture of it.  I used well loved recipes.  I don’t prepare in bulk if I don’t know if we’ll like it.
2. Fridge cleaned out.  This is vital. We only have 1 regular sized fridge. I needed space in the fridge to store the 60 pounds of beef while I was working on it.
3. Kitchen Counters and dishes clean. If there’s no place to work, or clean dishes to use, you’ll end up taking more time and chances are you won’t be happy about it either.
4. Extra Ingredients on hand – if you’re making recipes instead of just freezing beef, make sure you have all the other ingredients.  Making meatballs without eggs or breadcrumbs wouldn’t make very good meatballs.  And it’s no fun to have to make a grocery run in the middle of a big cooking session.

Watch for ideas for packing up all that beef.

This post has been shared on Kitchen Tip Tuesday at Tammy’s Recipes