Time… there is never enough time! Dinner time seems to overlap with soccer practice, homework time, and errands. If I can find a way to save money I will and this is one of my favorite ways to save time when it comes to dinner time in my house! I love that after Prepping Ground Beef I can just pull out meat and thaw it for dinners. (I have included links to some great products that I have bought on my own to make my journey easier. You can buy them too through my online sales links.)
Sometimes little things can go a long way to make a big difference in your life. Now with meat markdowns in the store I still stock up if the deal is screaming, you can never have to much meat when you have kids!
How prepping ground beef can save more time and money:
Easy to defrost and throw in a casserole meaning no ordering take out or a drive-thru
No waiting on meat to brown
Weighed and frozen in size for dishes super helpful
Perfect for the nights you burn the regular dinner as a backup plan
Ground Beef: Recipes That Make the Heart Grow Fonder
Ultimate Ground Beef CookbookGround Beef Cookbook: Main Dishes, Casseroles, Skillet Meals & More!Taste of Home Ground Beef Cookbook
Supplies for prepping:
Large pot to brown meat in, seriously you need one of these to easily browning about 5lbs at a time goes so much faster then if you add up all those times you are browning a lb of ground hamburger at a time for each dinner. Once the pot is hot the browning goes so much faster and it is so less messing than browning a bunch in a frying pan.
Specialty Total Nonstick Dishwasher Safe Oven Safe Stockpot Cookware
Over the sink strainer
Larg Bowl and tin foil
Freezable containers (the reason I use containers instead of bags is they stack nicely in my chest freezer)
Snapware 24-Piece Total Solution Food Storage Set, GlassRubbermaid 50-Piece Easy Find Lid Food Storage Set
Food Scale- I use mine to measure the cooked meat and then serving sizes on almost everything coming out of the kitchen
Ozeri Ultra Thin Professional Digital Kitchen Food Scale, in Elegant Stainless Steel
Steps for prepping your ground beef
Dump your ground beef into the large pot. Season if you want to while browning. I always do a seasonal all and minced onion that way it is ready for anything and can have more season added to it. But you could skip this seasoning if you wanted to
McCormick Culinary Chef’s Cut Onions, 2 lbs.Johnny’s Seasoning Salt, No Msg, 42 Ounce
Set up your large bowl with your strainer over it! It works great to catch grease and I don’t know about you but I always burn myself trying to use a turkey baster to get grease out. After I am done I funnel it into a milk jug or cans.
Once the meat has browned dump it into the strainer and start the next batch of meat. Be sure to mix up the meat in the strainer for efficient straining.
While the second batch is cooking start filling and weighing out your containers for the meat. I do 6 ounces and 11-ounce containers of ground beef. And one large one for taco night so we have leftover meat for taco salads!
Be sure to refrigerate your meat before freezing it to allow it to cool down before freezing.
Rubbermaid 50-Piece Easy Find Lid Food Storage SetGotta Have It Simple & Easy To Make 37 Tempting Ground Beef Dinner Recipes!Snapware 24-Piece Airtight Food Storage Set, Plastic
How do you bulk prep your ground beef? What is your go-to ground beef dinner?
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GinaJ says
I do the same but vacuum seal in bags, freezes well and saves a ton of space. 🙂
Kim says
I find ground beef tastes a bit rancid after freezing, so I freeze it with some sauce or spices to keep that from happening.
For example, i will divide a jar of spaghetti sauce between 3 containers of cooked meat. Stir it up, then label it for spaghetti & freeze.
For taco meat, add some taco season & a 1/2 cup or so of salsa.
Anything you would use canned soup for, I put 3/4 cup or so of canned beef gravy in the containers.
This also helps me decide what to make when I open the freezer not having a clue. Whatever sounds good when I see a label 😉
Trina says
I cook large batches with onion. Drain on paper towels the lay flat and put in the freezer drawer for a short time. Then take out, slightly frozen, pack in vacuum bags. Freezing a little first keep the juices from getting in my Foodsaver.
Trina says
I should’ve added, i dispose of the paper towels, I separate into several batches for multiple meals.