Get 8 Meals from 4 Lbs of Ground Beef
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To see a list of over 35 Ground Beef Recipes to help stretch your food dollar and keep
things lively at the supper table, please click here.
Most folks I know are trying to figure out how to stretch an already tight grocery budget so I’ve set out to bring you a few tips that may help the process a bit.
Today’s post is how I divide up my uncooked ground beef to get the most meals out of it.
I’ll keep these short and sweet, which is a rarity for me, so enjoy it while it lasts 🙂
Here we go, four pounds of ground beef.
Now if I were to just cook beef right out of the package for supper, I’d likely grab two pounds of it. We’d have an awfully meaty dish, but I’d be doing good to get one or two meals out of the entire tray.
Instead, I take my tray and cut the ground beef into eight different sections like this.
Package each section into a quart sized zipper seal freezer bag.
Flatten each bag with the heel of my hand and let squeeze out as much air as I can before sealing.
I flatten it for two reasons:
- This takes up less space in the freezer
- It thaws REALLY quickly when it’s all thinned out like this.
Stack all of the layers (if you want) and freeze.
Each bag now has about 1/2 pound of ground beef in it.
This will work for most ground beef recipes. If a recipe calls for more, you have two options:
- Make the recipe with less beef
- Use two bags of beef
- Substitute 1/2 cup cooked white or brown rice for 1/2 of the beef. This works especially well in skillet meals, casseroles where beef is it’s own layer, and fillings such as sloppy joes or tacos. There are tons of recipes like that at the link below!
To see a list of over 35 Ground Beef Recipes to help stretch your food dollar and keep
things lively at the supper table, please click here.
“Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt
Thanks to Jackie for submitting this! Click here to see more and submit your own.
I do this too. I started flating my HB meat out in the freezer bag about 5 years ago, it defrost SO MUCH quicker that way. I usually do 1 lb per package though.
My family complains if theres not enough meat ! LOL
Another substitute for the additional meat, or meat altogether, is eggplant. Peel the eggplant and dice into tiny pieces, then brown with onions just as you would for ground beef. This works well in soups, spaghetti, pizza and casseroles. For hamburgers, grate it finely instead and flavor well.
great recipes for meatless Monday MaryLena
I add oatmeal, ground bread crumbs, & an egg to my ground beef. It not only stretches it by it’s not as greasy. Makes for very juicy hamburgers!
I do the same thing but measure mine with a 1 cup measuring cup. 1 cup equals about 1/2 pound, more or less. Thaws very quickly!
I’ve done this for years and now my daughters do. None of us really loves to go grocery shopping so we try to do a Big shopping when we do and then come home and do The Great Food Breakdown!! I never thought about the rice extender, though. It would be great to make a big batch of rice on grocery day morning so you’d have the rice already done and just put it in with the burger as you repackage it.Yup, that’s what I’ gonna do next time I buy groceries…
Loving all the posts and quotes. I also use this method for storing ground beef. We also use TSP or grated potatoes to “stretch” the meat. Thanks again.
How smart to flatten it so it thaws quickly – great idea!!