Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Works for Me Wednesday

I am a firm believer in cooking ahead for the freezer. Now for my family, I can't do a bunch of casseroles or freeze the whole meal like many freezer cooking gurus suggest. I would have mass rebellion from RacerDad, the knights would quickly follow.

I have played with the idea of cooking double, making mixes and such. What has worked the best for me is having pre cooked packages of beef. Think of how many recipes you make that call for 1# of browned ground beef. The hardest part for me is remembering to take that pound out of the freezer in time to cook! What I started doing is cooking 5, 10 or even 15 pounds of ground meat at a time. I get my largest skillet, season with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder. I have even been known to add FINELY chopped carrots and celery - gotta hide them from the crew. Once the meat is browned, drained and cooled, I put roughly two cups(equivalent to one pound cooked) in a freezer bag. Remember to smash flat to remove all the air. I have done this for years without an extra freezer, when the food is flat in a baggie, it takes up very little room.

With a little preparation and one time messy clean up (yea!), I am ready for tacos, goulash, spaghetti, whatever you can think of that requires browned hamburger. Works for me!

2 comments:

Rae said...

Great idea! Thanks for sharing =)

Girlie said...

Interesting!

My T13 is up here.