Frugal Tip - Freezing Ground Beef
You do know that I buy my ground beef from The Fresh Market on Tuesdays because it's $2.99 per pound for 85/15, right?
I mean, heck, that's a STEAL now days! Beef is EXPENSIVE anymore!
So, when I go every few weeks, I buy about 8 to 10 pounds of the stuff. Which, now that I'm on a stricter food budget of $125.00 a week, I've really got to watch what I'm buying!
AND THEN ... I found Aldis ground beef:
So ... yes, I stocked up on some of this too the last time I was at Aldis ... and NOW, what to do with 8 to 10 pounds of beef? I am not a proponent of cooking it all up at once like some do ... I mean, heck, some days we want burgers, other days, tacos, and then of course, there's the stray meatloaf night that comes around ... oh, and what if I want to make some red sauce with ground beef instead of italian sausage? Cooked ground beef is NOT going to work in most of those situations!
So, grab yourself some of those less expensive fold top sandwich bags and lets get to work!
Put your hand inside the baggie.
Grab a hunk of beef and turn the bag inside out over the beef. BONUS in that your hands NEVER had to touch the beef!
Drop the baggie on a scale (and try not to think of the old cocaine cowboy movies at this time!) and try to get roughly 1 pound of beef in the bag.
Fold the top over and secure it.
Slap a label on the little bag.
Insert the little baggie of beef in to a big Ziploc freezer bag.
Repeat til all packaged up. Close Ziploc bag, squeezing out the excess air. Toss in freezer.
When needed, grab your one pound pre-measured baggie and toss in a bowl in the fridge overnight to defrost.
By the following day (or if you take it out in the morning, that evening), when you are ready to cook, the ground beef will be defrosted and ready to cook!
TIP: Something that Hubby and I always say we should do after patting out 3 pounds of ground beef for burger night (generally we are feeding 6 adults and everyone wants leftovers for lunch!) is that we could do the same thing with the burgers, mix them up, pat them out and freeze them individually in baggies ... it's something that I'm sure we will try down the road!
Do you package up your ground beef when you buy a large quantity? I know a lot of people who buy beef from Zacon in 40 pound boxes ... that sounds a little overwhelming to me!
Looking forward to sharing at some of these Great Parties ... go check them out!
I mean, heck, that's a STEAL now days! Beef is EXPENSIVE anymore!
So, when I go every few weeks, I buy about 8 to 10 pounds of the stuff. Which, now that I'm on a stricter food budget of $125.00 a week, I've really got to watch what I'm buying!
AND THEN ... I found Aldis ground beef:
That's pretty good pricing for 90/10 and 93/7 ground beef, don't you think? The 73/27 is WAY better than the $3.59 I saw it for at Publix recently! Just for the record, Hubby prefers to mix one pound of the 73/27 with the 90/10 or even the 85/15 as it makes for a juicier burger.
So ... yes, I stocked up on some of this too the last time I was at Aldis ... and NOW, what to do with 8 to 10 pounds of beef? I am not a proponent of cooking it all up at once like some do ... I mean, heck, some days we want burgers, other days, tacos, and then of course, there's the stray meatloaf night that comes around ... oh, and what if I want to make some red sauce with ground beef instead of italian sausage? Cooked ground beef is NOT going to work in most of those situations!
So, grab yourself some of those less expensive fold top sandwich bags and lets get to work!
Put your hand inside the baggie.
Grab a hunk of beef and turn the bag inside out over the beef. BONUS in that your hands NEVER had to touch the beef!
Drop the baggie on a scale (and try not to think of the old cocaine cowboy movies at this time!) and try to get roughly 1 pound of beef in the bag.
Fold the top over and secure it.
Slap a label on the little bag.
Insert the little baggie of beef in to a big Ziploc freezer bag.
Repeat til all packaged up. Close Ziploc bag, squeezing out the excess air. Toss in freezer.
When needed, grab your one pound pre-measured baggie and toss in a bowl in the fridge overnight to defrost.
By the following day (or if you take it out in the morning, that evening), when you are ready to cook, the ground beef will be defrosted and ready to cook!
TIP: Something that Hubby and I always say we should do after patting out 3 pounds of ground beef for burger night (generally we are feeding 6 adults and everyone wants leftovers for lunch!) is that we could do the same thing with the burgers, mix them up, pat them out and freeze them individually in baggies ... it's something that I'm sure we will try down the road!
Do you package up your ground beef when you buy a large quantity? I know a lot of people who buy beef from Zacon in 40 pound boxes ... that sounds a little overwhelming to me!
Looking forward to sharing at some of these Great Parties ... go check them out!
Great post. We don't see the lean to fat ratio on our grocery store ground beef here, but I've been using that method of freezing for YEARS now. I love it. So simple, and when my husband DOES get around to cooking, he doesn't waste so much dang meat in one sitting LOL.
ReplyDeleteI freeze ground beef (or ground steak) from my butcher this way. It's a wonderful way to keep the good stuff on hand! I've also frozen burgers - they are wonderful to have on hand too and they thaw quicker than a hunk of ground beef. Thank you so much for sharing these frugal ideas with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Actually my husband looks after the shopping and so I will pass this on to him! Thanks for sharing a great tip with us at #WednesdaysWisdom.
ReplyDelete