Monday, August 16, 2010

Lazy Freezer Meals

I'm obsessed with reading about freezer cooking and make ahead meals. I always convince myself that the next time I buy groceries I'm going to stock up and make a bunch of meals. It NEVER happens... I think it might be the meals that my family likes though. They're not really casserole people. ANYWAY, I like to have something in the freezer for the days when I don't plan dinner (almost every day, shh!)so in the past I've cooked a bunch of ground beef at once for hamburger helper, tacos, etc.

I took it one step further this time with the help of my awesome friend Mrs. Awesome, who is indeed awesome in case you were wondering. I dropped off 15 pounds of raw ground beef at her house and she threw it all in her 22 qt. roaster and a few hours later had her teenager drop the drained, ready to season meat off at my house. See!? Isn't she AWESOME!?



I put the hot meat in the fridge since I had to make dinner, put my kids to bed, & check my e-mail. You know, just the important stuff! Once I got around to packaging the meat it had solidified into a giant hunk of cooked ground beef. I put the whole bowl into super hot water and "folded laundry" (got on Facebook) while I waited about 20 minutes. The hot water melted the fat just enough that I could stir it up a tiny bit and I loaded it into quart sized freezer bags.

I added packets of taco seasoning and hot water to a few, poured cans of sloppy joe sauce in some, and left the rest plain for hamburger helper and casseroles. It went pretty quickly considering the time it's going to save me, and I know that I'm no more than 5 minutes from dinner as long as I have bread!





I stacked them all up flat in my freezer to save space and for quick thawing... hey, quit counting the ice creams! Don't judge me! There's broccoli right there too! It all evens out I'm sure... Anywhoo, I can open the zip top, throw one of these babies in the microwave for 5 minutes on defrost and I've got cooked seasoned meat. Now that is lazy freezer cooking!

4 Thoughts From Others:

KyAnn (like Cayenne Pepper, only HOTTER) said...

Can you come to my house and help me? I TOTALLY need to do this. You inspire me.

- Mighty B said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!

Anonymous said...

Great job - I find just having the meat in the freezer ready to go solves a lot of problems when it comes to getting supper on the table. I cook up chicken breasts too. Boil them, chop 'em up and put them in the freezer. So much easier.

mommieof4munchkins said...

We must be on the same page this week. I made 4 batches of spaghetti sauce, 4 batches of taco meat, 2 batches of nacho meat (Rachel Ray's super nachos) and 2 shepards pies one evening. The next day I made 3 pots of soup and froze in single serving containers for lunches during the weeks. I made split pea, butternut squash and vegetable beef (from left over roast).

Related Posts with Thumbnails