Cooking for the Freezer

FAST FOOD FRIDAY...

"I'm too busy to cook."  "I worked all day."  "I'm Tired."  "It's way too hot out."  "I don't really want to go to the store."   Who hasn't heard or even said these words before?  Should you call for pizza?  Should you pick something up from the nearest drive through?  Nope, neither.  All you need is a little Food Fore-thought.  Fast Food Friday, a planned weekly post, isn't about running out to a local restaurant for take out or calling for delivery.  Fast Food Friday is about having something on hand for those days when cooking just seems impossible or even unappealing. 

With a little planning and preparation, fast food can come straight from our cabinets, pantries, and freezers.  What we are really talking about here is food preservation.  Food preservation can change our future days - take the guess work out of meal prep, allow for an evening of rest not stress, change your grocery bill's bottom line, and of course, nix the expense of drive-thru eatings.  Now those points do sound appealing.

So for many many Friday's to come, check back to see how I plan to never be too busy to cook, not too tired to eat well, not considering if it's too hot out, and best of all, skipping trips to the store.  For today, let's talk about...

Cooking for the Freezer

With after school activities and busy evenings,I like to have a couple of go-to meals on hand and ready to go no doubt.  There's scouts on Thursdays and guitar on Fridays - it's the same every week.  There's no reason not to see that there'll be little time for cooking.  So those nights are dedicated meal nights.  By that, I mean we tend to eat the same thing every week on those nights.  For Thursdays, it's pizza.  Click here and here for posts on that.  On Friday's it's usually tacos.  

It's nice to know ahead of time what we'll be eating on those busier nights.  All that needs to be done is pulling some pre-prepped ingredients from the freezer the night before.  I put them in the fridge to thaw and then at dinner time the next day, we have a quick easy meal.  So on to what we are really talking about today - browning ground beef in bulk to be used for future meals.

Browned ground beef is very versatile.  Around here, it gets used for tacos, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, meatballs, and the occasional casserole.  In this post, I am purposing it for tacos, spaghetti sauce, and meatballs.  I've started with six pounds of ground beef.  Three pounds were made into taco meat which will be enough for two meals.  One and a half pounds were made into meatballs.  Meatball sandwiches are in our future.  The last pound and a half was portioned out into thirds for spaghetti sauce.  So intentionally, I prepped enough ground beef for six future meals.  Of course, more could be done as well.  It's always nice to do a lot at once.  It makes for less clean up all the way around.

Ready for some pics and DIY info?

I started by browning 2 pounds of ground beef.  You could brown more with multiple pans going at once.  This would make the job go faster of course.  I just wasn't feeling in a hurry.  It really only takes a few minutes to brown regardless.

Once browned, add in taco seasoning.  I use a quarter cup of seasoning per pound.  That would be equivalent to an individual package.  I buy the bulk size so have to measure it out.  If you are wondering, it is cheaper this way as the large container of it only cost around four dollars and goes much farther than four or five packages would.

Once mixed, I move the taco meat to a strainer to drain away any grease while cooling.

Once all the meat purposed for tacos is prepared and cooled, I portion it out into freezer bags at one and a half pounds each.

Now to further save time on this pre-prepping endeavor, multitasking is good.  While the taco meat is browning, I begin working up the meatballs.

What I used here is one and a half pounds of ground beef, 2 eggs, 1 cup of cracker crumbs ( sub bread crumbs if needed), 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, 2 teaspoons, of crushed red pepper ( a little heat), and 1 teaspoon and cumin.  This mixture also makes a good base for meatloaf.

Mix that all together until well incorporated.  The best way to do this is to use your bare hand.  ~Another good reason to prep ground beef in bulk - I never did like the way it feels~

Once mixed, I use my melon baller to portion out each meatball.  It ought to be called a meat baller as I can't remember the last time I balled melon.  Of course, you could use table spoon for this.  I like to portion all at one and go back and shape them better.  It just seems faster for me this way.

At this point, they go into a preheated oven at 375 degrees and cook for 25 minutes.

When finished, they're allowed to cool before going into a labeled plastic freezer bag.  In the near future, we'll be having meatball sandwiches on french bread.  For a tutorial on how to make your own french bread, click here.

So what happens when we are ready to eat?  As I said, these are planned meals so the night before I pull out what is needed and put it into the fridge to thaw.  The day of, taco meat will get warmed on the stove top in less than five minutes.  Tacos are usually served with salad or chips and salsa.  Meatballs also get warmed on the stove top but in sauce.  This takes less than ten minutes.

For us, it works pretty well.  It's a plan in mind that will save time, money (no stopping for take out), and clean up.  

Remember, it's all about fore thought.  Spend a little time now when you have it and in the future when you need it, you'll have fast food on hand.

Enjoy, and be thinking of how you can make life easier in the future.

This post is shared with food renegade.