Recently, I've been asked about freezing ahead precooked or prepared meats and thought this was a great opportunity to write up a quick piece on how that works out for me. So it's a holiday weekend and my family needed a meal and I didn't have time to really cook a whole dinner when I had an agenda to get through with other "mom duties" around the house. But it just so happens when I go grocery shopping and it's "meat shopping day" I come straight home and separate/portion out the purchases to make sure I can break out as many meals as possible with what we were able to purchase. Sometimes I buy meat once a month, but I've got to plan for 15+ days worth of meals for 3 people until I can go to the grocery store again for those type of items.
Tonight our meat dish (which most of the time is no longer the biggest portion of our dinner plates) was meat loaf. I know some of us love it and some of us hate it. I for one love it! And it is as versatile as it comes in my opinion!
Anyway the day I came home from the grocery store with 8 lbs of hamburger I knew we weren't going to grill 8 lbs of hamburger and put 'em all on buns!
Please note: it is a RULE that anything that I freeze is to be frozen flat for the reason that I don't need 2lbs of meat to feed a family of 3 people at each sitting. If you freeze flat you can turn the bag perpendicular to counter top edge and split the burger up in the size chunk you need. I know funny, but VERY ECONOMICAL! Kinda like you're breaking up spaghetti in a box.
So I precooked 2 lbs of crumbled hamburger with taco seasoning and a can of Mexican style tomatoes. I cooled, then placed all of the mix in 1 gallon zip lock back. I pushed all of the air out of the bag, labeled, then I freeze flat. See above for that standing house rule! LOL Plus stacking large bowling ball size ziplock bags are hard to stack and efficiently use the space in your freezer!
- possible meals- hard shell tacos, soft shell tacos, burritos, nachos, taco salad, taco soup, etc
I precooked 1lb of just plain crumbled hamburger, drained, put in zip lock, pushed all of the air out of bag, labeled, then again I freeze flat for the reason mentioned above. A lot of times this plain burger gets tossed in a pot of soup or hamburger helper type meal if the hubs is home alone with our kiddo and needs a fast option.
- possible meals- spaghetti meat sauce, hamburger stew, hamburger gravy over biscuits (I grew up on that and haven't made that in years, but hey if it's the only thing you got then don't be afraid it's good), etc
I made 3lbs of meatloaf mix (mine included carrots, onions, celery, kale, oatmeal, seasonings, egg, parmeson cheese, parsley..everything I would normally put in one) and after all that was in the 3lbs of burger I probably had 5 lbs of meatloaf mix. So I divided in half and then froze ahead the raw mix in zip lock back, pushed air out of bag, labeled, then I freeze as flat as possible as well for the sole purpose of stacking and ease/quick thawing of mixture.
-possible meals- meatloaf of course, patty out the thawed mixture and grill meatloaf burgers and top with provolone (OMG YUM on a bun with ketchup and an onion), you can use the mix to stuff bell peppers, you can stuff cabbage rolls with this mixture and it's okay to mix some cooked white rice in here before stuffing (tip last time you had left over white rice did you toss it or freeze it ahead for such a time as this as a future ingredient?)
And the last 2lbs of crumbled hamburger was precooked up with chilli seasonings, chopped onion, bell pepper, and can of chilli style tomatoes. YEP, a speedy chilli base. Of course this gives me two pots of chilli because all I have to do since the mixture is precooked and frozen as flat as possible. I just take the bag out and break off the part I need (about half) throw it in a pot of beans/tomatoes and cook under a lid on low or faster if need be.
-possible meals- chilli obviously, but really you can probably think of at least 10 ways you could use this mixture for yourselves, but you get the point.
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All of this didn't take more than 45 minutes if you have all of your stuff organized and want the convenience later. And if you want to save money from eating out, which we are extremely interested in saving the difference.
Again here, you'll see how I pushed down flat for easy stacking and quick thawing when I want an easy on mom dinner! What mom doesn't want that from time to time?
All I do to thaw is to literally place the closed zip-lock in a bowl of cold tap water for about 25 minutes to thaw (no longer or I thaw in refrigerator overnight). Look up and research your own food safety rules. This is just how it works for me.
After thawed I "smoosh" (a very technical term) the meatloaf mixture into the sprayed glass loaf dish.
I've never done until tonight, but saw this on you tube the other day and just had to try it, I apologize that I've forgotten who did this but had to try it. I poked finger holes in the meat loaf then squeezed no high fructose corn syrup ketchup down in the holes...it truly is an extra surprise in the meatloaf. I'll probably always do that now! LOL
Okay it's ready for the oven. 350 for about 45 'ish minutes. I know my oven. Just look up what the correct safe cooking temperate that is safe for the type of meat you're using. (this is great with turkey burger or ground chicken too)
And here it is ready to slice and dive into, since it rested for about 15 minutes! Kale in meatloaf is a WINNER!
And the best part of it all is there is another 2lb identical froze ahead meatloaf waiting for another night for a meal with guests or an easy meal for mom!
PS- next time I make my meatloaf mixture I'll write down the recipe and post!
ijustwannagrow
