My Secret to Quick and Easy Ground Meat Meals

Growing up my mother would buy ground beef  and ground sausage in one to one and a half pound package and toss them in the freezer to use later.  This resulted  in me spending at least half an hour standing at the stove every time she decided to use ground meat in a meal.  Scrape and turn, scrape and turn.  It was excruciatingly boring and tedious.  (At least I got to sneak pieces of meat while I cooked though.  That is a chef's prerogative.)  But it was the only way I knew to store and then use ground meat.  So to avoid that, I would never store meat in the freezer.  If I bought meat I kept it in the fridge and used it within a couple of days.

At some point, I don't know when or how, because it was so long ago, I realized that I could just cook the meat first, and then store it in the freezer.  That realization has changed my life, and made making a quick, but homemade dinner so easy.  Now I can make homemade tacos in less than ten minutes and without a special shopping trip, because the meat is in the freezer and only needs to be reheated.

Now I tend to buy ground turkey in bulk.  I buy eight 20 ounce packages of Jenny-O 93% fat free ground turkey, at time.  I used to be able to buy this amount in a case at Sam's Club, so I developed a great method for getting it all prepared in one afternoon.

It takes me about two hours to prep all the meat.  60 ounces go into my meatloaves, which I'l cover with cling-wrap and bake within two or three days.  20 ounces or a little less go into my Shepherd's Pie which I'll generally bake that day, but sometimes I will wait to bake it a day or two.  20 ounces or a little less go into my Spaghetti Sauce, which I freeze in the flat, square, 3 1/8 cup Glad containers.  The remaining 60 ounces I cook 20 ounces at a time and portion into the same size Glad containers.

Tip 1:  I've already said this, but it can't be said enough, cook first, then freeze your ground meat.  It really saves time.

Tip 2:  Save time and dishes by cooking things in the right order.  Example:

1. Start browning 20 ounces of ground turkey in the spaghetti pot and in the shepherd's pie pot.  
2. In between stirring the meat, mix the ingredients for the meatloaf in the mixing bowl.  
3. When the meatloaf is complete start opening cans for spaghetti sauce and shepherd's pie.

Tip 3:  When browning the last of the meat, which will be used for the spaghetti sauce and the shepherd's pie, take whatever ever amount is needed to top off the last containers of ground meat for the freezer.  A little less meat in the sauce or pie won't be missed.

I will link posts with my recipes and tips for the recipes mentioned above as soon as I get the posts written.