50 pounds of Ground Beef

Our ward cooperates with a a co-op that allows us to get some killer deals on bulk purchases through out the year. Our first bulk buy this year was ground beef. 7% fat, no hormones, fresh, YUMMY ground beef for $2.30 a pound! I bought 50 pounds!!! I figure this may last our family of 6 for 3 months. You may think , "What the heck do you do with 50 pounds of ground beef?" Well lucky for you I like to take pictures. LOL!

This is what I started with. Ten 5 pound bags.

This is what I ended with!

Ten pounds were made in to meatloaf mixes (on the right).

Five pounds were made into meatballs. (bottom shelf)

The rest was split between raw (on the left) and pre-cooked (middle).

These are great for quick dinners. Pop in the micro wave for a defrost then cook on HI for about 2 mins. pour into what ever you are making. So fast and easy.

I love my food saver!

***Now I don NOT consider my freezer food storage. It is highly perishable in a power outage or natural disaster. I do not can meat at this time because: 1 I do not know how. and 2 Hubby is not so fond of it. We do store tuna and commercially canned chicken though.***

Tasty Tuesday

Freezer Meals

(No, this is not my freezer. I wish. It is just an image of the Internet.)

Over at Life as Mom Fishmama is posting about her freezer cooking day for the month. She has recipes, short cuts ,and hilarious updates on her cooking day. To see more of her posts on freezer cooking go here.

If you want a chance to win a book on freezer cooking go check out The Bargain Jargon. Christy is having a give away. The book is Fix, Freeze, Feast: Prepare in Bulk and Enjoy by the Serving by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik.

As for me I am hoping to make some yummy potato soup and freeze it. I know BIG huh? LOL!

What do you like to make ahead and freeze? What works for you and what didn't work out so well?

Tasty Tuesday

What's in your freezer?

We recently did a little freezer stock up. In the top picture you will see our meat supply. On the top right is my sadly dwindling ground beef supply. Next to that is two freezer bags that have 4 vacuum sealed bags of cubed up ham. Next to that are 12 or so vacuum sealed bags of ham slices.

The lower shelf is my chicken shelf. I did two huge chicken breast per bag. I portion all my vacuum sealed bags out to a dinner size. Here is some great information on freezing meat.

This is my cheese drawer. I recently got a little stock of pepper jack. So I cut it into 1lb. blocks and sealed it up. For more info on freezing cheese go here.

I LOVE reusing boxes to organize all my food storage why should the freezer be different. :) I do NOT consider my freezer food storage. 3 month maybe but nothing more. I however do not can meat as of this moment so I gotta have it some where. I buy my meat and most cheeses in bulk and then use my handy dandy food saver to vacuum seal it for my freezer.

If you are interested in learning more about a Food Saver check out this post on Christy's Bargain Jargon blog. YES she found a great deal on these!!

All About Food Storage also has a great post about using your food saver for more than your freezer. I forgot mine could do this!!