More Food for the Freezer

-
On Friday I went grocery shopping and brought home the needed ingredients to make a few more meals for the freezer. For this blog post I wanted to show you how I ended up using my 6 lbs of hamburger.

I took 3lbs and used it to make my Hamburger Mix recipe (this is one of the recipes from my ebook Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters). The original recipe calls for using 5lbs of hamburger. However I had plans for 3lbs so I only had the other 3lbs left. To the recipe I added a quart of my home canned red beans to stretch the meat out. Here is what I did…

I cut my pepper (I used a red pepper because that is what I had on hand) and onion. Then gathered the rest of the ingredients..



I cooked up the hamburger and veggies until the meat was done cooking and the veggies were soft. Then added the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes..



Then added my jar of beans, stirred it up and set it aside to cool. After it had cooled down I divided the mix into 5 zip lock bags. I put about 2 ½ cups of mix in each bag. This is equivalent to 1lb of cooked hamburger (1lb of cooked hamburger measures 2 ½ cups).
 
 



I then put the mix into the freezer. Hamburger Mix can be used in spaghetti, casseroles, soups, etc.. anything that calls for a pound of cooked hamburger.

This recipe is from my ebook, Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters:

Hamburger Mix
Crystal Miller

5 lbs. ground beef
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 t. chopped garlic
3 t. salt
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

Cook ground beef, onion and green pepper until beef is no longer pink and veggies are soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Divide into 5 containers. There will be 2 ½ plus cups of mix per bag. Label bags and freeze.


Now for the rest of the hamburger. I made a large meatloaf that I plan to cook in the crockpot. I have made crockpot meatloaf many times and it is an easy way to cook a meatloaf and how much better when the meal can be ready to go from the freezer!

I used my now favorite beef & veggie meatloaf recipe that can be found here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/beefveggiemeatloaf.htm 


I then got out my crockpot and lined it with plastic wrap and put the meatloaf mixture into it and shaped it to the size of the crockpot. I then pulled it out of the crockpot and wrapped the plastic wrap around the meat, keeping the oval shape. I then put it all in a gallon size zip lock bag and put it in the freezer..
 
 




On cooking day take the meatloaf out of the freezer and let it defrost enough to remove the plastic wrap. Put it in the crockpot and cook on low for about 8 hours.
 
 

Comments

  1. PoppyMarch 4, 2012 at 7:59 AM

    I love cooking in batches! It really helps meals go smoothly when you've taken the time to make your own "convenience" foods! I'm going to check out your meatloaf recipe. It looks yummy even before it's cooked!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jenifer HarrodMarch 5, 2012 at 11:30 AM

    I would love to get a freezer to do things like this with but I don't know where to put it:(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalMarch 5, 2012 at 7:00 PM

      Jenifer, the nice thing about the crockpot freezer meals is that they are in gallon size zip lock bags and freeze flat and don't take up a lot of room.. maybe that will help?

      Crystal

      Delete
  3. DeniseMarch 10, 2012 at 12:51 PM

    Hi Crystal! I just bought your Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters yesterday and I love it!!!! I had enough meat to make a few batches of everything but the roast. I have a batch of Rice Mix cooling now. I am ready for the coming week so I can put all these good recipes to use!! Thanks for writing this book and making it available for us!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalMarch 11, 2012 at 7:51 PM

      Denise.. so happy to hear you are enjoying the ebook.. :)

      Delete
  4. A Woman that Fears the LordApril 14, 2012 at 9:43 PM

    I probably missed it but I wondered how many crockpot meatloaves come from this recipe? I definitely want to try this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalApril 15, 2012 at 5:15 AM

      Just one.. but that is for my family size (7 of us).. it could be made into whatever size works for your family.. just remember less cooking time for smaller meatloaves.
      Crystal :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine to
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my
Read more