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

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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

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