Heather from Queen Bee Coupons shows how she took 40 pounds of beef and spent seven hours turning it into 40 meals for her freezer. Here are the meals she made:
- 10 taco meat meals (1 pound each x 10 = 10 pounds)
- 6 Italian mozzarella meatball meals (1 pound each x 6 = 6 pounds)
- 6 sweet and sour meatball meals (1 pound each x 6 = 6 pounds)
- 6 meals of Kalamata/olive burger patties (18 patties, 3 per meal = 6 pounds)
- 6 meals of burger patties (18 patties, 3 per meal = 6 pounds)
- 6 meals from lasagna dishes (6 pounds)
Head on over to her blog for pictures and details on she pulled this off!
Pam says
Regarding taco meat. I have been cutting down on beef and after reading a recipe for taco’s made with lentils I thought I would try a different version. I tried cutting down on the beef by mixing in some lentils and it wasn’t bad at all. My beef eating husband with a large appetite did notice a small change in the texture but he ate it.
I haven’t tried this in anything else but I just might try this in goulash at some point. Not a perfect heart healthy solution but it saves money and cuts down on the beef.
pat says
would love the recipes especially for using lentils. dh says doesn’t like but i am looking to change that with new ways of fixing them
Jessica says
I have to admit, I don’t know much about buying a side of beef. When you get it, is it packaged like the grocery store? I always have this image of a cow split down the middle being dropped on your door step. How much “home processing” is there? Thanks! I’m totally naive when it comes to anything that doesn’t arrive on a styrofoam tray.
becky k says
I’m curious, too!! What DO you do when you get it? How much freezer space do you need? Any practical help for someone who’s not purchased a side of beef before?
P.S. When I think about buying a side of beef the first thing that comes to my mind is “I Love Lucy”–Lucy and Ethel buying 2 sides of beef to “save money” by filling up a large used freezer they bought. It was a funny frugal failure. I’m afraid I might do something crazy like that, too. 🙂
Laura says
Generally it is packaged for you buy a processing company. We get our beef in packages we can eat with just 2 of us…generally you get to decide how you want it(you put in a cutting order). Our ground beef is in 1 lb packages and we get a ton of it even if we only get 1/4 of a cow. For us they are just in heat sealed wrap (no styrofoam) and frozen and that goes for all the different meat not just ground beef. We get steaks 2 to a pkg and we have them leave out the heart and liver and all other gross things(eww it is gross LOOKING I could never eat it). hope that was helpful
Laura says
Oh and we also have a upright freezer dedicated to it. I don’t think you could manage even a 1/4 in your side by side freezer. I think you would at least need a small chest freezer. We just thought we would get more use out of an upright that didn’t cost much more than a chest freezer…
Brenda says
I don’t know what everyone else does, but this is what my family does when we “buy a side/half/quarter” of beef. You can tell the processor how you want it cut. If you want the roasts cut out and packaged separately, do you want less tender cuts ground into hamburger, what size packages of hamburger do you want, pre-cut into stew meat or made into hamburger patties, etc. All these are things you discuss with the processor and then it is packaged to your specifications.
raysmama says
I am splitting 40 lbs with a friend, so ONLY have 20 to work with. I am making meatballs, meatloaf, hamburger patties, several soup recipes (hamburger lentil and beef vegetable), taco meat, texas stew and sloppy joe filling. So excited!!!!! The leftovers I will cook with garlic, onion, celery, salf and pepper and have ready for just such an occasion.
Maegen says
I love Heather and Queen Bee, and I’m always inspired by freezer cooking ideas.Thanks for featuring this post, Crystal!
Brandi @ Savvy Student Shopper says
That’s awesome! I wish someone would come to my house and do it for me 🙂
Sarita says
Good use of a lot of ground beef! As we have a large family as well, I am constantly on the lookout for recipes to stretch a “pound of ground” as far as I can. While we love tacos and burgers, I find that developing soup, stew and casserole recipes is the most economical way to really get the most out of that ground beef. Add-ins of chopped tomatoes, cream-of-tomato soup, frozen peas and corn, or plain old pasta sauce can really make a difference. Sometimes I’ll toss in a handful of frozen hash browns to make it go a little further. Thanks for the great post, Heather, and thank you to Crystal too for sharing it!
Christine says
WoW! Good timing too – beef prices are expected to rise for the long haul by April. U Go Girl!
Juan at BlueSauger says
It looks like a pretty good set up, It works out to be only 1 hour per everyday day of the week for all of that work.
Nancy says
Great idea!
Marie says
That is simple amazing!! I would love to do this right now but there’s one problem- no room in the freezer or the extra upright freezer! It’s a good thing though as we will have food for awhile I just wish it was prepared already.
I second the Food Saver!! We have one and we even invested in the canisters so our produce last much longer in the fridge!! Another way to save on bags is BedBathand Beyond and using the coupons. When I was able to buy 30lbs of fresh chicken breast for under a $1 a pound I immediately split it up and used my food saver bags. It makes everything last so much longer in the freezer and NO freezer burn!!
Dawn(The Large Family Mom) says
We use venison in place of all ground beef for the cost and health factor. Not to mention, my husband and sons hunt, so we get several deer every year.
I had to laugh though. I can remember the days when one pound of ground meat would be a meal for us. Now, I use 4 lbs to make tacos!! And forget left-overs!! We have 8 kids still at home, and we go through some food!!
Leah at YourDimeYourTime.com says
This is awesome! We got a side of beef last June and we have loved the frugality and convenience of it so much, we are planning on doing it again this year. I think that your idea might work great as soon as we get the meat, just to get some of the prep work done in advance. Thanks! And Thanks for sharing, Crystal! 🙂
Crystal @ Blissful Homemaking says
WOW! I would love to do this. I need organization though, lol. Way to go!
Bobbi Kilbarger says
I love doing stuff like this when beef goes on sale. The only difference is that I make a MEGA batch of my favorite meat loaf recipe and make a few loaves and turn the rest into meat balls. This way, I can add whatever sauce or gravy I want and not have to make multiple recipes.
Anna says
Just curious–how long do these meals last the family? I personally try to limit how much red meat my family has for 2 reasons, health and fiances. I might make up this much beef meals if the plan was to eat the meals over several weeks. Also, a large family could consume this many beef meals quickly even if it was doled out 1 or 2/week.
Great job!
Heather Clarke @ QueenBeeCoupons says
We have one to two mealls a week. But like today my husband brought a bag of meatballs and pasta sauce to work for a potluck – so we use them in other ways too. We aren’t a real red-meat-eatin-gotta-have-it-every-night kinda family – but this was an experiment for us to see how we would integrate it into our meal planning. 🙂 It will be interesting how long it lasts us – I’m guessing at least a few months.
Kristi says
Wow that is a lot of meat! Very impressive, I was happy when I did 10 pounds last week.
Heather Clarke @ QueenBeeCoupons says
Crystal –
Thank you so much for the link-up. You are so generous with sharing other blogs – and it is such a blessing to those that you share. Thank you for your wonderful site and for all the things it teaches me everyday.
My kids were watching the videos of your kids singing hymns last night – they loved them, we had to watch both twice. 🙂
Heather