But on Monday, my family got together and cut up two beef. (The week before my brothers had done the killing and the beef had hung in the cooler for a week.)
I can't say it is my favorite family event, but the result of the evening was that everyone (six families now) took home lots of great beef.
Most of the ground beef went into one or two pound packs. But I knew it was the perfect opportunity to make some more quick meals so I asked for a pan of loose ground beef - and was given about 25 lb of ground beef.
Five pound of the beef I used to make beef jerky. (A first time experience - I'll tell you more in the next post.)
The rest of the beef I either made into meatballs or browned with chopped peppers and onions.
I mixed up the meatballs, formed them into balls, and browned them in the oven on my broiler pan. It is an easy way to make a lot of meatballs. I then froze them in meal sized portions.
Frozen meatballs are so handy to throw in the slow cooker with BBQ sauce for meatball subs. Or add to meatball soup.
I use the ground beef to make a quick batch of enchiladas, or spaghetti, or any other recipe that calls for ground beef browned with onions and peppers.
The best part of cooking several batches at one time is that I only made my pans dirty once. Making several batches only takes a little more time then making one batch. Why don't I do this more often?
If you are interested in freezer cooking and also slow cooker recipes - I loved this post on Crock Pot freezer meals. I made and froze several of her chicken recipes this summer and every one has been a winner to my family.
Thank you for this post and the link. I really need to be more organized. When my children were home it seemed to be easier than it is now that I'm only cooking for two.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Betsy
I am glad I read this post yesterday as it saved me some work. For family dinner tonight I knew I needed 24 meatballs at 3 ea per serving and another batch to freeze. My mother and I mixed them up and she was getting ready to pan brown them before we bake them .I told her I was going to try the broiler pan. We sprayed it with oil put them in at 375° . They cooked up just wonderfully, in two batches. Thanks for a timely post. Our beef was from dairy cow also, though we do not do our own butchering.
ReplyDeleteHard work but well worth it. Our favorite thing to do is cut the beef into chunks and can it. We love it! We am doing something new (for us) today-canning fresh caught salmon! Not sure how it will go. We are using the recipe in the ball canning book. Enjoy your day and God bless.
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