If you’ve read any of my menu plans, you know that I pre-cook my ground beef. It totally works for me!
I sometimes wonder why I ever didn’t do this. For us, as a busy family, it means I can have dinner on the table within ten minutes. That’s faster than I could run out for fast food, or bake a frozen pizza. And these are “real” dinners.
I thought I’d share a list of the ways I use the pre-cooked ground beef. I took some pictures of last Saturday night’s easy supper. Does your husband roll his eyes too when you get your camera out to photograph dinner?
Things I could make right now in 10 minutes with the beef plus what I have in the pantry/freezer:
Spaghetti
Tacos
Nachos
Things I could make in 20-30 minutes:
Pizza using canned pizza dough, canned biscuits, English muffins, bagels, or whatever.
Skillet lasagna
Pizza pockets (pics below)
Tater tot casserole
Mexican casserole
Beef Stroganoff
Just a reminder, when you thaw the frozen, cooked ground beef, don’t put your microwave on full power. It defrosts amazingly quickly, and you’ll end up cooking it again, making it rubbery. On my microwave, I punch in 1:00, and then hit power, and then hit 1, and then start, which cooks it on 10% power. If it isn’t thawed after this, I do another minute at a time until it is. Most of these meals involve the meat being further heated, so I just need it thawed.
The nachos were something I made last night when we had Chicken Tortilla Soup. My husband and I love the soup, but it’s a little spicy for the kids, so I usually make nachos to go along with it so they will have something that they (and my husband) like. I normally open a can of ranch style beans to put on the nachos for some protein, but I was out. So I thawed some of the beef, and sprinkled it onto the chips before I added the cheese.
The pizza pockets in the picture above are one of our favorites. THey are perfect for a Saturday night meal that needs to be made quickly in order to stifle the urge to eat out!
I use Pillsbury pizza crust. I like the thin crust, because I don’t have to roll it out as much to make it big enough for 4 pockets. I thaw the ground beef, and sprinkle it onto the raw dough which I’ve cut into quarters with my pizza cutter. Then I add mozzarella cheese.
I fold up the sides, and then flip them to put the pretty side on top.
Since the meat is already cooked, I just bake according to the crust’s package directions.
I serve with dipping cups of marinara sauce. For my family of 5, I use two cans of dough and make 8 pizza pockets. My boys are growing fast, and I may have to make 12 before too long.
As someone who constantly struggles with keeping my house under control, this is a coping mechanism that I have developed. It’s very important to me to feed my family at home, but with my deficient organizational skills, I can get very overwhelmed by this. Having a large variety of meals already half-prepared by having the meat cooked saves me so much stress. It totally works for me!
Check out lots of other ideas at Works For Me Wednesday.
Great tip! I prebrown my meat too, and package it in quart size ziploc bags. I don't even use the microwave to thaw mine. It thaws so quickly on the counter or in just a minute or two under warm running water.
Here's mine this week:
http://homewithpurpose.blogspot.com/2009/09/quest-for-compassion.html
I do the same thing– isn't it wonderful to pull out that meat and whip up a dinner?
I did spaghetti last night with some pre-cooked beef and homemade sauce from my freezer. It was a nice homemade meal in about fifteen minutes- can't beat that!
Yeah, I'm kicking myself for not pre-cooking. I thought enough ahead to pre-portion before freezing, but I wish I'd browned some and shaped some into burgers before freezing. Have you ever frozen, thawed, cooked, then refrozen? Would that be too hard on the meat, do you think?
I'm new to your blog. Do you pre-cook anything else? I don't pre-cook ground beef, but I do pre-cook chicken. I'll have to try the beef.
Me too, me too! Sometimes I put onion and peppers in the meat when I cook them so that I have a little extra goodness for my meal.
Fiskeaux, I think it should be fine to thaw the frozen meat and cook it up to be frozen again. I'm definitely not a health department code expert, but I've definitely done that.
Meghan, I do precook some chicken. I'll probably do a post on that next week. Tonight, I used chicken breasts that I had previously grilled to make fajitas very quickly. With chicken, I do like freeze some raw, but when I cook it, I typically try to cook 2-3 meals worth to put in other dishes.