When I purchase ground beef for my massive cook-off, I try to buy a few extra pounds. Since I buy the gigantic 10 pound chubs from Costco, I always have some left.
There are a few ways to prepare this "spare" ground beef:
**Plain: Cook it, drain the fat, cool it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, and transfer the frozen crumbles to a prepared ziptop bag.
**Italian: Cook it with onions, garlic, and celery. Drain the fat. Stir in Italian seasoning. Cool it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, and transfer the crumbles to a prepared ziptop bag.
**Mexican: Cook it with onions and garlic. Drain the fat. Stir in Taco seasoning (or your own blend of spices. I like cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt, and pepper.) Cool it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, and transfer the crumbles to a prepared ziptop bag.
On cooking day, toss the desired amount of ground beef into a frying pan. Plain ground beef will require seasoning on cooking day, the flavored beef mixtures only need to be heated up.
**For spaghetti: Add jarred spaghetti sauce and diced tomatoes; simmer until the noodles are ready.
**For tacos/burritos/nachos: Heat through. Serve with your favorite toppings.
I usually end up with two gallon ziptop bags of frozen ground beef crumbles. Freezing the ground beef on a cookie sheet before putting it into a freezer bag is essential for easy use. If you put the warm ground beef into the bag and straight into the freezer, it will freeze in a big lump.
The flash frozen crumbles prevent the lump situation. If the bag of crumbles is solid when I take it out of the freezer (because I wasn't patient enough to wait for it to cool all the way after three days of freezer cooking) I drop it on the floor or smack it against the counter to loosen up the crumbles. My kids usually jump and the dog stares at me like I'm crazy. Whatever.
Dinner is ready in 10-15 minutes with my prepared ground beef. That's not crazy at all.
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