The Heat Wave is back on here in New England!
Whenever the weather channel predicts high temperatures coupled with humidity, I like to prepare in advance by bulk cooking, especially meat. (Sometimes this is also called Freezer cooking, but I never freeze cooked meat. After it’s been frozen, cooked, and then re-thawed, it’s usually dry. Yuck!)
On Monday evening, I pulled out some free ground beef and got to work, cooking enough to last for several meals. This not only saves time, but also money—using the oven/stove once, washing the dishes once, chopping, etc.
When bulk cooking, it helps to make a meat that’s extremely versatile, like this recipe for Spicy Ground Beef. To bulk cook meat, I simply brown ground beef on the stove, with garlic, onions and peppers. (I’m still trying to use up all the Bird’s Eye freebies!) Salt is a must, and I added a lone tomato, too, because it was in the kitchen. If you need to stretch it, some black beans will do wonders!
Spicy Ground Beef makes a great base for many other meals. Try any of these:
* Taco Salad
* Chili
* Sloppy Joes
* Burritos
* Pot Pies
* Nachos
* Sliders
* Filling for Stuffed Cabbage
* Stuffed Peppers
* Goulash
* Mexican Lasagna
* Dirty Rice
I love having a fridge full of cooked food, especially when I’m too tired to make dinner. By planning ahead, I have saved tons of dollars and calories that would’ve been wasted on fast food!
What a great idea to prepare your ground meat in bulk. That would save a lot of time.
Cooking in bulk is such a time-saver, but I feel like I can barely find the time to cook at all as a college student. I really want to get better about it this summer. Maybe I’ll start with this! It would be great for taco salads or quesadillas!
Do you have one day per week, or even per month? You can make a ton of meals at once to save time!
We try to cook in bulk, but we seem to always eat everything on the table.. lol it really is a good idea..
Have you tried plating the food in the kitchen? If I put the whole bowl on the table, it would all be gone, too!
This is really more efficient by bulk cooking the ground beef. You save a lot of time and could still go with different variety in the preparations.
Definitely saves a lot of time to pre cook ground beef! I usually just do it plain, and then can add taco or spaghetti stuff later. Very convenient!
This is such a great idea to save time and energy. I especially think it makes sense when you know it is going to be hot outside. Great tip!
I cook in bulk like this too. I figure if all the utensils are out, the oven or stove is hot, I might as well make seven times as much. Keeps me sane.
I have to say the main thing I noticed in your post is that is a Pampered Chef skillet lol. I have never tried cooking in bulk but it may be a good idea for the future when I’m working again!
Always a great idea to make bulk meals and freeze. I am always making chilli or sauces, well pretty much anything. It’s great for a rainy day when you might be out of some ingredients to make something fresh or for that time when you get so busy that you don’t have time to really cook. Great for unexpected family showing up too!
great idea cooking in bulk! I’m all up for only doing dished once!
That stuffed pepper looks delicious!
I am always looking for ground beef recipes and I know my Hubby would love this! Thanks!
I always tell myself that I am going to cook in bulk and freeze the food I don’t eat right away, but I never get around to it!I think it would save so much time if I did.
Looks delicious, you can’t go wrong with ground beef. I love using it in a lot of my cooking.
O have never cooked in bulk, but its a very good idea. I’m going to do this next week!
This s a nice recipe. I would have to make it with ground turkey.
I agree that it is getting hot in New England (Maine here)! I love spicy ground beef. I make most of those dishes, with the exception of stuffed peppers.
I so believe that is you are going to cook something like ground meat, make more for another meal. great ideas.
I have thought about doing this very thing. I use ground beef for a number of things I cook and preparing in bulk would really cut down on the time to get dinner out during the week.
Awesome idea cooking your meat in bulk! My family would definitely enjoy for taco night
Wow that pepper came out looking so pretty. Mine turn out tasty for the fam., but never pretty like that one!
We usually use spicy ground beef in taco recipes and spaghetti. Sometimes, it’s also incorporated as a side dish to vegetables.
this looks os yummy! makes me crave for thai minced spicy beef!
I’m too lazy to bulk cook/freeze, but just tend to make bigger portions, so we can have leftovers. It’s definitely a good idea to stock up – but crikey, would make it hot doing all that cooking in a heatwave!
This is a great idea..I’ll copy this recipe sans the spicy part.
Before my 18 month old I use to be able to eat left overs, but since I had her all my meals have to be prepared fresh. This kind of sucks because A sister can’t keep cooking in this heat.
Smart. I love doing this as well. It sure helps make dinner time less overwhelming after a long day.
This is a great idea. We don’t prepare our food like this but we always separate everything. We like to buy meat and chicken packages from a meat shop so when we get home we break everything down.
I think this would be great when we just want to whip on some taco’s or something. Thank you for sharing.
What a great idea! This is perfect for adding into casseroles or pasta sauce throughout the week!
great for tacos, quesodillas, burritos, pasta etc. weeks worth of beef is awesome. mmmmm,, beef