So when I saw this website about freezer meals via Pinterest, I decided to give it a try.
(This picture is from the website, featuring LOTS of different freezer meal ideas)
I only made the ground beef - just to try bulk cooking and freezing to see how I liked the results before spending a lot of money and time making the food. I've heard of freezer meals before, but have always been kind of weirded out about cooking and THEN freezing ... usually I just buy fresh meat, freeze, and defrost, THEN cook.
But, this idea of saving time sounded SO nice.
When I say that I made these "Freezer Meals," I didn't actually make an entire meal and freeze it. Just the ground beef portion that would end up going into making spaghetti sauce, tacos, casseroles, etc when it comes time to actually put the meal together. What a breeze it'll be just to have the thawed meat ready to add to whatever ... no mess of defrosting in the micro when I get home, waiting around, cooking, or cooking up the cooking pan and utensil.
I forget just how much I spent all together on the fresh ground beef, but I waited for it to be on sale for $2.19 a pound (down from the regular $3.19 a pound). It's the 80/20 ground beef, so no, not the healthiest, but we are on a budget (and I don't feel like waiting for ground chuck to go on sale ... for over $3/lb at the sale price - no thanks!) We also don't eat very much ground beef - maybe once a week - so oh well!
At the store, I found packs that were about 2 days away from the sell by date for $1.99 a pound, so I just got those. I only get my meat from a certain store (locally owned grocery store with an award winning meat department), so I was confident the meat would be just fine. I often times buy "Today's Special" meats with the sell by date the same as the date I buy, and they're always fine!
So all together, I'd say I got around 9-10 pounds of ground beef for roughly $18.50.
I also had to buy some green peppers, carrots, and onions to cook along with the beef to add in some extra bulk, moisture for freezing, flavor, and of course, nutrients!
$1.49 total: 3 lbs white onions
$0.75 total: 3 very nicely sized green peppers
$1.29 total: 2 lb bag of carrots
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= $3.53 for the veggies
However, I only used 2 onions + all the peppers + half of the carrots, so I am estimating out of the $3.53 for the veggies, I only spent around $1.75 (maybe even less) on the veggie portion.
The Bottom Line:
- Money Spent: In total, I think I got around 12-14 bags of ground beef meals out of the $20.25 spent on the supplies (roughly $1.55 for the "meat" portion of each freezer meal ... the veggies really help save $ and add bulk)
- Time Spent: About 1 hour: chopping and grating veggies, cooking the meat, letting cool, putting into freezer bags, etc. Not bad!
- Taste: My first bag I used, I let the bag unthaw over night in the fridge before using it the next day. I used it to make tacos. All I had to do is let the meat heat up in the pan, then add the taco seasoning and water, and I was DONE! I understand I am still using a pan I'll have to wash, but taking out the whole cooking of the meat time, I literally had dinner from the fridge to table in under 10 mins. YAY! And the best part? It tasted really good! It didn't taste like it had been frozen or anything. I think the veggies really add a lot of flavor and moisture. My hubby hates green peppers ... and he couldn't even tell there were ANY veggies in the meat. SCORE.
I can't wait for bone-in chicken breasts to go on sale for 99 cents (or less) a pound so I can try making the shredded chicken freezer meals, too!
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