80 lbs of ground beef... and italian meatball recipe.

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and the subject of buying 1/2 a cow for stocking up came into conversation.  Of course, she and I are frugalistas so we were all excited at the prospect of it.

I was doing my grocery shopping and my husband and I decided that with some of our tax money, we would stock up on some meats to put into our deep freezer.  Boy howdy, did I stock up!

I bought a case of ground beef from Sams Club.  My intention was to divvy it up and freeze it for meals, as well as pre-make some meals and other useful things.

So my idea was this:
20 lbs:  into 1 lb sectioned bags.
20 lbs sectioned into 2 lb bags.
10 lbs of meatballs
10 lbs of meatloaf
10 lbs of taco meat
10 lbs of random ground beef for incidentals like sloppy joe or to throw into pasta sauce.

Well, when we first brought it home, it was easy and we sectioned it out- I tetris'd the freezer so everything fit- WITH extra room as well as all the other meat we brought home.  (I'll post on that in a few minutes!)  And even frozen vegetables.  The next day I delved into the refrigerator and was able to make some 5 lbs of meatballs.  I'm doing the other 1/2 today, as well as making and freezing the meatloaves.  The only problem I'm having now is finding the room!  Seriously both the deep freezer and the smaller fridge/freezer are packed full.  It's going to get creative here soon!

Anyway, what did I pay for all that ground beef you ask?  in total it was 233.33 not including tax.  Yes, I probably could have found it cheaper doing sales, but I really didn't feel like waiting until meat went on sale considering I had the money now for it.  So, my family will eat well for a while -guaranteed- and this will help me once the baby comes, having pre-made freezer meals, something that can easily be popped out of the freezer and thrown into a crock pot so I don't really have to "make" anything.   :)

So, with all of that said, Smart:  planning ahead always is!  Savvy:  for the most part- buying in bulk is usually cheaper than sales, so yeah, that's pretty savvy!

I have been cooking so long that I have no idea what measurements I used for the meatballs but they came out amazing!  here's what I did:
Italian meatball recipe:
5 lbs ground beef
garlic powder (about a 1/4 cup)
onion powder (about 1/8 of a cup)
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs
breadcrumbs to suck the extra moisture out.

mix everything until completely and thoroughly combined- do NOT skimp this part!  no really.

deep fry on a lower heat.  You want it completely cooked through but not super crusty on the edges.  Let drain on paper towels and once cool, toss into a bag and pop into the freezer!  pull out what you need when you need it.  Btw, these make some GREAT meatball stroganoff.... just putting that out there.  (yes, that recipe will come eventually!)

I love my crock pot.

I know, I've said that before but I really REALLY do!  I want to get a small one for things like I did last night.  Here's how to feed a family of 5 (mine is a fam of 7 but the babies eat off of me...) for a lot less than you'd think.

3 chicken breasts, (you can do this with a whole chicken, cooked and deboned but you'll skip the crockpot for it.)
5 cups of rice,
1 large bag of frozen broccoli bits
4 cans of broccoli cheese soup.
a little bit of milk or cream depending on  your flavor.

water.


I have a rice cooker.  LOVE THAT THING!  I ended up using my rice cooker as a crock pot and in retrospect, should have used my crock pot as a rice cooker.  I put 3 (massive) chicken breasts in the crock pot with about 4 cups of water.  let it cook until done.  (mine has a 4/6/8/10 hour function, so I put them in frozen on the 4 hour timer, came out PERFECT!) pull out the chicken and shred it up and hten put it back in.I added 5 cups of "instant" rice (buy mine in bulk from sams club for like $4 or something), 3 more cups of water, and 2 of the cans of soup plus the bag of frozen broccoli.  Set it back on 4 hours until it starts to thicken up.  feel free to stir in the soup, btw.

On the stove (or you could do this back in the crockpot, but i wanted a sauce) mix 2 cans of broccoli cheese soup with 1 can of milk plus a little bit of cream.  wisk that up over a fire until you get it to be a cheesy soupy but not too thin sauce consistency.

once everything is in the crock pot completely cooked, you can dish it up, add extra sauce and enjoy!  This made enough for 5 people, to have seconds with PLENTY of leftovers for tonight!

I am stoked.  Total cost for 2 meals for essentially 10 people:  $6.  Super smart, and savvy.  Oh, and the crockpot- (my electronic bff; hey, no jokes here people, this is a clean blog!) totally saved dinner. :D  I love NOT having to gunk up tons of pots and pans!

I wonder if I could make this ahead of time and freeze!  that'll be my next endeavor!!