Kitchen Tip

   Our home is busy.  We are always going somewhere or doing some fun activity.  We fill in our days with visits to friends, going to the local bike trail, picnics, swimming, trips and family activities. Those kind of days make for a lot of laundry and a dirty house so there is a lot of cleaning to do also. I like to make quick meals when the schedule is full.  One way that I do that is by keeping browned hamburger in the freezer.

 

   I divide it in 3/4 to 1 pound containers.  Just enough for a recipe- I usually do not need to use a whole pound of meat in a recipe so it stretches the meat further. I keep the meat plain.  I have read many suggestions mentioning that they seasoned it for taco meat or add onions to their hamburger and those are great ideas.  I find that I don't care to do that because I like the flexibility to make the meat into what I need for each meal. 

   If we decide we want tacos then I add the salsa, seasoning and the optional refried beans to the hamburger.  I make the meat mix while I warm the soft taco wraps. Add corn or a veggie/salad and you have an easy meal. 

 

   If we are having spaghetti, I don't make meatballs, I just add some of the browned hamburger to spaghetti sauce and make it a meat sauce.  I take a container of browned meat out of the freezer while the pasta is cooking and sit it on the counter.  As soon as the pasta is done, I drain it and leave it in the colander.  I put the spaghetti sauce and hamburger in the pasta pot and heat it up, stirring it to break up the hamburger. When it is heated thoroughly, I add the pasta. It makes for an exceptionally easy meal served with garlic bread and a salad/green beans. Clean up consists of one pot and a colander.

   I make my own version of Hamburger Helper but you can make it even faster; just pull out a container of hamburger and add the water, milk and seasoning to the hamburger. Stir and heat and the meat will easily break up.

   Do you brown and freeze hamburger?  If you do, what is your favorite way to use it?