Red Ground Meat

First, I have to tell you that my family have been vegan for about a year now.  Not to go into it too much, but I decided to try it for a while to see if it relieved some health issues we were having.  But, when I did still purchase, handle and prepare meat, I have several things helpful.  I bought large quantities of meat at a time.  This allowed me to prepare a lot of meat at once so that I wasn’t doing it every day. 

Ground Beef (I always mixed ground turkey, beef and buffalo):

 I would purchase several pounds and when I got home from Costco I would unwrap it all, mix it in a large bowl with garlic, salt, pepper (whatever you like!) and either fry it up in a frying pan or put it in the crockpot for a few hours.  The latter is easier, but the former probably retains more flavor.  Once this was done, I would pour it into a colander (you know, the thing you strain noodles with) to let the fat drain out and let it cool off.  Once cooled, I would put it in large ziplock bags and put them in the freezer.  Trick: make sure they are not over full and that you lay them flat to freeze.  Otherwise, the meat will freeze in a hopeless block that you will not be able to break apart.  Then, when I need ground meat, I can just grab a handful or the whole bag and throw it in.  I used this for: quesadillas, nachos, taco night, spaghetti sauce, chili….  It is so much easier than prepping the meat for every meal!