Perhaps the title caused you to wonder, “Why would anyone buy 20 pounds of ground beef at once?” Well, I have four sons. They eat like there’s no tomorrow. I buy in bulk to save money, and because I can often get a higher quality product when I am willing to buy in bulk. (I bought my meat from Zaycon. Click here to learn more.) The only problem is repacking the food for long term storage and breaking it up into usable, meal sized portions.
Yesterday, I showed you how I use my pressure canner to can some of my huge stash of ground beef.
Pressure Canned Ground Beef. See how here.
Today, I’m going to show you a super simple way to use ground beef and make life easier in the process, especially for those with teenagers. What teenager doesn’t like a hamburger? Yes, I know that there are many vegetarians out there, but most teenagers, boys especially, down burgers like there’s no other food group. My boys inhale them. Literally. Okay, not literally (Sorry Captain Literally!), but it sure seems like it. If I make hamburgers, they’re gone the second they hit the plate. If we go to In-N-Out, they want Double-Doubles. (Or Triple-Triples, Four-by-Fours. You get the picture.)
To help fill the tummies of my boys, I made some homemade hamburger patties and stuck them in the freezer for quick, easy meals. It took me less than 10 minutes to prep the patties and put them in the freezer for another day. These frozen hamburger patties will help keep the teenage hungries away, at least for a little bit. They also make a quick and easy meal for the family on busy nights. I can have the food on the table within 10 minutes (including making a salad or another veggie to go with dinner).
First up, here’s the recipe.
Cooked hamburger patties in a hamburger bun.
Hamburger Patties
2 pounds lean ground beef (I used 93/7)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Montreal Steak Seasoning (or seasoning of choice)
Mix salt and steak seasoning into the ground beef. Form into 8 equal sized balls. Take one ball and put it on a piece of parchment or wax paper. Fold paper over the ball and use the back of a plate to press the patty flat. Repeat until all balls are formed into patties. Place patties in a ziplock bag and put in your freezer. Pull them out as needed, cook, and serve.
Here’s my photo step-by-step.
I started by gathering my ingredients together. Please note that I doubled the recipe and am using 4 pounds of lean ground beef.
I put the beef in a bowl and added the salt and steak seasoning.
I find that mixing the meat by hand better distributes the seasoning throughout the meat. While I was doing this, my son was cutting sheets of parchment paper.
I divided the meat (remember I’m working with 4 pounds) into 16 relatively equal balls.
To form the balls into patties, I put one ball on a piece of parchment paper.
Next, I folded the paper over the ball.
Next, using a large plate, I pressed down evenly on the ball in the parchment paper.
See? The patty is ready!
Because I had so many hamburger patties, I used a 2-gallon zip-lock bag. I pressed out the excess air, sealed the bag, and stuck it in my freezer.
Yesterday, my youngest wanted a burger for lunch, so I pulled it one of the patties out of the freezer and preheated a non-stick skillet.
I put the patty in the preheated skillet and put a lid on the pan to allow the patty to cook evenly.
When it was ready, I flipped the patty, so it could cook on the other side.
Within 5 minutes of pulling the hamburger patty from the freezer, my son was eating it! Now, that’s fast food!
Have you ever made freezer meals to make your life easier?
Think you might want to try this with ground beef (or the meat of your choice)?
* * * This post contains an affiliate link for Zaycon Foods. Please visit my about page (here) to find out more about affiliate links. * * *
