One Way I Saving Time Cooking

I really hate cleaning a messy greasy stove after frying meat. One way I help myself out is by cooking a big batch of hamburger all at the same time and freezing it in batches to use later. This saves clean up and the time it takes to clean up. It saves energy, not using gas to cook  multiple times; and A/C cooling cost because of the added heat burden in the house. Cooking hamburger in big batches really saves time in meal preparation too. One less step when you are cooking dinner.

As an example, if I wanted to make pasta for dinner, I would put my thawed cooked burger in a sauce pan, heat gently then add my pasta sauce. No skillet to hand wash, my sauce pan will go in the dishwasher and clean just fine in there.

When I find a good sale on hamburger I buy enough for several meals. Some of the meat I freeze raw wrapped in foil, the rest is frozen after cooking. I cook the hamburger, careful not to over cook it, which can result in dry meat in your dishes later; Then I fill my mason jars in serving sizes that works for us, and freeze them for future use. I try to cook this way when I am already involved in preparing a meal. It doesn't take that more effort to cook the extra meat.

I take a jar out of the freezer the night before I will need it, and put it in the fridge. If it isn’t thawed enough when I need to use it, I finish thawing carefully in the microwave, lid off of course!

A canning funnel helps fill your jars. Don’t pack too tightly so there is room for expansion during freezing, and leave room at the top. I always freeze food in my jars with the lids a little on the loose side, then tighten them later after they are frozen just to be safe.

This blue painter’s tape ( I use this tape for everything) I get at the hardware store for labels on my mason jars. It comes off easily after you have used it. By the way, the lids on mason jars are reusable if you have not gone through the heat canning process with them. Use only brand new lids if you are canning your foods.