Kitchen timesavers and how I package my meat

Yes, I know. That sounds vaguely naughty. *insert beavis and butthead giggle*

I have a couple of tricks I use in the kitchen, and until recently, thought a lot of people did the same thing! I realize now, not many do, so I thought I'd share a couple of my shortcuts! It's a little bit of dabbling in Once a Month cooking, but on a much, much smaller scale. I buy my meat in family size packages, since it's usually cheaper per lb, and I have a lot of mouths to feed. When I get home from the store, I split it up. (I love my foodsaver!) Steaks and chops get bagged up with a marinade and frozen. I take some of the ground beef and package it up as is, so I can use it for burgers or meatloaf. (If I really get inspired, I'll actually mix up the meatloaf, and freeze it raw so it just needs to go in the oven on cooking day!) The rest of the ground beef I brown all at once. I take some out and seperate into dinner sized portions and freeze plain. The rest I taco season, and again, freeze in dinner sized portions. This saves in two ways...not only do I only have a greasy pan to wash once (and I really, really hate doing dishes!), but I also have the meat already cooked so it saves time when I go to make dinner!

I do the same with chicken breasts. I freeze some as is, for when I'm serving chicken breast as is. I also cook a bunch up to cube or shred. It's so nice to have already-cooked cubed/shredded chicken for casseroles, quesadillas, salads, etc!