All purpose ground beef mix is just that, a make-ahead ground beef to throw into recipes on those busy nights when you need to cook, but have limited time.
To be honest, we first happened upon this idea when our freezer door was accidentally left ajar and all the packages of ground beef and venison that were in the door fully thawed. Raw meat that has been previously frozen shouldn’t be “refrozen”. However, if it’s been previously frozen in its raw state, it’s perfectly safe to cook it and then freeze it.
Once the meat has been fully cooked with the veggies, we repackage it into 1 pound packages and freeze it for later use in our favorite recipes such as chop suey, shepherds pie, lasagna, beef chow mein, etc. Any recipe that calls for a pound of browned ground beef (or turkey, venison, etc).
You’ll Need:
5 lbs Ground beef, venison or turkey
1 tbsp Salt
1 tsp pepper
2 cup Chopped celery
2 cup Chopped onion
1 cup Diced green pepper
Drizzle a large skillet with olive oil *this depends on the fattiness of your meat, if you’re using 90% lean ground beef or turkey or venison, you’ll want the oil) if you’re using 85% lean beef or less, you definitely will NOT want the oil.
Add the onions, peppers. and celery and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the meat, season with salt & pepper and brown it until it’s cooked throughout and no longer pink. Remove from heat, drain if needed. cool.
Measure 2 cups of mix into vacuum seal bag, seal, label. and freeze. Repeat until all the mix is used up.
Use this mixture in any recipe calling for a pound of ground beef, just adjust the cooking time slightly because the meat is already cooked!
© Can Stock Photo Inc. / SouthernLightStudios
