Hamburger Mix for the Freezer

-
Cook food up a head of time for the freezer is so helpful.  When I don't want to fuss with putting complete meals in the freezer I will make up "Freezer Mixes".    These are made of cooked meats and seasonings that can be used in various meals.  

This post shows how I make "Hamburger Mix".  This mix is very versatile.  You can use it to make chili, tacos, soup, spaghetti....  and more!   



For this tutorial I used 3lbs of hamburger to make my Hamburger Mix recipe (this is one of the recipes from my ebook Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters). 

The original recipe calls for using 5lbs of hamburger.  I added a quart of my home canned red beans to stretch the meat out. The original recipe (posted below) uses just hamburger.   Here is what I did…

I cut my pepper (I used a red pepper because that is what I had on hand) and onion. Then gathered the rest of the ingredients..




I cooked up the hamburger and veggies until the meat was done cooking and the veggies were soft. Then added the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes..



Then added my jar of beans, stirred it up and set it aside to cool. After it had cooled down I divided the mix into 5 zip lock bags. I put about 2 ½ cups of mix in each bag. This is equivalent to 1lb of cooked hamburger (1lb of cooked hamburger measures 2 ½ cups).
 
 



I then put the mix into the freezer. Hamburger Mix can be used in spaghetti, casseroles, soups, etc.. anything that calls for a pound of cooked hamburger.

This recipe is from my ebook, Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters:

Hamburger Mix
Crystal Miller

5 lbs. ground beef
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 t. chopped garlic
3 t. salt
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

Cook ground beef, onion and green pepper until beef is no longer pink and veggies are soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Divide into 5 containers. There will be 2 ½ plus cups of mix per bag. Label bags and freeze.

Comments

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine to
Read more

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this
Read more

Dishwasher Soap Sub

-
Image
One of the most common emails I receive is ladies asking if I have a good homemade substitute for dishwasher detergent. After making my own homemade laundry detergent and having such great success I was eager to try and find something that worked as well in my dishwasher. I found and tried a couple different recipes. I was not happy with the results at all. The most common recipe I came across was a combination of washing soda, borax and citric acid (some recipes used Kool-Aid in place of the citric acid). What I discovered is that this combination left a cloudy film all over my dishes that was hard as heck to remove. I quickly went back to Cascade and gave up trying to find a substitute. Well, last week I ran out of dishwasher soap. Because I live rurally just hopping in the car to run and pick up one item is out of the question. Plus, at that point my hand had not healed enough to be able to drive (I have a stick shift and could not shift with my right hand). I had
Read more