Make ahead Monday # 2

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Last week, I made pizza crusts, and this week I did something really simple that has already come in handy a couple of times.

I browned 4 pounds of brown beef in my big dutch oven. After it cooled, I froze it in one pound portions to pull out later. We made hamburger pizzas with the ground beef last night, and the rest of the meat went into spaghetti for lunch today. I've still got three pounds left, and there are tons of options for quick, easy dinners with pre-cooked ground beef. Our remaining three pounds will probably be made into tacos, sloppy joes, and some hamburger stew. If I wanted to be really prepared, I could have gone ahead and made 4 batches of any one of those meals and frozen that. Then I'd really have some instant food ready to go.

I like the flexibility of not having seasoned the ground beef yet, though.

What about you? What are you going to make ahead this week?

This post was shared on Traditional Tuesdays and Simple Lives Thursday.