Ground beef is a versatile ingredient. When made ahead and kept, it makes your cooking quicker, easier and cheaper.
Make Meal Prep Quicker
Quicker because Ground Beef is Made Ahead and can be just added to other ingredients and heated up for an almost instant meal. Perfect for Meal Prep, instant yet homemade lunches, or just making dinners faster any time.
Both Simple and Sophisticated Meals are Easier with Ground Beef Make Ahead
Easier because gorgeous browned hamburger meat is already ready and easily put into tacos, pasta sauces, casseroles, sandwiches and so much more. Ready to eat. Not only easier for simple meals, but also to more easily add many wonderful made ahead ingredients for delicious diversity any time.
Sustainable and Budget Friendly Cooking for One or Two
Cheaper because you can buy ground meat in bulk at lower prices. When you cook it up, you extend its food life. You can store it more easily and safely for longer, avoiding food waste.
The Make Ahead is my #1 Cooking for One Top Tip. High quality meals are always at hand, at the lowest cost and better for the environment, avoiding wasting food that would otherwise go bad in the fridge.
Here’s How to Cook and Store Ground Beef Make Ahead, Video Tutorial
The Brilliance of the “Make Ahead” when Cooking for One or Two
The #1 Hack for Cooking for One is the Make Ahead. A “Make Ahead” is making a large amount of one ingredient, in this case ground beef, and then using it for meals through the week ahead.
This way you never compromise on quality, yet you increase the speed, convenience and ease of cooking many meals throughout the week.
Especially brilliant for improving your lunches, as meat can easily be placed in tortillas or pasta sauces and then heated in a microwave for homemade burritos or spaghetti in meat sauce.
Ground Beef Recipe, Make Ahead Cook
Ground Beef, Meal Prep for tacos, spaghetti and meat sauce, burritos, casseroles and more
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Ground Beef flexible amount based on what you have
- 3 Tbsp Taco Seasoning or Salt & Pepper only for more flexible version
Instructions
- Heat large skillet or saute pan on high stovetop heat
- Pinch small pieces (½ inch / 1 cm) of ground beef across the bottom of the pan, keep only a single layer of beef in pan
- Add seasoning to the top of the ground beef
- When the beef is browned on the bottom, then flip the beef pieces over to brown other sides
- Continue until all sides of beef are dark brown (not black, not grey, not light brown)
- Remove from heat and use in your recipe
- To store, allow to cool to room temperature. Put in air tight container to use in next 3 days in refridgerator. Store in freezer safe container to freeze and use within next month. Can reheat in microwave directly from fridge or frozen.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What’s Next?
Looking for more recipes using ground beef? Check out the Recipe Round-Up!
I have many other Make Aheads – learn more from articles on Extend Food Life page. You will also find great hacks for Cooking for One here. Bookmark Ready and Thriving.
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