Fry-day!

I have struggled with meal planning for YEARS!!! And I mean years!!! 4 p.m. would roll around and I'd think 'Gee, what is for dinner?" I'd scramble to the freezer. Um, nope, no time to defrost. Then the frig. Nope nothing in there. Then the pantry. Nope. Um. What. To. Do?!?!

Well I have finally (maybe mostly?) conquered meal planning. I'll share more in another post, but one way was to have a FRY DAY!!!

I rarely buy hamburger at the store. I grew up on a farm and when we butchered, well, that's when we got meat! Having married into a farming family we still butcher. However, in the last few years, we have started eating venison. Now, this is very corn fed venison, which means it tastes like beef!

So how this looks for you vs. how it looks for me, might be a little different!

When we get our ground venison, I simply put it in the freezer. It comes in one pound packages.

When I'm ready to have my fry day, I simply thaw 6 to 12 pounds of hamburger. Sometimes it's 15 lbs.

I put one pack in a pan at a time.  Fry it up. Then I usually start another pound in a second pan.

Now remember, if you have children they can probably do this for you! I've had children (who were old enough and it was safe) stand at the stove and fry the meat. The only downside = you will have ground hamburger all over the stove, the counter and the floor.

However, as Karen Ehman says:

I"m sure if it's true for the washing machine, it's true for stove! 

I like to just dirty two pans. In my world, washing dishes is WORK, so less dirty dishes = less work!  

Once a pound is fried, I put it in a dish I purchased at IKEA to cool.  Then onto the next pound.

Once I fry about 6 pounds of plain hamburger, I move onto taco meat. Our family loves tacos and I can easily throw the cooked taco meat into the crock pot! So...I have to use two pounds for this for our family. Two pounds of meat gets cooked and then I add the taco seasoning and the water. Follow package directions for taco seasoning. Then into the bowl to cool! I find that by using four of these bowls, the meat usually has enough time to cool, so I don't have to dirty anymore!

Once done, I put the meat into a freezer bag, mark it (because nothing is to go into my freezer unless it has a name AND a date!) and freeze. Just remember NOT to put the bag of hamburger directly onto a wire shelf to freeze!  Been there. Done that! Put a paper plate under instead!

When it's time to make a meal, your hamburger is already cooked! And if it's a taco night you can either just reheat the meat OR throw it in the crock pot on warm or low all day.