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No meat grinding here. I've never had a freezer to hold large amounts of meat.
I used to buy more premade food. I've learned to be a better cook. My family has gotten spoiled. They usually complain when I try to cheat with something premade from the store. I bought frozen pizzas Super Bowl weekend because they were on sale. We used those as an afterschool snack.
The local grocery stores make their own tortillas in-store. I buy those to help with other dishes. We had breakfast tacos for supper the other night. I cooked individual ingredients and everyone put together their own. This morning I gathered all the leftovers, cooked fresh eggs and made tacos for on the go breakfasts... eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, cheese, salsa, and hatch green chiles.
I've been crafting a lot of freezer type 'sandwiches' lately even though we really don't need a lot of bread. Sandwiches are portable and easy. I make kolaches, tacos, burritos, bread in a breadmaker, etc. I also make individual pizzas from tortillas, but we don't freeze those. We eat them as we make them.
I freeze leftover cooked meat for future meals. That is way to reduce waste and speed up cooking time.
I don't grind meat because hamburger meat is cheaper than the meat I'd have to buy to grind. I buy a 10 lb tube of 90% lean ground beef at Sam's for about $27. It doesn't have any weird gristly pieces or nasty bits in it. The cheapest I ever see beef at the store is $3/lb for boneless ribs or shoulder roast, and I have to trim a lot off of those before I can use them, so grinding meat would not be cost-effective for me.
About frozen food, I freeze meat and I buy plain frozen vegetables. I don't buy any other frozen food. I will cook and freeze food but the frozen meals that I can eat are so expensive that I can't imagine buying them. I used to buy frozen fries but I can't use them anymore because I'm now allergic to soy, including the oil, and it's in most of them.
........I was hoping to buy beef when it is marked down and on clearance to grind. Do you think any cut would work?
You can grind any cut as long as it is boneless. Some cuts will give you more fat, some will give you leaner burger.
Boneless skinless chicken breast often goes on sale and it makes a very nice ground chicken. I've got a turkey bought on sale that is going to have the breast meat ground, the thighs and legs cooked and stripped for enchiladas, and the bones boiled for broth.
For the people, I grind chuck, which is shoulder. I buy the certified angus, choice grade, so it is rather fatty, but has great flavor. One time I bought the certified angus top round and mixed that with the chuck, which gave a leaner burger, but it wasn't a hit with the family. Round makes a good lean burger, it's just my family likes the flavor of the chuck.
I bought select grade beef top round for my dogs at $2.38 a pound. That makes a lean ground beef, but in order to get that price, you have to buy a box, which is about 80 pounds. That select grade round would give you a better burger than most of what you might buy in the grocery store. Unless you are buying top quality. Costco sells good burger, but the last time I looked, it was $5 a pound.
You can grind a pork shoulder, too. Those go on sale fairly often. That grinds better if it is well chilled.
In my area, frozen meatballs cost more than home made. I think they are about $5 for a pound & a half, ($3.33 a pound) so when ground beef or turkey goes on sale, I buy a big pack & freeze it in small meal size portions & I might make some meatballs as well. I used to buy them for convenience, but now I am working harder to save money in the kitchen.
Recently I got a 5 pound bag of frozen fries, for $2.99 which is a reasonable cost, as there is no waste, as dh wants no peel on his fries.
I do buy frozen fish as it is so much cheaper & it tastes fine to us. I also get the cheap frozen pizza, & add a few toppings or more cheese.
I don't grind meat. Its not worth it to me because I live alone and only use ground pork sometimes for homemade McRib.
The frozen foods I buy are tortellini, peas and spinach. The frozen prepared food like pot-pies, dinners, etc are too salty.
I home freeze summer fruits and vegetables, breads, soups, roasts, steaks, homemade waffles, and milk.
I do freeze veg when they go on sale, recently a store had green bells on sale at 4 for $1, which is a good price as normally thye are .69 each, so I bought about 8 & froze them, now I can add them to other dishes. I also froze some corn last summer, when it was super cheap. I also froze some spinach when I am done eating spinach salad, those bags are big. But I still buy frozen veg for variety.
I leave for work at 5 am and get home at 7pm. My husband doesn't cook so I do buy more frozen/convenience food then I should. I do freeze homemade soup and meatloaf to use later. I'm on my feet for 12 of the 14 hours I'm gone during the day and when I get home I just want to get dinner done. I try to make up for some of it on my off days by making healthy home cooked meals.
Just to let you know, if you don't already: yes, frozen meat balls are cheaper but that is due to more filler than actual meat. I think frozen ones are fine if you are having some type of a fund raiser and serving spaghetti but otherwise, it is cheaper to make good ones at home than using frozen.
Actually, the reason why meatballs are cheaper premade than homemade is NOT due to the filler in the meatballs. No, it is the meat in the meatballs. The last ten times that I have looked at frozen meatballs at Safeway and Kroger's they are either 100% pork OR 75% pork and 25% chicken.
I am not saying that is bad, per se. However, pork meatballs impart a different flavor to a pasta dish that I would rather NOT have. I will go ahead and make my own all-beef meatballs with enough other ingredients to hold it together.
Hubby and I are probably in the middle with a strong leaning toward fresh. There are a couple things that are guilty pleasures. We don't have them often enough to warrant making from scratch and freezing for later. We also keep a couple things available for nights that schedules get weird or we just don't feel like fixing dinner.
Frozen purchases:
Veggie Patties or Veggie Bites (love the Don Lee Farms ones at Costco)
Portabella Ravioli
Meatballs (generally used for a last minute gotta think of something quick meal)
Pot Pie (ONLY Blakes. Much lower in sodium, less processed and the crust is much better. A guilty pleasure item)
Plain Frozen Veggies (peas, corn, green beans, broccoli)
Plain Frozen Fruit (pineapple chunks, mixed berries, blueberries)
Chicken Breasts (individually frozen packages of 2.5 lbs)
Chile Relleno from Trader Joes (Guilty pleasure item and a passable Chile Relleno. Beats anything served locally)
Ham Steaks (from Costco. Hubby loves ham and a regular baked ham is just too much for the two of us)
Everything else is fresh. Most meats come from Costco so we portion out into dinner size packages and freeze. Things that come in smaller portions get frozen as is. Fresh fruit and veggies weekly from the Farmers Market and if nothing amazing grabs us, we'll supplement with what we have frozen.
We're fortunate to have a separate upright freezer so a lot of other things get frozen as well. We freeze excess oatmeal, flours, etc to make sure we don't get bug problems. Always have frozen walnuts on hand. When I make pasta sauce or applesauce I always make a double batch and freeze the extra. When hubby's favorite bacon or sausage goes on sale, we'll get an extra or two and those go in the freezer.
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