Every penny counts in our current economy, and one way that I like to save money is to buy ground beef in bulk and then meal prep it for my family. If you’ve picked up a giant tube of ground beef to save money and now you’re wondering what to do with it, keep reading! I’m sharing bulk ground beef meal prep ideas and tips that will save you money AND time.
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Buying Ground Beef in Bulk
You don’t have to buy half a cow from a farmer in order to buy ground beef in bulk.
Many grocery stores have ground beef that’s been delivered to the store in 10-pound tubes, then they portion it out into different quantities to individually wrap and sell. Some grocery stores will actually sell those 10-pound tubes to you at a slight discount, since they aren’t using in-house labor to repackage it.
I have heard that Costco has these large tubes of ground beef if you ask at the meat counter. I always bought mine at Winco when we lived in Idaho; I didn’t even have to ask about it at the counter because they actually put them in the meat case for sale. You could ask in the meat department of your favorite grocery store to see if it’s a possibility.
Ground Beef Meal Prep Ideas
Buying ground beef in bulk can save money, but it can be overwhelming to deal with such a large amount of meat all at once! Here are some ways that you can prep your ground beef for future use to save some major time. Later in this post I’ll also share a video where you can see me in action as I meal prep some ground beef.
1. Taco Meat
One of my favorite things to prep and freeze is seasoned taco meat. It’s super easy to defrost and heat as-is for tacos on a busy night. You could also add it to dishes like taco soup, enchiladas, or even a taco salad. Just cook and season with your favorite taco seasoning, separate into bags with the quantities you’ll use for recipes, and freeze once the meat has had a chance to cool.
2. Cooked Ground Beef for Recipes
You can also prep ground beef for other recipes so it’s ready to use. I like to cook up a batch of ground beef with onion, salt, and pepper so it can easily be incorporated into any recipe. You can add it to pasta sauce, rice dishes, or soups and stews.
3. Ground Beef Casseroles
Casseroles can take a little bit more prep time, but it’s so nice to have a fully cooked meal frozen and ready to reheat. Our family’s favorite make-ahead meal is the taco casserole from One Hundred Dollars a Month.
4. Meatloaf
Meatloaf is a great way to use up a bunch of your bulk ground beef! I prefer to mix the ingredients, add the mixture to a freezer-safe loaf pan, and then freeze it uncooked. Then, I just put it in the fridge to defrost the day before I need it and bake!
There are a lot of great meatloaf recipes out there, but I just use my meatball recipe and form it into a loaf instead.
5. Meatballs
When I’m doing bulk ground beef meal prep, I mix up enough of the meatball mixture to create one meatloaf and a batch of meatballs. For me, the difference between meatloaf and meatballs is that I cook the meatballs before freezing. I am much more likely to use them out of the freezer when I can just heat them up in our sauce of choice.
We love to use meatballs for pasta, Italian meatball subs, BBQ meatball subs, stew, and more! To make it easier to know if I have enough meatballs for a given recipe, I write the quantity of meatballs on each freezer bag.
6. Hamburger Patties
It’s also super easy to form your bulk ground beef into hamburger patties and freeze them. Due to food sensitivities, we like to add our own blend of seasoning to the meat before using a patty press to shape it into burgers. (Here’s an Amazon affiliate link to the hamburger press that we use and LOVE.)
Then, we put the patties onto parchment paper squares and flash-freeze them on a cookie sheet. Once they’re frozen, we stack them and put them into a freezer-safe container or plastic bag. Flash freezing them makes it so much easier to grab a patty or two from the freezer as you need them.
7. Flat-Frozen Ground Beef
At some point during a meal prep marathon, I run out of steam. If I have any ground beef remaining after prepping what I can, I just divide it up into freezer bags in the quantities I’ll need for recipes. (For our family, it’s usually one-pound and two-pound bags.)
Before placing the bags in the freezer, we press the meat flat in the bag. This makes it easier to store in the freezer, and it takes much less time for it to defrost when we’re ready to use it.
Watch Me Meal Prep Ground Beef
Check out this video where I take you along with me as I prep several meals for my family in one evening using 10 pounds of ground beef. (If you like the meal planning side of YouTube, be sure to subscribe to my channel!)
Save These Bulk Ground Beef Meal Prep Ideas
I hope that this post has given you some ideas for stocking up on ground beef. Not only will you save money on the meat itself, but it will also help you grocery shop less often to have protein ready to go in the freezer.
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find these ideas when you have a large amount of ground beef to deal with.
