Taco Meat

taco meat for freezer Taco Meat

There’s a reason I don’t blog recipes on the weekend. It’s my “time off” from blogging. BUT, I don’t take time off from cooking! Well, I do. Sorta.

We typically have spaghetti or tacos on the weekend, along with leftovers or sandwiches. In order to spend as little time in the kitchen on the weekend as possible, I like to “batch cook” my spaghetti sauce and taco meat. Ideally, I do this on the same day as my shopping trip, while I’m doing other meal prep that afternoon.

Then when Saturday afternoon rolls around and I’m not “feeling” up to cooking, I’ve already got taco meat ready and taco shells in the stockpile.

Dinner’s ready in a matter of minutes!

Ingredients
3 lb. ground chuck ($5.04) Sale price of $1.69/lb.
1 onion, finely chopped ($.30)
6 oz can tomato sauce ($.33) Look for these on sale at Walgreens!
2 Tbsp chili powder ($.20)
2 Tbsp ground cumin ($.20)
2 Tbsp garlic powder ($.20)
1 tsp salt
Pepper, to taste
1 4 ounce can green chilies (optional) ($.59) For some KICK!

Directions
1. Brown the ground chuck with the chopped onion. Drain and rinse. Return to sauce pan.
2. Add the tomato sauce and spices to the ground beef and let simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

taco meat Taco Meat

3. Divide meat into meal size portions into freezer containers. Freeze.

I divided this into 3 portions. And labeled.

taco meat label Taco Meat

Overall cost $6.86
Cost per meal $2.29

printer famfamfam Taco Meat

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Celine Clemens April 12, 2010 at 10:32 am

Why not freeze the meat in freezer bags? You can stack many in a small amount of space. It defrosts quickly, too.

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Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom April 12, 2010 at 12:07 pm

@Celine Clemens,

Just using what I had on hand. Freezer baggies would certainly “stack” nicer. I do that with spaghetti sauce.

Reply

Anna August 17, 2010 at 2:14 pm

Just subscribed! Love your website, thanks for the batch cooking ideas. I’m a procrastinator when it comes to meal planning and this idea will help a lot!

Happy Tuesday :)

Reply

Kristen August 31, 2011 at 9:19 am

I certainly would love to try preparing tacos. I just couldn’t believe that taco meat could be affordable. Thanks for listing the prices and where to find them. I just hope that there are tortilla or taco available in the market.

Magnavox MDR513H

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