Frugal Menu Mamas

If you don’t know what this title is referring to, click here.

Mom, Swister (yes, I spelled it right), and I have been planning what I put on the calendar as the “Ground Beef Fiasco” for quite some time.  We found out that Sam’s Club will sell a case of ground beef for considerably less than their largest 10 lb. package.  We got 90/10 ground beef for $1.76/lb.  We picked a date to buy the ground beef and saved up our grocery money for that date.  I stopped by Sam’s and picked up the meat and we all met at Swister’s house.

Now, to make this a little more enjoyable, we did not just divide up the meat and be done.  We decided to prep it ALL for the freezer together.  First, we decided that Mom would get 20 lbs of meat (total) and Swister and I would each get 30 lbs.  We discussed what we wanted to do with the meat and we came up with four things.  We wanted meatloaves, meatballs, hamburger patties, and browned ground beef placed in 1 lb. portions.  The crazy thing is that I DID NOT want any meatloaves and Mom DID NOT want any hamburger patties.  Furthermore, we all wanted different amounts of each thing.  So, we had to get organized.

Swister made a chart with what each person wanted and in what quantities.  Then she got the recipes for meatloaf and meatballs and calculated all the extra ingredients we would need for those.  We all contributed whatever we already had on hand.  Then we decided who would bring what tools.  I brought my huge Pampered Chef 12 inch skillet for browning meat, Mom brought cookie sheets for baking meatballs, etc…

Now, my Swister lives 2 hours from my house and 4 hours from Mom’s house, so this wasn’t a quick drive over there.  Mom got there a day early (to see my adorable niece, of course) and that night they got everything organized.  The two of them lined the cookie sheets with foil and measured out the ingredients for the meatloaves and meatballs.

That step alone made this monumentous task seem easier.

Well, tune in tomorrow for the details on how we did “what we did with the meat”  (part II). 

Don’t forget about the giveaway!