Meal-Prep Ground Beef – Freezer Friendly & Ready to Use

This post is about how to meal-prep 10# of ground beef and includes two delicious meatball recipes, plus a homemade Italian Sausage Seasoning Mix. The meat is fully cooked and frozen, and then ready to use in your favorite recipes. I love how much time this saves me in dinner preparation time on those busy days.

Plus, it’s pretty cool to make your own homemade convenience foods.

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We go to town once a month to do our main grocery shopping, then pick up other items as we need them when we have a meeting or appointment in town. One of my favorite things to do is to buy a 10# roll of ground beef for meal-prepping. There are so many different kinds of meals that can be made with ground beef, that it’s hard to get burned out on it.

I can easily get 10 dinners out of the large tube, but since there is only two of us, we always have enough leftovers for at least a second meal, either for lunch or dinner the next day. I end up with a minimum of 20 meals out of that 10#.

I typically do this every other month or two. We’ll use these packages over a couple of months.

Meal-Prep Ground Beef

The first step is to decide how to divide the tube. I usually brown a little more than half of it in a big pan, then after it’s drained and cooled, I divide it into six quart-size freezer bags. I freeze them flat so they stand up nicely in a box in the freezer. That and they thaw out so much quicker.

I divide the remaining part of the tube in half to make the two recipes below. The meat measurement does not have to be exact.

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Oven Baked Meatballs

Freezer-Friendly Oven-Baked

Seasoned Meatballs

This recipe makes about 60 meatballs. (a 14 ounce bag of frozen prepared meatballs contains 26 meatballs)  Print recipe

• 2# ground beef
• 1 cup onion, minced or finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 ketchup
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF (205°C). Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Thoroughly mix everything together EXCEPT for the ground beef.
3. Gently mix in ground beef until evenly combined. Roll meatballs by hand or use a cookie dough scoop to make 1″ meatballs  (don’t pack too firmly) Place them on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake 15-20 minutes in preheated oven until meatballs are browned and cooked through.

Once they are cooled, I’ll put enough meatballs in a quart freezer bag for one meal. I make up two or three bags….depends on whether Hubby is in the house or not. Label and date the bags and put them in the freezer to use as needed.

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Freezer-Friendly Meatballs

Freezer-Friendly Oven-Baked

Italian Sausage Meatballs

These are so good! The flavor is amazing! I made these with ground beef, but any ground meat can be used.

This recipe makes about 60 meatballs. (a 14 ounce bag of frozen prepared meatballs contains 26 meatballs)  Print recipe

Ingredients

• 2# ground beef
• 2 tablespoon Italian Sausage Seasoning Mix (recipe below)

Mix together the meat and Seasoning Mix.  Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF (205°C). Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Roll meatballs by hand or use a cookie dough scoop to make 1″ meatballs. Careful not to pack them too tightly.
3. Bake 15-20 minutes in preheated oven until meatballs are browned and cooked through.

You can also brown and crumble the meat in a skillet, or make patties.

Once the meatballs are  cooled, bag it up in meal size portions in quart freezer bags. Use just like you would a bag of ready made meatballs from the store.

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Italian Sausage Seasoning Mix

This recipe makes 4 tablespoons.  Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 or 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons fennel (optional)
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon paprika

Directions

1. Mix together all of the spices.
2. To use, mix 1 tablespoon of the Italian Sausage Seasoning Mix to each 1# ground meat. The meat mixture can be browned it in a skillet for crumbled sausage, or made into patties or meatballs.

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More ground beef meal-prep ideas here.

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What ideas do you have for meal-prepping Ground beef?!

Robin