Best Kitchen Hack, Ever!

Do you spend a lot of time menu planning, grocery shopping and cooking in the kitchen? Even if you don’t, this kitchen hack will save the day when you need to get dinner on the table but you haven’t hit the grocery store in a while.

I don’t have time to hit grocery store every single day, it’s just not convenient. Plus if you are like me and shop while hungry, you end up buying way more than you need. Because let’s face it, everything looks good when you are hangry! Not very cost effective, and maybe you are like me, and impulse buy the stuff that isn’t the healthiest.

I plan my menus carefully and create a list so I can limit trips to the grocery store to only once a week. Because meat is often one of the most expensive items on the list, I scour the grocery store ads to see what meats are on sale for the week. I pull out my favorite recipes and create my menu and shopping list. When pork or beef are on sale, I stock up.

Even when you carefully plan your meals for the week, life has a way of happening. I’m not going to turn down an invitation to meet with friends for dinner out. Sometimes at the end of the day you are just too tired to cook. No judgement, we’ve all been there.

The problem is that fresh foods like the meats in the fridge will only keep for so long, they have a fairly short shelf life. So freezing meat is the way to go. Problem solved…right?

Well if you are like me, I often forget to take frozen meat out of the fridge the night before to let it thaw safely in the fridge. I get busy being a mom and when it’s time to make dinner, I’m faced with a frozen solid chunk of meat.

What’s that old saying? Necessity is the mother of invention?

That’s how I came up with this brilliant kitchen hack! I wanted an easy way to have the meats I needed for a recipe ready to go when I needed them with out making a trip to the grocery store. No more ditching dinner and ordering takeout because you forgot the take the meat out of the freezer the night before.

The biggest benefits of this kitchen hack?

1. Save money buying meat when it’s on sale.
2. Thaw meat in minutes, not hours, with no nasty grey edges from thawing it in the microwave.
3. Meat needed for a recipe is always readily available.

Supplies you will need for this easy hack:

• Zip lock freezer bags
• Rolling pin
• Sharpie marker pen

For a good long time I used this hack primarily for ground beef.

When freezing ground beef for later use, portion it out into 1 pound servings. 

Place each portion of meat in a 1 gallon zip lock bag. 

TIP: Be sure to label the bag so you will know later on down the road how long it’s been in your freezer and what the contents are.

Use your hands to begin flattening out the meat and pushing it into the bottom corners.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the meat inside the bag out to the edges, and up towards the top of the bag.

The goal is to roll out the meat as thin as possible.  Squeeze out as much air as you can from the bag, and seal. 

Place bags flat in your freezer.  Once it is frozen solid you can stand them up to make more space in your freezer if needed. 

When you are ready to use a portion of meat, fill your kitchen sink with hot water and drop in the bag.  The meat will thaw in just a few short minutes and be ready to use in your recipe. No more nasty grey edges from thawing meat in the microwave!

This works well with many types of meat, pork tenderloin cut into thin slices, steak meat cut into thin slices or cubes, even chicken can be cut into thin slices, strips or cubes. I even freeze leftover homemade spaghetti sauce the same way for a quick weeknight meal later on down the road.

Crispy Shredded Beef

Instead of tossing out 1/2 a can of tomato paste, spread it out in a sandwich bag and freeze flat. When you have a recipe that calls for a tablespoon of tomato paste, just break off a piece to use in your recipe. Purchasing a can is a fraction of the price of the tubes. I hate wasting leftover tomato paste and this hack solves that problem!

So the next time you hit the grocery store and stock up on meat, use this easy hack to save it. You will never have to worry about thawing meat in advance again.

If you decide to try this kitchen hack, don’t forget to comment and leave a review, or tag me on Instagram so I can see it!

Did You Try This?

Snap a pic and hashtag it #naturewayblog — I love to see your creations!  Don’t forget to comment and leave a review, or tag me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!

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