Freezer Organization: For Those with Lots of Meat

Dairy farmers that we are, beef is an abundant blessing at our house that we too often take for granted. I honestly cannot remember the last time I bought beef in a grocery store...probably close to 8 years ago when we lived in North Carolina.

If you are like us and get your beef in quarters or halves, freezer organization can get a bit chaotic. I do not like digging through chunks of frozen meat up to my elbows to find a package of hamburger in the middle of winter. So I thought I'd show what works really well for our family!



1. Purchase a decent sized chest freezer...it has been the best food investment I think we've ever made. Buying meat in bulk will save your family money. If you have the space and farmers near by, I highly recommend it. We also are able to freeze large quantities of summer vegetables and fruits in season or when they go on sale.

2. Upon bringing your meat home, take out your previous supply of freezer meat. Using large bags as seen below (our meat packer supplies them), sort your meat into a few manageable categories. I go with

Hamburger
Roasts/Stew Meat/Soup Bones
Steaks

3. Place your previous meat in the top of your bags to use up first.




Hope this helps someone out there!:)

For more kitchen tips, check out a great site called Tammy's Recipes.

Simple Bag Drying

 

-Wash plastic bags as you do dishes or...

-Open them up widely in the top rack of your dishwasher and press start. ;)

-Hang to dry on a mug rack!

-Store, and reuse, again and again!

In Guinea last year, the missionary family we were with washed their bags out each night in dishtubs outside and hung them to dry on little metal wands attached to the side of their house. Inspired, I decided to commit to washing out ours as well. I was frustrated with them not drying well though in our little rack in the sink. Then, we tried this little mug rack - voila! Works just dandy. Nice for drying bibs out, too. I just leave on the shelf above our washer, so it's not a big deal if they drip a lot.

Hope this helps somebody out there...:)

Check out Tammy's Recipes for great kitchen tips on Tuesdays!