WFMW June 28

It's that time again. Works for Me Wednesday from Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer. So far, I've gleaned many wonderful tips from some really neat ladies. I hope I've been as helpful to others as they have from me.

This week, we're going into my kitchen. I've learned a few things over the years that help me with food prep. One of those is to buy meat on sale in bulk and store it in my freezer. I usually have 1 turkey, 2 chickens, bags of drumsticks, bags of boneless/skinless breasts or thighs, packages of chicken parts (usually thighs) and multiple packages of beef - steaks, ground beef, stew meat, etc. We usually buy 1/4 beef and keep that in the fridge, but in between beeves, I stock up with the store has a meat sale. This week, I've expanded on that because the store had a stupendous sale on ground round - $1.89/lb. Now, I have 5 lbs worth of meatballs in my freezer, which ended up being about 160 meatballs. I love meatballs. They are so versatile. You can make chili with them, spaghetti, meatball soup, and meatballs with rice. Those are just the top 4 recipes we use them for.

Here's what I did. I took my biggest bowl - a Tupperware "Thatsabowl" - and put my beef in it. In the meantime, I had cleaned about 4 carrots and cut them into chunks. I also cleaned about 4-5 stalks of celery and cut them into chunks, and 1 onion peeled and quartered, plus 4 garlic cloves. I stuck these into my food processor and made a slurry. I added a bunch of quick oats to the beef, probably 3-4 cups, and probably 3 Tbsp salt. When the veggies were all liquefied, I poured them in as well. Then, I mixed and mixed. When it was all incorporated well, I shaped a meatloaf from about 2 lbs of the meat and left the other 5 for the meatballs. Then I spread out some wax paper on cookie sheets and grabbed my small scooper thing from Pampered Chef (about 1" dia). I just started plopping beef onto the sheets and covered with more wax paper when done. It was a cinch, especially since I didn't have to make the meatballs by hand, and the cleanup was easy as well. When the meatballs are frozen, I'll just stick them in a freezer bag and pull out as I need. The cookie sheets are covered with wax paper, so I don't have much cleanup on them either.

That's my tip, and it works for me!