Make Ahead Hamburgers Save Prep Time for a Quick Meal

(Courtesy of simplyscratch.com)

Since I live alone, I seldom cook a 'real' meal ... too much trouble for just one person.  Still, I'm trying to eat healthy, so I need to come up with ways to make things that I can throw together easily so that I don't end up eating something I shouldn't, just because it's convenient.

One of the ways I do that is by making individual hamburger patties and seasoning them before putting in the freezer.  Sometimes I'll take regular ground beef and form my own patties, but since coming back to NC, I've been finding pre-made fresh hamburger patties at the commissary in the 'manager's special' bin that are marked down,  so I grab them whenever I see them.

When I get home, I take each individual patty and season it with ground black pepper, onion salt, garlic salt and just a dash of Worcestershire Sauce, and then freeze them individually. By doing it that way, I can easily take out one burger at a time for lunch or dinner, and even if I forget to do it earlier in the day, it doesn't take much time to thaw a single hamburger as it would a whole package of ground beef.  If you're making your own patties, just put the ground beef in a large enough bowl that will allow you to season it all at once and then form the patties.

I was freezing them in small round plastic containers, but as often happens, some of mine seem to have disappeared, so until I buy more, I've been putting each patty in a sandwich bag, then putting all of those bags into a gallon sized freezer bag.  That way they are more protected from freezer burn, but still easy to take out and fix one at a time.  I can also reuse the larger bag since no food actually touches it.  I want to go back to packaging them with less waste, so I'm thinking about buying a hamburger press set which also has the container to freeze them in.

Tonight's dinner consisted of one such patty that I fried in a small skillet, topped with a sliced fresh mushroom, with a side of MA's Cucumber Salad.  It was very satisfying, and the burger took literally no prep time, and the salad only a minute or two to throw together.

I don't like spending a lot of time in the kitchen, so anything I can do to cut down prep time and still eat healthy is a win.

~ Marie Anne

P.S.  Here's another tip on saving time and money by prepping vegetables ahead too!