The least glamorous meal prep that saves me every week

Easy batch cooking is one of those habits that sounds slightly extreme until you try it. The short version is this: Cook extra, freeze it and thank yourself later.

Preparing ready-to-use meal components ahead of time takes the pressure off weeknight cooking and gives you the best of both worlds — nutritious, frugal, home-cooked meals and far less time spent staring hopefully into the refrigerator at 5:30 p.m.

The only real downside is that batch cooking asks for a little time upfront, usually on the weekend. But I’ve learned that an hour or two of focused prep can buy me days of easier dinners.

Which brings me to one of my least glamorous but most useful kitchen habits: cooking ground beef in bulk.

Why cook just 1 pound of ground beef when I can cook 5 or even 10 pounds and be set for weeks, especially when ground beef is rarely the finished dish anyway?

It’s a building block, destined for soups, casseroles, tacos, burritos, pasta sauces and skillet meals that will all be seasoned later.

This is usually the point in the conversation where eyebrows go up. Because, yes, I cook ground beef in the slow cooker, on purpose, and it turns out to be one of the most useful kitchen shortcuts I know.

Slow-cooked ground beef comes out fully cooked and surprisingly moist. It isn’t browned or particularly pretty, and that’s exactly the point. This meat is meant to be finished later, not served as-is.

How To Cook Ground Beef In A Slow Cooker

Place 5 to 6 pounds of ground beef in a 6-quart slow cooker, breaking it into large chunks. Season lightly with 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Add 1 cup of water, cover, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, until fully cooked. Drain well, cool completely, then portion into labeled freezer bags, about 2 cups each, and freeze flat.

Use directly from the freezer in soups, casseroles, taco filling, pasta sauce, shepherd’s pie, stuffed peppers or skillet meals.

Meal prep doesn’t have to mean finished meals lined up in identical containers. Sometimes it’s enough to prepare the parts that take the longest. Future you will take it from there.

This is the quiet power of cooking components instead of complete meals. A little advance effort turns into fast, flexible dinners that don’t feel repetitive.

It’s not flashy, but it’s the kind of kitchen habit that makes everyday cooking feel so easy it’s almost fun. Almost.

Curried Beef Pita Pockets

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked ground beef (about 1 pound raw)

1 garlic clove, minced or grated

1 tablespoon curry powder, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 medium zucchini, diced

1/4 cup water

1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon dill

Salt and pepper

4 pita pockets, cut into halves

Procedure

Preheat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Heat the olive oil and brown the onion. Add the ground beef and garlic, curry powder, salt, pepper, diced tomato and zucchini, and stir to combine. Add 1/4 cup water, cover and simmer 3 minutes.

While that’s simmering, mix the cucumber with sour cream and dill, adding salt and pepper to taste, set aside. Spoon meat mixture into pita breads. Top with dollops of cucumber sauce. Serve with a salad.