Three ground beef recipes
that aren't some kind of iteration of a taco
Meal planning/meal prepping, whatever you’d like to call it, is the bane of my existence lately. It’s a constant rain cloud hanging over my head because it’s a never ending cycle. Don’t get me wrong - I love to plan out my weekend cooking ventures. However, it’s the mundane weeknight meals that I struggle to look forward to. Ideally, I want the weeknight meal to be something I can make ahead, heat up as needed and not have to bother with a big “to-do” after working/exercising.
We are not very picky in my household of two. When Noah and I first got married, we would cook two meals a week - one on Monday for Mon/Tues and one on Wednesday for Wed/Tr. I have since gotten a little lazy, so we now typically cook one meal a week (ideally one we can mostly prep ahead) and then heat up day-by-day. I know this is a rather drab approach, but it works for us and coming up with meal after meal doesn’t have to take up real estate in my head. We are lax on the weekend, but the weeknight meals typically lean on the healthier side and consistent of the same formula: protein + greens/veggies + carb (again boring - but functional).
One thing I don’t love to reheat is chicken. If we cook the chicken ahead of time I will likely eat it cold or we will prep ahead (cut and season) and then cook the night we are using, but doing so usually ensures more dirty dishes to clean up afterwards. However, one thing that’s not gross heated up? Ground beef! It’s something you can make ahead, heat up as needed and even freeze if you have excess. For whatever reason, I sometimes have a hard time getting creative with ground beef - seems most recipes using ground beef revolve around some kind of Mexican dish (which is fine, but sometimes I want something different). When grocery shopping, I usually look for an 80/20 ratio. Costco has a great organic 3-pack, Fresh Market has a special on Tuesdays (3.99/lb beef and chicken) or I will check Whole Foods and they will occasionally run sales on their grass-fed beef so I will stock up and keep in the freezer (sorry to my readers that don’t have the freezer space for this). It’s also worth noting my weeknight meals are almost always “bowls” - so if that’s not your jam then this post is not for you.
Ginger Beef Bowls by Carla Lalli Music - I tell anyone and everyone to make these bowls. It’s definitely on constant rotation in our house. There is a little bit of prep work with the ginger/onions/garlic. Also, if you haven’t cooked with Asian ingredients before, you may have to purchase a few ingredients, but they’re all pretty versatile and once you have on hand, it will be accessible moving forward. You can find the recipe in her cookbook here (in addition to the video above). I will typically scale this recipe up to cook around 3ish pounds of ground beef (Noah eats alot, like alot alot). Then I will typically serve it with some basmati rice and a smashed cucumber/spring mix salad situation. I garnish with sesame seeds, green onions and sriracha mayo (1 part mayo, 1/2 part sriracha, about 1T honey, salt, lots of pepper, pickle juice, adjust to your desired taste).
Cheeseburger salad - I don’t really follow a recipe for this. I was inspired by Baylee Nicole’s “Healthy but realistic what I eat in a day” TikToks, love her content. I start by sweating out diced onions, garlic and peppers in a skillet. Next, I add the ground beef and brown it. While the ground beef is browning, I make a seasoning mixture consisting of: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, s+p, dry mustard (adobo seasoning would also work here). Once the ground beef is browned, I add the seasoning mixture to the browned beef and then additionally add some fish sauce (or Worcestershire) and pickle juice until it’s seasoned to my liking. I serve on a bed of romaine with salad fixings (plus chopped pickles). When reheating next day, I typically heat up the ground beef in the microwave for about a minute and then add a slice of cheese to the top and back into the microwave for another minute so the cheese gets melty before putting it on the salad. For the dressing - I usually do a quick Thousand Island-esque sauce with Greek yogurt as the base (yogurt, chopped pickles, onion powder, garlic powder, ketchup, s+p). For a side we will do air-fryer fries or sweet potato fries for something carby. So good and heats up really well.
Deconstructed Mediterranean Meatballs - I love meatballs and I think in general they’re a great way to use ground beef. If I'm feeling ambitious, I will make a quadruple batch of these Greek meatballs and then keep them in the freezer, pull them out as needed and bake. However, I have been feeling very lazy lately, so I basically just make “deconstructed'“ meatballs, based off this HBH recipe. I loosely follow the ingredients and cook similar to the hamburger beef annotated above. I also have za’atar seasoning that I will toss into the ground beef. I serve (you guessed it) in a bowl with greens (and whatever other veggies I have) and rice. I also will make tzatziki sauce to top it (Greek yogurt, lemon juice, dill, finely diced garlic, salt as needed, and finely diced cucumbers). If you have some naan bread lying around, it would be a good move warm it up and serve alongside the bowl
I don’t have a pic of the meatballs deconstructed, but here they are constructed
With summer around the corner, I have been eyeing a few recipes, some I’ve made before and some new to me and thought I’d share below:
Malted Chocolate trifle with Coffee Whipped Cream (have made and it’s fabulous)
Raspberry Ricotta cake (have made and it’s the perfect vehicle for all those summer berries)
Filipino Mango Float (have not made but can’t stop eating mangos and saw this recipe - looks so easy and yummy)
Pistachio Tiramisu (have not made but looks too good)
Agree on eating leftover chicken 😖 all the bowls look great!