Frugal Tip: This little piggy has roast beef

Roast beef is yummy and it's lower calorie than ground beef. I often will use it instead of ground beef in recipes. If you get it on sale it can be very comparable to ground beef. I got this roast beef for $2.69 lb for chuck roast. When I buy roast beef I always buy two and roast them at the same time. This saves time and energy cost. I will also roast some onions, celery and carrots with the roast, this flavors the broth and the veggies nicely. We will eat that with some of the roast the day I cook the roasts. I boil and mash some potatoes with it, my hubby doesn't care for the potatoes cooked in the roast.

I let the roast cool then put in the refrigerator for 24 hours. I also save the broth off the roast. After the leftover roast has been in the refrigerator for 24 hours I carefully trim the fat off the meat and de-fat the broth. I use my vacuum sealer to freeze the leftovers in 9 oz portions. Nine ounces roast beef is a cup and half which works out good for most average size recipes for my family of 4.

When I freeze it I will dice some up for soups, I will slice some up for hot roast beef sandwiches, and I will leave some in a chunk so I can decide what to do with it when I need it. I use my vacuum sealer to keep the meat fresh and free from freezer burn. This little device is awesome! I got mine for Christmas last year and have used is several times.

I spent $18.69 on these two roasts, we will have 7 meals out of it plus I got 6 cups of very good broth for soup or stews. That is just $2.67 for meat per meal. Having the meat handy in the freezer is a great time saver. This will last me probably 3 months.