[...] has a yummy-sounding recipe for Taco Soup in a post about economizing by buying beef in bulk. It’s a wonderful sounding recipe, as you [...]

I thought that an alternative option would be to add Ranch-style canned beans (drained, probably), if a person’s budget needed to be stretched even further… or if they just needed a bigger pot of soup for some reason. They could be added at the end instead of using ground beef. This might be suitable as a vegetarian option, also.

(P.S. A little baking soda, stirred into the beans before adding them to the soup, should eliminate any unpleasant side effects. *ahem*)

[...] Taco Soup: A Cheap and Delicious Use for Ground Beef – I felt the need to include this here because it’s a common theme with the first two blogs I’ve reviewed. J.D. and Trent both advocate preparing your own food. They believe this a big money saver. The funny thing is I go to both these sites to get practical savings tips and I walk away with cool new recipes. Who needs Martha Stewart… [...]

[...] buying over 80 lbs of beef for at least the second year in a row. Read about JD’s awesome taco soup recipe and some comments on why buying in bulk can be [...]

Belinda

We make “potato chili” – basically, regular beans and hamburger meat chili, plus sliced potatoes and corn… it’s delicious…
NCN

Sharing a side of beef is a good strategy. But if you want to get really cheap, raise your own cow. My brother does and can claim a tax deduction (small farm) as a result. Of course, you need to have a farm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpDJpg2eW4o

I, too, hate freezer burn, and am not inclined to eat anything I think suffers from it. But I’ve never noticed anything close to it from our beef.

It’s been a fantastic investment, though the butcher did some very odd things with parts of the side that should have been ground up (but were labelled “chuck steak” instead) and have found their way into tonight’s stew. I can’t recall off-hand how much we paid, but it was somewhere around $2-3/lb for free-range black angus. The farm is right next to her parents’ house, and I’m fairly certain I fed our beef extraneous crab apples at some point.

Your recipe sounds interesting – I’ll recommend it to the cook in the house (not me!)

According to my parents, it’s not the cheapest way to get beef, but it is very convenient to always have beef available in the freezer. And with eight kids, they’ll take any convenience they can get.

One note about the feed. They used to feed them grains in the Autumn to fatten them up. But that’s exactly what it did–increased the fat but not the meat. So now they just feed them grass until it gets too cold, and then they also get hay.

-Raymond

A side of beef wouldn’t be a practical investment for us, but we do buy ground beef maybe once a month or so. This month it’s burrito casserole.