3 Lbs Ground Beef, What's for Dinner??

Meatballs - swedish with rice if you can make a creavy gravy with egg noodle or rice or italian with tomato sauce or diced tomatos on pasta or a hero with cheese.

Meatloaf - one for now and one for the freezer

Combine browned ground beef w/ frozen mixed veggies - or whatever you've got - spread cream of chicken/celery/mushroom soup (any one works) over the meat. Top with tater tots and bake at 350 till brown.

Meatloaf! The beauty of meatloaf is that whatever you have works well. For a binder add an egg and then you can use bread cubes, bread crumbs, oatmeal, crackers, cornflakes...I could go on. For moisture you can use tomato sauce, ketchup, tomato soup, milk, broth, gravy, spaghetti sauce, salsa, bbq sauce...again, so many options. You can add onion, garlic, shredded carrots, green peppers, or any other veggie and if you have to sneak them in it's easy if you grind them up and slip them in, plus they add more moisture. You can use any seasonings like lawry's season salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, worcestershire sauce, sage, thyme, whatever sounds good to you. The best topping I have ever used is 1/2 c. ketchup mixed with 5 T. brown sugar, 2 T. yellow mustard.

The great thing is that with a meatloaf that big you will have leftovers for sandwiches and lunches the next day. Meatloaf tonight, meatloaf sandwiches on hoagie rolls tomorrow. Turn leftover baked potatoes tonight into potato salad for sandwich night tomorrow. One night of cooking and you get two nights worth of dinner. It's a thing of beauty.

Meatloaf, meatballs, hamburgers, hamburger helper, meaty spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, tacos, shepards pie, beef pot pie.

Chili?

If you have two big cans of tomato, at least two.

3TB Chili Powder (1 per lb)
3 tsp Cumin
3 tsp Oregano
3tsp Habanero sauce or any other favorite hot sauce

Salt and Pepper your ground beef to taste and add salt to the tomatoes as they are added after browning and draining the ground beef. Add garlic and onions to taste as well.

I want chili now and its only 9:15 =-P

Good luck.

Oh wait, I just saw the date on the post. A little behind in my email. I'm a doofus =-)

I know this may be too late. I have an amazing recipe that i made up. I use 3lbs of hamburger meat. I sautee chopped onions in olive oil, throw in the meat and brown, then drain. I add a big box of beef broth and salt and pepper. After that has cooked for a while i add a bit of flour to thicken. (not too thick) Then i throw in rice. We eat it in bowls and dip crusty bread in it. It is amazing!! (you can also throw green peppers in there chopped if your family likes them)

Grilled burgers, tacos, chili, sloppy joes, meatballs.. Grate some zucchini into ait and your family will never notice.

Skillet mac
1 lb elbow macaroni
1 lb ground beef
1 clove of garlic cut in half
1/2 onion chopped
1 large zucchini grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can Whole canned tomatoes crushed with juice
2 beef bullion cubes (optional)
3 1/2 cups hot water

In a large skillet cook ground meat, grated zucchini, onion, and garlic till beef is totally cooked. Drain, set meat aside.(Do not rinse this mixture)

In skillet pour oil and add dry macaroni.Stir on med heat, constantly till pasta is browned. Some pieces may get pretty dark and that is fine, but do not burn it.

Add cooked meat mixture, pour in can of tomatoes with liquid onto macaoni mixture.
Add hot water and bullion 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Cook on high till liquid begins to boil. Cover, lower heat to med and cook 10 minutes. Stir and cook another 5 to 10 minutes..

Brown the beef in a skillet. Add onion, diced tomato and garlic. Serve over spaghetti.

BBQ Meatballs!
Mix the ground meat with bread crumbs (seasoned) and (if you have it) some sweetened condensed milk.
Roll into balls & place in 13 x 9 pan.
Mix about 2 cups ketchup, 1 cup vinegar & sugar (white or brown) and 1/2 c worcestershire sauce, and a chopped onion.
Pour saue over meatballs and n]bake at 325 for about an hour (til cooked.)

YUMMY!

Meatloaf, spaghetti, stroganoff, lasagna or noodle bake, make your own helper with macaroni and cheese or any noodles with a tomato sauce. Beef paties baked with cream of mushroom on top serve with rice. Taco salad. Sorry that's all the idea i have.

My family loves our version of Shepherd's Pie. Brown about 1 1/2 lb ground beef, drain. Add veggies of your choice (we like green beans and corn). Add a jar of Ragu Cheese sauce.Place in a casserole dish. Top with prepared instant mashed potatoes. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

check our www.samthecookingguy.com he has tons of great and easy recipes.

Meatloaf, spaghetti, meatballs, tacos, chili, hamburgers, stuffed peppers, baked ziti with meatsauce, I am no chef : ) Those are just some things I make with ground beef.

Brown one LB ground beef,add to this 1can of Cream Mushroom soup(rince out with milk),and onion,garlic to taste.Make Box of Mac&Cheese as normal with milk and butter.Mix meat mixture and prepared Mac&Cheese into cassarole dish (option add chedder cheese on top)
Bake @ 350* for 20-30 min.
Total time 45min feeds family of 4 (including 2 Teens)

I'm sorry I didn't get this till now - but I just bought 5.5 lbs of beef....and had some ideas so I wouldn't repeat. Not sure what other ingredients you had on hand, but if this happens next time, here are some ideas:

spaghetti with meat sauce/meatballs
lasagna
sloppy joes (I do rachael ray's bacon sloppy joes and they are YUM! tonight I didn't have the bacon, so I just went without, and both are good)
meatloaf
any kind of ground meat casserole
shepherd's pie
beef keema mattar (super easy and yummy - recipes online or you can improvise and just do some curry spices and cumin mixed int he pan with the beef and peas)
beef curry
tacos

Hope this helps next time!

Check out tasteofhome.com. I always find a yummy recipe there with whatever ingredients I happen to have on hand!

Hi R.,
What about spaghetti with meat sauce? Or a couple of meatloafs. You can freeze one of them for later.

brown the meat,crumble and drain fat. peel some potatoes and carrots and chop into bite sized pieces. Quarter some yellow onions and add it all to the meat with a couple of cans of tomato soup and with enough water to make it thick/soupy. Salt and pepper. It's good stuff with some bread and butter or corn bread. Takes about an hour on low simmer to get the potatoes and carrots tender. Always tastes better the next day, the broth at the end when all the potatoes and carrots are gone is really good too. If you need to spice it up some, I add a little cayenne pepper and garlic.
Or, look up some hambuger soup recipes..... you can use lots of stuff from the fridge, freezer or pantry to make a soup.