Save Time and Money: Make Your Own Preformed Frozen Burger Patties

With Labor Day Weekend here already here I’m sure we’ll be consuming many burgers, dogs, chicken, etc this year.  I love convenience of preformed, prepackaged meats but I do not like to pay for it. Last summer we had the chance to buy pre-formed burger patties for cheap and I got used to them. It was great to just take them out of the freezer and put them in the grill for a quick dinner of burgers at home. So this year I decided to make them myself.

This is my trial: I bought 6lbs of burger meat and used this [easyazon-link asin=”B0018EHKW8″]KitchenArt 18000 Adjust-A-Burger Press[/easyazon-link] to make the burger patties.

I put the patties on parchment paper lined cookie sheets and put them in the freezer to flash freeze.

Once they were frozen I vacuum sealed them using my trusty Foodsaver.  I frozen them in sets of 4  and also sets of two, just because sometimes we only need two.  Other times we need four and other times we need six.  So this gives us flexibility.

As you can see, not really rocket science.  But with a little bit of time invested doing this one Saturday afternoon, I can have the convenience of just pulling burgers from the freezer and throwing them on the grill for a quick meal solution.  I also bought froze some marinated chicken breasts.  Just bought the chicken breasts (manager’s special sale, woot!) and put them in a freezer ziploc bag and pour over them some cheap wishbone Italian and Raspberry Vinaigrette dressings I picked up cheap months ago.  I froze them flat because it makes them easier to defrost.  We usually start grilling the burgers frozen but not the chicken breasts.

That’s my time saving experiment of the week!  What time saving ideas have hit YOU recently?