Time Saving Tips For Preparing Beef

Last Updated on April 5, 2023 by Ellen Christian

Looking for time-saving tips for preparing beef? Learn how to prepare beef quickly and still get mouthwatering results.

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Table of Contents

Time Saving Tips

I’m always looking for time saving tips that will let me get a healthy meal on the table quickly. At the end of a busy day, I don’t have hours to spend in the kitchen preparing dinner.

I want it quick and easy without being unhealthy. That can often be a difficult balance to find, and I definitely have my moments where I don’t make the best choices.

Using these tips, I can usually get dinner on the table with less effort and still have it be a meal I’m happy to serve.

My family is made up of meat eaters. While they are occasionally happy with a vegetarian option, for the most part, they prefer meat, potatoes, and vegetables.

Because my husband has diabetes, my daughter is gluten intolerant, and I try to eat Paleo, we avoid meals that are loaded with pasta and bread.

Beef can be prepared so many different ways that it’s my go to choice for dinner. Here are some time saving tips to keep in mind.

Buy It Already Cut

Yes, I could buy a roast and cut it into steaks or stew meat myself but I honestly do not have time. Instead, I look for Certified Angus Beef that’s prepared the way I need it for the meal that I have planned. If you buy in bulk, make sure that you have frozen individual dinner sized portions in the freezer to save time.

Pressure Cooking

I cannot express how much I love my Instant Pot. If you’re not familiar with the Instant Pot, it’s a programmable pressure cooker. I can cook an entire roast along with potatoes and carrots in the Instant Pot and have it completely done in 45 minutes. On days that I forget to defrost it, I can have it done in about an hour. It’s amazing.

Slow Cooker

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can use a slow cooker to save time as well. While it won’t have dinner ready in an hour, it will let you toss everything in first thing in the morning and leave it alone for 10 hours until dinner time. This works wonderfully for roasts, stews and even for marinating beef for stir fry later in the day.

Plan Ahead

As with anything, planning ahead is a huge time saver. Make sure that when you grocery shop you are shopping from a list that you prepared after meal planning. Each morning, check your calendar to see what meal you have planned and defrost accordingly.

Cook in Batches

Freezer cooking can be a huge time saver. The idea is that one day, you will cook all of the food that you need for dinner for the entire week. That way, all you need to do is remove a prepared meal from the freezer and reheat it. While I’ve done this a few times, I don’t generally have space to make food for the entire week.

Make Extra

When preparing dinner, make enough for leftovers for the next night. Beef stew or beef stir-fry can easily be made in a double or triple batch. That way, next week when you plan to make beef stew, you’ll have one already prepared in the freezer. Or, when you make a chuck roast for dinner on Monday, save the leftover beef and use it in a stir fry on Thursday.

Do you have any time saving tips for preparing beef?

Ellen is a busy mom of a 24-year-old son and 29-year-old daughter. She owns six blogs and is addicted to social media. She believes that it doesn’t have to be difficult to lead a healthy life. She shares simple healthy living tips to show busy women how to lead fulfilling lives. If you’d like to work together, email info@confessionsofanover-workedmom.com to chat.

13 thoughts on “Time Saving Tips For Preparing Beef”

I love using my slow cooker. It is so easy and so much less to clean. 🙂

Dawn

Another tip is to make sure your husband writes down the items he’s used the last of so you know to pick them up at the grocery store. 😉 Yes, we just encountered that issue and now he’s off to the store.

Great tips! We just got a larger slow cooker for Christmas, so I can make bigger quantities of food and freeze some of it. Oh, and I really need to go through and declutter the appliances and dishes I rarely use!

I have all my baking stuff over on one side of the kitchen because I don’t use it often.
Do use crock pot.

I really need to declutter but I am always convinced that “some day” I’ll use each appliance. It’s embarrassing how many are still in boxes…

I love the slow cooker and every time I use it I wonder why I don’t use it more. Good tips!

I feel that the menu plan tip helps save a lot of time running to the store! stumbled.

These are great tips. I’m about as unorganized as a person could be in the kitchen, so these are useful for me!

Great advice. I desperately need to declutter and I ADORE my slow cooker.

I like the tip about buying frozen veggies. Frozen veggies are the next best thing to fresh when it comes to keeping things on hand. Because of the salt content–even in “low sodium” varieties–I don’t use canned veggies other than tomatoes. Another great tip is to go ahead and cook larger quantities of a variety of beans, then freeze those. They don’t even need to be frozen in portion sizes but can be used right out of the bag by the handful. I’m with a previous commenter that menu panning is one of my shortfalls, and beans are one of the things that usually need to be planned for. Having some in the freezer means that I can serve beans even on short notice 🙂

I have it all down pat except for the menu plan, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to master that one!!

Great tips! I love to use my slowcooker. I just bought myself a new one too.

Thankyou for this! I feel like I never have enough time in my day so these tips will really help!