Monday, August 4, 2014

How to Stretch Ground Beef Using Oats


I'm excited to show you how to stretch ground beef using oats! I promise you it tastes the same and no one will know the difference. I do this every time I cook ground beef and it saves me lots of money by making it go further.

First off I normally buy the 5lb family pack of ground beef at Aldi to save money, but this time they were out so I had to buy the 2.25 lb pack. 

You will need:

Uncooked Ground Beef
Uncooked Old Fashioned Oats
(1/4 - 1/2 cup per lb of beef)
Chopped Onion (optional)
(1/4 - 1/2 cup per lb of beef)


1. Mix all ingredients until well combined.


2. Brown ground beef as usual. 
*Note: The oats soak up a lot of the fat so you will need to stir often to avoid burning or sticking to the pan.


Use your beef mixture like normal! I normally let mine cool and freeze for later use. As you can see I got 4 "lbs" of ground beef out of my 2.25 lbs! Yea baby!



I've also heard that you can stretch ground beef using lentils, rice, beans and/or pureed veggies, but I've never tried any of them.

Do you do anything to stretch your ground beef? 
If so I'd love to know your secrets!

Other posts you may enjoy:




8 comments:

  1. Ok, I seriously love this idea!! I'm going grocery shopping soon and I am going to give this a try! Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am going to trythis tomorrow! I just bought one lb of ground beef for some meatballs to have with soup. I was wondering in I could make it last for two meals. Now I know I can! Thank you very much!

    Greetings, Reini from Germany

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a great idea - I typically stretch mine using added black beans or veggies (shredded carrot works well), but my husband is not a big fan of the beans :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've stretched my meat with rice, but I'll try the oats. I bet its texture is better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This looks like a great idea- I'm going to have to try this the next time I stock up on ground beef!! Thanks for sharing! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. It works with the meatballs, too, it was soooo delicious! I would recommend using more seasoning as usual because the oats taste a little bland.
    Thanks again for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is awesome! Thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete