More on Meat for the Masses

Back to the topic of serving local, quality meat to your home minions, whilst on a budget.
Your main ally in this quest should be ground meat. Pork, Beef, and Turkey are all available at the market, each with different attributes, availability, and cost.
What makes ground so valuable to you is that it thaws quickly, is versatile, nutritious, and often economical. A good habit to get into is to simply grab a frozen pound from the freezer and toss it into the sink. The next morning transfer it to the fridge and figure out how to use it during the week. A day or so after that one is gone, replace it with another. In a pinch, you can thaw one in a bowl, under running tepid water in about an hour. Oh yeah, and I'll bet some of you have microwaves too.
So, what to do with the ground? First see our post on meatloaf. Don't dis it...meatloaf if real good food with a high pedigree. Also, kids enjoy making it. Its fun and so tactile to mix the meat, egg, spices, and breadcrumbs with your hands, squishing and folding and shaping. Make little 'meatloaf' patties of ground pork with sage, red pepper flakes, fennel, and garlic and you have knock out breakfast patties or kick butt meatballs for penne and tomato sauce.
Next, I'd like to offer this technique: simmer it.
Id consider Bolognese sauce, taco meat, and Sloppy Joe to all be in this category of simmered ground meat, and the basic technique is this:
1)Saute onions and garlic.
2)Add a spice paste or whole spices or both.
3)Add the pre-seasoned meat in little dollops and raise the temp a bit to sear the meat. As it begins to brown, stir and break up the dollops allowing the uncooked bit to brown.
4) When 90% of the meat is done have some liquid ready-tomato sauce, leftover bean liquid, or a sweet and sour mix of vinegar, tomato, and brown sugar. Pour this over the meat and deglaze the pan. Allow this mix to simmer to the desired consistency and sup well.

Truly the usefulness of ground meat is nearly infinite so stock up, and then use it up!