Hunka lunka ground beef

An interesting experiment took place. I had a big package of 97% lean ground beef in my freezer. It had been there a while and had been shoved in by a teen instead of separating it into freezer bags like I usually do. When would a mom with 2 girls need 5 pounds of ground? That's a LOT of ground!

So I had this great idea to use my instant pot to thaw it and cook it. I've heard it can be done. Easy! A facebooker on a group I'm in suggested using ground beef with a barbecue seasoning (shaker not sauce) to use for all things delicious. I figured I'd give it a go.

I peeled the heavy chuck out of its plastic and styro wrapper, made sure to get the Kotex off the bottom (I hate that stuff), and tried to bust it in half. Nope. I put it in the pot with a little water and turned on sauté. I boiled all the water out quick. It was too tall to put the lid on, of course. I had to leave so I gave up and let it sit. I got home about 2 hours later and it has thawed enough to break in half. I seasoned both chunks liberally and turned it on, adding 1/4 cup water. I used the stew option for 30 minutes. It works beautifully for roast and stew meat so I was certain if open it and find my ground beef cooked and it would crumble into perfection once finished.

Um, nope. I wish I would have taken a picture. I ended up with delicious smelling, cooked, hard, impenetrable lumps of meat. When I tried to use my spatula to break it up, it would just bend, surrendering to my utter failure.

I was able to break it up into smaller versions of itself but it was obvious this meat was unusable. I was so mad at myself. I had tasted it and OMG it was surprisingly better than I expected! I debated whether to throw it away and start over or keep trying. Since I'm no quitter, I didn't give up!

I dug around in my utensil drawer (I actually have a big drawer and a big flat crate in the cabinet full of utensils and gadgets that some may think is excessive) and found my handy dandy pampered theft tool for cooking ground meat that I never use. 

Magic! I kept pressing and twisting, turning my lunks of fail into perfect ground beef. We ate it with half-mashed potatoes and green beans. For 3 days. Because no wasting! I would sorta mix it together and add a smidge of cheese. Kind of a dismantled shepherds pie. WIN!!

This is my 94yo Gpa kicking butt back to health. That's almost a smile :)