Where's the Beef?

I took advantage of a great sale on ground beef last week ($1.97/lb for 93% lean all-natural ground beef!) and bought 20 lbs. I set to work re-packaging it into 1 lb bricks for the freezer. I had 12 lbs wrapped in foil and put in Ziplocs (it finally dawned on me NOT to put raw meat directly in Ziplocs because then I have to throw them out) before it occurred to me that I could prepare the meat to make it easier for dinners later on. I ended up with: 12 1lb bricks of raw meat; 32 meatballs; 18 hamburger patties; and 3.5 lbs of cooked ground beef in 1 lb packages. I should have planned better and made a couple of meat loaves as well.

I cooked the beef in the Crock Pot. I put 5.5 lbs of meat in the Crock, added 3 cups of water and turned it on high for 6 hours. Every 2 hours I stirred and broke the meat apart. Interestingly, it cooked down to 3.5 lbs. I was surprised by that difference especially as it didn't have much fat in to start.

I've also decided that it's probably time for a FoodSaver now that we have two freezers. I can never decide if something like that should be a "necessity" for our home or if it is a "toy" for me (because I know I'd love it!).

Sorry about the title... I had to!