Beef Stew Freezer Meal and Budget Dinner - $1.20 serving

This, like many stew type dinners around the world, happened after I rummaged through my fridge. I had potatoes, carrots, onions and tomatoes, which needed to be used ASAP. I also had two packages (2.50 pounds) of beef trimming which also needed to be used soon.
We are lucky in that we have an Asian market nearby that has an in-house butcher. Beef trimmings are available for $2.99 a pound. These are a byproduct of butchers trimming roasts, steaks, chops, and meat for hot pot.
The entire cooking time from start to finish is a little over two hours, however, there is not a lot of hands on cooking. Prepping the vegetables, trimming and flouring the meat and then thickening it at the end, takes about 45 minutes.
This cooking project is best done on a non working day, but it’s not difficult, and it can be prepared and frozen for future busy evenings.
I served this with some refrigerated (they are also available frozen in brand name) large size store brand biscuits from Lidl. These cost $1.69 for eight biscuits. A loaf of bread could substitute for biscuits, or some rice or tortillas. This is a frugal every day family meal, and its VERY adaptable. I've used ketchup or salsa on occasions where I didn't have tomatoes or canned tomatoes. Green beans and celery also work well with beef stew. Sweet potatoes also work.
There were eight servings of beef stew left over, stored in 4 plastic containers, in addition to the three servings that we used for dinner. So this came to a 11 servings of beef stew for about $12 of ingredients. Per serving as a freezer meal, is about one dollar per cup of stew, not entirely including the biscuits/bread/rice/etc.
For a small family, 1 package of 2 servings (with 4 biscuits either canned or frozen or another form of bread, pasta, or rice) would be a nutritious meal for 2 hungry adults or 2 average adults and a young child.

[@lowderra]

This freezes extremely well by the way! Thanks for watching.