Easy and Delicious Ground Beef Recipes - Weekly Meal Plan (2024)

FAQs

Is ground beef good for a week? ›

It is safe to store ground beef in the refrigerator for 1–2 days, and eat leftovers within 4 days. A person can store ground beef in the freezer for up to 4 months.

If meat is the central part of your dish, you will most likely want 1/2 of a pound per person. When cooking for 8 people, you'll want 4 pounds of meat. On a typical week night when you're cooking for just 2, 1 pound of boneless meat should be sufficient.

Also, if you want to enjoy red meat, official guidelines recommend a "relatively lower consumption" of red and processed meats. While there is no specific number dedicated to red meat, the overall recommendation for animal protein sources (meats, poultry and eggs) for a 2,000-calorie diet is 26 ounces per week.

However, regularly eating burgers can negatively impact your health, causing a slew of life-threatening diseases and conditions, including high cholesterol, risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and even kidney stones.

To calculate your weight-maintenance calories, multiply your weight by 15. If 1,200 calories a day is more than 500 calories lower than your weight-maintenance calories, you can expect to lose more than 1 to 2 pounds per week.

What is a good daily meal plan? ›

A healthy eating plan: Emphasizes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products. Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts. Limits saturated and trans fats, sodium, and added sugars.

These include chicken and turkey breasts, pork tenderloin, and beef eye and top round, top sirloin, flank steak, ground beef, and tenderloin. Lean meats are rich in protein, a vital nutrient for building and maintaining muscles and tissues. They also provide heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, not just saturated fat.

Beef provides protein, vitamins and minerals. A typical serving size for beef and other meat is 3 ounces, which is about the size of a deck of cards. A 3-ounce serving of lean ground beef has about 180 calories, 10 grams of fat and 15 percent of the daily recommendation for iron.

Dietary goal

If you eat red meat, limit consumption to no more than about three portions per week. Three portions is equivalent to about 350–500g (about 12–18oz) cooked weight. Consume very little, if any, processed meat.

Raw ground beef is generally safe to consume within 1 to 2 days of refrigeration. After 4 days, there's an increased risk of bacterial growth and spoilage. To ensure food safety, it's best to cook or freeze raw ground beef within a couple of days of purchasing it.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't eat meat past its expiration date. You don't have a long window of time to use up raw ground beef to begin with—aim to eat it within two days—but checking the expiration date is always a good habit.

USDA recommends using cooked beef within 3 to 4 days, kept refrigerated (40°F or less). Refrigeration slows but does not stop bacterial growth. USDA recommends using cooked leftovers within 3 to 4 days.

Keep wrapped meat on a plate or pan to catch drips that might contaminate other foods. Generally, you can expect to be able to use ground beef one to three days after the sell-by date depending on how it has been handled. Steaks will likely be good for another day or two.