So I needed two slices of Bacon to cook with my Andouille Cheese Pasta (see recipe). A couple of days later I baked the rest of the package of bacon (see Baking Bacon recipe) and then put them up in the freezer, 2 slices chopped in each baggie, to use later as a topping for gluten-free macaroni cheese pizza (see recipe). I always put the small bags of bacon in a freezer quart bag—helps both keeping it from getting freezer burned as well as keeping your freezer tidy and organized.
2 Slices of Bacon in each bag for Pizza topping
Then after the bacon has finished cooking, I use the bacon drippings in the pan to sear the flour-dusted pieces of stew meat, double batch of course, to get them ready for a future pot of stew (see Stew recipe).
Freeze the seared stew meat in a single layer on parchment paper—this keeps them from sticking to each other in the freezer bag.
After they are totally frozen, just pick up the sides of the parchment paper to make a funnel, and pour into a freezer zip bag for a future crockpot of stew. You have just used the same pan to cook the bacon and the stew meat, and the next two times you want to make stew, the only pan you use is the crockpot—just put all of your ingredients in and let it cook for 8 hours while you are at work!