I haven't bought ground beef in years. I don't eat hamburgers, and if I need ground meat for any reason I grind it myself. But I wanted to cook up some ground beef for my dog, Wolfy, who seems to be getting bored with dog food after 14 years. LOL One of his arthritis meds is supposed to be taken with food, and to make sure he cooperates with this I had the idea of cooking up some meat and some chicken just for him.

So I went looking for ground beef. Yikes! Five dollars a pound?? I tried several stores, all charging way more than I wanted to pay. I finally bought some with a whopping 20% fat, for $2.79/lb. Of course, it cooked down to very little meat, lots of fat. Wolfy can handle more fat content than I, but that's ridiculous.

I ended up going back to grinding my own. I had some top round in the freezer that I got on sale for $1.79/lb, and ground up the pieces that still had the fat on them. (I often trim the fat before freezing.) Then last night I found bottom sirloin on sale for $1.99/lb. and will use that. Incidentally, I cooked a piece of the bottom sirloin for myself for lunch today. They said it should be marinated, but I didn't do that. I trimmed the fat, pan-seared it, cooked it medium rare, and found it was very tasty and surprisingly tender.

Are ground beef prices in your area high, too?