Search This Blog

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Filling the freezer - "I want solid food"

My 13 year old son wandered into the kitchen prowling through the refridgerator and opening the bread drawer.  I suggested leftover cake, cookies and milk, ice cream in the freezer?  "Oh, no!" he said.  "I am sugared out.  I want some solid food."  I chuckled under my breath when he pulled out the one bowl of leftover black beans.  He heated them for 10 minutes - they have been in the fridge for 4 days - and relished  eating black beans with tortilla chips.  That is soul food.

This last week I have bottled 19 quarts of chicken (Tyson chicken breast was on sale a couple of weeks ago.  It is the cheap, tough breast that doesn't taste the best grilled or fried but when diced and pressure cooked, it is great and for $1.50 per pound, it is worth it.)

We also cooked and froze 40 pounds of ground beef.  It was 80% lean to begin with but after browning the whole 40 pounds in a large stock pot (you could use a roaster) I rinsed it with hot water saving the drippings.  I let the fat come to the top of the drippings, skimmed it off and bottled 4 quarts of beef broth.  The meat that was then 99% fat free, I bagged in quart size freezer bags with meal portions of about 3 cups for our family.

Blueberries were on sale for $1.00 a pint.  I bought 24 pints, rinsed each pint, transfered the pint to a quart size freezer bag and into the freezer the blueberries went.  The children will enjoy blueberry muffins for at least 24 weeks of the year.  Not bad!

I intended to also freeze strawberries at a $1.00 a pound but they got eaten far faster than I could freeze them.  All in all it has been a good week to get the food supplies restalked.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome job! Those are all such fantastic things to put up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know I've commented before but I just can't tell you enough how your perspective on things and your willingness to share it here has inspired me. I've started my own food storage blog, if you ever have a moment to stop by you can know that you've had a lot to do with me getting over my hesitations and just getting the information out there. One person makes a big difference. Thank you. You can find me at www.myfoodstoragecookbook.com

    ReplyDelete