Devin & I

Devin & I

Friday, February 9, 2018

Meat Day

I am 98% sure that I almost killed my husband, and myself off today.  In our house, we have whats called: Meat day.  I'm not the biggest fan of meat day, and usually Devin is the one that is pushing me to participate in this horrible day.  Meat day is what it says.  A day full of meat.  Obviously, it doesn't take us ALL day to do our thing, but it's long enough.  All meat day is, is we brown a bunch of hamburger (usually 6-8 lbs) to freeze and have for later. Now I know what you're thinking.  6-8 lbs? That can't be to bad.  But have you done it? Have you REALLY done it?  It's not the most fun-filled activity, and its just something that I personally despise. What we usually do is brown and season the hamburger, Devin will then hand squeeze the grease out, bag it into some quart sized bags, and freeze it.  It takes us at least an hour, depending on how many pounds we do, and it makes life SO much easier on the days that we're short on time!  We've done this for sausage too.  

Today was worse that normal.  I found a deal at Macey's for chicken.  I've done the Zaycon chicken, and sorry you Zaycon lovers, but it just wasn't my favorite.  I loved it at first!  It was a lot of chicken for a good deal.  Well the deal today, was even better!  I got 40 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $61.39!  When I bought my chicken through Zaycon, it was close to $75.00.  I had to order it online, and wait to pick it up.  I picked my chicken up from Macey's and brought it home today. (Now we have not ate any of this chicken yet, so I'm not necessarily saying that it's better than Zaycon.  As soon as I try it, I'll let you know which is better!)

What I've done in the past is bought whatever bulk meat, and stored it in grandma and grandpa Jeppesen's extra fridge.  Well I took my 40 lbs box down there today after work, only to find the fridge had been unplugged.  DANG.  In their defense, they had no idea that I was bringing chicken today.  There was no way that the chicken was going to fit in my fridge.  The original plan was to put it in the fridge and grandmas, and then deal with it tomorrow or even Monday. Devin walked in right when I was attempting to put it in the fridge and since he is a go getter, he decided that it would just be best to get the chicken prepped today.  We spent the next 2 hours trimming the fat off the chicken, creating fillets and tenders from some of the pieces, (we've never done fillets before) and then vacuum sealing it with grandma's Food Saver. (We haven't talked to grandma or grandpa, and its likely that grandma will see this sometime tonight.  So if this is how you find out grandma, surprise! haha) 

After those 2+ hours of chicken prepping, I browned 3 lbs of hamburger.  Between all the prep work and the cleaning up, by the time we sat down to eat dinner, it was literally 9:00 PM.  OH MAN.  We're going to sleep SO good tonight!  I'm really thankful that Devin supports me in these weird little things that I like to do.  I enjoy getting the chicken because if all we ate was the steer, it would probably drive me nuts.  I have always felt strongly about having some of these kinds of foods stored up, just in case anything happened.  As much as I don't enjoy meat days, I honestly would highly recommend it.  As Devin and I are trying to expand our family, I feel that its important for us to take a few days out of the year, to do this small prep.  It has really been a lifesaver!  Especially in the summer when we're at work all day, and then go straight to the farm.  

 Chicken before and after

 Browning the hamburger and squeezing the grease out.  (Saving our hearts! <3)

Grease and bagging