Cool and damp, may be even damper later in the day.
Yesterday was pretty nice for mid-winter high with 60s and low 70s. Overcast all day, but shorts and t-shirt weather for me. I got a couple of things around the house cleaned up. Finally got the last of the Christmas decor down and most of it put away.
Because I was at home in the afternoon, I cooked a lamb roast. It’s a great example of saving money with a freezer, vac sealer, and buying in bulk. I like lamb. If you haven’t had it since you were a child, it’s different than it was. Most of the ‘lamb’ taste, the mutton/gamey flavor is gone because of the farmers growing a different breed. We enjoy it rare to medium rare. Anyway, I buy the bigger roast and cut it in half. Vac seal and freeze the resulting 2-3 pound roasts, and you’ve got a roast that is perfectly sized for two adults with leftovers, or a family like mine. It doesn’t take forever to roast at that size either. You can get a much better grade of meat in lamb roast for the same money, than you typically can for a beef roast. Better living for less….
I buy hamburger in a bulk pack and repack it as 1 1/3 pound slabs. I press it into a shallow square plastic food saver package then vac seal that shape so it will stack better in the freezer. I used to do 1 pound packs but the kids are growing.
I buy pork roasts in the 10 pound tube, and slice into center cut pork chops any thickness I like. I also cut a couple of 2-3 pound roasts out of the whole. All get vac sealed and frozen. The 10 pound pack is cheaper than smaller roasts, or pre-cut chops. I usually season the chops in the vac bag with garlic salt and chinese oyster sauce. The family LOVES the sweet brown sauce on pork and I don’t have to make a mess at cooking time, or worry about marinading it ahead of time. Another win!
Beef ribeye roasts get the same treatment as the pork roast, some steaks, some of the best beef roast ever. I season the steaks before vac bagging with Adkins seasoning. It’s a nice mix of garlic, citrus-y something, and black pepper. It’s a lot like Penzey’s Chicago Steak seasoning, without all the hate for conservatives.
Bacon in the bulk pack is 24c/lb. It’s double that in smaller packaging. I re-pack it in 3/4 lb blocks which is just a bit more than we need for breakfast. It rarely lasts until lunch. Vac seal and freeze into one meal portions…
I should note that I’m not Rockefeller. The vac seal and freeze routine means the meat lasts as long as it’s frozen, so I only buy the stuff on sale. I buy a BUNCH when the price is right and store it for later. There are significant savings to be had if you shop this way. There are shopping trips where I might not even buy any meat if it’s not on sale, because I have some at home in the freezer.
Another thing I do is freeze the leftovers from holiday meals. I do the same “shape them into a flat block” trick of pressing them into a plastic storage container before freezing. It’s easy to gauge the number of portions when it’s time to eat, just look at the bag.
If you want to vac seal something wet or squishy, put it in the plastic container and freeze it first, then take it out of the container and vac seal the block of soup, or chili, or whatever.
You can vac seal and freeze partially prepare foods too. I like to sear the meat before using the slow cooker to make stew or pot roast or carnitas. I don’t like the smell in the house (and I didn’t have a working exhaust fan) so if I’m going to get out the cast iron and make the mess, I like to do at least 2 or 3 meals worth. After searing, I put the meat and juices into vac sealed bags and freeze them. The next time I want stew or pot roast, or pork carnitas, I defrost the meat and put it right into the cooker, no muss, no fuss.
I’m sure there are plenty of other people out there that have written or ‘tubed about the vac sealer more eloquently and more completely than I have, but these ideas should get you started if you are holding out. I consider the vac sealer to be essential, so I have my daily driver, then another spare of a similar type, then two more spares of the ‘seal a meal’ manual type. I just picked up another one from goodwill this week to have on the shelf. You’ll find uses for it, if you have one.
So that’s some ideas for stacking, get to it.
nick