#MMM What a Great Weekend!

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support this week. It helped tremendously.

Now, on to the fun stuff...Fuss had her first "Halloween party" at the library's Mother Goose hour. She dressed up as Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog (pics to come later). Hubby took her and she went "trick-or-treating" around the library. :)

Friday evening was pretty boring. You know, aside from the tantrums and meltdowns that are standard fare for a 2-year-old.

Saturday was the best day, though! Fuss carved her first pumpkin! She also drew a "face" on one. She HATED the way the insides of the pumpkin felt and refused to touch it after she realized it was icky.

We also cooked dinner at my MIL's house (where we carved the pumpkins) and it was delicious! We made flat iron steak with this recipe. Since it was raining, Hubby broiled the steak instead of putting it on the grill, but it turned out amazing! We had salad, potatoes, peas, and pumpkin roll for dessert. The pumpkin roll was store bought, but it still tasted really great. My MIL even asked for the recipe! I think, though, that next time I will use tomato sauce or tomato juice instead of tomato paste to keep from having to strain so much of it. That part was a pain in the butt.

The one bad thing? Beast decided to EAT one of the pumpkins! I think it made him sick because he wanted out at 1 a.m. and again at 7 a.m. Usually once he is in his kennel for the night around 10, he stays there till 7 or 8 a.m. Serves him right for eating random things. (He ate 1/2 yard of a blanket once just before Christmas.)

Now, we are preparing ourselves for the "Frankenstorm" that is supposed to hit us with a few inches of snow and some seriously high winds. I can only hope we aren't out of power for a week like we were in July. And I hope that the people on the coast and up North don't get hit too badly either. Fingers are crossed that the weather forecasters are wrong on this one.

Wordless Wednesday

Garlic and Herb Roasted Chicken

A Little Prep Goes a Long Way

So, I have been trying to cook at home more over the last year and that meant trying to have everything on hand that I would need and easily accessible. (I'm the first to admit that I tend to be lazy...I like it all to be convenient and quick.) This led us to freezing items. The most common things we use that can be frozen for later use are chicken and ground beef. In order to make this as cost effective as possible, we buy in bulk. Each packet of chicken we buy has around 10 boneless, skinless breasts and the ground beef is bought in a 10-pound tube. Unfortunately, a 10-pound tube of beef just doesn't fit anywhere conveniently. It also isn't very convenient to measure out 1 or 2 pounds of meat each time you want to make something.

My solution is to vacuum seal it! Of course, thanks to my dear hubby, I do it a little differently than some might. I first make a few "Food Saver" bags that are the correct size. This took some figuring out when we first started sealing things. Then, I take the tube of beef and portion out 1-pound portions using my food scale. I then take a permanent marker and put the date of freezing and the weight on each package (post-vacuuming, of course).

 

 Here is what the meat looks like immediately after vacuum sealing. This doesn't freeze quickly. It also doesn't thaw quickly or evenly. Not good.

 Hubby's idea was to mash them flat and make little "meat wafers" to place in the freezer. Here I am making the ground beef flat using a rolling pin. Hubby likes to just use his hands.

 I make sure to get the corners and edges nice and even. Then, I toss them in the freezer.

In this final photo, I have the stack of ground beef packets in my refrigerator freezer. After they are frozen, you can stand them on edge side-by-side! When I need a pound of ground beef for Manwiches or burgers, I just pull out a packet and defrost it! Easy as 1-2-3!

I do usually have a little left over at the end because it's not usually exactly 10 pounds in each tube, so I just save the last packet and put whatever amount is left in that one. So, I'll have 9 packets of 1 pound each and 1 of 1 pound and "x" ounces. Sometimes it ends up being only 14 ounces in the last one. It just depends on each tube of ground beef.