FORTY POUNDS OF BEEF

Zaycon recently added a delivery location in Woodburn, which I'm thrilled about. I picked up an order of extra lean (as in 93/7) ground beef yesterday and was only gone from home for five minutes. Awesome!

I'd forgotten to make a plan for the beef when I made this week's menu, but it wasn't going to be marinated like I usually do with their chicken anyway. The ground beef comes in approximately 40 lb. cases, so customers get charged for 40 lbs. and their account gets credited after delivery if their box was slightly underweight. I hadn't realized mine was short of the full weight until I got an e-mail a little bit after I got home that said I'd been credited for one pound because my box only had 39. 

Here's how the ground beef comes.

I left most of it plain so that it could be used in a variety of recipes, but portioned it out in three different weights for different recipes.

1 lb. x 10
1.5 lb. x 8
2 lb. x 5

That used up 32 lbs. and I used the remaining eight for meatballs. I didn't weigh that part, as I assumed there was eight pounds left after measuring out 32 for everything else, and realized after the fact that our shortage on weight ended up in the meatballs. It was such a small amount that it didn't matter, though.

Naomi wanted to help process our order, so she held open ziploc bags for me to drop plain meat in and made some tasty meatballs with me, which we'll use in different ways over the next several months.

Tim flattened and sealed all the bags of raw meat while Naomi and I finished up the meatballs and then we were done. Here's our final stack, 40 lbs. of extra lean ground beef all ready to get popped in the freezer.

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ANOTHER ROUND OF CHICKEN

We picked up two cases of Zaycon chicken yesterday and this was our most efficient order yet.

The first time I didn't think of putting any in marinades until it was already in our house. I scrambled to figure out which ones I could make and did what I could.

The second time I planned marinades ahead of time and froze a bunch of the chicken in them. Tim helped for part of that round, making up some of the marinades as I cut chicken into palm-sized chunks.

This time I actually made the marinades a couple days before picking up my order, split the breasts without cutting them into smaller chunks, and dropped the split breasts into bags that Tim held open for me.

The work is the same no matter what order you do it in, but this was the fastest order day we've had so far and I'll definitely do it this way again from here on out. Little chunks of time over a few days instead of a large portion of an entire evening is much more pleasant!

Here's what my fridge looked like a couple days ago. Several bags of marinades and the veggies for a soup waiting to get chicken added to them.

Here's everything bagged up and ready for the freezer. It's 36 lbs. of chicken in marinades or with veggies and 44 lbs. bagged in 3-ish pound portions.

This time around I used do-it-all marinade (good with chicken and salmon), Jen's chicken (a sweet & spicy-ish kind of thing), Hawaiian chicken, coconut chicken, and hearty chicken vegetable soup (I'll just add broth when it's time to cook it). They'll all be cooked in the crockpot and I'll shred the chicken when they're done cooking.

We have an order of Zaycon beef coming soon, so I need to figure out if I want to freeze it plain or do some prep work ahead of time.

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EIGHTY POUNDS OF CHICKEN

Do you remember when we got blessed by the chicken fairy last year? We liked that Zaycon chicken a whole lot more than the frozen stuff we'd been buying at WinCo and it was less expensive than the fresh or previously frozen stuff at Costco or Safeway. Needless to say, we decided a while back that we'd start buying our chicken from Zaycon on a regular basis. 

Zaycon sells fresh chicken breasts in 40 lb. cases for $1.89 a pound. It just needs to have the breasts split and a smidge of fat trimmed off. We eat chicken once a week, use three pounds per meal, and the chicken events happen about every six months, so we bought two cases this time around. The plan was to freeze much of it plain, which will allow us to use it in a variety of ways over the coming months, then freeze some of it in marinades. I like doing that because it allows the meat to marinate as it thaws and I can easily toss it in the crockpot for a super easy meal. 

I did all the cutting last night, but Tim helped with two of the marinades while I cut, which made the whole process more efficient. Here's what we ended up with.

Three bags with do-it-all marinade. With garlic, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and more, I love this marinade on both chicken and salmon.

Three bags of Greek chicken. We have rosemary and thyme growing in our yard and I opted to use dried oregano we had in the house instead of buying fresh this time around.

Three bags of sesame honey chicken. I buy honey at Costco, but won't be there until Sunday, so these bags were all just a smidge short on honey because I ran out of what we already had. No biggie, as we can just squeeze some into the crockpot when we cook these. This stuff, which has yummy things like honey, sesame oil, and onion powder, is great with a bunch of toasted sesame seeds on top!

Three bags of teriyaki chicken. This was the easiest one to prep because we just dumped some Soy Vay's Veri Veri Teriyaki in the bag.

The final result? A bad picture of a lot of chicken before it got stacked up in the freezer. 

I realize that not everyone has the cash sitting around to make a bulk purchase, but try and budget for it if you can. Tim had one really big payday over the summer, so we used some of that money for this purchase and are setting aside a little grocery money each month to pay for the next round of chicken. If money is tight, then maybe you could do something similar with a tax refund in a few months.

If you simply don't eat chicken, then you may want to check out the other products Zaycon sells. They sell beef, pork, poultry, fish, and some other non-meat products like berries, milk, waffles, and honey. While I've only had their chicken, I've heard nothing but good things from friends who buy their other products.



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TEN ON TUESDAY - 4/22/14

The little Ws - If you're a parent, then do you ever have those moments when your kids seem suddenly older? That happened to me recently. Teebs is seeming less like a toddler and more like a little kid. Naomi says things and asks questions that prove she's no longer a little kid ... just a kid.  Devon is about to hit double digits and only has one year left before middle school. Silas is about to enter his last pre-teen year and has so much freedom now. Time flies!

Nice view - I was sitting in a corner of our living room recently, curled up in a chair with a kid, and realized how much I loved what I saw. The whole house isn't always this tidy and not every room is all color coordinated like this one, but the bright blue and green, crisp white, wood, natural light, plants inside, trees out the window (can't really see them in the glare of the picture), evidence of the little Ws, things that remind me of friends ... I love it. There was a camera within reach, so I quickly snapped a picture. A little moment of ordinary life that makes me smile.

New-ish friends - Last school year we started attending a local homeschool group, but this year we've become even more involved. It's been fun getting to know the other moms better this year. We have varied personalities, beliefs, and circumstances, but that's part of what makes me enjoy their friendship. I'm thankful for the chance to laugh with and encourage each other. Neat ladies!

Skyble study - Beep and I have a weekly Bible study via Skype that recently morphed into an ongoing e-mail/Skype study. We started off with a particular study, ditched it about halfway through, went through the book of Matthew, and are now reading The Complete Green Letters, written by Miles J. Stanford. Excellent book! If you're looking for something that will make you look less at yourself and more at Jesus, that will get you grounded in some Biblical truths, then read this one.

Gift - Earlier this month Connie gave a few people some dishcloths that she had made. I love handmade dishcloths, these colors are perfect, and I think this pattern with the edging on these is neat.

Sonlight code - A lot of people are making school decisions for next year right now. If you plan on ordering from Sonlight and if you'll be a first time customer and if your order will be for $50.00 or more, then this link will give you a $5.00 discount. In the interest of full disclosure, that link is for their referral program and any qualifying purchase made through the link will give me points that turn into money off of my own orders. I'd actually forgotten about the referral program until a month or two ago. That's when I realized I had about $70.00 sitting there and I was able to buy a year's worth of math for Silas for $.71...  a savings of about 99%.  Such a blessing that turned out to be! If you already have a Sonlight account and plan on ordering from them again, then be sure to share your own referral code. Every little bit helps when it comes to saving money!

Zaycon - Speaking of referral programs, I signed up for a Zaycon account after the chicken fairy blessed us with a bunch of poultry in the fall. That chicken was so much better than the frozen breasts I usually buy that I figured I would start ordering from them once we were off food stamps. That time recently came to pass, so I figured I should share my referral link.  Zaycon has events all over the country and sells all kinds of things - various chicken, milk, sausage, honey, steak, salmon, ribs, strawberries, peaches, and more. They sell in bulk, so split an order with a friend or two if you don't have the space or desire to freeze a bunch of food. If you order through this link right here, then I'll get a little bit of credit when you pick up your order. As with Sonlight, if you are a Zaycon customer, then pass your referral link along to people!

Milestone video - Grumps, which is what we call my dad's dad, recently posted his first video on Youtube. He lives on a houseboat in California and frequently e-mails pictures of sunsets he can see from his home, but he decided to make a movie of his surroundings one morning and share it with the world. I love that he's still having fun with technology as he comes close to his 90th birthday!

Nice weather - I love the weather this time of year! It's a perfect mix of warm sunshine and cool rain.  Last week I was able to sit on the front porch in the evening and bask in the sun as I corrected math.  Bliss!

I also planted a bunch of seeds two Saturdays ago and have seen a few sprouts peeking through the dirt in the last few days.

Worthy cause - Devon's technology teacher currently teaches class with seven different types of computers, many of which are missing keys. Devon and his classmates sit through technology class in mismatched chairs, about half of which are not tall enough for the tables they all sit at. Needless to say, it would make life much easier if all the computers were the same and the students could all sit high enough to reach the keyboard comfortably. If that sounds like something you'd like to help with, then please visit their Go Fund Me page and donate whatever amount you are able.

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LOVE IN THE FORM OF RAW POULTRY

Someone sent me a message earlier this week saying they had ordered some Zaycon chicken for us, so I met them at the delivery site early this morning to pick it up.  All forty pounds of it.  I split the breasts, trimmed the fat, and was about to bag it up when I mentioned to some friends that I should have planned ahead to freeze it with some marinades or something.  And that was when I decided to spend a little extra time in the kitchen.

The end result?   Six bags of plain chicken to use for whatever strikes our fancy on future menus, two bags of teriyaki chicken (we use Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki), two bags of garlic chicken with more garlic, and two bags of sesame honey chicken.  All mixtures ready to dump in the crockpot and all plain meat ready to be sliced, diced, or whatever needs to be done to it.  All now in the freezer.

You know what else?  The chicken fairy also gave me a box each of quart and gallon ziploc bags to freeze the chicken in, a bag of pumpkin pie almonds for the family to snack on, and two hugs, one just because and another when the emotions of the last few days caught up to me and I started crying in the parking lot.  Feeling pretty blessed!