SEAL-A-MEAL

I posted on Seal-A-Meal once before, but I love this machine.  

About six months ago I bought a Seal-A-Meal vacuum food processor.   It was relative cheap on e-bay.   I don’t remember the exact price, but it ran about forty dollars.  

I had watched a number of clips on YouTube about the machine, but I was still skeptical.   

This machine has changed the way we buy meat. 

There is only two of us; and in the past if we tried to buy meat in bulk it would be freezer burned and grey before we got around to using it.  

We still don’t buy meat in bulk; but if we are in the supermarket and see a particular cut of meat we like on sell we will buy a couple of packages and come home and vacuum seal them.  This way we don’t have to put out a lot of money at one time but our meat supply is varied and builds up enough to keep us ahead for a couple of months. 

Yesterday we bought boneless, skinless chicken thighs for $1.49 a pound.   They were six to a package so we bought two packages.   After putting them in the freezer overnight to firm up I vacuum packed them this morning.  

Here is the recipe we use with chicken thighs:

In the bottom of the slow cooker we pour one can of tomato sauce, one can of diced tomatoes, four diced garlic cloves, we add a heaping tablespoon of dried oregano and a couple of basil leaves.   We salt and pepper the thighs and place them on top of the tomato.    We cook them on high for a couple of hours then turn them on low for about four hours.   At supper time will boil spaghetti or ziti or sometimes noodles, cover it with the chicken and tomato sauce and serve this with a salad.   

We like slow cooking and like to cook our meat until it is tender and falling apart or can easily be separated with just a fork.

At Walmart they sell vacuum food bags but they are terribly expensive.   We buy 50 foot rolls of bag material on e-bay for about ten dollars – this way we can adjust the size of the bag to what we are sealing. 

If you are interested I suggest you check it out on YouTube.  They have vacuum food sealing machines that run upwards to hundreds of dollars, but I find this cheapest Seal-A-Meal easy to use and fits our needs. 

the Ol’Buzzard

A BUZZARD EGG OMELET # 15

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO CHEERIOS?

I haven’t eaten Cherrios in a long time.   My wife usually buys our cereal from a local health food store.   But yesterday we ran out and so I picked up a package of Cheerios from the local supermarket.   This morning when I sat down to a bowl of cereal I noticed the fucking O’s were smaller.   I asked my wife and she agreed the O’s have shrunk. 

I know it has been obvious to most everyone that food companies for a long time have been increasing their profits by shrinking the amount of food in packaging while maintaining retail cost.  The idea is that people will not realize they are paying more for the product per volume. 

Can goods use to be 16 oz – now they range anywhere from 10.5 to 15 oz – the cans are smaller while the price has remained near the same.  

Now companies are changing the shape of their product to disguise further cuts in volume.  

I recently bought some Nabisco Saltine Crackers, which now come in the ‘New Saltine Shape.”   The bloody things are round like Ritz Crackers; and when you superimpose one of the ‘new Saltine Shape’ over one of the traditional square ones you realize that Nabisco has cut off the corners to produce the “New Saltine Shape.”   Not only that, but you are now getting  fewer crackers in the ‘New’ 10.5 oz box.

When I bought the Cheerios I noticed that the box had the same height and width as usual but it was noticeably thinner.   The box now contains only 8.9 oz.   OK, I’m getting less cereal.   But making the O’s smaller – what the fuck is that all about?

I’m just asking

the Ol’Buzzard