FOOD SAVER

It is just my wife and I, so when we bought food the excess often spoiled before we had the same meal again.   We sometimes froze our excess and usually we ended up throwing it away with freezer-burn.

 A few years ago, I bought a new Food Saver through e-bay for under forty-dollars.   That purchase has turned out to be one of our best buys.  Now we buy food when it is on sale and vacuum pack it, and it last for months.   Things that come in quantity we divide up to portion sizes; sliced bacon, we will divide into four strip units, vacuum pack and freeze them; then when we want bacon and eggs, we just take the vacuum-packed bacon out an hour before we cook, and it is as fresh as when we bought it.

Salmon, pork chops, chuck roast and hot dogs ready for the freezer

 fresh blue berries, quick frozen and then vacuum packed

We even vacuum pack individual sandwich makings, like ham and cheese.   When we want to make a sandwich, we can open the pack, place the makings between two pieces of bread – with of course mayonnaise – and we are good to go. 

  Swiss cheese and Kentucky ham ready for a sandwich 

We buy the rolls of bag material and cut it to size.  A fifty-foot vacuum sealer roll cost around nine-dollars, so there is a small expense; but what we save in wasted food, and the quality of the frozen food, is well worth it.

There are many vacuum food savers, with a lot of different bells and whistles, that are priced upwards to three-hundred-dollars, but this inexpensive one works just fine for a small family.  

the Ol’Buzzard     

TIPS ON SAVING FOOD FOR TWO.

Since there are just the two of us, not counting our cats, it has often been the case that food we have stored in the refrigerator has gone over before we had the chance to use it. 

Supermarkets often pack foods in quantities too large for two people to consume.   Anything that is sold by the pound you should be able to downsize.    Grapes are offered in large bags and most people feel they must buy the whole bag; we take a produce bag and select only enough grapes from the large store bag that we feel we will consume in a couple of days.   I have no problem opening a store sealed package and selecting what we need, and it seems the stores have no problem with this.

Some things like broccoli, cauliflower and celery can’t practically be separated, but you can extend the refrigerator life by slicing off a thin layer of the stalk and covering the newly exposed area with a wet paper towel before returning it to the frig. 

 

I have found I can extend the life of mixed greens, which are usually wet when I buy them, by placing a dry paper towel at the bottom of a storage container – putting in the greens – and placing a dry paper towel on top before sealing the container.  I replace the towels if they are damp each time I use the greens.

The vacuum food saver we purchased last year has allowed us to buy meats in larger quantities without worrying about freezer burn.   We also use the vacuum sealer to store blueberries, strawberries and any fruit that can be frozen before packaging.    We even buy frozen fruits and store them in portion size bags for fruit desserts and smoothies.  

Can anyone add to these ideas?

the Ol’Buzzard

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