Bi-weekly Food Prep

Another paydate (for the hubby) and another time to prepare more meals.  (pictures to come in a couple of days.

I've been busy with beef & chicken this time (so far).

I made my Costco run on Friday buying the main ingredient for several meals (beef or chicken).  I bought 2 packages of tri-tip roast and another package of top sirloin steaks.  I got Costco's rotisserie chicken along with 2 bags of frozen chicken breasts.

On Friday, I made 2 meals of Mediterranean Style Steak, having one for dinner & freezing the other. The one for dinner is shown below marinating in the vacuum sealed container.

I also made 2 meals of Seasoned Steak with Gorgonzola Butter.

What do you do with all that extra gorgonzola from Costco?  Freeze it of course! It has gone into a quart size freezer bag.

I then started making 2 meals of Chipotle Rubbed Tri-Tip, but found I had no chipotle chile powder, so put the tri-tip roasts in their own zip lock bags & put them in the fridge.  I also put the rest of the spices in sandwich baggies.

On Saturday, I made my grocery store run. Went to Super One and got everything on my list except for chipotle chile powder as I could not find it in the hispanic section, in the herbs or in the organic section.  So luckily Smith's is only a block away, so popped in there to look for it.  I went directly to the seasons/herbs section & found it.  I could get 2 oz of the Kroger brand for $2.98 or McCormicks 2 oz for $8.39.  Sorry, that was an easy decision - $2.98!

Came home from shopping and finished the Chipotle Rubbed Tri-tip & got it in the freezer.

On to the chicken dishes.  I had already partially thawed one of the bags of chicken, so started preparing the following dishes:
Spicy Dijon Chicken
Tandoori Chicken
Teriyaki Chicken

The Teriyaki Chicken was supposed to be turned into skewers, but I chose to make them chicken tenders instead.

I also doubled the recipe for Homemade Cream of Celery Soup and put 2 cups in each freezer container.  This tasted sooooo good and now it's ready to add to other dishes.

Tomorrow or Mondays dishes will be Vegetable Bolognese and Quick& Easy Enchiladas.

this is the basil I grew, so used the mortar & pestil to grind it up for the bolognese

everything set out for the bolognese

burger & eggplant/carrots ready for pot

hot oil to get started

eggplant & carrots in oil

onions & garlic added

I will also cut up that Costco rotisserie chicken and either freeze the meat or use it to mix up some chicken pot pies.  I bought several of the mini-foil pie dishes just for these.  I will then take the carcass & the skin and use it to make Homemade Chicken Stock and also some Easy Chicken Gravy.

Today also was my Bountiful Basket day.  In addition to the normal fruit & veggie baskets, I also purchased a bag of 5 misc breads and a juicing pack.  I don't think we are going to be doing much juicing over the next few days, so I did the following:
1) I took the 2 bundles of celery I got 2 weeks ago & the 2 new bundles & cut them all up into 1/4" pieces and then put all those pieces on 4 trays in my food dehydrator.
2) I took the green chard and put those big leaves on 3 trays in the dehydrator.
3) I cut up the curly parsley and put it in a quart freezer bag in the freezer.
4) I fine shredded the ginger, put it in a quart freezer bag & in the freezer
5) The apples & blood oranges from the juice pack just went in the fridge
6) Not sure what to do with the 2 beets, but may end up dehydrating them as well.

As I was looking in the dehydrating book for temps & times, I came across carrots.  I can shred them & then dry the shredded carrots.  I can then take the shredded carrots & use them in a carrot cake or soup stock or whatever.

We'll see how my afternoon goes after the girls ski lessons to decide if I have time for the bolognese or the enchiladas, otherwise it will be on Monday.

Thanks for reading.