Pictures of the food fest...

So on top of cooking 10 pounds of ground beef, seven pounds of chicken and making homemade chicken stock yesterday, we also hosted our Life Group plus a few for dinner last night. There were 8, including Kate in our tiny "dining room." Made for one long day! Some of the chicken and ground beef went to last night's dinner, but the rest went straight to the freezer:

I'm still trying to figure the whole picture thing out, but here you can see the chicken stock simmering away, the deboned chicken breasts and tenderloins, 1/4th of the ground beef cooking, the crockpot of taco chicken for last night, and the freezer after-the-fact. We ended up with a meal worth of taco meat left, a meal of chicken taco meat left, two meals of chicken breasts and tenderloins that are cleaned and ready to be cooked, one small portion of chicken that came off the bones while making the stock, 10 cups of chicken stock, and four meals worth of ground beef for spaghetti, chili, lasagna, etc. All in all, I think it was worth the time. It's probably only about two weeks worth of meat by itself, but there is still some other meat in the freezer for additional meals. I think once this is gone, I'll actually plan to try to cook like this. It really was kind of spur-of-the-moment, but now I feel very domestic. Chicken stock is always nice to have on hand, and I portioned mine out with 2 cups in each bag. The rest of this week's meals include pork chops, homemade pepperoni pizza, and chili (I'll freeze the leftovers). Next week will require very little purchasing! Just some produce:) I love it! All this meat, plus the whole chicken that was used for another meal and to make the stock only cost about $25. Over 20 pounds of meat! I had never worked with the bone-in chicken breasts before, but I don't think I'll ever go back to boneless, skinless. What a waste of money!! Five ways you can use them?

1. Remove the skin. Run a sharp knife up the edge of the bone and literally pull the breast away from the bone. Remove the rest of the meat that is still on the bone. This is the tenderloin. Use these as you would a normal boneless, skinless breast and tenderloin.
2. Put them in the crockpot with a few inches of water and your favorite seasonings. Cook on high for 5 or 6 hours. Let the chicken cool, then debone and shred it. Use the shredded meat for sandwiches, pizza, taco, casseroles, etc.
3. Mix salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic with melted butter and baste the breast with it. Basting both sides of the chicken, as well as under the skin, will help flavor the entire piece of meat and not just the surface. Place on a baking sheet or rack and roast in the oven at 350 for 40ish minutes, and you'll have delicious, moist meat.
4. Grill with your favorite marinade or BBQ sauce.
5. Put them in a stock pot with onions, carrots, celery and your favorite seasonings (I use salt, pepper, bay leaves, garlic, parsley and rosemary) to make a delicious stock. Once the chicken is done, strain the stock and use it as a base for chicken and noodles or dumplings. Add the chicken back into the pot at the last minute.

Simple ideas, but it's so much less expensive than using a boneless, skinless piece. And, as I've learned this week, it's money-saving to find out what time the manager marks down meats. Be there as close to when this happens, and you can find some great scores!

Tomorrow? The recipe for my Crockpot Taco Chicken. It was delicious! Tonight? My first practice with the NLCC worship band. I'm excited, but nervous. Details tomorrow.