Filling the freezer - "I want solid food"

My 13 year old son wandered into the kitchen prowling through the refridgerator and opening the bread drawer.  I suggested leftover cake, cookies and milk, ice cream in the freezer?  "Oh, no!" he said.  "I am sugared out.  I want some solid food."  I chuckled under my breath when he pulled out the one bowl of leftover black beans.  He heated them for 10 minutes - they have been in the fridge for 4 days - and relished  eating black beans with tortilla chips.  That is soul food.

This last week I have bottled 19 quarts of chicken (Tyson chicken breast was on sale a couple of weeks ago.  It is the cheap, tough breast that doesn't taste the best grilled or fried but when diced and pressure cooked, it is great and for $1.50 per pound, it is worth it.)

We also cooked and froze 40 pounds of ground beef.  It was 80% lean to begin with but after browning the whole 40 pounds in a large stock pot (you could use a roaster) I rinsed it with hot water saving the drippings.  I let the fat come to the top of the drippings, skimmed it off and bottled 4 quarts of beef broth.  The meat that was then 99% fat free, I bagged in quart size freezer bags with meal portions of about 3 cups for our family.

Blueberries were on sale for $1.00 a pint.  I bought 24 pints, rinsed each pint, transfered the pint to a quart size freezer bag and into the freezer the blueberries went.  The children will enjoy blueberry muffins for at least 24 weeks of the year.  Not bad!

I intended to also freeze strawberries at a $1.00 a pound but they got eaten far faster than I could freeze them.  All in all it has been a good week to get the food supplies restalked.