Thursday, February 27, 2014

Zaycon Chicken

Last week we got two 40 pound boxes of chicken breasts from Zaycon Foods.

This was our second time ordering from Zaycon and we were once again very pleased! We got one 40 pound box last fall when Zaycon came to our area and just finished using the chicken from that order last week.

Eighty pounds of chicken is a LOT. But considering we went through 40 pounds in 4 months, we got 80 pounds this time to last us until Zaycon has another chicken event in the fall.

The chicken is a really good price- $1.89 a pound and the breasts are huge! This is not certified organic chicken but from what I understand, the chickens are cage-free and are not given antibiotics. So it is a good price for what I feel is a bit better than regular grocery store chicken.

Erin from The Humbled Homemaker wrote a very informative post about Zaycon chicken that you can read here.


So do you want to know what I did with 80 pounds of chicken breasts? 

 Box #1: Trimmed and frozen in 1-2 breast packages.

Box #2: 20 pounds of the chicken were cooked in the crock pots. I then shredded the chicken and froze it in 2-4 cup portions to use later. Shredded chicken is so very versatile and will be a great base for many easy meals later.

Tip: Use your mixer to quickly shred all that chicken! I have a Bosch mixer and the batter hook worked well. I have heard that a Kitchen Aid mixer's dough hook shreds chicken really nicely too. I've used my food processor too with the dough blade but I prefer the mixer since I can do more at once.

I ended up with 21 containers of cooked shredded chicken.

The other 20 pounds of chicken from Box #2 were used for some crockpot freezer meals and one dinner that week.

I made 8 easy freezer meals. I chose 4 recipes we really liked from the last chicken extravaganza and made 2 of each.

 Zaycon delivers all over the country. You can check their website to see if there are any upcoming events in your area. They sell not only chicken but also ground beef, bacon, sausage or ham. They usually sell only 1-2 items per event. For example: Chicken was the only item offered at last week's event.

I know a 40 pound box of chicken (or two 40 pound boxes) sounds overwhelming to some of you. If you don't have the space to store that much or just simply cannot eat it all in a reasonable amount of time, consider splitting a box with a friend or two.

And as a disclaimer: The links to Zaycon Foods in this post are referral links. That means that if you go to the Zaycon website and place an order through my referral link, I will get some credit towards my next Zaycon purchase. Thank you!

Zaycon did not pay me in any way to write this post. We're just very satisfied customers and want to pass this info along to you!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Fresh Bread

We finished the Whole30 this past Sunday and are slowly reintroducing different food groups. 

Today we reintroduce wheat. So I made some fresh French bread this morning. 

Recipe is here. (I used all white flour this time.) 

It smells so good!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Touch of Spring



A $2.49 pot of daffodils from Trader Joe's adds a pretty touch of spring to our table! 

This plant was purchased almost 2 weeks ago and has nearly tripled in height. Thus the classy skewers and repurposed velcro ties to keep it together! 

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Using Those Organizing Containers

There's been more time for organizing the past few days since we've been snowed in!

We're preparing for an early spring yard sale so one of my February goals is to go through the house and do a pretty thorough decluttering! I'd love to clean out the sheds as well but don't know if I'll get that far this month. 

All of those Freecycled organizing containers are coming in handy; I've used more than I thought I would!  

I've been going through cabinets and drawers tossing trash, filling the yard sale box and organizing a little if needed. 

Here are a few examples of my organizing projects so far. I'm very pleased with how these turned out. 

Nothing fancy but maybe these pictures will inspire you in your quest for an organized home! 


Pens and pencils in the junk drawer. 

Cloth hankies in a drawer. Previously they were just stuffed in any old way.

Summer skin supplies.

Medicine box. 

First aid supplies. 
The sunscreen box, meds and first aid boxes all fit perfectly in a cabinet in the guest bathroom. Much better than before! 

Ribbon!

A soft-sided bin used for socks. I used four of these type bins in my drawers. For my drawers. Ha! This is the only one pictured for privacy and to maintain my personal dignity. 

These soft-sided bins are from the Dollar Tree and work very well. 

I used this cute divided box with snap on lid for some of my jewelry. I really like this container and may use it somewhere else  in the future but for now it works nicely for jewelry. 

And that's all for today! 

**Are you in an organizing mood too or is it just me? **  

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Another Report From Rock the Snow Dog


Hello again! Rock the snow dog here with another weather report. 

It's been snowing again! This is the 2nd day. Woot woot! 

When it snows, I stand at the door and whine until I get to go outside. That seems to work.
Look at this snow! I can't help but notice the stark contrast between the white snow and my lovely black coat. Both are beautiful.

During this blizzard, my main obsession has been these storm drain pipes or " delightful tunnels of mystery" as I like to call them. They are in every driveway in my neighborhood. Do you think my mom will let me crawl through them? No! So not fair.   

The road is a bit slippery and as the snow and wintry mix continue, the road will be even more treacherous. So be careful out there. Even better,stay home or go for a walk.  

Whatever you do, don't eat the yellow snow! Ha ha ha ha ha! 

Organizing Containers

 We've been working to make my sewing/ guest room organized and functional. So when my husband saw a Freecycle offer for organizing containers, he responded saying that we would like them.

It turned out that these were being offered by our neighbor so he zipped down to pick them up and was back in just a few minutes.

And did I mention that there were 2 bags of containers? Two huge black garbage bags full!

Um, yeah.

I know I won't use all of these so if you are local to me and need storage containers, I am your girl! You are free to help yourself!

There are all kinds of organizing tools here from magazine holders to desk organizers to cleaning caddies. There was also a pile of Rubbermaid lids that had no boxes with them which went right to the recycling bin!

I did already pick out a few that will be very useful so in spite of the sheer amount, it was a good Freecycle haul!
All the hard plastic containers took a run through the dishwasher. I ended up running 3 loads which included some of my own containers that could also use a cleaning.

Oh and those big black bags all this came in? They were nice heavy duty bags so I saved them to use again. :-)

Now I'm off to organize!

**I find it funny that right about this time last year, I also posted about Freecycle!