Cooking and canning

I’ve been really busy all last week cooking and canning. When I get food from the drive through foodbank it usually takes a week to preserve everything. Although that’s not full time days. There wasn’t any foodbank for January so I had extra time on my hands. I decided to do a freezer inventory because it really needs defrosting anyway. But before I got started I realized some of the food in there needed either cooking or canning. I got so busy dealing with food that I never did the inventory. That will be my project for this week.

In the freezer I found a ham I had bought last month. Kroger had spiral cut hams on sale for 89 cents a pound with a limit of two. I bought two for about $7 each and gave one to my daughter because my freezer is really small and almost full. I didn’t have room for two. In order to make more room before this month’s drive-through foodbank I decided to cook the ham and freeze it in portion sizes for one person. I saved the bone and made ham broth for canning.

Last week Kroger had two loss leaders on their 5 times digital deals that I couldn’t resist. I’ve been out of ground beef for awhile. I still had some of my Christmas/Birthday money so I bought 15 pounds of ground beef on sale $1.99 a pound. That was five packs of 3 pounds each. My skillet holds 3 pounds easily and up to 5 pounds when needed. It was my Grandma Mama’s deep fryer.

Two packs of three pounds each will loosely fill 14 half pint jars for two meals in each.  One jar didn’t seal so I had half of it for dinner as a sloppy Joe sandwich and the rest for lunch the next day. I canned 4 packs which gave me 27 jars. This means I have 54 meals in those jars. If I’m eating one jar a week it would be about a year’s worth of meals. 

The last pack was made into Salisbury steaks and meatballs to freeze. Back in January I had found stuffing mix at Aldi for twenty five cents a bag. They were over stocked and trying to get rid of some. Making do with what I have it became the seasoned bread crumbs for my recipe. 

I left them just a little under done to allow for more cooking as they are being heated for a meal. I now have six Salisbury steaks and 10 meatball meals ready to heat and eat. This means I now have eight more weeks of meals in the freezer.

Kroger also had 5 times deal of Mandarin oranges five pounds for $3.99 each. The regular price has been $4.99 for a three pound bag. I bought only 4 packs because it was all there was left. I was happy with four. 

Each bag makes eight half pints. I canned two bags which gave me 16 half pint jars. 

The other two bags are being supremed in preparation for canning. When finished I’ll have 32 half pints. If I eat one jar a week I’ll have 8 months worth of mandarin oranges for whatever recipe I choose. Actually I prefer them with cottage cheese or yogurt but I could make an orange cake or maybe gelato. There was a couple more five times items I liked but I was out of money. I’ll be going into more about my food storage in the coming weeks.

I also had my orthotic appointment on Wednesday. Thank you my angel! I’m not sure I’m happy with these yet. I’ll wear them for a couple weeks and then decide whether to go back for adjustments. They are very thick and don’t adjust the width of my deformed feet like the ones I had years ago. My feet are two different sizes. One foot is extra wide and the other is regular. If I buy regular width the right one is too tight. If I buy extra wide the left side is floppy. I can’t afford to buy two pair each time I buy shoes. That’s why I was hoping orthotics would help and make walking easier.

I need to get back into the kitchen to can the other oranges. 

Anita