Foodsaver you make me say "WOW"
by being such a fabulous pal.
I buy all in bulk
and then I don't sulk
if we don't end up eating all our chow.
I go on spree at Sam's
Buy up all the meat that I can.
At home I separate the pieces
and seal it up with you in only two seconds
And I eat frozen meat for a long span.
Ok, ok. There's a reason I'm not a poet or an English teacher... but you get the drift. As some of you know, I bought a Foodsaver right after the hubby and I got married. I have generally used it for meat over the years but it's also handy with cheese and the "other half" of an avocado. But if you're going to save the other half of the avocado be sure to leave the pit in! (or you'll end up with guacamole whether you wanted to or not.)
Over the past year or so I've been looking at getting a small top-load freezer. The freezer on our fridge doesn't hold squat. It's my own fault. Due to the houses age (about 25 years now) the space for the fridge isn't very wide. And when we went looking for a fridge I had to have one with in-door water and ice. So that left us with a side-by-side. And a narrow one, at that. I like to freeze meat, and other things, so I needed more room. Out old "extra" fridge in the basement worked for a while be we finally got rid of it about a month ago. However every time I looked in fliers at Lowe's or Home Depot the small freezers still cost about $200. I really couldn't justify spending that much. But two weekends ago we were at Sears and the one I had my eye on was on clearance for $89. I told the hubby we were snatchin' that thing up!
So now I have a freezer with no food to go in it. Well I couldn't let that happen! I convinced the hubby that a visit to Sam's was in order. (the last time we went was probably almost 2 years ago.) My main goal was to just buy meat. To freeze. I got 2 lbs shrimp, 2 pounds tilapia fillets, 2 pounds tuna steaks, 8 round eye steaks, 4 pork loins (5 pounds-ish) and 6.75 pounds ground beef. I think that'll keep the two of us for a while...
'cuz I love a bargain, I spent $10 on the shrimp and I usually pay $8 for one pound at the grocery. I also got the bag of tilapia fillets for $15 and I usually spend about $6 on two fresh fillets at the grocery. I hardly ever buy tuna steaks 'cuz they're expensive and I think I got that bag for about $20. And of course the beef and the pork - it was way cheaper. However I was not able to buy grass-fed/ organic beef : ( That's the only drawback. I decided to keep on buying organic chicken at the grocery because I can't get it at Sam's.
Sunday I got to work separating it all out to freeze in serving-size bags. Bonus: the tilpaia and tuna steaks were already individually sealed!! Yeah!! I made it through the 4 pork loins and was halfway through the steaks when disaster struck.
My trusty Foodsaver couldn't finish the job. It would suck, but not seal. (insert your own joke here...) I left it to cool down for 10 minutes. Still no luck. I unplugged it and left it to cool more. Still no luck. I still had a few steaks and almost SEVEN POUNDS of ground beef to freeze!!!
My Foodsaver had been a good girl for me these past 6 years. But her time was up. I had to make an emergency trip to Wally World to buy a new one. I had a couple of observations:
- No matter what kind of Foodsaver you get it's going to be a lot cheaper than the one I bought 6 years ago!!! (I think I paid over $200 for my original one. I got a new one for $100.)
- The newer models are a helluva more compact than my unit!! Granted the new one doesn't hold the roll of bags in side the unit nor does it have a cutter. But who cares!!!
- The black color of my new one is much cooler than my old white one!
- are single or there's only two of you in your household
- you like to buy in bulk for either convenience or savings
BTW - in case you're wondering, we're having tilapia tonight.
1 comment:
My food saver has died as well, but I am in denial and have left it in the drawer.
Post a Comment