TV dinner results

So, the turkey dinners are great. They heat up nicely and texture and flavour are great. I may need to add more water to the gravy , it sorta turns to gel.

The Shepherd's pie unsurprisingly takes some time to heat up. It's a solid mass of frozen food with now spaces. Once it's headed up it does taste excellent.

Both experiments are a great success. I'll  be trying some more this week, as it's payday tomorrow. I really want to get a lasagne dish working. I do loves me some lasagne.

Shepherd's Pie

So, got a batch of Shepherd's Pie done up last night. Went with one pack of ground pork and two of ground beef. I know that there is no sheep in the pie and it isn't technically Shepherd's pie with no sheep in it. The meat sauce really turned out great this time.

It took over five pounds of potatoes to make the four pies. They may be more than a single meal. They fill the cake pans right up and only barely fit in the bags.

Here's pies!

Here's the pies in the freezer last night

 And here's the pies after freezing and packaging. That's eight full meals frozen and ready to go in the oven.

Man, I love the food sealer. It's amazing.

So, after getting those packaged up I'm going to see how the turkey dinners turned out and have my first one.

I'm pretty happy so far. I'd like to try a lasagne casserole inspired by the tasty one that Tim Horton's serves. I'd like to give it a shot after next cheque. Also, hope to get my phone's camera cleaned too.

Turkey Time!

So, the turkey tv dinners are finished. The food sealer worked great, I'm glad Walmart had them on so cheap. However, loud food sealer is loud.

So, here's the food sealer and the rest of the cake pans.

Here is the turkey after roasting. I just thawed it in the fridge for three or four days, put it in the oven for three hours. There were all kinds of fancy ways to do it, but in the end I couldn't be bothered. It turned out pretty decent regardless.

Here's the turkey after roasting, deboning and portioning. Also freezing. I may have skipped pictures of a few steps. And a bunch of the turkey is still in a ziploc in the fridge. Sandwiches for later this week. I'll have to portion some of the rest and probably freeze it.

Out of the pans and sealed in the bags.

And stacked in the freezer!

All in all the whole process took a bit of time, but we'll see how worth it it was when I try the first one. It was certainly cheaper than buying a tv dinner. I don't know if it would be if the turkey wasn't on sale or free. Also, if I skipped buying the stuffing it'd be cheaper too. I guess the main benefit is that it shifts the prep time to times when I'm feeling fine so that on days when I'm not I'm not as likely to eat out. When compared to that pricing, it's much cheaper.

 Planning to do a batch of Shepard's pie tonight. We'll see how it goes.

Free Turkey!

So, it seems that Overwaitea is just giving these things away!

And free is what I can afford. So, it looks like next week will be "Turkey cooking experiment week." I've heard about brining turkeys, but I don't think I have anything big enough to put it in. This will be my first time cooking a turkey. I may pick up a roaster for it. For now it sits in my freezer while I do a little research.