Planning and production.....

Yesterday was a day which started out badly. Awake at 4am with an excruiating headache, I finally fell asleep again at 6 only for the alarm to go off at 6-30.....feeling as if I had the world's biggest hangover did not bode well for a productive day! However, by the time the day was done I felt quite smug at how much I managed to achieve....

As I had to work from lunchtime onwards the morning was set aside for grocery shopping and food preparation and production. I bought a full chicken for $6-50 and 4 pieces of osso bucco for $8 at the supermarket, planning for those protein packed items to feed us for the rest of the week!

Above: Leftovers to become potpies

Out came my two trusty slowcookers and into one went the osso bucco, two sliced onions, a couple of chopped carrots and some diced celery. A tin of chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic and oregano completed the concoction, which I then left to do it's thing for 8 hours. This provided dinner for His Lordship and I, with the leftovers due to be topped with pastry and baked as potpies for tonight's meal.


The chicken went whole into the other slowcooker; along with a halved onion ( skin left on) some garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, a chopped, unpeeled carrot and a couple of roughly diced sticks of celery-complete with leaves. A couple of litres of water poured over the top and 8 hours later I had just over 2 litres of chicken stock, two poached chicken breasts, shredded chicken meat and chicken bones for  chicken and vegetable soup.

Above: Stock, breast meat, bones & shredded chicken

$14-50 has bought enough meat to provide us with at least 6 meals for the two of us, plus I have lovely rich chicken stock for risotto or soup.

By planning to utilise the one morning for food production I have freed up much of the rest of the week-which means that I can use that time for other important matters....like gardening!