20 pounds of chicken

When I was expecting, having, newly postpartum with lP, we didn't get any meals.  We were in that luxury condo 20 minutes north of town, and P didn't want anyone to come over.  It wasn't a comfortable place or time.  Also, with my mom visiting people assumed we didn't need any meals.  We were given some lovely bread, and jam, and an orange cake and ice cream.  Some determined sisters found a way to get past P's objections. 

Later I was talking to someone and found that P had accidentally or deliberately let people think I was just that prepared, like with 20 meals in the freezer.  It was sort of a dark time for me.  I wasn't that prepared.  I had bad postpartum anxiety, which I realize I always get.  In that situation it translated to a deep loathing of our downstairs neighbors whom I imagined to be constantly thinking us too loud.  And probably they were, but who cares.  I did and it was not healthy.

So this time I am actually trying to have a lot of food stored away.  I've got 2 heat and serve type meals.  Lots of seafood since my mom will be visiting.  3 bags of burritos.  5 lbs of strawberries (left over from the amazing batch of strawberries we got a few weeks ago).  Cheese, Cheese, Cheese.  Deli sliced ham.  Several loaves of bread. 

I was thinking of canning some chicken, because hey, nothing sends you into labor like having pounds of precarious raw meat and trying to make it shelf stable for the first time, just for fun.  I just couldn't get my hands on a pressure cooker, so I didn't get my hands on the jars and chicken.  Then I found split chicken breast at Save a Lot for $0.99 a pound.  It was like I was back in the year 2000.  I love split chicken breast.  I hate boneless skinless.  To me, boneless skinless is like rubber.  Blech.

I haven't been able to find split chicken breasts for a long time.  Like years.  Sam's doesn't sell it.  I don't know why publix doesn't sell it.  Winn Dixie also didn't seem to ever have any when I looked.
So I've been thinking I didn't like chicken for the last year or so.  Actually it was that I couldn't find the chicken I like to make.

So I bought $20 of this gold and brought it home.  I baked it up on cookie sheets.  Then I used forks to get of most of the meat.  The rib portion, I let cool in a bowl until I could pick it clean.  I like to let the chicken chunks sit in the juice and soak it up.  Then I put 3-4 lbs into a gallon bag and freeze it flat, so hopefully it can be broken up later.  It wasn't until I was almost done processing all of it that I realized that I'd bought 20 lbs.  Duh, $1 a lb...  But that's a lot of meat!

And considering that we don't even use a pound per meal, we've got meat for 20 meals, even if they need more prep.  We also have Sonny's BBQ sauce in the fridge, so bring it on.