It is not lost on me that my husband has worked hard to provide us with the ability to purchase high-quality groceries. For the first several years of our marriage, this was not the case. We ate well and healthy, generally speaking, and he (and God) always provided what we needed. Buying from the nice grocery store (not looking to get the cheapest, but being able to focus on better quality) is what I am talking about.
A big change happened when we stared buying meat in bulk from a local farmer and storing it in our deep freezer.
You could say we were an “overnight freezer family” as we decided to invest in a part of a cow before we actually owned a deep freezer. One hot summer afternoon, I got a call from my husband saying the meat was unexpectedly ready for pickup from he farm and he was on his way to buy a deep freezer. In the meantime, I prepared our main freezer too hold as much as it could as we got the deep freezer set up. Now, I can’t imagine not having a deep freezer! It is quite practical for us as a growing family. With a smaller family, it may not feel as much of a “necessity” but for us, it has helped tremendously knowing we have meat on hand and space to have extra food available without having to restock at the grocery store. There is a financial savings compared to the grocery store too so it makes sense to get meat locally.
Anyway, as I continue my journey of learning to manage food storage and eat the best we can (while still on a budget- just with a bit more wiggle room now) I have been exploring additional places to source food.
One night, my search led me to Seven Sons Farm which you can learn more about on their website. I thought it was beautiful to see a family business, providing food in an ethical, healthy way. I placed an order and was delighted when it arrived a few days later!!
The ground chicken was most exciting for me. For some odd reason, as I was looking at pictures of their offerings, the ground chicken picture looked delicious! Forgive my lack of knowledge about meat and meat processing- but the image in my mind of ground chicken is usually in a swirly pattern like this..
Whereas, the picture from Seven Sons looked like this…
Not that any raw chicken is particularly delicious to look at, but the image looked appetizing at 1 AM and more “natural” than the wiggly alternative I am use to seeing. I immediately began looking up recipes. I ended up giving this one a try and it was delicious! Although, I did modify the way I cooked it. I formed the patties then put them in the oven at 400 degrees for around 10 minutes.
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It is fun to try something new! I am curious how it would be to follow this recipe with canned salmon to make salmon patties. Salmon or tuna patties are my Friday go-to when I do not have frozen or fresh fish on hand. I typically fry them on the stovetop and often crumble apart or if I use my cast iron skillet for some reason it often creates smoke, so I wonder if baking them would make the cooking process more simple. 🙂