Canning Weekend and Bulk Food Shopping

Hello Lovelies,

Happy Monday! Boy do I have achy feetsies today. My feet hurt from all of the canning I did yesterday, but it was so worth it. I ended up getting three more flats of pint jars during my run to Winco along with bulk spices, bulk veggies, and beef marrow bones. I just felt like canning. Ever get the urge to just cook? LOL! Plus, this will bulk up our pantry with common staples I can use for anything. I’ve decided to keep almost all of my savory foods a little on the blander side. By doing this, I can create any meal then add spices later on. You limit yourself and your foods potential by seasoning before you can it.

I made a very nutritious beef broth using beef marrow bones that I got for less than $3. I tried this on the stove at first and I wasn’t getting the color I was looking for. I ended up pouring this into a crock pot. Simmer the bones in a pot half filled with water overnight and early morning for over 12 hours in a crock pot. Add onion, garlic, carrot, and celery. Stalks, leaves, skin and all. Everything adds to the flavor and nothing gets wasted. It condenses as it cooks and enhances the flavor. It’s also a great source of energy and protein. I got 6 pints of broth.

My 5lb bag of carrots were all washed, peeled, diced into thick chunks so I could keep some crunch in the jar. I raw packed these meaning I didn’t cook them before canning. No one likes mushy carrots! YUK! With veggies, add 1/4 tsp of pickling salt to each jar. I got 13 pints of carrots.

I cooked a whole chicken not only for dinner last night, but I wanted to make chicken broth using the carcas. After I cooked my chicken, I added a bay leaf, celery, carrot, and onion stalks, leaves, skin and all. This simmered for almost two hours. I got 6 pints of broth.

In the chicken section, they had a good deal on boneless skinless chicken breasts so I picked up a large package and raw packed the chicken. I got 5 pints of cooked chicken which cooked in its own juices during the canning process.

For spices, I just love the bulk bins! I pay a fraction of what it would cost to pick up a jar of McCormick. Dill, Basil, Bay Leaves, Granulated Onion, and Rosemary all together cost me less than $3. The second jar is Dill and that was only .30 cents or about half a cup for an example.

It was a great Sunday and I had so much fun just by popping on music, coffee in hand, I warmed my kitchen by the oven being on 350, and canned all late afternoon until almost midnight. I tend to shut the world off when I am in the kitchen, but hey….I’m happy and that is all that matters.

All of these recipes I pressure canned using 10lbs of weight for 25 minutes. My chicken cooked for 90 minutes. Be sure to visit my Canning page for more basics.