I'm not sure how many of you get the TV channel QVC, it's probably mostly a US thing. If you do get it, there is a show that @mrsbozz and I frequently watch called "In the kitchen with David". They basically sell any manner of kitchen gadgets.

I thought it would be fun to implement the name of that show into the title of my post because I am also going to use a couple of kitchen gadgets.

In case you haven't been following me long, one of my favorite stores is actually the meat market. I love going to the local butcher and checking out all the fantastic things they have prepared or created for customers. @mrsbozz is not really a fan of the plethora of carnivore treats the meat market distributes.

In fact, she really only eats white meat chicken and turkey. I have slowly gotten her to start eating bacon and breakfast sausage, but she would never sit down to a steak, chicken wings, or a plate of ribs.

It isn't a moral decision on her part, she is fine with me eating all of that stuff, she just doesn't like the taste. She also takes issue with chicken that looks "scary". For example, small streaks of blood, fat, or skin is not something she wants to deal with. If she can get away without touching the chicken she is all the more happy.

I know I am probably painting a picture that she is a picky eater. That is actually not the case at all. She just avoids the things that more of us should probably be avoiding ourselves. Since we have been together I have significantly decreased my intake of pork and beef products. I feel that is part of the reason I have been able to maintain my weight(give or take 5 lbs) for the past ten years.

Anyway, now that I have explained all of that, this past weekend we made our monthly trip to the meat market. Usually I pick up three pounds of bacon and one ten pound bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts. Knowing we already had some bacon, this time I only got two pounds of it and I bought two ten pound bags of chicken breasts(more on that in a second).

I cut the bacon into small strips as shown in the opening picture and then we use our Food Saver to package it up into portions that are just right for the two of us. I think out of that 2 pounds of bacon we got three or four packages to put in the freezer.

This is what the bag of chicken breasts looks like. I have never really investigated the processing or horomone content of this chicken so even though we feel like we are eating healthier, we may not actually be. It is usually pretty clean though and I don't have to waste as much cutting away the "scary" parts.

When I cut the chicken up, I usually leave some as breasts that we can grill(shown at the top of the cutting board), some that we can boil and shred for Mexican dishes(like the enchiladas blancas we had this week), and chunk chicken we can use for any variety of recipes. We then food save all of them in two serving portions so @mrsbozz can just cut open the package and dump it in the pan. This helps her avoid having to touch the chicken.

There is another meat market down the road from us that sells ground chicken. We have been really impressed with the quality of the meat, but the price is kind of outlandish. The other day I remembered that my parents had an old meat grinder(shown above). I am not kidding when I say this thing is old. I can remember it from when I was a kid, so I think it might be older than me.

It was pretty easy to figure out we were going to be able to save a lot of money if we started grinding the chicken ourselves. Typically we would pay about $3 for a one pound package of ground chicken from the meat market. Since the ten pound bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts were only $15 on sale, we could cut our costs in half by grinding it ourselves.

I borrowed the grinder from my parents and last weekend we took it out for a spin. I think if we are happy with the way this turns out we will probably buy the grinder attachment for the Kitchenaid stand mixer you see in the background. That mixer is probably one of our most used wedding presents. I have seen online that people grind their own chicken with a food processor, but I am not sure how I would feel about that. It seems like it would be messier to me.

I was able to determine that one half breast was just under one pound of chicken. I quickly got to work running several of them through the grinder. @mrsbozz only had me do a handful of the breasts until we get a chance to try it and see if we are okay with the consistency and taste. If we enjoy it, we will probably be grinding the majority of our chicken from here on out.

It actually didn't come out and stringy as I thought it would. I am not sure if I cut the pieces too small or if it is because there isn't really a ton of fat to bind it all together. I like the way it looks though and I look forward to trying it within the next week or so.

After all of the chicken and bacon is cut and packaged, we put it on a sheet tray and I take it out to the garage to put it in our chest freezer. We have found in the past that we usually go through about ten pounds of chicken per month. Everything on this sheet tray plus what we put in the fridge for her Sunday meal prep should get us through the next two months. The bacon is hidden underneath and the ground chicken is laying on top of the chunk chicken.

It took me a good hour to get through all of the bacon and chicken, but it was totally worth it for the cost savings and the piece of mind it gives @mrsbozz that she doesn't have to deal with "scary" chicken.

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