I canned 34 pints of chicken tenders last night. Today, with the kids' help, I was able to de-fat 40 lbs of chicken breast and prep it to be vacuumed sealed and frozen. That was 10 packages. I was so proud of the kids. Robbie and Lucy to be exact. They both learned how to work the Food Saver and make and seal up the bags of chicken. They also helped with the actual de-fatting and used sharp knives. I didn't look at them very often because their knife skills are VERY scary and I was scared they were going to lose a digit. We all survived.
Defatting the chicken thighs took what seemed like forever. So little meat and so much fat. So, with all the fat and scraps of chicken I'm now learning how to render chicken fat into schmaltz. I'm saving most of the thigh meat to turn into freezer meals. Preparedness never ends.
So, it's been nice to be useful and productive again. I've missed it having been so sick with this little baby. I'm grateful that I'm feeling well enough to do some more canning and preserving. I just had to take more breaks than usual.
I did very much enjoy spending time with my kids though. We had a bit of an anatomy lesson while doing the chicken breasts. :) Very funny. Glad that I homeschool for those memories right there.
UPDATE: My final tally for the chicken was--47 canned chicken, 18 frozen chicken (approx 4lbs in each), 6 freezer meals, 6 quarts of broth, 2 pints of rendered fat (schmaltz), cooked chicken scrap for my neighbor's dogs. I'm still recovering two days later, but I feel that I definitely added to our family's storage which was the ultimate goal.
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