Where's the Beef????

[arbilab]

Where's the beef?  Didn't Wendy's use to ask that? 

Now YOU can ask THEM.  One out of 5 will say "we don't have any".

 

Eddie:  I dunno why they call this hamburger helper, it does just fine by itself.

I like it better than tuna helper, don't you Clark?

Clark:  You're the gourmet around here Ed.

Clark:  No meat in this?

Ellen:  You get plenty of meat at home.  Be polite, have some ketchup.

Clark:  Real tomato ketchup Ed?

Ed:  Oh nothing but the best.

 

Kroger on the other hand, had beef in both the service counter and prepack case.  They were however, low on 

Marie Callender frozen entrees, which come from ConAgra, the 'food' version of WCI.

 

[toploader55]

"ConAgra, the 'food' version of WCI.".

Very well put Rick...

 

[arbilab]

Thanks Eddie.  I thought that might be good for a snicker.  True too.

 

I can scratch-cook many of my favorites but it's a disproportionate amount of work/time for one serving so I fall back on frozen maybe 1/3 of the time.  The frozen dinner market is in a pretty sorry state.  Like the present appliance business, too much middle-management meddling, pricepoint and cost reduction emphasis.  Throw in seasoning abuse (mainly sodium) and shelflife chemistry and there's not a whole lot of tolerable choices left.  Watery mashed potatoes?  Come OOONNN.  What's the excuse for THAT?

 

[mattl]

I cook fresh all the time, can't recall last time I bought prepared food.  What I do is make enough for 2 or 3 meals, then just reheat. All except stuff I grill or that only takes a few minutes in the pan.

 

If I do chicken or chicken pieces I generally get 3 meals out of that sides and all- except veg's cook those fresh.  What truly drives me crazy are folks like a cousin of mine, she will grill 4 or 5 steaks at a time and just reheat, yuck!  Turn the damn grill on each time, it's a great waste to eat a rubbery reheated grilled steak.

 

[toploader55]

Yes Rick...

The premade market is very scary. God only knows what ConAgra and other "WCI" food manufacturers have up their sleeves during this Orwellian Nightmare.

There is that old saying... "If you can't pronounce it, it should not be in your pantry or on your plate".

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'm thinking that the virus is going to cause shortages all over so if you have space to store it and money to buy it, you won't be sorry you bought it. I buy a lot of frozen Tilapia loins at Costco so I have stocked up on those.   Oatmeal, too.  I process it in the Cuisinart for about 5 minutes to  make oat flour for smoothies. Even though eggs are restricted to two dozen per visit, I have amassed a lot of them, currently 7 dozen, but I eat a lot of them. I might die of the virus, but I won't starve. 

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

My local Wendy's had a notice posted at the drive through that due to supply issues, some items on the menu may not be available. They had burgers when I ordered. I guess I was lucky.

 

[xraytech]

Meat is short around here, most stores have a limit of 2 packs of beef, and 2 packs of chicken.

I have 5 roasts, 12 lb of stew beef, and 20 lb of ground beef in the freezer.
I placed an order at a local farm so I’ll get 2 more roasts and 12 lb ground beef tomorrow.

I have no chicken at home, I ordered chicken direct from Perdue almost 6 weeks ago, it hasn’t shipped yet, hopefully soon. I have a coupon for their website do I should place another order now.

I don’t use much pork, but before this started I stocked up on bacon, sage sausage, and ground pork.

I have been wanting ham steaks and haven’t been able to find any

 

[frigilux]

The Hy-Vee line of grocery stores (mostly upper midwest) has implemented limits of 4 packages of meat per customer.

 

An experiment:  Ordered 10 plain hamburgers (no pickles, condiments, etc) at McDonald's drive-thru. Put them in a jumbo ZipLoc bag and then into the freezer.  White Castle sells boxes of their burgers frozen that microwave well, so thought this would be a cheap way to mimic that.  If so, may just get another 10 and be stocked with burgers for awhile.

 

[vacerator]

Beef here is a bit light in supply.

No strip steaks at the marker yesterday. Got a nice Hen instead to stuff with sourdough, crimini's, a bit of Italian sausage, celery, onion sauted in butter with poultry seasoning, sage, and herbs provence.

 

[DADoES]

 
@ WM this morning, last visit was 3/22.  Found everything I wanted.  Meat very sparse, most of the cooler empty.  There was small supply of 90/10 and 85/15 ground beef 1# rolls.  I got three 85/15s.  No signs advising of quantity limits.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Aldi's yesterday, meat secion looked stocked, though chicken was a bit low.

 

Tried the Impossible Whopper.  I ordered a "2 for $6" and got the Whopper and a Crispy Chicken sandwiche. I don't know which one I like better.

 

They were both good.  I haven't ordered a full size Whopper in probably 20 years nor have I had a BurgerKing Chicken sandwich , ever.  If I go to BK it's usually for a small onion ring and a jr. whopper or regular hamburger.  

 

Since it's vegan, I would order it again even though it's more expensive than a jr. hamburger from either BD, McD, or Wendys.

 

 

 

 

[perc-o-prince]

Freezer's pretty-well stocked here. Meals for 2:

3 steak
4 chicken thigh
4 chicken breast
3 pork chop
2 already cooked ham pieces
1 already cooked turkey pieces
1 already cooked pork roast slices
3 corned beef hash
3 chicken wing
1 Trader Joe's Mandarin chicken
1 cheese + mushroom + spinach ravioli
1 lobster ravioli
2 polish sausage

Add to that a dozen Italian sausages, at least a dozen 1/4# burgers, 3-4 pks bacon, 4 pks breakfast sausage, 3 corned beef briskets, 6 pints Concord grape juice (because we have the vines), various single servings of meat for me while Rich has his weekday meals, various frozen veggies and fruits... I guarantee if I go look there's more I'm forgetting about.

Now I just need to take a day where I can set up a big table, pull everything out and organize it so I know exactly what's in there. BTW, this is pretty much the level I would regularly have in there so none of it is CV driven. I'll be judicious about adding more meat, but when I see a sale I'll grab some same as always. Thank goodness for the vac-n-seal!

One thing in noticeably short supply in the freezer is spaghetti sauce (0). We've been eating a more simple "fresh" sauce recently when we want pasta. Sweat garlic in EVOO, add a can of diced tomatoes and oregano/basil/whatever, and mash a bit with a potato masher. If I see a pork shoulder or butt on sale, I'll grab it to strip it for ground pork then throw the bone and some other meat/bones in the slo-cooker with tomato products and seasonings for a heartier sauce to freeze.

Hope supplies level out for meat and everything else!

Chuck

 

[jamiel]

I need to drag everything out, defrost the deep freeze then reorganize and edit. I've got a small Woods upright from about 15 years ago (maybe 7-8 cuft) which needs defrosting. Right now we've got a bunch of frozen pizzas in there (the ones from the Italian vendor available at Aldi/TJ/Target are really good) but I'm not sure what all else...steamed some tamales which Brian's bought a couple years ago at the farmers' market for dinner last night.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Maybe make a complete list and put it on the door with a pencil or pen nearby so you can easily cross off when you take something out.  Also, you can look at the list and easily see what you have without having to put on gloves and shuffle through everything with the door open losing cold.