Kevin's Coronovirus Quarantine Casserole

[Kevin B.]

So we're getting a little low on fresh food. We'll make it a couple more days before going to the store, but this is what happens when you start to dip into the food storage. Mmm, tastes like poverty.

Kevin's Coronovirus Quarantine Casserole.

2 pounds of ground beef
16 oz package of elbow macaroni
1 small to medium onion, diced
A couple smashes of garlic
2 cans of diced tomatoes
~ 2 cups of some kinda random velveeta-looking "cheese" left over from the last time your wife had a hankering for fake queso dip.
1 cup of the nacho-sliced pickled jalepenos that have been hiding in the back of the fridge for too long.
All the mustard you have. All of it.

Browned the ground beef with the onion and garlic, cooked the macaroni al dente, combined it all in the slow cooker and let it chooch until it was hot and gooey. I used the last couple squirts from a bottle of generic Winco "hot and spicy" mustard and then just dumped Dijon in until it tasted right, maybe used 3/4th of a cup? But yellow or spicy brown or whatever you've got will probably work.

 

[nnnnnate]

You didn't suggest that it tasted good or was even acceptable. I can't assume that it was either based on my refined pallet and the ingredient list.

At some point I'll have to post my recipe for "Nnnnnates Coronavirus Contaminated Feast Fest." I can assure you it is both good and acceptable in every sense. Or it will be and it will be based on what I was buying at the store to eat when I was infected.

 

[Kevin B.]

You didn't suggest that it tasted good or was even acceptable. I can't assume that it was either based on my refined pallet and the ingredient list.

At some point I'll have to post my recipe for "Nnnnnates Coronavirus Contaminated Feast Fest." I can assure you it is both good and acceptable in every sense. Or it will be and it will be based on what I was buying at the store to eat when I was infected.

Your hifalutin' "pallet" might not like it but I thought it was tasty. Post your silly store-bought junk and we'll let The People decide.

"When you were infected"? Did you get the 'Rona?

 

[nnnnnate]

No, not yet at least. Seems like I've been making store runs every 3 days or so.

I've (we've) never been too great at shopping for a week or two. Its always been me figuring out what I want to make (or not make) while I was on my way home from work then I'd figure out what I needed or didn't need and go from there. Because of that I'd end up at the grocery store for a quick run 3 or 4 times a week. Its something that I recognize I need to do better at but its been a struggle. On Saturday I made a "dinner" list and bought everything I needed to make meals for the week. As embarrassing as it is I'm 1 for 3 so far for those meals. These aren't super hard or time consuming meal either.

 

[Stephen]

No, not yet at least. Seems like I've been making store runs every 3 days or so.

NnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnNnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnNnnnate, I feel you. We have a pretty good amount of food storage at this point, three weeks or so of fresh/refrigerated/frozen food, two weeks of canned, then we'd be dipping into the reserves and finally MRE's, high calorie bars, and the neighbors dogs.

But, my wife and I love to cook and bake (we'll probably be packing on the quarantine 15!) so we seem to be at the store every couple of days buying ingredients for the next meal that one of us wants to try. We have started walking the two miles to the store, though!

 

[Kevin B.]

As embarrassing as it is I'm 1 for 3 so far for those meals.

That's a good start though. We'd normally meal plan for a week and then actually get maybe 4 out of 7? Doing a little better now, but I still get up around midnight and catch the wife trying to hide the fast food wrappers because she "forgot" to cook dinner for the boys.

 

[nnnnnate]

I was actually going to ask about this because I was thinking about it on Saturday after buying a bunch of meat from Stans. (Small grocery store in Kearns with a great meat counter.)

Background:
I have a thing against freezing meat. I don't know where it comes from but as an adult its kind of always been there. I guess I'm okay freezing a half pound of hamburger with a half pound of sausage together for spaghetti but if I'm going to cook it on the grill I'm not that hip to buying a whole mess of it and freezing it for later. I think thats partially why I've struggled to plan meals for a week or two at a time. It also means I don't necessarily watch prices either, I buy what I've decided to make because thats what I want. I just remember my mom pulling out the hamburger pucks from the freezer and despite them looking like a hamburger they didn't actually taste.....like anything.

So, how do I freeze that second tri-tip I bought on Saturday so I can thaw it out in a week and have it taste just as good as before? Is it as simple as throwing it in a freezer ziplock and not forgetting it in the bottom of the freezer? Is the important part thawing it a certain way? I'll take any guidance I can get about it.

 

[Spork]

I throw it in a freezer ziplock and then stick it in the fridge the day before you want to use it. Until I got married I thought all meat was frozen first.

 

[Stephen]

So, how do I freeze that second tri-tip I bought on Saturday so I can thaw it out in a week and have it taste just as good as before? Is it as simple as throwing it in a freezer ziplock and not forgetting it in the bottom of the freezer? Is the important part thawing it a certain way? I'll take any guidance I can get about it.

That's about it. Like Spork said, try to throw it in the fridge for a day before you want to use it. If its still pretty solid, I'll usually fill my sink with hot tap water and stick the bag with the meat in there to completely thaw it. I don't like thawing meat in the microwave, because I feel like that starts to cook it and that's no bueno.

 

[moab_cj5]

When it comes to defrosting meat, I have used all the method mentioned so far. I will also leave a frozen piece of meat on the counter for an hour or so too from time to time. We usually go with the fridge method though.

Sometimes, if what I plan to cook is still frozen in the middle but soft on the outside, I will throw it on the grill or smoker and just cook from slightly frozen. It is easier on the smoker because the indirect heat won't burn the outside the way a grill can. If cooking from slightly frozen, it takes longer and you have to watch to make sure the outside isn't well done while the middle is raw.

We usually buy a bunch of meat and freeze it, that way we have food storage. I would say it tastes about the same to me as fresh. Meat probably doesn't stay in our freezer more than a couple of months though (the exception is turkey, I have kept them in there for several months). It allows us to load up on our favorite steaks when they go on sale. It does take at least a day ahead planning though to defrost said entree. We either freeze it in the original packaging, or separate it into freezer ziplock bags.

 

[mesha]

@Kevin B. 2 lbs of ground beef doesn’t taste much like poverty. 😝

 

[Kevin B.]

@Kevin B. 2 lbs of ground beef doesn’t taste much like poverty. 😝

Would you prefer ground rat?

It sure as hell doesn't taste like the tasty tbone I'm thawing for tonight.

 

[Stephen]

I had a chef friend of mine tell me once that freezing meat is actually a way to tenderize it slightly. I don't know how true that is, but he's an executive chef and made the best steaks I've ever had so I buy it!

 

[Tonkaman]

I haven’t been to a grocery store is a few weeks. In fact I haven’t been to a grocery store since before this mayhem hit the shelves! I have ordered groceries twice through amazon to replenish fresh foods like bread and fruit, but otherwise just whittling down our reserves.

Honestly I’m scared to go to the store. I’ve been isolated for 8 weeks now

 

[Kevin B.]

I haven’t been to a grocery store is a few weeks. In fact I haven’t been to a grocery store since before this mayhem hit the shelves! I have ordered groceries twice through amazon to replenish fresh foods like bread and fruit, but otherwise just whittling down our reserves.

Honestly I’m scared to go to the store. I’ve been isolated for 8 weeks now

Have you tried using curb pickup from Smiths or Target or whatever yet? I haven't, but I'm thinking about giving it a go.

 

[Tonkaman]

I haven’t yet but it sounds like smiths is having a hard time filling orders. The problem seems to be that they don’t track building stock on the website so it shows everything available in all quantities.

 

[Spork]

My wife did the curb pickup from Smiths a few weeks back when this all started, ordered like $160 worth of stuff and they said they were out of most of it so we ended up with $20 worth of groceries. I guess they only pick about 3 hours before you show up so it's not like they put you at the beginning of the line or anything and possibly worse position than if you just went in at a random time.

 

[DesertRam]

A couple years ago the wife switched to the Wal-Mart pickup plan for groceries. It has saved me considerable time spent wasted inside a store. We have just kept it up during "social distancing" and now NM's stay home instruction. We typically shop for two weeks. Last Friday was our most recent pick up event. We had over 100 items on the list. Most were available or had reasonable substitutions. No TP, paper towels, and a couple other items. The biggest issue was scheduling a pickup time. Usually we order in the morning and pick up in the afternoon. Now we have to wait a full day, sometimes two, to schedule our pickup time. Use of this service seems to have dramatically increased, but Wal-Mart mostly appears to have it under control.

 

[spaggyroe]

Food...??

Uhmm.. you mean we were supposed to spend our paychecks on more than just toilet paper...??

Uhh.. I'll be back in a while...

 

[Kevin B.]

I haven’t yet but it sounds like smiths is having a hard time filling orders. The problem seems to be that they don’t track building stock on the website so it shows everything available in all quantities.

So we ordered from Smith's in Magna today. Curbside pickup would have been Friday, but delivery took two hours. I guess the difference is they use their own employees to get the pickup orders ready, but use one of these other contractor companies (Door Dash? Grub Hub? I forget which) for the deliveries. Cost an extra $10 to have somebody else go to the store for us.