Archives for February 2013

Have you heard of Zaycon Foods?

My mom introduced me to this company a couple of years ago & I am thankful!

They bring fresh meat straight from the farm to the consumer at low prices.

The chicken is absolutely delicious – fresh boneless, skinless breasts with no added hormones, additives, or artificial ingredients. It is also missing that funky raw-chicken smell that usually accompanies packages from the store.

It is so tender and juicy that no knife is required. We ran out once and my husband immediately noticed when I served  grocery store chicken.

The best part? It is only $1.89 a lb!! Note that it is a bulk purchase, but you can easily split with another family. There are several other foods available too, like lean ground beef, premium bacon, salmon, and old fashioned ham.

Here’s how it works:

• Sign up for  Zaycon email notifications
• You will receive an email when there is a food event in your area
• Place your order & pay online – act quickly because they sell out
• Print out your receipt to take with you for pick up
• You will get a reminder email a few days before the event – don’t forget because it is only on one day for a couple of hours!
• Pick up is soooo easy! My event is in a church parking lot. I drive up, tell them my name & (maybe) show my receipt, and they load my purchase into my van after thoughtfully laying down a plastic sheet. It takes less than a minute.

I thought you might like to see what an order of chicken looks like, and how I get it ready for the freezer. My photography skills are almost non-existent,
but maybe you can figure it out. 🙂

Supplies:

• cutting board
• sharp knife
• freezer bags
• Ziploc Perfect Portions Bags (optional)

Your 40 lbs. of chicken will come in a heavy-duty, wax-coated box.

I like to set up an assembly line in this order –> box of chicken, cutting board, freezer bags (opened w/top folded down), box lid (for holding filled bags)

The chicken is in 3-4 smaller bags, inside of one large sealed bag. The breasts are butterflied & have a small amount of fat that needs to be trimmed.

It is tempting to just start dividing up whole breasts and tossing bags into the freezer, but I know that I would regret that later. 30-45 minutes is all it takes to trim the fat and cut up the meat. I leave mine big so I can use them however
I want, but you could go ahead and cut them into tenders or nuggets.
Be sure to label!

There are always little bits & pieces mixed in with the fat sections that can be cut off and saved. I toss them all into a small freezer bag and use them in chicken pot pie, casseroles, soup, or Chinese food.

*Optional* I recently discovered these Ziploc Perfect Portions Bags. They are perfect for those of you who are squeamish about raw chicken. You put your hand inside, pick up your chicken, and turn the bag inside out. I use them because my chicken doesn’t freeze together in one huge lump, allowing me to take out just one portion if I want. (I didn’t use these in the pictures.)

My (not so) hard work usually results in 12-15 bags of chicken. I am feeding a family of 7, so you might have several more bags if you have a smaller family.

After all my bags are filled, I fold each one over, squeeze out the air, and seal.

I store these in my deep freeze in one of two ways: piled in the box lid,  or in two plastic baskets that I got at the dollar store.

Don’t forget about dinner after all that work!! My gang would not be happy if we had all that yumminess & didn’t eat it right away.
I usually marinate some chicken in Italian dressing and toss it on the grill.

So there you go, an easy and inexpensive way to serve your family healthy food!

Since you will want to share about this food with everyone once you taste it, Zaycon has a referral program. You will earn a $1 credit each time your friend makes a purchase if they first sign up through your link.

*I am not affiliated with Zaycon Foods in any way other than being a very satisfied customer. This post contains my referral link –
I hope you love them as much as we do!!