I hate meat. I have nothing against eating animals, I just find it gross. I don't like the taste of red meat, either. Raw meat disgusts me, and meat on the bone is almost as bad. It has always been hard for me to handle, and I have done everything in my power to avoid dealing with it.
In my attempt to feed my family healthy, whole food on a budget, I finally took some advice from my cousin and bought a couple chickens to cook in the crock pot to shred for multiple meals. I was actually kind of excited about the whole thing until I actually bought the chickens and got them home. My old squeamish ways quickly returned, and I shoved them in the fridge and wanted to forget they existed. I couldn't waste that money though, and I couldn't disappoint my husband who has been looking forward to the good meat. So, tonight I took the leap. Mostly. I still made my husband take out the insides to toss them since I refuse to make gravy out of them (seriously, I HATE gravy...) and stick it in the crock pot. Totally used the excuse I had a migraine. (I really did, but I *probably* could have dealt with it long enough)
The time came to take it out, in fact, I think I left it in a tad long. I went in the kitchen and looked at it, and tried to think of a way to justify putting off dealing with it until later, but alas, I knew what had to be done, despite it being almost 11pm. I took it out, almost dropping it, set it on the cutting board, and took a deep breath. When it actually came down to it, it wasn't so bad. I stood there a good 25 minutes pulling every usable scrap off the bones, also separating out the skin and fat and setting it aside for the cats. I even saved the broth, putting it in the freezer to make soup with later. When I was done, I was very satisfied with what was in front of me, and I actually picked up the skin and fat in my bare hands, caring it across the house to put it in the cat dish. Charlotte was ungrateful and tried to use the chance to run out of the bathroom where they are currently sleeping at night, but Maxine was sniffing the air before I had the light on.
I will have to go back and further break up some of the pieces (read that as most), as it was so hot I already burnt the tips of my pointer fingers badly enough that they still hurt 45 minutes later, so it was just too hot to break into small enough pieces. It feels really good knowing I have a whole chicken worth of meat ready to shred smaller and stick in several meals, a start on the broth for our chicken noodle soup next week (even after the second chicken, I am sure I will need some canned stuff, I think next time I will wait until I have cooked 4-6 chickens before putting soup on the menu), and a feast for my kitties, all that for less than $5, as it was a little over $9 for both chickens. Oh, and did I mention that I did all this for the first time while PREGNANT? Never thought I'd finally overcome my disgust of touching meat while pregnant, when the feeling is stronger than ever.
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