Day 4: Veggie Crepes, Potato Tacos and Gyros

Saturday

Day 1: Shopping
Day 2: Chicken and Brisket
Day 3: Jambalaya and More Brisket
Day 4: Veggie Crepes, Potato Tacos and Gyros
Days 5 & 6: Veggie Crepes Continued and Thai Chicken
Day 7: Pierogi, Lentil Joes, and Black Bean Burgers
Final Days and Summary


12:30 - I get started with the veggie filling for the crepes by chopping the rest of the vegetables.

1:30 - The vegetables are all cut up, and I start cooking the filling.

2:00 - The filling is finished and set aside for later.  I stop to take a break for lunch and to do some cleaning.

3:20 - Starting on the potato chorizo tacos with cutting the potatoes.

3:40 - The potatoes are cooking, and I start chopping the onions.

4:10 - The taco filling is cooking.

4:35 - Taco filling is done and cooling.  It's time to make the gyros.

4:55 - The gyro meat is ready to shape.  Usually gyro meat is shaped into a loaf and cooked on a rotisserie.  I don't own a rotisserie, and loafs take a long time to thaw.  I've decided to make patties instead.  They thaw and cook faster and are easier to portion.  We'll see how they turn out in this form.

I've been interested in a Shape & Store for a while.  It's a silicone tray for shaping and storing burger patties.  Various patties are a staple of my summer cooking, and I though these might make shaping them faster and storing them easier.  I decided to time myself to see if this is true.

• Time to make 8 patties with Shape & Store: 3 minutes 20 seconds
• Time to make 8 patties by hand: 2 minutes 50 seconds

So it was slightly faster to make the patties by hand.  However, once I was done making the patties in the Shape & Store I put them in the freezer and was done.  The hand shaped patties needed to be frozen on a sheet tray then moved to a bag for storage.  I forgot to time this second part, but I'm sure it took longer than a minute, meaning the hand patties took longer.  The Shape & Store is also more space efficient and doesn't create trash.  They're expensive, but I will probably add more to my collection as time goes on.

5:10 - 18 gyro patties are in the freezer, and I work on vacuum sealing the rest of the chicken cutlets.

5:25 - All the cutlets are vacuum sealed and in the freezer, and I am done for the day.

Time Spent Today: 3 hours 35 minutes

Total time: 16 hours 20 minutes

Meals Finished Today: 9

Total Meals So Far: 39