Back breaking Cooking

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping. I bought chopped meat and various vegetables. My uncle cooks every day depending on what he feels like havng. I cannot do that. I like to cook larger batches and freeze some. This way, I always have ready to eat food on hand.

Now that mom is on a no salt diet, I decided to cook a bunch of stuff.

I started  at 1 p.m. and finished by 5:15 p.m. My back is killing me. 

I wanted stuffed grape leaves but since they come in a brine, I stuffed Swiss Chard for mom and grape leaves for uncle and me. I also made some meat balls. Cooked leek in olive oil and sauteed chopped meat for some Mexican food for later.

I have processed all the meat I have purchased. I think, I will make navy beans and rice at some point during the week. I still have some celery heads to be cooked with carrots and potatoes. I am in no rush to cook them. They keep well.

Phew! Now I have to clean up the kitchen but, I need to rest a little. I will clean up after dinner or may be uncle will do it. Lol!

No salt diet is very difficult for mom. I marinated some boneless chicken thighs in a cup of tangerine juice and a mixture of lots of cumin, thyme, black pepper and unsalted garlic powder. She liked that very much so, I see myself making that in the future. She asked me where I got the recipe for the marinade. Ummm... Depths of my own brain I guess. I totally winged it and it worked. How can you go wrong with any marinade anyway?

I am going to see some friends this week and am looking forward to it.