Cheese Prep & Mint Plants

When we went grocery shopping on Thursday, we also hit Trader Joes. They have better snacks and frozen ready-made foods with less ingredients I question, and for a pretty good price.

I bought a mint plant because my teeny tiny mint is barely there, and I planted it in the 2 foot planter with my mint seedlings. Mint is generally a contagious plant that overtakes everything, so I am hoping either the seedlings or the plant overtake that planter.

I also got on with the cheese prep. I had a 5 pound Costco log of sharp cheddar and another 5 pounds of pepper jack, and a couple frozen squares of similar items from last time we went to Costco that needed shredded.

That flat of peaches in the back is for my wife. She’s making peach cobbler this weekend, and she will make it all into cobbler filling, and will freeze any she doesn’t immediately use.

I use a kitchenmaid attachment I bought off Amazon for shredding. I don’t have a food processor. I have a Ninja blender food processor bowl, but it doesn’t have a shredder or slicer attachment. I absolutely will NOT shred this much cheese with a box grater, so this was a good solution for under $30.

My original plan, 6 months ago, was to cut it into squares, then shred it once it was thawed, however, while it does work, it’s not my favorite. You can see the texture difference below. The big bowl on the left is fresh grated cheese, but the small Tupperware is the stuff I froze, then grated after thawing. It still uses the same, but I think it impacts my nacho game with how it melts.

I ended up with a lot of cheese.

I started doing this because the cost of cheese was insultingly high, but then I discovered that the cheese I was buying in the grocery store proper wasn’t as good. The sharp cheddar wasn’t as sharp, and the pepper jack was just bland as hell.

Don’t even get me started on the pre-shredded cheese. It’s just wrong. Like it doesn’t melt right, and tastes, I dunno? Dusty? Because of the anti clumping agents. It was just crap.

I did a quick cost analysis. If I paid Fred Meyers prices for the Sharp Cheddar? I’d have paid $39.95. I’d have paid $22.48 for the Pepper Jack. I did not take into account the Ziplock bags. That would add a few cents per package.

While that is not a lot over the course of 4-6 months in differences, it’s still aggravating. Especially for a product that tastes worse. Plus I can buy it once, pack my freezer, and not have to go back to the store or pay MORE when the corporate grocery pricing fiasco reduces the size of the package to give me less for the same price.

I think my next step will be a vacuum sealer. That will definitely help prolong the life of my food, and I suspect if I get one, I can buy the bags in bulk, reducing prices.