COOL BEANS CHECK THIS OUT GUYS!

A beautiful piece of meat that’s got my name on it! Literally! (of course that’s not MY phone number on there, so unless you’re wanting to order some happy meat for yourself, don’t bother dialing it!)

How friggin’ cool is that?

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

After 4 long weeks of anxiously waiting for my happy meat to come in, my order finally got delivered last week.

The thing is, my meat had to age, you see… So I had to be patient!

But it’s finally here and I couldn’t be more thrilled with my purchase! There are, however, a few lessons that I have already learned for my next order.

But I’ll get back to this later.

For now, let’s take a detailed look at what a hindquarter of beef got me (that is the back half of a side of beef, so one quarter of a carcass)

Beef Inventory | Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

What lessons have I learned in so little time?

Well, for starters, I know that next time, I need to be a lot more specific about my expectations and what I really want.

I hadn’t specified when I placed my order that I wanted to keep the flank steaks, so they got thrown into the ground beef. Same goes for the tail! What a sacrilege!

But Guylaine, over at Viandes Rheintal, was kind enough to offer to send me the “missing” cuts of meat at no extra charge. Needless to say I was VERY appreciative of that gesture. Flank steak happens to be my ultimate favorite cut of meat (yes, I even prefer it to filet mignon) and so I was devastated that I wouldn’t get a chance to sample this delicacy in the supreme, happy version.

In case you are wondering, YES, there really is a major difference in taste and texture between the factory farmed stuff and the pastured meat. For real! I’d never imagined that ground beef could ever be this good!

In one week, my daughter and I have already gone through 2 packages of ground beef and 3 strip steaks!

Check this out: this was my very first happy steak! SPECTACULAR!

My First Happy Steak | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

And my very first Happy Hamburger Steak. This was just insanely good! Unfortunately, I didn’t even write the recipe down…

I’ll have to try and recreate it from memory, but this time, I’ll make sure to write it down.

My First Happy Hamburger Steak | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

The second lesson that I learned is that next time, I’ll probably have to actually go to the farm and sit down with them when I place my order. Or at the very least have a detailed chart in front of me.

I want to take the time to really look at the chart and make better informed decisions when it comes to choosing my cuts of meat. I want to really KNOW what my options are. All of them. I get the feeling that I’m missing out on some pretty good cuts this time around because I asked for mainly boneless.

Thirdly, I really need to make sure that I get as much as possible from my carcass, INCLUDING bones and fat.

I’m sure I could make very good use of all that.

But back to this particular order.

All in all, I got approximately 55 kg (125 pounds) of meat, which ended up costing me about $820, delivered right to my door.

Not bad at all when you think about it! That’s around $6.50/lb for top quality, organic, grass-fed, naturally raised, super happy beef.

Makes ME happy, too!

To give you an idea of what this all looks like in terms of volume, I took a bunch of pictures.

Happy Beef Still In Boxes | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

The order came in 3 boxes like these ones.

Happy Beef Still In Boxes | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

Three boxes, I said.

Uno, Dos, Tré. Um, sorry: Tres

Happy Beef Still In Boxes | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

One of them contained mainly roasts and steaks while another one was completely filled with ground beef.

Happy Beef Still In Boxes | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

The third one contained fondue meat, liver, bones, heat and um… tongue!

How’s about we empty those boxes and take a closer look at their contents?

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

Strip Steaks and Filet Mignons. That’s all of them.

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

All the roasts…

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

Fondue meat and beef liver…

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

A mountain of Lean Ground Beef

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

Bones, heart…

Happy Beef | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

And tongue, complete with certification stamp!

Happy Beef In Storage Containers | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

And that’s all of it right here.

Keeping track of all that meat can prove to be quite tricky, especially if this all lies randomly at the bottom of your freezer. So, I went and got me a few neat storage containers that happen to fit perfectly in my freezer.

Apparently, copy paper boxes also do a great job at storing frozen meat!

Happy Beef In Storage Containers | by Sonia! The Healthy FoodieSpeaking of freezer…

The one that I have is a 27″ (W) x 54″ (L) x 36″ (H) – 17.5 cubic foot chest freezer (courtesy of my mom THANKS MOM and thanks Ubald and Felix for helping with the move!)

Happy Beef In Freezer | by Sonia! The Healthy Foodie

As you can see, there’s still plenty of room! I would say that I only needed half the space to store all my meat.

Good thing, ‘cuz I’ll be needing the extra room for my half side of pork which I should be receiving tomorrow!

Of course, I’ll tell you all about that too!