I get this. But in your world, when do you do the preparation of the meals you put in the vacuum bags? It that when you bring in the groceries from the store/supplier? Then how do you keep it all organized in the freezer or fridge or wherever you stash several days' (or weeks) menu plans.
I portion out meals and put 'em in the fridge, but they have a way of getting lost in the freezer. I'll get a hankering for something I know is in there, but what I want is invariably buried under the bags of Costco fruit, or the wife's baking nuts, or boxes of butter. Do you label them in the vacuum bags or what? Obviously you put the sauces/seasonings in the bag with the protein. But doesn't this take significant time unless you build up some kind of assembly line.
Let's take chicken quarters, mashed potatoes and a side vegetable. The most basic of basic meals. Here's what I do:
1) Inject chicken with a marinade and seal immediately. That chicken is fully marinated in less than an hour, thanks to the vacuum pressure. Either leave in the fridge or toss in the freezer for later -- labeled and dated with a sharpie. Because I don't put ANYTHING in a bag that isn't labeled and dated with a sharpie. (Stickers aren't as good -- they fall off.)
2) Peel, boil, rice, cool and bag potatoes with frozen butter pats, seasoning, and a big glob of frozen cream I save from my wife's raw milk. We always have a pound of cream globs on hand from my wife's milk. (I don't drink American milk. Tastes like chalk. Even my wife's milk pales in comparison to what I got in Germany.) Now the potatoes are 100% done, too. I *always* have mashed potatoes on hand. When I run low, I buy a bag of russets at Costco.
3) Dice, season, and bag veg with a pat of frozen butter. Now that's done, too.
"Cooking" consists of boiling a pot of water. Adding that to my sous-vide bath with tap water, about 30 degrees higher than my target temperature to account for the cold bags. And then tossing the bags in. Done. Leave. Work. Watch TV. Run errands. Doesn't matter. Open bags and flash sautee/broil as necessary to finish. I can start this while I'm making morning coffee and finish up after work.
Half the food at chain restaurants are made in central commisaries, and kept frozen until needed. And then it's sous vide, and nobody knows the difference. This is food that is assembled, not cooked. It's a step up from National Lampoon's Vacation -- there the "grilled cod with a light vegetable medley and rice pilaf" was just a TV dinner, nicely plated.
Sous-vide allows good restaurants to elevate their game, and gives cheap restaurants a means to lower theirs. There is very little actual cooking going on at a Darden restaurant.
In addition the potatoes and bags of veg and marinated meat, I always have avocado pulp in the freezer. Guacamole doesn't freeze well. But just avocado pulp DOES. Now I don't have to worry about the feast-or-famine nature of avocado harvest at the farm.
Tomatoes, I puree, cook down, and can (well, Mason jar).
Onions, I caramelize and bag. Now I have French onion soup whenever I accumulate enough bones.
Life in Hawaii isn't particularly expensive. This is why.
