Oh wow this thread is fantastic! My first post and this is right up my alley.
So a few suggestions for everyone!
Typically you put olive oil in a bag with your meat to help the meat keep it's shape. It helps prevent those wrinkles from the bags. Also if you put something like rosemary in it it should help that flavor infuse with the meat.
My second suggestion for you to is to pre-sear your raw meat before tossing it into your vacuum bag. You may think this bizarre but take a moment to think it through with me here. When you sear first you are causing the outside of the meat to go through the
maillard reaction, which is the browning and the tastyness that you get when you finish it on a hot pan. When you sear first, you are letting the meat marinate in the maillard flavor for the entire duration of the cook, and since it is in a vacuum that flavor is also drawn deeper into the meat as well. Try it out next time!
Third suggestion is, if you are like me you are cooking this way a lot! and that means that you'll be going through a ton of vacuum sealer bags. I found a discount buyer's club for bags and rolls, you may want to sign up and stock up like I do when I get sale notifications. The site is
here. I found out about it when I was reading about different vacuum sealers when trying to figure out which one to buy.
Jo, all your pictures made me flood my house with drool. Damn you! All that food looks so good.