Food for thought; thoughts on food
A co-worker told me about a news segment about a guy (one of the new station's employees, Sean Callebs) that is trying to live off of one month's allotment of food stamps for the average person in his area. Click here to visit the blog. I did some quick research and read his blog. A lot less aggrevating than the $1 Dollar a Day Project people. Also a bit more inspiring in a good way. The comments were an interesting read too, both good and bad. The good ones were full of tips and motivation. The bad ones showed just how much of a sense of "entitlement" some people have and how they don't understand why other people get upset that they are buying things like lobster and instant foods and such instead of buying more frugally. (Uhm... because we are paying for your food?!? Because some of us can't afford to buy that stuff as regularly as you are trying to believe, if at all??? Duh????)
I'm a bit more motivated for my personal goal of spending as little on food as I can while getting enough nutrition to remain healthy (especially while breast feeding) and with enough variety to stay interested. I've been prepping to do this anyways... though not prepping as hard as I could have been. I'm also figuring out what budgets I want to try to shoot for in various categories, which would include: food, gas, personal allowance, etc.
A week ago, I bought a huge bag of chicken leg quarters for $0.49 a pound. That's an excellent price for this area. The brand was known by me, so it was like just buying bulk. The quality, however, was wanting. I knew I'd probably debone most of the chicken, but the experience nearly left me not wanting to ever eat chicken again. The reason is that the quarters were, well... not just quarters. A number had a good part of the spine and beyond attached. Some had broken bones which left me wondering if the breaks happened before or after the chicken was dead. (I'm sure it was after, but it still wasn't a pleasant thought and was pretty icky trying to debone.) At the time, I was a little put off, and still I'm debating if an extra $0.10 per pound would be worth the convenience of "prettier" legs. Hm. I'm back and forth about it.
Regardless, I definitely got my money's worth out of it. We cut the boned meat into smaller pieces (though I cut a number of big pieces, just in case we wanted something like a cutlet) and have used it in a number of different dishes (including our current huge batch of tandoori chicken saag). We also have some skinned quarters that I separated the thighs from the drumsticks that we have frozen in the freezer. The bones were immediately tossed into the crock pot, covered with water, and cooked for a very long time to get a super flavorful broth. All in all, it's hard to beat $0.49 a pound, especially with so little waste. I can't help but wonder if I could have done something with the skins...
Talking about chicken, we also got a whole chicken at a very good price (with gizzards for JB to make into a gravy). JB brined it (which he loves doing with turkeys), roasted it, and we ate it with roasted veggies (cooked separate from the chicken), and homemade buffalo mashed potatoes. The next day, JB removed as much meat as he could, leaving the bones for me to pick through. So... I took some of the broth I made from the leg quarters (skimming off the layer of solidified fat on the top before use), put some in a pot with some water, and picked through the carcass as the broth heated and reduced. I did a thorough job of getting the little remaining bits of meat off the chicken bones and got about 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of meat bits. I tossed those in as well as some sliced carrots, sliced celery, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. Once the veggies were tender, we ate.
That was the best chicken soup I ever had! So flavorful and the best part is that it was pretty much free... mostly made of stuff that people would usually toss out (even the celery and carrots were a bit old... not bad, just old).
So... I'm trying to figure out our menu for this week. Right now, we are aiming for $50 for the week. (That's $25 a person.) If I don't reach this goal, that's fine. I'm just starting out and I don't want to be too hard on myself. Also, keep in mind that NJ is expensive to live in. Down in MD, my ex and I aimed for $50 a week and it was much easier to meet... but that was well before the recession and the cost of food in that area was nearly half of what it is here in many cases. Still, I have faith I can do this. I have a partner that is much more supportive and frugal and actually enjoys doing this sort of thing (and cooking and actually helps out around the house and with the baby). My cooking skills have progressed and my culinary knowledge has expanded. Even though I was fairly frugal before (I was raised with the notion that stretching dollars is a good thing), I'm a lot more frugal now.
So we'll see how it goes. For now, I'd like to hope that $50 a week is doable and might actually cut down on waste. Our goal to avoid cornsyrup (and high fructose corn syrup) will only help, I think. After living with dietary restrictions anyways, a few more that actually cut out junk that isn't good for us isn't that intimidating. (And it's amazing what corn syrup is and isn't in.)
That said, time to continue reading some of the articles I found on Sean Callebs' blog.
I'm a bit more motivated for my personal goal of spending as little on food as I can while getting enough nutrition to remain healthy (especially while breast feeding) and with enough variety to stay interested. I've been prepping to do this anyways... though not prepping as hard as I could have been. I'm also figuring out what budgets I want to try to shoot for in various categories, which would include: food, gas, personal allowance, etc.
A week ago, I bought a huge bag of chicken leg quarters for $0.49 a pound. That's an excellent price for this area. The brand was known by me, so it was like just buying bulk. The quality, however, was wanting. I knew I'd probably debone most of the chicken, but the experience nearly left me not wanting to ever eat chicken again. The reason is that the quarters were, well... not just quarters. A number had a good part of the spine and beyond attached. Some had broken bones which left me wondering if the breaks happened before or after the chicken was dead. (I'm sure it was after, but it still wasn't a pleasant thought and was pretty icky trying to debone.) At the time, I was a little put off, and still I'm debating if an extra $0.10 per pound would be worth the convenience of "prettier" legs. Hm. I'm back and forth about it.
Regardless, I definitely got my money's worth out of it. We cut the boned meat into smaller pieces (though I cut a number of big pieces, just in case we wanted something like a cutlet) and have used it in a number of different dishes (including our current huge batch of tandoori chicken saag). We also have some skinned quarters that I separated the thighs from the drumsticks that we have frozen in the freezer. The bones were immediately tossed into the crock pot, covered with water, and cooked for a very long time to get a super flavorful broth. All in all, it's hard to beat $0.49 a pound, especially with so little waste. I can't help but wonder if I could have done something with the skins...
Talking about chicken, we also got a whole chicken at a very good price (with gizzards for JB to make into a gravy). JB brined it (which he loves doing with turkeys), roasted it, and we ate it with roasted veggies (cooked separate from the chicken), and homemade buffalo mashed potatoes. The next day, JB removed as much meat as he could, leaving the bones for me to pick through. So... I took some of the broth I made from the leg quarters (skimming off the layer of solidified fat on the top before use), put some in a pot with some water, and picked through the carcass as the broth heated and reduced. I did a thorough job of getting the little remaining bits of meat off the chicken bones and got about 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of meat bits. I tossed those in as well as some sliced carrots, sliced celery, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. Once the veggies were tender, we ate.
That was the best chicken soup I ever had! So flavorful and the best part is that it was pretty much free... mostly made of stuff that people would usually toss out (even the celery and carrots were a bit old... not bad, just old).
So... I'm trying to figure out our menu for this week. Right now, we are aiming for $50 for the week. (That's $25 a person.) If I don't reach this goal, that's fine. I'm just starting out and I don't want to be too hard on myself. Also, keep in mind that NJ is expensive to live in. Down in MD, my ex and I aimed for $50 a week and it was much easier to meet... but that was well before the recession and the cost of food in that area was nearly half of what it is here in many cases. Still, I have faith I can do this. I have a partner that is much more supportive and frugal and actually enjoys doing this sort of thing (and cooking and actually helps out around the house and with the baby). My cooking skills have progressed and my culinary knowledge has expanded. Even though I was fairly frugal before (I was raised with the notion that stretching dollars is a good thing), I'm a lot more frugal now.
So we'll see how it goes. For now, I'd like to hope that $50 a week is doable and might actually cut down on waste. Our goal to avoid cornsyrup (and high fructose corn syrup) will only help, I think. After living with dietary restrictions anyways, a few more that actually cut out junk that isn't good for us isn't that intimidating. (And it's amazing what corn syrup is and isn't in.)
That said, time to continue reading some of the articles I found on Sean Callebs' blog.