Splurge Meals

Sometimes there are meals that tend to cost of a little more than the average everyday meal.  It could be for a special occasion or a holiday.  For me, recently, it was for my son's birthday.  He wanted to have steaks and since it would run four of us between $120 to $150 at the local steakhouse, we decided to create a steak meal here at home.  We also added to additional adults to the mix, for a total of six eating.  I must admit that my 18 month old grandson was here as well, but since he ate off mom's plate, I didn't count him in the grand total.  Here are my results:

Ribeyes:  six of them, from a local butcher shop ran me $35.  This is the highest cost of the entire meal but I wanted good steaks and honestly I buy most of my meats from this butcher shop. 

Mashed Potatoes:  I did up 5 lbs which cost $.20 lb (bought a 50 lb bag from the local farmers market), for a total of $1.  The butter, 1/4 cup, cost me $.625, so round up $.63.  I didn't measure the milk but it wouldn't have been over 2 cups, so that would run $.46.  Total for mashed potatoes:  $2.09.

Corn:  bought a bag of frozen corn for $2.79 from a local grocery store.  (My son loves to mix the corn into the mashed potatoes-he got that from me).

Crescent Rolls:  I bought two cans of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.  Each can cost $1.79, for a total of $3.58.

GRAND TOTAL (drum roll please)  $43.36!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I was able to feed SIX people for around 1/3 of the total cost of taking four of us out to a fancy steakhouse.  YES!  Oh, so you know, the ages are 45, 44, 29, 22, 19 (the birthday boy), and 15.  (18 month old too).  Real appetites, real food, at a respectable price.  By working on our food bill at other meals, we can do these "splurges" and yet stay on track. 

Til next blog,

Susan
aka crazylady

Chicken Broth

Hello all.  I know I have been gone for a little.  I had a dear friend who lost his battle with cancer and a dad diagnosed with Dementia.  Of course, my family continued on, with home schooling, work, and just life in general amidst illnesses here as well.  I appreciate your understanding during my absence.

Now to my topic for today:  Chicken Broth!

A common ingredient in many dishes is broth.  If you go into the broth aisle, there is a HUGE selection with varying prices.  The selection ranges from store brands all the way up to broths with famous chef's names and pictures on them.  Just as the selection ranges, so does the prices.  However, wouldn't it be even better if you could have broth that cost you nothing?  I mean, a free ingredient in any recipe you like to utilize it in.  Always available when you need.


I just bought four whole chickens for 59 cents a pound!  All four cost me a total of $11.  I will use that cost to calculate the price of meals I will make and my family will enjoy.  So, the broth is just a freebie on the side. 

Here is what I did:  I have taken two of them, cleaned them out, and placed each into two separate crock pots.  I added one cup of water to each crock pot (this is NOT necessary just to cook up the chickens for a meal).  With that cup of water and the additional juices from the seasoned chickens (I sprinkled it with whatever seasonings I wanted), each crock pot will produce at least two cups of broth.  So, I will get four cups of chicken broth for free!  NOTHING COULD BE EASIER. 

Now another way to make broth, is after you are done with the roaster chicken, throw the carcass back into a crock pot or pan (roaster ovens work great), along with some aromatic veggies (carrots, onions, celery) and cook.  Drain and voila, more broth.  To keep this price down as well, I take off the tops and bottoms of celery, along with the peelings of onions and carrots, put them in a zip lock bag and FREEZE until I am making stock, then pull them out and throw them into the pot.  This does several things:  most importantly, you save money and the second thing is to keep waste down to a minimum.  You are getting the most bang for your buck by doing things like.  Simple but effective.  Also, after the carcass has been removed, pick the bones!  You will be amazed at how much meat there is still on these things.  That meat can be used for chicken salad, for burritos, quesadillas, in casseroles, or any other place precooked meat is needed.  So, in essence it is a free meat serving, as most meals have already been calculated on what you served PRIOR to making the broth this way.  I don't know about you, but in my house, FREE is always a good thing, especially when you live with die-hard meat and potato eaters.

So, how do you store it once you have made it?  I have plastic freezer containers, but you can utilize zip lock bags, too.  Cool the broth in the fridge before freezing, and you can skim off the fat before freezing making it low/no fat.  Another great tip, freeze in an ice cube tray, pop them out when they are frozen, and store them in a zip lock bag.  That means you can just pop them out and use one or two (about a tablespoon (small cube) or two tablespoon (bigger cube) a piece) as you need them.  Plus then you don't have an open container of broth sitting there when you only need a few tablespoons!

Til our next "chat".

Susan

Who says company for dinner has to break the bank?

Sometimes the simplest of meals are the best, especially when shared with great company. 

Today I fed seven people, ages range from 15 to 81, for less than $20 total, and I had left overs.  What did I make?  Sloppy Joe's with home made french fries.

Sloppy Joes
3lbs fresh ground round (from my local butcher shop)          $12.81
Manwich (large can)                                                              $1.32
Hamburger Rolls                                                                  free, since I used the leftovers from my son's
                                                                          graduation party; but $2 for 16 total if I had to buy them.
Brown the ground beef, drain.  Then add in the Manwich sauce.  Since this was on sale, I realize I couldn't make it for that amount.  Putting this together was quick and it allowed me to spend time with the company, yet provide a fun and filling meal. 

French Fries
White potatoes                                                                      $1.50

I sliced the potatoes and deep fat fried them in my fry daddy.  I didn't have to add any fresh oil, so I didn't spend anything additional on this one. 

So, I spent a total of $15.63.  If I had to buy the buns, I would have spent $17.63.  Either way, it was a great meal, great time, great conversation, with each eating plenty (including 2nds) and giving me left overs for at least an additional lunch with the two teens this week.  So, really it was $17.63 for one and a half meals (as I may add some chips for the lunch).  WOW, how often can you do that?

Anniversary Dinner!

Today, my husband and I have been married for 24 years.  Sometimes it seems longer, while at other times it seems like we just started dating.  For our anniversary, my son, Aaron and my daughter, Jessie made us a wonderful dinner.  This was the menu:

Parmesan encrusted chicken

Sauteed Yellow (summer) squash and onions

Broccoli and Cheddar Rice

Besides the fact that my children did this for us, the best thing about this dinner is all together it was less than $15, it fed all of us, and we had left overs.  Here is the breakdown:

Parmesan Encrusted chicken

Chicken leg quarters (pkg had six of them in there)                         $5.91
Plain Bread Crumbs, about 1/2 cup                                               $0.24
Parmesan Cheese, grated, about 1/2 cup                                       $0.74
any seasoning you like

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.  Cut apart the thighs and legs; put into a 10 x 13 baking dish.
3.  Top with garlic salt, then the bread crumbs, and finally the Parmesan cheese.
4.  Bake for about an hour.

Total cost of Parmesan Encrusted Chicken   $6.89! 

Sauteed Yellow Squash and Onions
      the squash I actually got for free from a neighbor, but will price it as if I bought it

Yellow Squash, about 1.5 lbs               $1.94
Onions, about 1.5 lbs                           $2.00
Butter, 1 stick                                       $0.49

Melt butter in skillet; while doing that slice the yellow squash and onions into about the same size slices.  Throw into pan and cook until desire doneness.  We carmelize ours!

Cost for the squash and onions:  $4.43  (now, it actually only cost us $2.49 since our squash was free).


Broccoli and Cheddar Rice - I bought two boxes of Zantaran at $1.50 each plus we used 4 T butter in the dish for $.25.  So this cost us $3.25

Our Total Cost????????   $12.63!  If we had paid for the squash, it would have been $14.57. 

Even with using a convenience side rice dish, our meal, that fed HUNGRY teens and adults, gave us left overs, cost less than we could even eat at a fast food restaurant, and could feed a larger family than ours for the same cost.  That is a success story.

Crock Pot "Pizza" for less than $7

This fed two adults and two teens with multiple helpings!  If you want to extend it more, add a salad or maybe some roasted zucchini (out of the garden would be FANTASTIC).

Ingredients (and the prices I paid):

1 lb pasta, cooked               $1 for the entire box
1 can spaghetti sauce           $1.40 for the can, which is a little high but didn't have it on hand
1/2 lb mozzarella                  $2.50 (this was for fresh, non-hormone, no steroid cheese)
1/4 lb pepperoni,                 $1.15 (another item that I got that was hormone free, no steroids)
    cut this into cubes

1.  Spray your crock pot with some cooking spray (this will help keep it form sticking to bad).
2.  Pour in 1/2 of the cook pasta.  Top with 1/2 of the spaghetti sauce, then 1/2 of the mozzarella, and then 1/2 of the pepperoni. 
3.  Repeat layers.
4.  Put the cover on the crock pot, put on low and let it cook for a few hours.  I can't give an exact time as each crock pot is different.  However, in mine I let it cook for about 4 hours. 

So, the grand total was $6.05 for this dish.  If you add a salad as a side, you would need to adjust the final total, but it should still be less than $10 total for the entire meal. 

This is a filling meal for real people with real appetites.  If you buy the cheese and sauce on sale, the final price will be even lower.
 
ENJOY!

Welcome to Real Meals for Real Families

First, thanks for stopping by my new blog.  It will be a learning process for us all and I ask for everyone to bear with me.  I am new to the idea of blogging but after reading many, I have decided to jump in feet first.  ;)

Second, what led me to this particular idea for a blog?  While reading other blogs about saving money, fixing meals for under a certain amount, and investigating how that amount was real, I discovered that many of those bloggers were in a different demographic (or other part of the country) and/or they had families that were smaller or with young (baby, toddlers, and early elementary aged) children.  Since I am on the Southeast coast (think four hours south of DC) AND I have a family of teenagers, who eat anything not nailed down, I decided that I needed to bring the concept of keeping meals as low as possible BUT deal with feeding older kids, large families, AND those who live in areas that prices for food are just plain higher.

I am NOT dismissing the other bloggers, as I have gleaned great ideas from them and they do serve a purpose.  They are a wonderful resource.  I just wanted something that is more in line with what I pay.  For example, one blogger buys a gallon of milk for $2.  I cannot do that.  A gallon of milk here is almost $4.  That is DOUBLE the price, hence will effect my bottom line. 


I pray that I will be able to add more and more as time goes along and that I will help others reduce their food bill, provide nutritious meals, and maybe bring back the fun of cooking.  

Susan aka crazylady