Anyone who knows me knows that I love couponing and spending wisely. I've been looking for more ways to be self-reliant and do more things myself, which goes right along with other aspects of provident living in our family. A favorite website of mine, 5dollardinners.com, has been such a great resource for me. Not only are there a ton of delicious and healthy recipes for my family that allow me to make dinner for around $5 or less (and since our family is still small, these meals often stretch to feed us for 2 dinners), but there are a number of different how-to demonstrations.
I've typically been a boneless skinless chicken breast kind of girl because there's no prep needed before cooking. I only buy them when they're at their lowest price, and then I really stock up, but I've still wanted to branch out to other cuts of chicken, which are even less expensive. Harris Teeter had whole chickens on sale this week for $0.59/lb, which is a great price, but I had never cooked a whole chicken in my life. With a little help from my website tutorial, I cooked the whole chicken in the crockpot, shredded the chicken, prepared 2 meals for the freezer for nights later this month using the meat, and then made 10 cups of chicken stock for free for the freezer as well! This may not be super-impressive to anyone else, but I was really proud of myself. I also batch-cooked some sweet potatoes (also on sale at HT this past week) and we've got 3 dinners' worth of mashed sweet potatoes in the freezer and some baby food for Leah. I love being productive!
And anyone who knows David knows that he loves bread more than almost anything in the world, so he is loving all the homemade bread coming out of our kitchen. I've got a great whole wheat bread recipe from my friend Melissa in our ward that is AMAZING, and the honey wheat roll recipe that I've started using is like heaven in your mouth--seriously. This weekend, I'm planning to make some homemade hamburger and hot dog buns to freeze for future use, as well as some other things. My sweet friend Maria gave us a huge stand-up freezer that she wasn't using anymore--I have been wanting one of these forever! The extra space not only lets me stock up on sale items that I buy at the grocery store, but allows me to batch cook some items, freeze breads I batch bake, and store meals that I double or triple when I have the time. There are also 5 more whole chickens bought on sale in there just waiting for me to get them into the crockpot :)
It is really rewarding to be able to do things yourself, save money, and have really yummy food for your family :)
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3 comments:
You rock, Erin! Can you email me your honey wheat roll recipe? I've been wanting to get into bread-making for awhile especially since all the healthy breads at the store are SO expensive! And I am so jealous of your stand-up freezer! I always want to buy things in bulk but we only have the small tiny freezer on top of the fridge. I know you work hard to save money and you do such a good job! :)
-Lara
I love roasting chicken in the oven. It's definitely a 2 night meal for 2+ people. You should try it in the oven sometime- you get the crispy skin with herbs, and you can still make stock. I just started using the carcass for stock, and am not in love with the results. It just lacks oomph. What are you putting in your pot with the chicken? I'm curious!
Katherine, I'm not a big fan of roasted meat--I always choose ham over turkey at Thanksgiving (haha), so I was looking for a way to cook the whole chicken just to get the meat off to use in recipes. The crockpot was perfect! I added 1 cup of water and seasoned the chicken. The stock from cooking it in the crockpot is really thick, and then the stock from the carcass (did it on the stovetop with water and a splash of vinegar to draw the calcium out of the bones) is thinner...so when I went to freeze it, I put one cup of each in a freezer bag so that I'd have 2-cup portions that were a good mix of each.
Lara, I'll email the recipe to the gmail account you've listed on Facebook--you will LOVE them!! :)
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