What do you get with one half pound of sauasge?

You get dinner for six.  Well ok you get the sausage in our gravy for dinner.  We had sausage gravy over biscuits for dinner.  This was easily under five dollars to feed us all.  I don't have the cost break down as I used left over frozen sausage I had in the freeze.  And I tried a new big biscuit recipe which you can find here.  These were very good but huge. One goes a long way.  I cheat and just use my cookie cutter and cut them into squares instead of rounds this way I handle the dough less.  These turned out to be about 1.5 - 2 inches high they started at an inch high.  I highly suggest you at least try them.  I did make a few changes, I used butter instead of shortening.  And I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 unbleached AP flour (I have this premixed at in my flour container on the counter so everything is made with 1/2 WW flour).  Other than that it's all the same.

Excuse my cookie sheet it's a cheapie from the dollar store it does the job.

Then I just made a basic sausage gravy with sage, and peppers and onions since that was mixed in with my pre cooked sausage.  It's simple cook your meat,  once it's cooked if you have a lot of fat drain some off but you want some to use to make the rue.  (is that the right spelling?) cook that a little bit and then add some milk and your spices.  Let thicken and serve over yummy biscuits.

Now just add I nice side of fruit salad or some other nice fresh fruit or veggies and you have a great meal in our house.  It's a great way to feed a lot of people with a little bit of meat.  What is your favorite breakfast for dinner item?

One Turkey how many meals? Day Three Stock or Broth

We are talking Turkey stock or broth which from my research seem to be pretty much the same thing.  For two days I worked at making this stock and my house smelled great.  Like Thanksgiving turkey all day long.  Broth is something that is great for you, and easy to make.  So I thought I would share how I did it.  First off I read this great article on Cooking Traditional Foods you can also find them on Facebook here. The article is great and pretty much tells you how to do it step by step.  But I thought I would type up what I did with pictures because I am silly like that.

First thing I did was pick as much meat off the turkey bones as I could and then roast it.

I also pulled out the jars that had the drippings from when I roasted the turkey.

And then it was all into the pool, eh I mean stock pot.

Then I added water until it was covered and many I was lucky my pan was barely big enough.  Next time I will break the bones down more.  In all there was 2 gallons of water added to the pan.

Then I added the vinegar 2 tbsp per quart of water.

Then I let it sit for an hour to let the vinegar do it's thing.  After that I turn on the burner and brought it up to a simmer.  Once it was simmering I went to bed, I let it simmer for 30 hours (you can do more or less time this just worked this time for me.)

I then turned it off and picked out all the big pieces of bone and such.  Then I let it cool down a bit before straining it the first time.

My set up for straining, stock pot strainer, and a kitchen towel.

Straining the first time.

After straining it.

After I strained it I put it in the refrigerator over night.  So that the fat could get hard.

 

Then I used a spoon to skim the layer of fat off the top.  And strained it again.

The set up a bowl, kitchen towel and a strainer.

All strained and ready for storage.

At this point I was almost done, all I had last was to jar it up.  We reuse glass jars here so that's what I did.  I got six quart sizedish jars, (one is a pickle jar not sure about it's size) and half gallon or so in a ziploc bag (ran out of jars).  I labeled them and froze them.  I should be able to get a few meals out of this ALONE.  I can use this stock for soups, or just cooking my beans or rice in to give it added flavor.

 This is my best looking stock to date.

 The ziploc bag before it went in the freezer

Six yummy jars of turkey goodness.

The $20 I spent on this turkey has saved me already, from the two meals I have gotten plus a few days of sandwich lunches, plus all this stock is great.  I still have about 6 cups of dark meat in the freezer for other meals and ideas.  I can't wait to use them.  I am going to try some new recipes.  I hope this helps you out when you make stock.  It is easy I know it looks like a lot but the hard work is over you cooked the turkey and took the meat off the bones.   In all I would say my active time doing this was maybe an hour (I have small children so it was a stop and go thing sometimes)  that's straining it twice (over two days) and jarring it all up. Which would have taken less time had I had a funnel. LOL Instead I had to use a ladle to fill the jars up.

One Turkey how many meals?

So tonight I had a great idea I would blog about how many meals plus broth I get from my 14 pound turkey.  So lets start with tonight.  Tonight was a normal turkey dinner and almost half of the bird was gone but this feed six of us.  The older two boys shared the meat off of a leg, my daughter, the baby and my self shared a breast plus made a sandwich for hubby's lunch.  And Hubby had a wing.  I still have a thigh left that I think will be turned into Turkey pot pie or a soup tomorrow night.  I will also start my stock.  I did save all the juices from the turkey for my stock and I got two pasta sauce jars full.

My goal is to get four meals out of this bird plus stock and a few lunches for the hubby.  I know we ate almost half of it but we did skip lunch for this meal so that's our excuse LOL.

Any ways I thought I would start off with my recipe I guess you could say for turkey.

How I roast a turkey

• First get husband to unwrap and clean out the giblets of the turkey (I normally feed them to the dog I know they are healthy for me and I do wish I saved them for the stock but I forgot)
• Then have hubby wash the turkey since he already has turkey hands, mean while get the roasting pan ready for the bird
• Have hubby place bird breast side up in the pan
• Cut two granny smith apples in half place on apple inside of the bird and the other under the flap of skin by the neck
• Cut one medium size onion (we used sweet onion) in half and peel the outside off and place one half in the bird and one half under/in the skin at the neck area
• Next I peeled 4 large cloves are garlic and lightly crushed them and places two each in side the bird and under the neck area.
• Then I took soft butter and rubbed it on the bird under the skin and a little on top with some evoo and Black pepper and Lawery's seasoning salt.  I then add about 1 cup water to the bottom of the pan.  Then make a foil tent or place the lid on top and roast at 325 until done.  Mine took about 4 hours  30 minutes before it was done I took the tent off to let the skin brown.
• Let it sit for about 15-20 min with foil on top before cutting I find it doesn't lose it's juices as much that way.
• Enjoy!

With our dinner we served, peas and mashed potato with cheesy bake, Fresh baked Italian bread I used this recipe for the bread.  OH and to make it extra yummy I rub butter on top to melt it a little bit it's yummy.

And then dessert we had homemade apple pie.  Now that I am trying to make my own crust I am still perfecting this recipe for ourselves.  Don't get me wrong it tastes great but there are still problems like it's watery and the bottom crust didn't come out right.  But I will keep trying.  I do have pictures of that though. They are not the best but the pie was yummy.

All in all it was a great meal and I forgot how much we loved having turkey I think I will stock up on them when they go on sale around thanksgiving.  I can see how if you think outside of the box you can get a lot from them.

Homemade lasagna for .66 a slice.

I recently tossed my hand into trying to make homemade pasta.  And let me tell you when you can make lasagna for .66 a slice you can't beat it.  Also the noddles were made with wheat flour and AP flour.  Only thing I did wrong was have a couple thick spots.

As a child lasagna was something my mom only made like 3 times a year if we were lucky.  It always cost to much to make.  And for all my life I believed that.  But Monday I was sitting thinking about what to make for dinner and I wanted Lasagna but I didn't have ricotta or pasta for it.  So I looked around the house to see what I did have that I could use.  Well I had fat free cottage cheese that I had picked up when it was a $1,  and I have sauce 2.00 worth on hand.  And then one pound of ground beef from the butcher which was 2.38 I also had a pound of mozzarella cheese on hand.  which was 2.50 for the pound.  Thats it that's all I used and that equals what  about 7.88 for one big pan of lasagna that we got two meals out of?  I wonder what made it cost more to my mother.  I am going to ask her what she used.

Now the noddles were so easy to make and tasted like regular pasta to me.  Here is the recipe that I used. (I kind of used two different ones and came up with my own)

Homemade pasta with out a pasta machine

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3 tbls EVOO
• 8 large eggs

Mix all together and kned for about 5 minutes and then let it rest another five minute then I cut it into 6 equal size pieces and then I rolled them out with the rolling pin I had.  I rolled them the size of my pan and made just a single sheet for each layer.

This is really easy and you don't really need anything special you can use veggie oil if that's what you have too.  And then I just made my lasagna like normal but used the cottage cheese instead of the ricotta.  And let me tell you we didn't miss it.  So give the pasta recipe a try and let me know what you made with it and how you liked it.  I can't wait to try it again.

Tonights dinner was Goulash and Garlic bread under $5

Tonight's meal was a simple family favorite and it was pretty cheap here is the break down.

Ground beef from butcher 2.28 one pound
1 box past .19 (had $1 off coupon)
1 Large can organic diced tomatoes 1.79
1 half onion .15 (this is a high guess but it was a big onion)

Total for the Goulash $4.41

And the garlic bread was made with staples of yeast flour and water and salt, and of course butter and garlic powder the recipe I used can be found here it's the first one on the page.  I didn't make them into a loaf though I made some into knots.  And others I made into pull apart rolls.  To make them use your muffin pan and place three balls of dough into each cup and let it rise and then back at 375 till done. brush with melted butter with garlic powder and enjoy.

Sorry for the lack of post the last week I have been enjoying family but I am back on my cooking and posting thing.  tomorrow is pork tenderloin again with roasted veggies unless i figure out a different way to cook it have any ideas?

The power of lemon and baking soda

Today while cooking my husband gave me my anniversary present well he gave it to my Autumn to give to me.  It was perfect.  Anyways I got to think we have our wedding goblets in a closet they can't be enjoyed that way so I had him get them out.  When I saw them I then remembered they were silver and I didn't store them right.  This is what we found.

Then I remembered that you can use lemons and baking soda to clean sliver thank goodness I don't have silver polish so I dug them out and cut a lemon in half and but some soda on it and used some elbow grease.  and man do they look better not perfect but much better.  See.

They are not perfect but you can see our names on them now. and well I am loving silver so they will be kept out from now on.  Remember that you may have what you need in a pinch in your kitchen.  I know I have the last few times and frankly I would rather clean with lemons.

Ps excuse the mess it was a busy day in the kitchen.

Frozen Strawberry pops for about 2 bucks.

So in this 100 degree weather you need to keep cool so I thought I would make ice pops now I do have the store bought ones here to but they are full of sugar and I am trying to limit the amount of it.  I fail a lot of the time but I know my kids if I make something they will eat that over the premade stuff.

So I thought I would give those puree fruit pops a try I love these things but they are pricey to buy.  They are so easy to make. Now I have an ice pop maker (target 1 dollar) but you could make ice pops in so many things from paper cups to ice cube trays.  Even small glass jars with sticks in them.

Your next tool you will need is a blender or something else to puree the fruit I have a blender.  Next just puree your fruit I used frozen strawberries, and a little juice.  I added no sugar as I thought what was in the berries and the juice should be enough.  I used juice I had on hand as well which was apple juice.  Our pops were still a little tart but a huge hit.  My husband who doesn't really like the other kind loved these one.

I have plans for other kinds some using the stock of baby food I have on hand and others making some grown up flavors.  I will let you know.

Some dinners I didn't post.

Here are pics and some of the dinners we have had and I didn't post about I don't have the cost break down and I will share how to make if you want but I thought I would get them up.

 Breakfast for dinner we love doing this it's such a cheap and filling and easy meal.  This night no one could make up there mind so I made eggs pancakes, a cherry blueberry sauce for the pancakes, and sausage gravy (my oldest wanted this over biscuits this was our compromise)

 Pancakes with the cherry berry sauce

 Pancakes with sausage gravy on them.

 This was last nights dinner.  I made savory pancakes with herbs and spices to change things up.  We get tired of the same sides so I am working on trying new things.

 Broccoli with white cheddar cheese

Italian Chicken (baked)  

All these meals where under ten to make and all of them had left overs for other meals.  I have learned that simple is better, and easy works and that you can have great food and healthy food with out breaking the bank.

My Alice in Wonderland Chair and other finds.

It's been a few days since I last posted but it's been a fun crazy kind of day.  I will update my cheap meals later tonight but first you have to see the beauty I found today at the flea market. Well beauties to be exact.

Alice in wonderland chair

I have a love of Alice in Wonderland, and when I saw this chair I wanted it.  The lady wanted $20 for it and the foot rest.  I thought that was a deal but only had 15 on me.  We set a limit before we left the house and we stuck to it.    My sweet hubby went back to her after getting his bike to the car and said how bad I wanted it would she take 15.  And she did. She helped load it to and gave us rope to tie the bike down with so we could get everything home.  Three car seats don't leave much room for things sometimes.

I just love this chair and well so do the kids see for yourself.

My daughter seems to think it's her chair. 

Now I am not sure I will keep the foot rest or try and fix it.  it has a hole in it but is still useable.  I am going to have a research it.  Right now though I am thinking I will paint it.   It might stay in the house and it might go on the porch for some sitting and watching this kids play.  I am still thinking on it.  I do know I am going to ask hubby for some pretty throw pillows for my birthday for it.

This is the hubs find.  A huffy bike at the right size and everything for 15 bucks.  He has wanted a bike for awhile be we kept putting it off.  I am happy he has one and well if he rides it as much as he says he will I won't mind upgrading him later to a much nicer one.

 These are the candle sticks we got as well. I paid 5 bucks for all them I don't think I would have paid much more for them they are not old but they seem to be a of good not great but a good quality and I like them I just need to clean them up a bit.

Well this is all we got plus water and a sunburn you would think I would have learned by now that I burn.  overall I am very happy with everything and I hope to be able to paint the chair the weekend of the fourth.

2.80 For last nights dinner or Pizza rolls and salad

Last nights dinner was late and filling it was pizza rolls and spinach salad.  And it cost us 2.80 but could have cost us up to 5.30.

Cost break down:

3 pkg pizza dough = .69

Cheese = up to two 2.50 or free with wic

1/4 jar of pasta sauce .21 

Bag of spinach .65 (thanks to a fb coupon I saved $1)

Green Pepper .50

Cucumber .50  

Tomato .25

Hubby cooked but it was still under 10.

Sorry no pictures today my hubby cooked dinner I planned to but he wanted to.  So I let him LOL.  Tonight we had pork steaks from the butcher. We bought it as part of a freezer pack and the price per pound was 2.28 and it was a 2 pound package if I wanted too I could have gotten to meals from it but sometimes Hubs just wants a big old piece of meat.  So here is the cost break down.

• Pork steaks 4.56
• peas .75
• boxed mac and cheese 1.50 (2 boxes)

Total  6.81 but priceless as I didn't have to cook and he even served everyone.

Apple bourbon pork tenderloin and sides all for 3.30

Yes the price in the title is right. Tonight's dinner was very good at a very good price.

There is only one way this meal was so cheap and that was smart shopping.  Here is what I did I happened to find the the tenderloin while looking for something else they were majorly price cut because they were going out of code in other words they were about to expire.  They were marked to 2.28 each.  That's a steal in and of itself, but they were the Hormel brand and I had a coupon for them and since I brought my binder I had them with me.  I had three and got three so in the end it cost me 1.28 each or 3.84 for all three of them which makes three meals for us.  Remember there are five eating right now soon six.

Tyler Florence Copy Cat meal

A couple years ago I was out to eat with my family and this was two kids ago so just my hubby, my older two kids and myself and we went to Applebees.  And I remember having this very yummy pasta dish by Tyler Florence with penne and sausage and peas I thought it was so cool they added to the pasta.  By the end of the night I had paid a little over $10.00 for the meal with salad and a drink.  Well tonight I wanted that meal again so I made it.  And it cost me less than 10 dollars.

Get yours today free math program

Funnix.com

is giving away a free copy of there math program from June 1 thru June 26 so head on over to there site and get your copy today

from there site

Funnix Beginning Math is a 100-lesson computer program designed for children who have not learned beginning math operations.

Funnix Beginning Math will be available as a free download from June 1 through June 26. All components of Funnix Beginning Math are included in the download—100 animated computer-based lessons, workbook material, a teaching guide, and a placement test for assessing the child.

The program is unique in the sophistication of skills it teaches in only 100 lessons. Children learn different types of counting. They use counting by tens and counting by ones to solve addition problems that traditionally require carrying. For example: 45+35.

Be assured that this program is FREE. No hidden charges, gimmicks, or costs for handling and shipping. This giveaway is like the one conducted in January for Funnix Beginning Reading and resulted in over 41,000 free downloads.

Tonights dinner was nice and cheap 5.18

Tonight dinner was a simple one of mac salad and corn and brats for the adults and hot dogs for the kids.  Thanks to coupons I was paid to take the pasta out of the store, and got the hot dogs for .25 a pack.  thus making a cheap mean an the left over mac salad makes great sides for lunch too.

A nice and easy way to earn gift cards for the holidays

Just about everyone knows what swagbucks is and how you can earn pp or amazon gift cards well now BING.com has come out with there own way of earning gift cards and more.

First when you sign up you get 250 points, and a 5 dollar amazon gift card is 451 points so you are half way there.  I am at 266 in the matter of minutes.

Sign up and they have things for you to click that give bounus points for me tonight it was check the traffic I clicked the link and got 12 points and then I receive another point for every 2 searches I do up to 12 points a day until june fourth.

So hurry and sign up it's not hard mine is link to my hotmail account!!  Just follow this link

Help a friend out

Help my friend make her goal of 1,111 fans she only needs a couple more and trust me you will lover her blog The Screaming Penny.  She posts tons of great deals and thrifty meals and more.  So hurry up and like her!

Book Review: Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family: Includes So Many Innovative Strategies You Won't Have to Cut Coupons

I just finished reading  Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family: Includes So Many Innovative Strategies You Won't Have to Cut Coupons bye Steve  Annette Economides (that is really there name.  And they have a website called America's Cheapest Family.  They have been featured on morning news programs, 20/20, and even the Dr. Phil Show.

This book was hard for me to get into, maybe because it talked about planning and lists and menus and all things I hate doing a rebel against.  But I forced myself past it and honestly learned a ton of great facts.  This book starts and ends with ideas on how to not only save money but your time as well.  This family focuses on family as well and this book is much more than just saving money at the store.  While I don't know about shopping only once a month (I shop twice now) they had other great ideas.

This book is a great read even if you already know how to save money at your grocery store or coupon.  Don't let the title fool you they talk about coupons and it turns out the husband worked with companies that made coupons and helped design them.  They also talk about the food traps that stores set up for you with sales that are not really sales.  Now we all probably know one season couponer that can tell you that a sale isn't that great like the 10 for 10 1 qt Gatorade when not on sale I can find them as low as .69 each.  

They talk of figuring out the cost per unit and buying going our of code meat.  Now I admit this is something I am not sure I am willing to do but I just met my local butcher and I love there meat in there freezer packs and it avg 1.85 a pound.  They also talked about how to save money on lunch meat with buying chubs and asking the deli to slice it.  The same with cheese as well.  These are all ideas I didn't think about before and will be trying at my local store.

Really this book has to many items and tips to list there was only one thing that bothered me and it was very little in the start of the book they talk about the great deals they find at a dented can store, and then later in the book talk about avoiding these items at the store for fear there is something wrong with them.  I know it's a little thing but it stuck out to me big time.

One thing that I really loved was all the charts and lists and stuff they shared and the family stories it made it easy to relate to them when you learned about them and there family.  They have a great few on family dinners and sharing stories and everything.   I loved the idea of some of the games that they played as well.

I would say this book is worth a trip to the library of even buying a copy to keep as there is so much in there you really want to start with one step at a time.  Other wise I think it would over whelm you and this is what they suggest as well.  I got my copy from the library but I think I will have to keep my out for a used or really cheap copy of it.  

This book also has lots and lots of links and other books they suggest you read to help you out on your journey to saving money and feeding your family healthy.  That brings me to a great point of the book it's about only buying what you need not what is free or on sale it's about how to get those healthy items cheaply that there are not normally coupons out there for.  I would call it a simple living book.  I would also say this would make a great book for well anyone.  I really suggest this book it might be hard for some to get into especially if you think you know all you need to know but please give it a chance and understand you take the ideas and make them work for you.  You don't have to it the way they do.

Couponing and the simple life And Clutter

I am finding it hard to mesh couponing and simple living together.  It seems to me couponing has turned into getting as much as you can for free or cheap and to get more even when you don't need it.  Simple living to me is making do with what you have reusing stuff as needed.  Like an old soup can panted and turned into a flower pot with fresh cut flowers in it.  Simple living to me is about using what you have and getting what you need and even getting a few wants but not making your life about wanting.

Kmart ad scans 5/8-5/14 Purex BOGO

I think I see some good deals this week but i am not 100% I will have to check later after kiddos are in bed. but I do see purex bogo that i think matches up with the 1 off coupon that came in 5/1 inserts.