Sunday, 07 February 2010

• Frugal Feeds: Making the Most of Your Turkey

  
  

  
  

  Yesterday and today, I cooked a lot. Last November, D.H. started this job soon enough to get a free turkey from the company. We expected something between 10 and 12 pounds. They gave us the king tom of the yard! That sucker weighed 28 pounds! We cut it into pieces, which I roasted immediately, then sliced and packaged it for lunches. The small pieces made a good casserole. How many people just throw out the carcass?

  Not me, not when I'm on a budget. I have a four gallon stove top pot. I cooked that carcass in water and a teaspoon of vinegar all day long. I cooked it until the bones were soft! The broth then contained the calcium from the bones. This is vital, because my daughter and I are lactose intolerant, and supplements cost money we don’t have. I cooled it, and skimmed the fat. The dog got that by measure on cold days, because she lives outside. It gave me four gallons of excellent turkey bouillon, which I put into our 15 cubic foot freezer.

  Today, I made turkey soup with the last of it. Here are the ingredients:
  

  • 8 cups turkey broth (which had bits of meat in it)
  • 1 large sweet potato, chopped
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 3 large stalks of celery, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon dill weed
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne
  • 1½ teaspoons salt (or to taste)

  It’s a little sweet, but that’s the way I like it.  This was a MEAL for four people, and it cost me about $2.00 in ingredients plus time and whatever electricity I used. That’s fifty cents per person! Some people might want to add bread or a salad, so that would bump the cost up a little, depending on the bread and the salad. So what does that make it? A dollar per person? My point is that food can taste good while not breaking the budget.

  Do you have a tasty, yet inexpensive recipe? Share it with the group!
  

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