My last post, which was months ago (YIKES-I gotta get better at this!), was about how you get what you pay for when it comes to food. This is a continuation of that, as I’ve had two customers since that last post send emails about the price of a product they ordered. One of those products was a soup, from Pika’s Farm Table. The other was also about Pika’s products – soup and a chicken pot pie. I stand behind what we charge for those products. Pika uses only clean ingredients and sources them locally to her. Her crust is an ALL BUTTER CRUST! She’s a small business supporting her local small, family owned farms. And she produces an incredible product and pays her staff a living wage. Yes, you can go to the store and buy a can of soup for half of what Pika’s costs (note, there is more in a package of Pika’s than in the canned soup and other soups comparable to hers cost MORE for LESS!), but that can of soup comes with the following ingredients: Chicken Stock, Chicken Meat, Carrots, Enriched Egg Noodles (wheat Flour, Eggs, Egg Whites, Wheat Protein Isolate [wheat Gluten, Phosphate, Lactic Acid], Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Celery, Contains Less Than 2% Of: Water, Salt, Chicken Fat, Monosodium Glutamate, Sugar, Modified Food Starch, Xanthan Gum, Soy Protein Concentrate, Onions**, Flavoring, Sodium Phosphate, Spice, Yeast Extract, Locust Bean Gum, Beta Carotene For Color, Garlic**, Chicken**. Versus the ingredients in Pika’s: Water, Carrots, Celery, Chicken Meat, Onions, Egg Noodles (durum wheat semolina, durum wheat flour, eggs, niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid) , Chicken Base (chicken, chicken broth, salt, chicken fat, sugar, corn, turmeric) , Olive Oil, Tapioca Starch, Salt, Garlic, Parsley, Black Pepper. First off, MSG should be avoided at ALL COSTS! But all that other stuff? No need.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the topic – eating on a budget. One of THE MOST ECONOMICAL MEALS is cooking a whole chicken. It’s my absolute favorite dinner because I get two dinners out of it, PLUS chicken stock. In my opinion, everyone should cook a whole chicken at least once per week. And here is what I do with mine:
– Meal 1: Whole chicken either roasted, cooked on a rotisserie, cooked on the grill (aka beer can chicken in photo), cooked in the instant pot, or whatever way choose; roasted (or mashed) potatoes; and a veggie side dish. After I strip the bones of any remaining meat and store that for the next meal
– Throw the bones into a slow cooker with an onion quartered, a couple of stalks of celery roughly chopped (leaves still on), a couple carrots roughly chopped (I don’t peel – lots of great nutrients in the outer layer) and fill with water. Slow cook for 12+ hours. The longer you cook the more stock-like it will be (shorter time = broth, longer time = stock). Strain and either freeze or can. It’s sooooo easy. And, if time is up and I don’t have time to deal with it, I put it back on for however many hours I need. One batch I had on for 36 hours! You can even freeze the carcass if you don’t feel like dealing with it that night. In fact, I have one in my freezer right now because I was a bit backlogged on chicken stock.
– Meal 2: Take out the leftover chicken from meal 1 and use it to make any of the following: pasta with chicken and broccoli, chicken and broccoli, chicken divan, chicken tetrazzini, chicken tacos, chicken nachos, etc., etc., etc. And if you made broth with the carcass then you can make chicken noodle soup.
Voila! One bird with three uses. Now, when my two oldest are home, there is no leftover meat, so I only get one meal out of the bird. But I never, EVER throw out the carcass. Homemade broth is the best. I use broth to cook rice – makes it SO flavorful!
The best investment I’ve made is in a pressure canner. All American makes the best, IMO, and they are so easy to learn how to use. There are youtube videos galore. But if that isn’t an investment you want to make, you can also freeze broth. I use silicone cubes from Souper Cubes. The ones I have can be used to freeze them in either 1/2 or 1 cup amounts.
I’ll share more ideas on eating healthy on a budget as time goes on. For now, make sure to incorporate a whole chicken into your meal rotation. And don’t throw away those bones!