Whole chickens are one of the best ways I know of to save money on meat. A few times a year I can find chickens on sale for around $.67-$.57/lb. I buy as many as I can at this price and cook them. All I do to prepare them is remove the innards, brush melted butter on the top and then sprinkle with salt & pepper. Generally I cook 2 at a time, in a roasting pan, at 350 for 2hours.
After the birds are cool I remove all the meat and cut it up. I place 2-3 cups of diced chicken in a freezer bag and stick it in my freezer to use later. This meat is great for using in soups, salads (including last night's Napa Cabbage Salad), chicken enchilladas, Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole, etc. I made my first ever whole chicken less than 3 years ago and now I almost always have cooked meat on hand.
One of my favorite cookbooks is 150 Things to Make with Roast Chicken and I have made, or adapted, several of the recipes in there.
About two weeks ago one of my grocery stores had chickens for $.47/lb, limit 4. In the 3 years I've been cooking chickens I had NEVER seen them so cheap. I went one day and they only had 3 so I bought all of them. All 3 were still frozen so I stuck them, whole, in my freezer. Later in the week I went and there were none, so I asked for a rain check (that I used on 4 yesterday). All 4 cost me about $8.50! To my amazement ANOTHER grocery store in town has them on sale for $.47/lb this week, too!
When I bought my chickens yesterday they were mostly defrosted so I kept them in the fridge for most of the day and cooked 2 in the evening. I have two in the oven right now.
Honestly, with 3 whole chickens in my freezer, plus the meat from 3 more that will be in the freezer by the time I go to bed tonight I don't know if I'll take advantage of this week's sale, but WOW!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
What's Cooking?
Here are a few meals I will be making with the groceries I bought today.
Iceburg lettuce. This is not something I normally buy since we tend to eat darker greens like spinach or romaine lettuce, but at $.44/head it was a price I couldn't refuse. Later this week (possibly Friday) I will brown up the 93% lean ground beef that is in my freezer with cumin + chili powder. I'll shred the lettuce, add some tomatos and cheese to make a taco salad!
Napa Cabbage. A friend of mine served a variation of this recipe Napa Cabbage Salad at her house in May and I have fallen in love with it. I am NOT a cabbage person and had never heard of Napa cabbage until that day. This salad is INCREDIBLE and my entire family loves it. I add cooked chicken to make it a little bit heartier. Normally I find this at about $1.50/lb, but this week one of the local grocery stores has it at $.69/head! I got the biggest head they had (2lbs, 8oz) and we will have enough for dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, and maybe even dinner tomorrow night. Another store had the ramen noodles 8 for $1.
The cooked chicken will come from the whole chickens that are in my oven right now. I paid $.49/lb for the chickens, so the entire salad will cost less than $3. (I don't have the almonds on hand so I am not using them). I have some dressing still in the fridge from the last time I made this salad, so it will actually cost me around $2 for several meals!
Iceburg lettuce. This is not something I normally buy since we tend to eat darker greens like spinach or romaine lettuce, but at $.44/head it was a price I couldn't refuse. Later this week (possibly Friday) I will brown up the 93% lean ground beef that is in my freezer with cumin + chili powder. I'll shred the lettuce, add some tomatos and cheese to make a taco salad!
Napa Cabbage. A friend of mine served a variation of this recipe Napa Cabbage Salad at her house in May and I have fallen in love with it. I am NOT a cabbage person and had never heard of Napa cabbage until that day. This salad is INCREDIBLE and my entire family loves it. I add cooked chicken to make it a little bit heartier. Normally I find this at about $1.50/lb, but this week one of the local grocery stores has it at $.69/head! I got the biggest head they had (2lbs, 8oz) and we will have enough for dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, and maybe even dinner tomorrow night. Another store had the ramen noodles 8 for $1.
The cooked chicken will come from the whole chickens that are in my oven right now. I paid $.49/lb for the chickens, so the entire salad will cost less than $3. (I don't have the almonds on hand so I am not using them). I have some dressing still in the fridge from the last time I made this salad, so it will actually cost me around $2 for several meals!
Giving, Saving, and Eating Well
I had a GREAT day at the grocery store today and I only used 1 coupon from the newspaper. I bought a bunch of food to donate to my church's food drive, bottled water for the Rescue Mission and most of the ingredients for the freezer meal exchange group I belong to. I also bought the ingredients for several meals for my family.
At grocery store #1 I bought
2 cases of water @1.99ea (Rescue Mission)
4 12pks of Coke @9.98 for 4
1 2lb, 8oz head of Napa cabbage
2 cans of tuna @ $.44 ea after in-store coupon (food drive)
1 salad dressing @ $.27 after in-store coupon + manufacturer coupon
1 peanut butter @.99 (food drive)
1 head of iceburg lettuce @ $.44 after in-store coupon
4 lbs of strawberries @ $3.88
2 red bell peppers @ $.99 ea (I hadn't planned on these, but my 3yo picked them out. I'll never discourage his love of fresh veggies)
2 Broccoli crowns @ $.99 ea (Again, I hadn't planned on these but my son asked for them and this Mommy won't complain about a toddler asking for broccoli!)
All told at this store I spent $25.54
I went to another grocery store as well this morning where I bought things that weren't on sale, but that I needed (coffee filters, 8x8 pans for my meal exchange, manicotti shells, frozen spinach, cans of crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, Italian sausage, etc) and still saved a ton.
Grocery store #2 highlights
4 whole chickens @ $.49/lb. ($8.67 for all 4) The chickens actually on sale a couple of weeks ago, but I had a rain check since the store was out when I went to buy them. The chickens were already defrosted so I have 2 cooking now and will put two in later. Whole chickens are one of my favorite ways to save money. I'll write a blog on those another day.
Cantaloupe @ $.25/lb. Mine was just under 4lbs so it was $.94
Canned vegetables and canned beans were $.44/can. I ended up buying 12 cans of beans for our family + 22 cans of veggies for the food drive.
All told I spent less than $100 on food for my family + food to help others. Our freezer and pantry are overflowing and, except for items like milk, it may be weeks before I have to do any "real" grocery shopping.
See my next post for ways I will use today's bargains. Our grocery budget (family of 4) is $300 a month and I do almost all of the cooking from scratch.
The strawberries we don't eat before they start to turn will be made into smoothies and/or will be frozen.
At grocery store #1 I bought
2 cases of water @1.99ea (Rescue Mission)
4 12pks of Coke @9.98 for 4
1 2lb, 8oz head of Napa cabbage
2 cans of tuna @ $.44 ea after in-store coupon (food drive)
1 salad dressing @ $.27 after in-store coupon + manufacturer coupon
1 peanut butter @.99 (food drive)
1 head of iceburg lettuce @ $.44 after in-store coupon
4 lbs of strawberries @ $3.88
2 red bell peppers @ $.99 ea (I hadn't planned on these, but my 3yo picked them out. I'll never discourage his love of fresh veggies)
2 Broccoli crowns @ $.99 ea (Again, I hadn't planned on these but my son asked for them and this Mommy won't complain about a toddler asking for broccoli!)
All told at this store I spent $25.54
I went to another grocery store as well this morning where I bought things that weren't on sale, but that I needed (coffee filters, 8x8 pans for my meal exchange, manicotti shells, frozen spinach, cans of crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, Italian sausage, etc) and still saved a ton.
Grocery store #2 highlights
4 whole chickens @ $.49/lb. ($8.67 for all 4) The chickens actually on sale a couple of weeks ago, but I had a rain check since the store was out when I went to buy them. The chickens were already defrosted so I have 2 cooking now and will put two in later. Whole chickens are one of my favorite ways to save money. I'll write a blog on those another day.
Cantaloupe @ $.25/lb. Mine was just under 4lbs so it was $.94
Canned vegetables and canned beans were $.44/can. I ended up buying 12 cans of beans for our family + 22 cans of veggies for the food drive.
All told I spent less than $100 on food for my family + food to help others. Our freezer and pantry are overflowing and, except for items like milk, it may be weeks before I have to do any "real" grocery shopping.
See my next post for ways I will use today's bargains. Our grocery budget (family of 4) is $300 a month and I do almost all of the cooking from scratch.
The strawberries we don't eat before they start to turn will be made into smoothies and/or will be frozen.
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