Eating Well on a Budget

[Phaedra]

I bought cheap chicken thighs to dehydrate for the pets. I took all the scraps and bones and made some stock. I have to chill it yet to separate the fat. I like using the stock. It is harder to use the fat. I usually toss it. I wonder if the cats would like it? Probably not -they are so picky.View attachment 52063View attachment 52064

I usually removed the chicken skin before making stock, cut them into smaller pieces, and then seasoned them with garlic, salt, and chili powder. The seasoned chicken skin will offer a rich fat and flavor when I stir-fry vegetables.

Our cats and dogs are raw-fed, so they will eat chicken skin, meat, organs, and bone on their plates.

 

[ducks4you]

Funny, I started to pressure can stock specifically to use NO salt! I made another chuck roast Sunday and started with beef stock to cook down the potatoes. I would have added carrots, but I steamed green beans instead. I had to water the "Broth" (bc my stock is really rich), to cover the potatoes in my little crock pot, and, since I didn't make yorkshire pudding this time, I was able to save a quart of the leftover broth for the dogs. I don't worry about a small layer of grease. I recently opened beef broth from January. No problems with storage.

 

[ducks4you]

We made chili yesterday, which, as I have said, is Laced with tomatoes.
1 quart of tomatoes with a pint of pinto beans, cooked overnight to rehydrate, 1 1/2 quarts of tomatoes, 3 pounds of 80/20 hamburger, 3 large onions, 3 sweet peppers (from my plants,) 3 jars of chili sauce, cumin and chili powder, to taste. It filled my crock pot.
We had it for late lunch and dinner. DD's want it for dinner tonight. I stored 4 quarts and a little over a pint in the fridge. I had originally planned to pressure can it, but I think we will eat through 3 quarts tonight, and then the rest will be gone by Tuesday/Wednesday.
Also, I have started to harvest cucumbers and they will be part of today's lunch.
Ya know, my MIL grew up in a little town in S Central IL, born in 1920. Her uncle was a butcher, and she didn't know that there was a Depression bc they all grew gardens and ate Very well.

 

[Phaedra]

I baked today, one half-sized Pullman loaf, one large tray of soft dinner rolls, and one small tray of Anpan (Japanese style soft bread with azuki bean paste)

Baking at home also saves a lot of money; of course, the products could also be more delicious than what are offered in ordinary bakeries.

 

[digitS']

@Phaedra Geiermann , I have really liked the azuki bean dessert bread. I know that I have said it before but @Zeedman sent me azuki seeds years ago and the plants didn't even mature seed despite growing in a healthy way. Too much outside their suitable environment.

My parents were born in the "teens," @ducks4you . Mom said that she didn't know there was a depression because they were always depressed.

. They moved out of town to a ranch when she was a kid. I don't think that they had many cattle despite being way back in the hinterland. Machinery costs and I didn't see all that many acres cleared for hay when visiting as a kid myself, a decade after they had moved away. Grandma was the gardener.

Dad's family was the cash crop farm family in New Mexico but they had to get there first. Fortunately, they moved out of Oklahoma before the Dust Bowl Drought hit. His older brother said that they moved after the boys were old enough to pick cotton on the way . Dad may have gotten out of that work because he was only 10, as best as I understand. He attended school in Texas because the move took more than a year.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

@digitS', My G'parents both pairs lived in Philly and Cleveland. They both gardened, my maternal grandfather learned to be a true master gardener, and they KNEW that there was a depression.
My MIL gardened until her last days, btw, 1998.

 

[Dahlia]

We made chili yesterday, which, as I have said, is Laced with tomatoes.
1 quart of tomatoes with a pint of pinto beans, cooked overnight to rehydrate, 1 1/2 quarts of tomatoes, 3 pounds of 80/20 hamburger, 3 large onions, 3 sweet peppers (from my plants,) 3 jars of chili sauce, cumin and chili powder, to taste. It filled my crock pot.
We had it for late lunch and dinner. DD's want it for dinner tonight. I stored 4 quarts and a little over a pint in the fridge. I had originally planned to pressure can it, but I think we will eat through 3 quarts tonight, and then the rest will be gone by Tuesday/Wednesday.
Also, I have started to harvest cucumbers and they will be part of today's lunch.
Ya know, my MIL grew up in a little town in S Central IL, born in 1920. Her uncle was a butcher, and she didn't know that there was a Depression bc they all grew gardens and ate Very well.

Your chili sounds delicious! Very similar to one of my chili recipes. I typically make homemade cornbread to go on the side.

 

[Phaedra]

Toast, Eggs, Scallion, Pork Floss, Cheese, and Aioli - the quickest way to replicate the Taiwanese Pork Floss Bread Roll.

I will say it's a quite balanced meal, eating well on a budget.

Bobo escorted me (or I escorted him?) to pick some greens, then I had the crown daisy for making the egg drop soup.

 

[Phaedra]

I removed the bones from the chicken thighs and enjoyed a quick lunch. The food cost is not more than 1.5Euro.

 

[Dahlia]

I removed the bones from the chicken thighs and enjoyed a quick lunch. The food cost is not more than 1.5Euro.
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You are an amazing chef! The platters of food you make always look tasty and pretty!