Can buying MORE meat save me money?

I am slowly... ever so slowly... attempting an experiment in my grocery spending. I am trying to increase the meat/protein consumption of my family in an effort to feed them more nutritious food that will sustain them longer, thereby decreasing the AMOUNT and FREQUENCY of their eating.

Hypoglycemia is an issue with some of my family members, and this means that any type of sugar - even natural sugars - seems to increase their metabolism and they become hungry much more quickly. This means carbs are not necessarily a cost-effective way to keep them fed. Breads, pastas, muffins, etc. might be cheap for me to make, but in the long run, is it STILL cheaper? Not to mention, is it nutritious enough?

I got this idea from this post. I'll be sure to let you know how it's going.

Even More Hand Soap Savings

Last year, I posted about how I save on hand soap by using rubber bands. I have since increased my hand soap savings significantly. I bought a large package of liquid hand soap from Costco way back in October or November. I MIGHT have used 1/3 of it so far. This is monumental, people! How am I doing it? I am turning it into foaming hand soap. It is SO simple. Here's the link I used that showed me how.

(Link credit goes to MoneySavingMom)

The Rubber Chicken

For years and years, I have done what I thought almost miraculous by stretching one chicken into three or four meals for our family. I really thought this was quite an accomplishment. However, I had become quite bored with those meals. The ones I usually used were:

1) a basic chicken soup of some sort
2) a chicken casserole-type dish, like Chicken Pot Pie, or Chicken Broccoli Casserole
3) quesadillas or a green salad with chicken in it
4) maybe cold chicken salad sandwiches

Boring.

I am thrilled to inform you that, not only have I ceased to be bored with my rubber chicken endeavors, I have also now learned to stretch that ONE chicken into SIX meals for my family!!! All thanks to one of the new blogs I mentioned in my last post: Heavenly Homemakers.

Laura posted "How To Stretch A Chicken To Make Six Meals." Her suggestions for meals are:
1) Broth to make Chicken Tortilla Soup
2) Chicken Noodle Soup
3) Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Pasta
4) Black Bean Taco Salad
5) Three Cheese Garlic Chicken
6) and Chicken Veggie Quesadillas

While her soups are not my family's style, I am inspired to use my own Warrior Chicken Soup, and my mom's traditional homemade chicken noodle soup. (Recipes will come eventually!) I have tried the Homemade Alfredo Sauce on her blog and it is FANTASTIC! I also LOVED the Black Bean Taco Salad. The Three Cheese Garlic Chicken was good, but I think I'm going to play around with it a bit. The Chicken Veggie Quesadillas were also wonderful. My family loved every single one of these recipes. If I put these on a sort of "chicken rotation" with some of my other chicken recipes, I think I could make QUITE A FEW meals out of an order of Hutterite chickens. (A local colony sells excellent chickens at a great price. You buy a bag with a few chickens in it.) I'm going to experiment with this, as well, and see if I can make up some freezer meals using these recipes as a guideline. I can cook the soup one day, then next day, assemble a few freezer meals.

Other recipe ideas:
White Chicken Chili
Chinese Chicken Salad
Chicken and Rice Curry Casserole
Bread Bowl Chicken Stew
Mulligatawny Soup

A Few Links to Keep You Busy For Awhile

Pennies A Plate: This is my original Pennies A Plate blog. I am hoping to transfer the posts and recipes from that one onto this one eventually, but for now, maybe just save the link so you can refer back if you need to.

The Heart of Frugality: This article was so encouraging to me during a time when I felt stifled by our need to be frugal. Remind me in the near future and I'll try to write a post about using your money to ENHANCE your life. Keyword = Enhance.

Manna in the Morning: Another Tim Challies article that encouraged me during a very lean time.

Hummingbird Homemaking: A new-to-me blog that discusses frugality with groceries without mention of coupons and without a bunch of frequent "deals" posts and such. I have found this one to be quite refreshing!

Heavenly Homemakers: Another new-to-me blog with a lot of useful information and inspiration.