Getting 20 Meals Out of 1 Ham

Yes, I actually get 20 meals out of one ham. When ham is on sale, buy a big bone-in uncooked, but smoked, ham. (It’s possible around here to get a good size on sale for $20 or so, making this a source of protein for 20 meals at $1 per meal PER family. That’s cheap.) Bake it in your oven and use it for your first meal. Everyone gets a good slice. You might serve it with mashed potatoes and corn and applesauce for a traditional ham dinner. Use your favorite recipe and meal combination.

Let the ham cool. Then slice off the fat and discard it. Slice off all the meat. Leave a little bit on the bone. Use the ham bone to make Ham and Bean Soup. This soup is delicious! Make a big batch. This is good for about 3 hearty meals for us. Sometimes 4.

Now chop up all the rest of the ham. Cube it wherever possible. For oddly cut pieces, just chop it up into nice bite-sized chunks. Put these into ziplock freezer bags in portions of about 1-1/2 cups – 2 cups each. Use these portions for:

Quiche (one small package is enough for two regular quiche pies, making enough for two meals)

Scrambled Eggs (Use one small package and just add some ham to your scrambled eggs. You should be able to use one package for several breakfasts.)

Ham and Pineapple Pizza (One small package is enough for one hearty pizza and is enough for one supper and one lunch for my family. One large package can be stretched to cover two pizzas, making enough for two suppers and two lunches for my family, or for one meal when serving another family.)

Other soups

Macaroni and Cheese (Just add some ham for extra protein and a more gourmet flavor.)

Hash brown casserole (When you add ham, it makes a hearty main dish.)

Stuffed Corn Bread

Recipes to come….

Cabbage

Cabbage. Cabbage is today’s tip. How many times have you purchased lettuce for salad only to discover it has wilted long before you’ve used it up? OR, have you made a salad that didn’t get finished and have to throw it out because it got wilted due to being cut/torn/or slathered in dressing? No more! Cabbage to the rescue!

I love to use cabbage for salads. I love the crunch – no matter what! I love that it lasts WAY longer in the fridge (or even just in the salad bowl) than actual lettuce. Not only that, it’s packed with far more nutrition than the average lettuce. AND, it’s WAY CHEAPER! You just can’t beat that!

If you don’t like regular green or purple cabbage, try Chinese or Napa cabbage instead. It’s a lot more lettuce-like with all the benefits of regular cabbage!

A Breakfast Menu "Routine"

Planning a menu can sometimes feel like drudgery. I find that I go through menu-planning phases – from the Mountaintop of Menu-Inspiration to the Valley of Absolutely NO CLUE! What works best for me is a sort of menu “routine.”

My weekly breakfast routine looks something like this:
- Saturday = pancake breakfast (cooked by my loving husband EVERY SINGLE Saturday)
- 3 hot cereal breakfasts
- 1 egg breakfast
- 1 muffin/toast breakfast
- 1 granola/yogurt breakfast

Within this outline, the details can vary, but it gives me a GREAT starting point.

The hot cereal breakfasts consist of some type of hot cereal (Red River, Cream of Wheat, oatmeal) with various toppings. Sometimes I’ll do a raisins and spice version; other times it’ll be a more exotic coconut and dried pineapple, etc. We usually have a glass of milk and a fruit alongside our cereal. It all depends on what is in my pantry and what’s on sale that week!

The egg breakfast has limitless possibilities. A personal favorite is a fried egg on English muffins with tomato slices and a glass of juice. The kids drink milk. I sometimes add a slice of cheese for the family if they’ll need an extra boost that morning. Or, scrambled eggs with all sorts of chopped veggies and basic buttered toast with a glass of juice. Or simply a fried egg with a muffin and a smoothie. Or biscuits and eggs and a fruit salad. Like I said, limitless possibilities.

The muffin/toast breakfast is a quick one. The muffins are prepared ahead of time so the morning of that breakfast, we can just grab one and go. I like to pair this breakfast with a smoothie or a fruit salad and a glass of milk. Very quick and simple is the key for this one. It usually ends up being our Sunday morning breakfast because we have to be out of the house much earlier than usual on Sundays.

The granola/yogurt breakfast is just that – homemade granola and yogurt with fruit. Another quick and simple breakfast.

So with my menu “routine” already in place, planning the breakfasts for each week are a little easier, even when I’m feeling uninspired. The routine is half the battle!

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.

MONEY BACK with coupons!

I don't have a photo today, but for the first time EVER, I used a coupon and actually got PAID to "purchase" an item! YES! It was a measly penny, but still! Superstore had Colgate toothbrushes on sale for $0.99 and I had a coupon for $1 off a Colgate toothbrush!

Once again, I looked at the flyer this week and looked at the coupons I had and combined weekly flyer savings with my coupons to save more than $15! I got items like Old Spice deodorant for $1.23, Old Spice body wash for the same price, deodorant for $0.99, Scope mouth wash for $1.99, Colgate toothpaste and toothbrushes ranging in price from FREE to $0.89, and LARGE bottles of Tresemme shampoo and conditioner for $3.99. Oh! And a pack of Danone Crush yogurt for just over $2!

So once again, coupons made my shopping trip!

I GET IT! I saved over $25 with coupons!

I am giddy with excitement about my first planned coupon-shopping trip! I didn’t think this was possible. I’ve been following Mrs. January and wondering how in the world she does it! But now I’VE DONE IT! Let me share with you!

For all of this, I paid a whopping $9.26!!! Here’s how:

First, I organized all of my coupons, making sure none were out of date and sorting them by category. I became quite familiar with what I have as I went through this process.

Then, I looked at the weekly flyers and found items that were on sale that I had coupons for. I planned what I would buy and where and made sure I was getting a massive deal on each item.

Next, I went shopping!

Shopper’s Drug Mart
Clover Leaf Tuna on sale for $0.79 each.
I had 7 coupons for “Buy 2, Save $1″.
At Shopper’s price, that’s two cans for $1.58, minus my coupon, is 2 for $0.58, or $0.29 each!
Total paid: $4.05
Total saved: $7 (actually more, because these were on sale already. This is just what I saved off the SALE price!)

Zeller’s

Dove (4x90g) on sale for $2.99 today only
Coupon for $1 off makes it $1.99.
Gillette Shave Foam on sale for $1.79.
Coupon for Buy 3, Save $5.
Buying 3 at sale price brings it to $5.37, minus my coupon makes it $0.37 for all three, or $0.12 for ONE! WHAT A DEAL!
Bounty Extra Soft Paper Towel $1.99.
Coupon for One Free Package!
Total Paid: $2.88
Total Saved: $11.49

Superstore

Arm & Hammer Toothpaste on sale for $1.49
Coupon for Save $1
Coupon for Save $0.50
Coupon for Save $0.75
Bought 3 at $1.49 brings it to $4.47, minus the coupons brings it to $2.22.
THEN, Superstore always has a Deal of the Week. If the cashier forgets to mention it, you get it for free. Well, my cashier forgot, so I got a package of Halls Cough Drops that were on sale for $1.99 for FREE!
Total Paid: $2.33
Total Saved: $4.24 (more because this is what I saved off the already-on-sale price)

So, today I got a roll of Bounty paper towel, 3 cans of Gillette Shaving Cream, 4 bars of Dove soap, 14 cans of Clover Leaf tuna, 3 tubes of Arm & Hammer Toothpaste, and a bag of Halls cough drops, all for a grand total of $9.26!!!! 

Not only that, but I didn’t even have to pay for the Superstore purchase out of my own money, because I took advantage of their deal last week of buying $250-worth and getting a $25 gift card. Today, my Superstore purchase came out of that gift card, so REALLY, I only spent a total of $6.93 of my own money today!!!! THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! It works out to MORE than $25 saved!!!!!

(Big thank-you to Susan for all the coupons you sent me! They sure are coming in handy!)

So, I’m convinced, now, that coupons really can help us Canadians! I hope to experience a few more of these victorious shopping trips in the future!