Dollar Stretching Recipe Strategies

With all the talk about how bad the economy is and the very strong possibility of a complete economic collapse looming, it seems like a good time to talk about how you can stretch your budget and get more meals from the food you are buying. Michael and I do a lot of this as we live remotely and grow almost all the vegetables and a lot of the chicken and rabbit that we eat. Getting the most out of every edible is a lot better than wasting because we didn't plan how to use something.

So, strategize something like this. Take a chicken dinner as an example. Is it better to buy say, a package of thighs or drumsticks at the store for .99 cents a pound or is it better to buy a whole fryer at the same price per pound. Hmm? What difference does it make? Well, consider this. Say there are two of you in your family. Each of you would normally eat two thighs for dinner. There are 10 thighs in the package so you would get essentially 2 1/2 meals from the package. On the other hand, with the whole chicken you may be able to eat a leg quarter each for one meal, a breast each for the second meal and use the back portions and wings to make a pot of soup for the third meal plus use the left over broth from the soup to cook a pot of rice. Same dollar expenditure but 3 and 1/2 meals instead of 2 and 1/2 meals. Plus if you were to both share one breast for one meal you could use the second breast for stir fry and gain a fourth meal for two of you. Strategy!!!

What else could you strategize with? Vegetables. Most of us in our community believe in recycling and living in tune with mother nature. So, we don't just look at vegetables as an item for dinner. We also look at other uses such as zuchini bread, chicken feed, or if it is too ripe, composting it into food for the soil we grow in.

As you can see, there are many ways to use even a simple vegetable to get more value for your dollar. This post may not seem to offer a recipe in the traditional manner but in a sense it is a recipe for your recipes. Strategize your menu for as many things as you can and you will save on your food bill plus have fun coming up with new recipes and uses for your food.

ArleneKaye