I have been looking into what we eat more closely as of late, and have been quite disturbed about some of the things I have found. The recent beef recall has only served to reinforce what I have been reading. To that end, I am making an effort to buy better meats, but trying to do so at a reasonable price. I read many blogs that talk about frugality, especially in food. The only problem is, we often substitute what is good, for what is cheap. One of the changes I am making is reducing the amount of meat that we use. By reducing the meat, we can then afford to use better meat. I have also been watching for sales on organic meat. About a week and a half ago I went to Wal-mart one night and found three whole organic chickens for about $4 each. That is $2 below the original price they were marked. Although, this week when I checked the prices the whole organic chickens were running about $10 each.
Since the chickens sell by date was going to be running out in a couple of days I roasted all three of them together in my electric roaster. It was the best chicken any of us had ever tasted! What I did to them was oh, so simple, but oh, so good. I rinsed them out well, and then put 1/2 a lemon and a sprig of rosemary inside each one. After I placed them in the roaster I squeezed the juice of a whole lemon over them and sprinkled some chopped rosemary. I added a little kosher salt and cracked pepper and that was it. I cooked them at 325 F until they reached an internal temperature of 180. After allowing them to rest I cut them up. We ate off of one right then and put the rest in the fridge, and I cut up and froze the other two for future use.
On Wed we had chicken mashed potato bowls. It’s a take on the KFC mashed potato bowls, with a healthy & economical twist. I thawed one of the frozen chickens and heated it in the oven by putting it in a covered pan with a little water in the bottom. The water creates a steam, which makes the meat quite moist. I do this whenever re-heating meat, and it helps greatly. I heated it at 400 until warm. I then made homemade mashed potatoes with fat free cream cheese, butter and organic half and half. I’m sure they were healthy due to the fat free cream cheese and the half and half being organic…. aren’t you??? I also steamed some broccoli, made homemade chicken gravy, and grated cheddar cheese. Then we each assembled our bowls and enjoyed them. It is amazing how something like this adds up and how filling it is. You also use a lot less meat serving it this way as opposed to serving a slice or two on the side. Feeding our family of 7 I only used half the chicken. We ate the other half in leftovers over the next couple of days.
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I find that I can’t do the quite small grocery budgets that others due because we try to by better quality stuff as well. Fortunately, my husband wants it that way so it’s ok.
The best deal I’ve found consistently on organic chickens is at Costco. I can get 2 there for 10-11 dollars. Still not cheap, but much more reasonable than most of the stores around here where I would buy one for that price!
Comment by Noah — February 23, 2008 @ 10:35 am
Noah,
Thanks for the heads up on this. We have a Costco about 13 miles from our house. I have always been a member of Sam’s, but adding a Costco membership would be worth it if the meat is that low. I looked online and the chicken was $39 for two; do you find that their online prices are higher than those in the store?
Comment by Lora — February 23, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
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