Tightwad Tuesday's Update
Yesterday, I:
- made turkey soup from leftovers in the fridge: turkey bits and pieces, turkey stock, half an onion in the crisper, rice leftovers, thawed and chopped some frozen carrots, added frozen celery, added alphabets pasta, chopped up some chives from my garden, added 1/3 can of tomatoes (chopped-up).
This made a large soup stockpot full of soup; will put some in small containers and freeze.
- saved the turkey fat that rose to the top of the turkey stock; froze it; will use it spoon by spoon as a frying medium.
- thawed a frozen jug of milk, and saved 3 Creama bottles full of cream from it; refroze the cream; the rest of the jug of milk in thawing slowly in the fridge.
- I think I can make this milk go even further by diluting it with water as I use it; it was whole milk, so now that 3 jugs of cream have been siphoned off it, it still is very rich when thawed, so I'm using half water/half milk when I need milk for cereal.
- Also chopped up 4 onions which I salvaged from my onion bag hanging in the basement; bagged and froze the onions
- Bagged the lemon juice cubes which I froze in ice-cube tray
- Baked my last tube of Pillsbury crescents (bought on sale and with coupon); I baked these flat--as scones; they make a nice bread dip for the turkey soup
- Started my first 2 litre bottle of homemade ginger ale; hope it turns out
- Re-used coffee filter again; these filters actually last a long time; I just wash mine under the tap, then hang to dry; the coffee grounds go in my planters outside.
- Am thinking of doing away with paper coffee filters entirely and making some fabric ones; I have a thrift shop nightgown (new) made of 100% extra-fine cotton which would make great coffee filters
- After all my cooking and freezing, my fridge looks nice and cleared-out and organized; I've got some good food in there now instead of all those little tubs of leftovers, and it cost me nothing extra.
- A turkey is really a good investment: lots of meat, makes all kinds of meals, makes at least a gallon of soup; even the bones can be boiled again for more stock; the fat is also usable. I always buy my turkeys when they are on sale at Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving. Usually my town store has them on sale for a lower cose if you buy $50 of groceries, so I make a purchase plan, shop twice, and get 2 turkeys. I usually pay about $10 - $12 for a turkey, and one turkey will provide meals for 2-4 weeks. I roast the turkey, cool it, and then divide it into small plastic bags, then salvage the fat and make the soup from the stock, using all the little bits and pieces of meat.
- Spent $1.98 for 2 jugs of water today
- Munched on chokecherry candy (brittle) for a treat
- Drank chokecherry vinegar juice for a pick-me-up
- The mail yielded my GST rebate notice: $62 for this quarter, etc.
a card & a packet of postage stamps from a family member, other mail.
- Got a couple of good naps in yesterday between periods of utter exhaustion; did that large load of dishes from soup-making, etc. at 2 AM
