Some many people are bellyaching about how they don't have money and yet I see people buying cigarettes at over $7 a pack. I see people racing back and forth up and down the hill by our house in gas guzzling turbo engined vehicles. I see people in Starbucks drinking beverages over $3 a pop.
If you don't have money, economize...hello!!?
Cheap Living Tip #1
Go to the farmers market and buy a chayote (pipinola)and instead of cooking it, lay it on the ground and let the shoot develop. Set up a place for the vine to grow on. We used two bamboo poles (free from our yard) and a piece of wire that they use for concrete forms (which was lying around our yard). This served as the area for the chayote to grow. You can eat the fruit like a squash in stir fry dishes, soups or stews. I hear tell that you can also slice up the fruit and use it in an apple pie recipe. I like to use the fruit when it is green and young. You can also pinch off the shoots and steam them or use them in a stir fry. I like it steamed lightly and eaten with Best Foods Mayonnaise.
You can use the same process to grow sweet potatoes (you can also eat the sweet potato shoots), potatoes.
Cheap Living Tip #2
Turkey is cheap at Safeway this week...29 cents a pound. On the day you are off, roast the turkey. After it is cooked, remove the turkey from the bones. You can separate the meal into dark and white meat portions. Put meal size portions into freezer ziploc bags and freeze the turkey. You can use the cooked turkey for meals on busy days...sandwiches, turkey corn scallop, turkey vegetable soup, curry.
Take the carcass and bones and cover it with water. Add some salt and chopped onions and let it simmer until all the meat has fallen off of the bones. If you wish, you could add in one ham hock with the turkey bones. Remove the bones, skim the fat off the soup. You can use the stock as the basis for your turkey vegetable soup. Or you can add one cup washed uncooked rice, 5-6 water chestnuts, the stem ends of mustard cabbage (chopped), and let simmer until the rice has exploded. This is the Chinese rice soup called Chuk or jook. When serving, you can add in finely chopped green onions, the leafy portion of the mustard cabbage (chopped fine), or chopped lettuce. Condiments to spice up the rice soup could be sweet chili sauce, kochujang - Korean pepper paste, miso - Japanese soy paste, chili pepper water, or shoyu. Choose which condiment best fits your taste.
Cheap Living Tip #3 - Beef Stew or Soup Starters.
When making stew, instead of buying stew meat which is over $3 a pound, buy soup bone. If the butcher did too good a job of removing meat from the bone, buy a family size package of chuck steak that is on sale or reduced in price. In a soup pot, saute a round onion (chopped), and add in the soup bone and the chopped meat chunks. Brown the meat. Lightly salt the meat in the cooking process. Add in water to cover. Add in chopped celery and a bay leaf and let simmer merrily about an hour. Skim the oil off of the soup. Adjust taste by adding salt, coarse black pepper, worcestershire sauce. Do not overseason. Let the soup cool. Remove the soup bone and give it to your dog to gnaw. Portion out the cooled soup into freezer ziploc bags, dividing up the meat chunks into each bag. Make sure that the bags are sealed. Identify the contents and date by writing on the bag. Freeze in your freezer by laying the bags in a baking pan. Separate bags with a piece of newspaper between each bag. When the soup is frozen, remove the newspapers and baking pan.
Things to add to your Stew Starters
Potatoes, carrots, stewed tomatoes, or wrinkled, neglected tomatoes from your refrigerator drawer, leftovers such as assorted cooked vegetables, leftover chili. spaghetti, pasta etc. Try adding frozen bags of mixed vegetables or spinach or taro leaves. You can change the stew by adding curry mixes. Adjust the flavor accordingly. If you have little kids, make your vegetable soups fun by adding in alphabet pasta.
Have fun saving money and time.
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