Maximum Return on Investment- The Supermarket

In 2007 and 2008 the garden produced bumper crops. We started making making some salsa to put in the freezer. All the ingredients are oven roasted before dicing. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, and jalapenos. The first year lime juice was added. Lime juice is kind of a funky flavor after freezing, left it out in the next year and each year later. Last year I started canning the salsa.

Surprisingly we ate very little of the salsa as salsa on chips. Almost all of it has been repurposed. Add different amounts canned tomato sauce and it is a bold and spicy pasta sauce or a mild pasta sauce. We use it straight as the sauce ingredient in meatloaf. With cubed and dried bread in a stuffed pork loin. Refrigerator marinade for beef and pork, then using the marinade for a cooked sauce. Sauce for tacos, burritos, chimichangas, and pizza. Heat can be increased with sun dried cayenne peppers, still have some left from 2008. Will add thyme, rosemary, or other herbs, for a slightly different flavor.

Haven't purchased any type of tomato sauces since fall of 2007. This year I will be growing our herbs, with grow lights, down stairs in the family room. Last two years I had them in the garage, after digging and potting from the garden, but the garage kitty ate the chives and parsley.

Ice cube trays are your friend....

I buy the big tubs of Greek yogurt when it's 50% off because it's about to expire and freeze it in ice cube trays, then into ziplock bags. Makes the perfect base for fruit smoothies.

I cook with small amounts of chicken stock a lot. Frozen in ice cube trays and I always have small amounts as needed.

Same with juices (orange, lemon, lime, apple, etc...). Don't drunk much fruit juice, but cook with it quite a bit, and ice cube sized portions are great for marinades, guac, etc...

Frozen cubes of bacon fat for future uses.....red beans & rice, chili, etc...

Seems half of my freezer is bagged cubes of stuff.

AZ_IPA said:

Ice cube trays are your friend....

I buy the big tubs of Greek yogurt when it's 50% off because it's about to expire and freeze it in ice cube trays, then into ziplock bags. Makes the perfect base for fruit smoothies.

I cook with small amounts of chicken stock a lot. Frozen in ice cube trays and I always have small amounts as needed.

Same with juices (orange, lemon, lime, apple, etc...). Don't drunk much fruit juice, but cook with it quite a bit, and ice cube sized portions are great for marinades, guac, etc...

Frozen cubes of bacon fat for future uses.....red beans & rice, chili, etc...

Seems half of my freezer is bagged cubes of stuff.

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You must be related to Alton Brown there AZ[emoji3]

Bensiff said:

You must be related to Alton Brown there AZ[emoji3]

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Nope - just a man crush on him. Wait, what?

Good deal or Creamy got cornholed?

Meat Plan #1 at the local supermarket

5 lbs eastern white potatoes
2 liters Coca Cola
2 lbs chicken wings
2 lbs turket wings
3 lbs chicken legs and thighs ("quarters")
2 lbs (heavy handed) beef chuck ground
2 lbs beef cube steak
2 lbs center cut pork chops

$39.99

Discuss?

CreamyGoodness said:

Good deal or Creamy got cornholed?

Meat Plan #1 at the local supermarket

5 lbs eastern white potatoes
2 liters Coca Cola
2 lbs chicken wings
2 lbs turket wings
3 lbs chicken legs and thighs ("quarters")
2 lbs (heavy handed) beef chuck ground
2 lbs beef cube steak
2 lbs center cut pork chops

$39.99

Discuss?

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Sounds about right on the price...

Not really amazing.

I guess the normal costs really quick

Wings about 4 bucks, turkey about 3, thigh quaters about 3, cube steak about 10, Ground chuck about 7, Chops about 7. So on the meat side plus or minus a few bucks your'e looking at about 34 bucks normal price depending on where you live and other factors of course. Anyway, the other things aren't worth 6 bucks really.

I'd say you got somewhere between sale and retail value. Good deal, but not one to blow my mind away. It's certainly better deal than like the pick 5 things for 20 bucks that Albertsons likes to run.

CreamyGoodness said:

Good deal or Creamy got cornholed?

Meat Plan #1 at the local supermarket


Discuss?

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I wouldn't say you got cornholed, besides you got no corn but I don't think it's a bargain, I don't know what Coke costs, don't drink soda (why would I when there's beer!) and I have to figure that your in the city.
Then you need to figure in are these item that you would buy any ways?
I don't buy wings regularly, so it's a relative.

I thought that was an ingredient list for a new style of beer.

Billy-Klubb said:

I thought that was an ingredient list for a new style of beer.

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I want his recipe for turket wings.

Don't know why I never found this thread, I do alot of this, I'm not cheap just frugal, I'm German.
I could save a lot more if I didn't have 4 legal motorcycles, not to mention the others but they do save a lot on gas!

Zuljin said:

I want his recipe for turket wings.

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Grill/broil/fry them, then cover in a mixture of equal parts of hert serce & butter.

ChefRex said:

Don't know why I never found this thread, I do alot of this, I'm not cheap just frugal, I'm German.
I could save a lot more if I didn't have 4 legal motorcycles, not to mention the others but they do save a lot on gas!

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Yeah. And home brewing saves on beer money. Uh-huh. Your secret is safe here.

slym2none said:

Grill/broil/fry them, then cover in a mixture of equal parts of hert serce & butter.

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Can I use whatsthisheresauce?

I like to make some things in bulk, like spaghetti sauce. I will then bag it in quart-sized freezer bags and freeze it.

The last bag is always the best, too.

Buy meats in bulk and freeze, as well. Hamburger freezes well if you make 1- or 2-pound packs out of it, and freeze it flat (it thaws faster, and sometimes that's nice). Chicken tenders and boneless/skinless chicken thighs get frozen on a sheet pan and then bagged after freezing. I buy whole pork loins, slice them into chops myself, and freeze like above.

Roasts are great to buy on sale and freeze, too.

When I make pulled pork BBQ, I get the two-packs of shoulders/Boston Butts/pernils and cook both. No wasting charcoal, and BBQ (you guessed it!) freezes well.

As you might imagine, having a chest-freezer is pretty much a necessity for all this.

I also will pick some fruits & vegetables (what we have here in NC that works for this process) and freeze those as well. Corn is great to cut off the cop, add just a little water, then bring to just a boil. Add a little salt, bag, & freeze. Strawberries, quartered & sugared then bagged & frozen. Blueberries, frozen on a metal pan and then bagged.

That's all I can think of for now...

Zuljin said:

Can I use whatsthisheresauce?

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NO! At least, not if you want to call them Berffalo Wings!

:fro:

Zuljin said:

Yeah. And home brewing saves on beer money. Uh-huh. Your secret is safe here.

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They are more fun then bicycles

Okay. This bread. I can't say. Shhh. I'm just saying, **** works, yo. Some yall know. Y'all don't best believe. Mother****ing bees, man. Bees. Fleischman's. Produce. It's all at the grocer's. It's all right there. You feelin me?

we try to hunt it,fish it,raise it, or grow it. South Texas deer in the pasture = ground meat, jerky, sausage. Fishing is fun, we will have a blast filling an ice chest full of catfish fillets. One offshore trip yielded over 100 pounds of tuna fillets....and was a boat load of fun too!

Find the 4H club if you are near the country. Those kids raise Lots of critters! Like hundreds of chickens,turkeys, half a dozen pigs and goats, and usually several steers to carry around to the shows. The lesser performing animals are shifted out of the competition. The last 3 years we have had whole pigs given to us by friends. Split a 4H steer every year...and return the favor with jerky and sausages...we make a lot of sausage!

Few years back we were part of a canning club....everybody pitched in and canned corn, green beans, squash, peaches, and plums, jellies, and jams....the costs and products were divided up. Had a lot fun with good folks and carried home boxes of canned goodies. We should start that up again!

Bushel of organically grown tomatoes from a farmstand $32... 20 pts of pasta sauce half liter of juice 4 quarts of purée a quart jar of whole peeled tomatoes packed in juice, and I shared some raw with my bro. I think I got my money's worth.

85% ground chuck is on sale this week for $3.40 a pound. I'll make an eight pound meatloaf Wednesday. Vacuum seal the left overs in one meal portions to go in the freezer.

CreamyGoodness said:

Good deal or Creamy got cornholed?

Meat Plan #1 at the local supermarket

5 lbs eastern white potatoes
2 liters Coca Cola
2 lbs chicken wings
2 lbs turket wings
3 lbs chicken legs and thighs ("quarters")
2 lbs (heavy handed) beef chuck ground
2 lbs beef cube steak
2 lbs center cut pork chops

$39.99

Discuss?

Click to expand...

Well, being a meat plan I would say you got screwed since potatoes and coca cola are definitely not meat. To rationalize it all I would have to ask the quality of the meats. Poultry I would say is a little over $1/lb (especially since we are nearing 25 cents a pound turkey season). Whats the meat/fat ratio of the groung chuck? Best rationale is to look in the same store and add it up. Find the price per pound of the meat cuts, add that up then add a buck for the soda and whatever the taters cost. all in all the meat is coming in at just under $3/lb on average.

I just now caught the turket thing. Hah.

Turket is pricy

Here's my tip:

I find it best to go shopping at about 10am. Your co-workers have already put their lunches in the fridge and have returned to their desks, so you've got the pick of the litter!

hahahaa!!! "turket" and "groung chuck". this is gonna be one helluva beer! gonna use 3711 and pumpkin spices? where's @TNGabe for advice?