Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!! How We Afford It

I had a blast making these videos to show you how we afford to eat real food. Sorry about the foil noise in the first segment. I promise the rest is better ;-) I broke it down into two sections because I know it is so hard to take the time to watch long videos on blogs. (six minutes each)I did this because so many people ask, 'how can I afford to eat like this?', and I personally find it easier sometimes to just 'see' it being done. I hope this inspires you. I also posted the steps below, as well as the final cost analysis.





*Procure Organic Free-Range Chicken

*Prep chicken for roasting

*Roast Chicken

*Serve reasonable amount of protein per person

*"Pick" chicken for meal later in week

*Put carcass in stock pot with water and vinegar (for at least one hour or overnight)

*Put stockpot on in morning to simmer all day with veggies of choice (carrots, onion, celery)

*12 hours or so later turn off and strain stock into jars

*Re-pick chicken

*Refrigerate stock until cool

*Pour into freezer bags and freeze flat


As stated in the video, for $36.00 I got:


* two ample protein based dinners,


*two very full lunches,


*two 3- ounce portions of chicken breast for lunch for myself,


*enough 'picked' chicken for stir fried rice and


*9 1/2 quarts of delicious, good for you bone broth!


According to my husband who is way better at math than I am, that is 78 cents per serving, per person for organic, free range chicken!! (46 servings) Woo Hoo!!


AND!!


9 1/2 quarts of stock that easily could sell for $4.50 a quart. ( I have paid this much, on sale, for organic chicken stock) that is $42.75!!!


So, do you get that???? I paid $36.00 (2.85 lb.) for the chickens and I got 46 servings and over $42.00 worth of organic chicken stock!


(for our Tuesday leftover meal, this week, White Chili, I actually have enough for another lunch for the children)


Please DO NOT do this with plain old store bought chicken. It must, at the very least be organic!

19 comments:

Mama to 12, so far said...

Thanks!
More, more, more videos on this subject please! LOL!
I am a visual person, so this sure helps me.

Farmgirl Cyn said...

Michelle!
This was awesome! I think folks will really get a lot more out of your written description with this how-to video. How about some clips where you show how you make your enchiladas, soups, etc. There are young mama's out there that need this kind of visual and this was just what the doctor ordered! Now...go rest! You've been quite busy the past week or so!

xoxo,
Cindy

Sheri said...

Wow, that looked so doable! Thank you so much for posting the video. Well done! Keep on having your mini classes for us, it really helps!

Camille said...

How great is that?? I have been doing the organic chicken thing and using it ALL since you introduced me to the broth concept last fall. Thanks Michelle! Oh, and I just realised the other day that we were barely sick at all throughout the entire winter! Interesting hey? :)

Have a wonderful day! AND...I agree with Cindy...you need to take a break now and enjoy some rest! :)

With Love,
Camille

Unknown said...

I can't watch your clips because of painfully slow dial-up, but great post anyway! We raised turkeys last summer. We put quite a bit of money into them, because those boogers can eat. But, when we cook one, goodness! The meat and broth from one of our farm raised turkeys feeds us meal upon meal. Well worth it!

Mary said...

Michelle, you need to let your e-mail contacts know that you are not in the U.K. and needing a loan of $1,000 to get back home. Somebody has obviously hacked into your e-mail and sent a plea for money to all your contacts. I got one this morning, and knew it wasn't you, and deleted it. I deleted all my e-mail contacts, just in case, and wrote their addresses on a piece of paper the old-fashioned way in case I want to e-mail them. You can delete this message when you are done with it.

Jennifer said...

Michelle, I'm concerned! I also got an email asking for money, and I don't really think it is you. Please let me know what's really going on that you are safe at home!
Love,
Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Michelle, this was SO helpful! It's amazing how many meals you can get out of a few chickens. Thank you for going to the trouble of costing it out for us.

Mary said...

I loved those videos! Nice to hear you talk! Hope the e-mail thing works out. You could warn all the people in your contact list maybe. Hope everything will be ok.

Wanting What I Have said...

This was SO FUN to watch! I loved getting to hear your voice and see you fam! Thanks for sharing and taking the time to do this. This is how I do our chickens, too. (Only, yikes - they aren't usually organic...BUT, our good friends have started an organic farm and anticipate being able to sell their chickens this summer! Wooo hooo! We'll be all organic after that. (With the whole chickens.) Still haven't watched that movie you recommended. Guess I need to "wake up Shelby!" :)

Gail LaCroix said...

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this. Since I am a visual person I really enjoyed the videos, and am so inspired now to get a couple organic chickens and run with it.

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

This is exactly what I do. It is so affirming to see other people doing the same. I love that you are showing people that it is possible to make a more expensive chicken go so far. Great videos!

Blessings,
Jackie

Mary said...

Are you on Facebook?

gfe--gluten free easily said...

Great post on how to make organic purchases work! I don't usually buy organic because there's no organic in our local store, but I can purchase at our farmer's market.

Thanks so much,
Shirley

busymomof10 said...

Michelle, This was such a GREAT idea! I LOVED watching the videos, just to see you and hear your voice! But, I also learned a lot, too!

Now, I want to see More of these! How about one for every night of the week? do you have a set menu that you make every week? Can you show us more of how you cook Real Food and stretch it to feed a large family?

Also, I am making chicken stock, but I'm a bit more intimidated by the beef stock. Would love to see a video of that!

Thanks so much for taking the time to bless and enourage all of us!

Unknown said...

"Winner, Winner, chicken dinner", you must be a Triple D watcher like us. Thanks for sharing the videos.
Blessings
Diane

Mary said...

That is a good use of money, by the way, for the chicken. Thanks for sharing.

Rachel said...

Other than the chicken carcass and the vegetables, did you put anything else in your stock? Salt? Pepper? Herbs?

And this may be a silly question, but what happened to the vegetables that you put into the stock? Did you all eat them for dinner?

Thank you for the videos. It was really helpful to me.

Camille said...

Hey Michelle ~ Just hopped over to let you know I linked here on my current post. It was just SO GREAT...I thought it should be shared some more and more and more. :) Thanks again!

Blessings,
Camille