Rendering your own Lard

I know some will turn up there nose at this.  But Lard doesn't have transfats.

I always boil down bones from meats to make my own stock/broth.  I have always had fat left over.  What do you do with it.  Yesterday I had used pork stock, and the left over fat.  I used the fat instead of shortening in my biscuits.  My Goodness those were the best biscuits I have ever had.  My middle child asked if I had gone and got Popeye's biscuits for breakfast.  Well they didn't exactly taste like Popeyes but they were soft flakey and so yummy.  So I started thinking, maybe I can make my own lard because whole generations use lard.  Well, I decided to look online this morning and see what I could find.  And low and behold I found something.  How to render and can your own lard.  Yippee!  I read it and decided this needed to be shared.

http://www.howtobaker.com/techniques/insane-foodie-projects/how-to-render-and-can-your-own-lard/comment-page-1/#comment-41660

Also on the site, How to make your own sea salt and How to make Cream cheese without starter cultures.  This guy is Brilliant.  I have set this site as a favorite and I think those like minded will too.

Remember real fat from meats are okay it is transfat that is bad.  And Lard is 100% natural, pig fat and water are the ingredients.  Gee can you get more natural?

Chili didn't stretch as far.

So I wanted to see if I could stretch chili like I did the pot roast.  Well, it didn't work out that well.  We had Frito Chili pie 3 times, and then I made enchiladas and that lasted for 2 meals.  But that still leaves 5 meals for less than $20 for a family of 5. I am still happy with my results.  I haven't decided whether it will be roasted Chicken or pork roast this week.

The essence of Frugality. 8 meals out of one.

If you know me I am truly a tightwad.  I refuse to pay full price for anything at the grocery store or any store.  Since moving to the big city, I have found so many more places to price match for Walmart.  This is awesome since the cost of living is more expensive here.  I am going to explain here how I got the absolute more out of a deal. 

A couple of weeks ago, I found a sale on meat.  I ended up getting a beef roast for $1.49/lb.  That on its own is a really good deal but I stretched that roast out into 8 meals and not just left over pot roast.  

1. On Tuesday, I made pot roast and fresh homemade yeast rolls. 
2. Wednesday morning I packed Mr. J's lunch with Roast beef sliders using the left over yeast rolls. 
3. Wednesday night, for dinner we had Beef Stew. I used the left over broth from cooking the pot roast that I didn't use for Gravy and added red beans, split peas, frozen mixed veggies, cut the left over roast up into bit size pieces, rice, and barley, then added the left over gravy, carrots, potatoes, and peas from the pot roast served with homemade cornbread.  
4. Thursday night for dinner, I took the some of the stew from the night before and put it in a cast iron skillet topped with homemade biscuits for a rustic beef pot pie
5. Friday lunch, I had the the left over rustic pot pie, and J had a bowl of stew and left over cornbread.
6. Saturday Dinner, I made actual pie crust from scratch and made a real pot pie out of the left over stew, and 2 mini pot pies out of the left over crust and 2 ladles of the stew for J to take for lunch next week which would be meals 7 and 8.  

Price break down:

• 3.65lb Round roast             $6.89
• 4 russet potatoes                $0.40         (from a 10lb bag at 2.98)
• 1 lb carrots                        $0.50
• 1/2 package of frozen peas  $0.50
• 3 mushrooms                     $0.10          (from a package that I got for .69)
• various seasonings              $0.50 
• 1/4 bag red beans                $0.25
• 1/4 bag split peas                 $0.25
• 1 bag mixed veggies frozen   $1.00
• 1/2 c rice                             $0.25
• 1/4c pearled barley                $0.13
• Cornbread  ingredients           $0.20 ( equivalent of 2 jiffy mixes)
• Biscuit ingredients                 $0.15(equivalent of 1 bisquick mix)
• Pie crust ingredients              $0.35 
• Fresh yeast rolls ingredients   $1.75

Eight meals for $13.22.  And it is healthy with plenty of veggies.  This week I will see what I can do with Chili!  Enjoy!!!

4 Quick fix MRCs

I have 4 new recipes for long term storage for you.  Some quicker fix MRCs (meals ready to cook) from 3 pounds of Hamburger meat( the cheap 73%) and 2 lbs frozen vegetables with a few seasonings and noodles or rice thrown in.  These are great for the budget minded prepper/homesteader.  Meals for 6 at around $1.25 each.

I got my frozen vegetables on sale at a 10 for $10 sale at the local grocery store.  I get at least 10 when they have these sales.  Then I dehydrate the frozen vegetables for soups and meal mixes.  It is easy if you have a dehydrator, you just spread them out while still frozen in a single layer.  And run it until all vegetables are dry enough to pop when you crush them in your fingers or with a spoon.

To make hamburger rocks (dehydrate hamburger meat)

http://www.endtimesreport.com/hamburger_rocks.html

To make Cream of anything soup mix:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/cream-of-anything-soup-mix.htm

The first one will remind you of an everyday staple of broke parents everyday.  SOS, ____ on a Shingle.  Well I made it have veggies and pasta and rice for the shingle.  I also added a bit of ranch flavor to it to help the taste.

Ranch SOS

• 1 cup Hamburger rocks (dehydrated hamburger meat)
• 3/4 c dehydrated mixed vegetables
• 1/4 c cream of anything soup mix
• 1 tbsp dried minced onion
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1/3 c mini alphabet noodles (any small pasta will work)
• 1/2 c rice
• 1 tsp salt (can be omitted for diet)
• 1 tsp pepper (or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp garlic
• 1 tbsp ranch dressing mix
• 1 tsp beef boullion

Layer ingredients in a bottle, mason jar, or mylar bag. Don't forget an oxygen absorber.
To make:
Bring 4-5 cups of water to a boil and dump ingredients in stir until done.

Vegetable Beef stoup

• 3/4 c hamburger rocks
• 1 cup dehydrated mixed vegetables
• 1/4 c minced onion
• 3/4 c mini alphabet noodles
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp tomato boullion
• 1 tbsp beef boullion
• salt and pepper to taste (about a tsp each)

Layer ingredients in a bottle, mason jar, or mylar bag. Don't forget an oxygen absorber.
To make:
Bring 4-5 cups of water to a boil and dump ingredients in stir until done.

Creamy vegetable beef stoup

• 3/4 c hamburger rocks
• 1 cup dehydrated mixed vegetables
• 1/4 c minced onion
• 3/4 c mini alphabet noodles
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 1/4 c cream of anything soup
• 1 tbsp beef boullion
• salt and pepper to taste (about a tsp each)

Layer ingredients in a bottle, mason jar, or mylar bag. Don't forget an oxygen absorber.
To make:
Bring 4-5 cups of water to a boil and dump ingredients in stir until done.



Chicken Vegetable soup

• 1 1/4 cup dehydrated mixed vegetables
• 1/4 c minced onion
• 3/4 c mini alphabet noodles
• 1/4 c  parsley
• 1 tbsp Chicken boullion
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1/2 tsp sage
• salt and pepper to taste (about a tsp each)

Layer ingredients in a bottle, mason jar, or mylar bag. Don't forget an oxygen absorber.
To make:
Bring 4-5 cups of water to a boil and dump ingredients in stir until done.

These are easy, hearty, lower carb when divided up in to 5 or more servings, and good for you.

Sick days-MRCs

I went to Kroger Grocery store yesterday (not my normal store).  I found little bags of mini pastas for $0.39 and they weren't on sale.  Hey that is a great price no matter how you do the math. I got 3 bags of Mini alphabet noodles and 3 bags of mini wheels. So this morning while I was packing them up for longer storage, I had a stroke of genius. Soup for the kids when they are sick.  These noodles would be perfect for that.  And when Miss S is sick her restrictions on diet are pretty much gone.  So this would be a really fun treat for her to have. I kept it simple for her though.

Chicken noodle soup MRC

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp minced onion
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 2 tbsp parsley
• 1/2 cup dehydrated or Freeze Dried carrots
• 1 1/2 c noodles ( I used alphabets)
• 2 cubes of chicken boullion 

Layer in a bottle in the order from above and seal with an oxygen absorber.

To make 8 cups of water to a boil and add MRC, Makes 8-10 servings at 8 servings the carbs are 21g.

Beef noodle soup

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp minced onion
• 1 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 2 tbsp parsley
• 1 tsp tomato boullion
• 1/2 cup dehydrated or Freeze Dried carrots
• 1 1/2 c noodles ( I used wheels)
• 2 cubes of beef boullion 

Layer in a bottle in the order from above and seal with an oxygen absorber.

To make 8 cups of water to a boil and add MRC, Makes 8-10 servings at 8 servings the carbs are 32g.

Enjoy!

Recycle, reuse, and Pea soup.

I read an article yesterday about the Amish.  It is not uncommon to find an Amish millionaire.  Well, I am impressed.  In the article it talks about they buy things with multiple purposes, and they reuse things that most of us throw away.

I got to thinking about it.  I do this quite a bit, I use soda and food bottles for food storage.  I have read some articles and blogs that say things like, "soda bottles are okay if you are on a budget, but.."  I don't see it that way.  They are made to be water tight, air tight, and to hold food and drink.  Gee in my book that makes them more than okay for food storage.  And the big plus for me, they are free.  I mean I am reusing what I would have thrown away.  So I get my soda, I get a place to store food, and I am saving it out of the landfill.  I think that is a win, win, win situation.

This morning I got to work bottling up some meals in a bottle.  These are cheap and easy.  I made french onion pea soup.  When you get ready to prepare it, boil water and dump.  That is easy in a stressful situation, like a storm and no power, or worse.  Anyways, here is the recipe to feed 5:

French onion pea soup:
1 1/4 c split peas (you can use whole peas if you want)
1 package of onion soup (not brand specific)
1 packet of ham flavoring
1 oxygen absorber

Combine in a bottle (I used a 12 oz bottle)

To make bring 5 c water to a boil and dump the bottle and cook until peas are the desired softness (personal taste)

There are 24g carbs per serving in this.  So it is fairly low carb.  If you have a diabetic this is a great meal.

Enjoy!

Busy bee, and then it got cold.

I have been a busy little bee for a few weeks, then today in May in Texas, it is cold.  Like turn the heater on cold.  Seriously there are parts of Texas getting Freeze warnings tonight.  Luckily I am not in those areas but seriously, we are a little over a month away from the official start of Summer.  And I do remember the summer I had M, from April 15- October 1 that year there were only 5 days that weren't 100 degrees or more.

Now mind you, I don't believe in Climate change ( at least not due to global warming).  Seriously I believe that like an Inconvienant Truth is the same kind of truth as Al Gore  invented the Internet. And remember his wife forced the music industry to start putting stickers on music to prevent perverted or violent music out of peoples hands.  Anybody remember the outcome of that?

What do I believe in, well, I believe weather comes in cycles.  If you look back at recorded weather and read the farmers alamenacs.  It all goes in cycles, just like earthquakes, hurricanes, ice ages, and eclipses.  It all goes in cycles, that is the way God created it.

So for dinner tonight I am making speghetti with meat sauce, and homemade garlic bread.  Doesn't that sound yummy.  Yes it does, well until after dinner when the acid reflux kicks in.  But it is worth it.  Pain is good.  Pain is just fear leaving the body.    And as my typical behavior I will be canning my leftovers.  Well just the sauce.  Noodle don't can well.  They become some nasty starchy brick in the bottom of the jar.

Special Speghetti sauce

• 6 pints of tomato sauce
• 1 pint of diced stewed tomatos
• 1 pound of browned hamburger meat
• 1 cup of lemon juice
• 1 1/2 red wine (make sure you would drink it otherwise it will taint your sauce)(if you don't want to use wine use sparkling red cider it works too)
• seasonings to taste: minced onion, garlic powder, orgeno, italian seasonings, parsley, pepper, 
• 6 packets of stevia (you could use sugar but I have to cut carbs somewhere)

Cook for about 20 medium heat, jar up hot and can, I am using 10# pressure for 20 minutes with quart jars and 1 in head space.

Toilet Paper Tube Firestarters

Firestarters from items you have in your house right now.  So they are basically free and you are saving it all from the landfill.

You need:

• Toilet paper/paper towel tubes 
• Lint from the dryer
• Wadded up paper (junk mailings work great)
• Left over wood pieces or saw dust (if you have it)
• Paraffin (optional)
• Wax paper or aluminium foil To protect your surface and make clean up easier.

Stuff the toilet paper tubes with the lint, paper, and wood.  If you have it melt some paraffin (doesn't take much) drop a couple of drops in each end.  It is really that easy.