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amyable
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| Posted: June 06 2008 at 5:02pm | IP Logged
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cactus mouse wrote:
How do you go about cleaning a raw turkey or chicken, without totally being grossed out?
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It's not silly. I used to be totally grossed out.  Honestly, for me it was just doing it over and over (we eat a whole chicken every week to 2 weeks), and being thankful I don't have to actually kill and pluck the thing  -- it really doesn't seem as bad anymore. It's still ICK but only a little ICK. 
I do wash out the sink after, because my DD's get into the sink and don't wash their hands, etc.
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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LisaD
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| Posted: June 06 2008 at 5:57pm | IP Logged
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cactus mouse wrote:
How do you go about cleaning a raw turkey or chicken, without totally being grossed out?
(confession: I love the IQF chicken pieces. I am a germ-a-phobic when it comes to raw meats. plus, the "ick" factor gets to me.)
So - how do you do it? Do you use gloves? Do you need to scrub down your sink afterwards? |
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Okay, I have always wondered. Is it really necessary to rinse poultry before you cook it? I mean, it seems like the potential for spreading contamination around your kitchen by rinsing poultry would be greater than the risk of salmonella not being killed by proper cooking. Wouldn't proper cooking kill all the bacteria? I don't cook whole chickens/turkeys very often, but I usually just remove the bag of "parts" from the cavity and proceed with whatever cooking method I'm using. I do thoroughly clean and disinfect any kitchen surface that chicken juices have touched, especially the sink!
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~Lisa
Mama to dd(99), ds(01), ds(03) and ds(06)
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jennthmg
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| Posted: June 07 2008 at 8:18am | IP Logged
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missionfamily wrote:
| We have been really impressed by how far we can stretch it when we go into it with that plan and divide it up before serving. |
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HONESTLY, that never occurred to me!! For the last 14 years (the length of my marriage) I've been frustrated by the fact that I would put a large piece of meat on the table and my husband would eat most of the meat and very little of the side dishes leaving us with a tiny bit of meat as left-overs and more side dishes than I cared to try to use as left-overs. I mean, really, everyone knows it's easier to use up meat for a second meal than side dishes.
It never occurred to me to divide the meat before it came to the table to plan for another meal!!! What a GREAT IDEA!!! 
I wasn't trained to cook or run a house so it seems like there's so much I've missed in my knowledge base that I've been on a learning curve for a loooong time. THANKS!!
Jenn
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: June 07 2008 at 9:43am | IP Logged
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This website was linked from the hard times menu site Bridget suggested:
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
If the $50/wk will be ongoing you might find it helpful to purchase through them.
Another tip; if you have stores in your area that sell food from bulk bins, which you bag yourself, you can realize incredible savings on staples like oats, flour, seasonings, etc. Since you aren't paying for packaging, most items are much less expensive. My daughter in another state buys wheat germ, cracked wheat, spices and other staples for me in bulk. I freeze anything that doesn't have a long shelflife. The items she's able to buy are between 1/4 to 1/5 the cost of namebrand or packaged food products. One example: bulk wheatgerm costs 78 cents per lb. compared to $3.80 per lb. in a jar. Look for tins at garage sales or thrift shops; they're great for storing dry goods. Empty popcorn tins are great for storing large quantities of flour or oats.
I split 1 lb. of ground beef into thirds, freeze in sandwich bags, and use 1/3 lb. amounts, supplemented with beans or cheese, in casseroles with rice, pasta or potatoes. The same can be done with many meats.
Shopping once a month can help save a great deal of money. You'll have better options with $200 for one big shopping trip, than using $50 each week. I buy bulk amounts of items like pasta, 8-10 lb. bags for $3-$5 and they last all month. Sav-A-Lot, Aldi's, Costco, Sam's Club are good places to shop for discount or bulk grocery items. I tend to frontload on really good sale items, especially "loss leader" items that are ridiculously cheap. Some of our local stores run buy one get one free, and even buy one get two free sales.
Baking your own bread opens up many inexpensive meal options. You can make varying meals from basic bread dough including calzones, bierocks, pizza, foccacia, strombolini, cinnamon rolls, homemade pretzels. There are many websites online that have great recipes for such items. This week I made a single batch of bread dough into three extra large pizzas and three large foccacia. I used one pizza and one foccacia for two different days' meals and froze the extra.
You will be amazed at how much easier it becomes to think frugally the longer you do so. I remember my grandmother still cooking in her 60's and 70's as though she were feeding her nine children during the depression. We were always in awe over the way she could turn the simplest ingredients into a feast fit for kings! Actually, our son is taking culinary courses where he learned that French cuisine developed from peasants who used their lifelong skills of creating fabulous meals from very basic, frugal methods to create meals for the royalty whose kitchens they served in. When you think of it, many chefs employ some of the same techniques as frugal housewives when they make a fabulous stock out of leftover scraps. Just think, you can make a delicious shepherd's pie or pot pie from leftover potatoes, vegetables and a small portion of meat. We can utilize the same creativity as French chefs while scrimping to feed our families on limited budgets! Meals made with love and inspiration can enhance even the most stringent grocery budget.
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All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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Maddie
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| Posted: June 07 2008 at 10:58am | IP Logged
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Another idea:
Depending on the area you live in, some butchers at the local grocer will GIVE you the outdated meat. The meat is usually good for a little longer then the expiration date. Butchers use the outdated meat all the time for themselves. We have been so blessed in this difficult financial time in our life to know a butcher who will do this. Just last week we were given 30 lbs of ground beef, 9 lbs of bacon, and 8 lbs of sausage. I cook it up immediately and freeze it, it has saved us hundreds of dollars.
Same with bread and produce depts, but it can be a little humbling to ask  .
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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jennthmg
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| Posted: June 07 2008 at 1:47pm | IP Logged
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Any more cheap tuna recipes? Tuna can be fairly inexpensive.
Jenn
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Jess
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| Posted: June 07 2008 at 8:15pm | IP Logged
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Ok here is what I bought yesterday at the store:
3 dz eggs 3.79
1 gal milk 3.89
2 5lb bags of flour 1.79 each
sugar 1.59
baking powder (we were out) .82
oil (also out) 2.99
tea (dh drinks a lot of sweet tea- caffeine addict ) 1.69
peanut butter 3.29
ground turkey 2- 1 lb rolls 1.39 each
whole chicken 4.67
1 lb cheese 4.49
2 - 5lb bags of potatoes (cheaper to buy 2 5lb bags that to buy a 10lb bag  ) 1.98 each
onion .99
bag of apples 4.99
celery 1.37
total 44.81
I really tried to work with what we already had and I came up with a menu before I left so I would know what exactly I would need. I baked some bread yesterday and I am making zucchini bread right now (a nice man handed us a bag of zucchini at church the other day  ) I hope our tomatoes and green beans hurry up and ripen so we can have those pretty soon.
Thanks so much for all the great ideas for this week and for in the future. I imagine I will have to do this again with everything being so expensive now. This morning we saw the gas prices on our way to our son's baseball game and decided to get gas after (we didn't have time before) before they went up anymore. Well we were too late, when we drove by the same place we were going to stop to get gas after the game, it had gone up 12 cents!  I am so glad baseball season is almost over and we can just stay home! No sports for our family next season.
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God bless,
Jess
+JMJ+
wife to dh('96)
mama to dd(13), dd(11), ds(9), dd(6), and dd (2), and baby girl born Sept 14!
star cottage
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Stephanie_Q
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| Posted: June 10 2008 at 11:02am | IP Logged
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cactus mouse wrote:
How do you go about cleaning a raw turkey or chicken, without totally being grossed out?
(confession: I love the IQF chicken pieces. I am a germ-a-phobic when it comes to raw meats. plus, the "ick" factor gets to me.)
So - how do you do it? Do you use gloves? Do you need to scrub down your sink afterwards?
(feeling silly, but still....) |
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amyable wrote:
| It's not silly. I used to be totally grossed out. Honestly, for me it was just doing it over and over (we eat a whole chicken every week to 2 weeks), and being thankful I don't have to actually kill and pluck the thing -- it really doesn't seem as bad anymore. It's still ICK but only a little ICK. |
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Not to hijack the thread, but this made me laugh. We just slaughtered 50 chickens last week. I had to gut them...I won't go into details ...I wrote about it on my blog and my mom emailed me: "Is the chicken "processing" story written by the same daughter who, when in high school, refused to pick up chicken for cooking unless she was holding tongs?" I really didn't think I could do it, watching and learning, but it really wasn't so bad once I just took a deep breath and did the first one...after a while I'd even ditched the gloves b/c it was easier and faster w/out them. Thinking about it (even in hindsight) is really worse than just doing it.
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Stephanie dh 6.01
dd 6.02, dd 8.03, ds 3.05, ds 12.06 at Catholic school.
dd 12.09 at home.
Baby boy due 10.13
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: June 12 2008 at 7:48am | IP Logged
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Jess, bravo on your $50 shopping trip! BTW, zucchini freezes quite well. You can shred it for breads or cakes. You can also slice it, peel and all. We like to saute it with various ingred. like onion, garlic, tomato, peppers, mushroom, summer squash and serve over pasta for a meatless dinner. We're still enjoying mixtures of zucchini and other vegetables from the garden that we froze last summer.
Stephanie...you are truly brave. My daughter has butchered chickens, but I just can't get up the nerve.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: If you only had...
