The Last of the Thanksgiving Turkey

After we'd had all the turkey sandwiches and salads we could eat,  all that was left of our Thanksgiving bird was the carcass and what do you do with that, besides make soup?  Even though the traditional after Thanksgiving soup is good (you know the one with carrots, celery, rice or noodles), I'm a little bored with it right now.  So I decided to spice things up and make a chili instead.  But no matter what kind of soup you make, it all begins with the last of the turkey parts in a big pot with water.  I agree, it's not all that appetizing to look at, but it yields some nice broth after a few hours and when I pick the last of the turkey off the bones, I feel happily frugal, knowing nothing was wasted and we enjoyed every last bit of goodness.

With fresh lime, cilantro, onions and garlic, a few cans from the pantry, the broth and turkey meat, I had everything I needed to make a tasty chili.  And, I never get tired of chili!

Turkey Chili

1 T. oil

1 cup diced onion

1 T. minced garlic

1 1/2 T. chili powder

1 1/2 t. cumin

1 t. dried oregano

3 cans white beans, drained

4 cups broth 

3 cups chopped turkey

1/2 cup canned, diced tomato

2 T. diced green chilis

1 can corn

2 T. lime juice (or more)

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1 (or more) diced chipotles in adobo - this is optional,

but I love the smoky flavor this adds to chili 

Saute onion.  Add garlic and spices.  Add beans and 

broth.  Cook 20 minutes.  Smash some of the beans with 

a potato smasher.  Add turkey, tomatoes, cilantro, chilis

and corn.  Squeeze fresh lime juice into chili before serving.

Top with cheese, sour cream, diced avocado, or whatever you

like on your chili.  Great with mexican cornbread or tortilla chips.

If your turkey is long gone, this would also be great made with chicken.  It warms you right up on a cold night.  I like to make a big pot, as the flavors seem to just get better as they hang out.  In other words, I want leftovers from my leftovers!  I also like to freeze it in single serving size containers for upcoming lunch meals.  Enjoy!

Frugal Friday Tips from the Kitchen and a Pumpkin Recipe

October means pumpkins on my porches and in my kitchen.

It's that time of year when I want to be whipping up goodies that smell and taste like autumn.  Since I buy canned pumpkin when it goes on sale in the fall and stock my shelves with it, I could (and sometimes do) make pumpkin desserts year round.  But when the leaves start turning and the cool days string together, I really want to start using that pumpkin.  Did you notice that first frugal tip?  Buy cheap and store for later!  I'll be talking a lot more about that in the months to come. 

This week, I decided to pull out Mom Wray's recipe for pumpkin bread.  It's a family favorite and tastes so good!   I made a double batch!  Making sweet nut breads are as simple as mixing dry ingredients with wet and pouring into a pan. While shopping at Fresh Market, I noticed they had their breads buy one get one free.  Even at that reduced price, it's less expensive to make your own.   Frugal tip #2.

Begin by mixing all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  You don't even have to use a mixer, you can mix this by hand if you like.  But my mixing bowl is the largest bowl I have, so I use it.

Into the flour mixture goes lots of warm spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

In a separate bowl, the wet ingredients are mixed together.

Eggs first,

then oil, water and applesauce.  Now applesauce is my own little trick to using less oil.  It makes the bread healthier (although, to be honest I'm not really too concerned with that for this recipe), and since I live in apple country and make my own applesauce its less expensive than oil.  Frugal tip #3.

I love nuts in my bread, but nuts are expensive!  Just today I noticed the price of pecans in my local grocery store were $9.59 for 10 ounces.  I buy mine from Sam's and they are a little cheaper, but even then they are on the pricey side.  Here's a great tip for stretching this precious baking commodity.  Lightly toast your nuts on the stovetop before adding to your recipe.  You have to do this on low temperature and stir constantly, because they will burn quickly and then you obviously aren't saving money if you have to throw them out and start over.  The toasting process brings out the flavor of the nuts and you can use half the amount the recipe calls for without sacrificing the taste at all.  Frugal tip #4.

Toast, then chop.

Mix wet ingredients with dry and stir in nuts.  Pour into baking pans.  I like making mini loaves and this recipe will make five or two large loaves if you prefer.

The recipe calls for two cups of pumpkin, leaving this much leftover from the second can.  Little containers of food like pumpkin, can easily find their way to the back of the refrigerator and by the time you pull them out they can be covered with fuzzy growth.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that happens to, right?

When I put it in the fridge, I jot myself a note on the pad on the door that I have pumpkin in here that needs to be used.  And if the cookie making doesn't happen, I can always stir it into my oatmeal for breakfast, or make pumpkin waffles.  Oh, yeah!  Frugal tip #5 - always know what's in the refrigerator that needs to be used.  Wasted food is wasted money.

Here's the results of today's baking adventure.  What am I going to do with all of that bread?  Well, I tucked a couple of loaves into a "goodie box" that is accompanying two musicians back to Colorado and the rest will be gifts for some amazing ladies who will be helping me out with a primary training tomorrow morning.  And I kept a few for my sweetheart who just happens to love pumpkin bread.  I hope you try this one out for yourself.  I think you'll be happy with the results.

Mom Wray's Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups unbleached plain flour

3 cups sugar

1/2 t. baking powder

2 t. baking soda

Stir the above ingredients together and then add:

1 1/2 t. salt

1 t. cloves

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1 1/2 t. nutmeg

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

Mix well.  In another bowl, mix:

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2/3 cup water

1 t. vanilla

2 cups pumpkin

1 cup toasted, chopped nuts

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.  Pour into greased and floured pans.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (5 small loaves) or for 1 hour (2 large loaves)

* If you don't use applesauce, you would use 1 cup of oil.

Food Cubes - A Frugal Friday Tip

I hate to waste food.  Often a recipe calls for a small amount of an ingredient and you're left wondering what to do with the rest of it. Tomato paste is a classic example. I've tried the tomato paste that comes in a tube and that's pretty handy.  Just squeeze out what you need, cap it and put it back in the refrigerator. But as with most things "convenient", those little tubes are pricey.  I would rather buy the small cans when they are on sale.  After using my tablespoon in a recipe, I put the rest in ice cube trays and make cubes from the leftovers.  The next time I need tomato paste, I defrost my cubes in the microwave and I'm ready to go.   I do the same thing with pesto.  These little cubes are perfect for when you need just a little to stir in soup or put on a slice of bread. Or how about on that leftover spaghetti from a few nights ago.  Am I the only one who never cooks the right amount of noodles?  What about lemons that are getting old and dried up in the refrigerator?  I juice them and make cubes.  I do the same thing with the zest.  Whenever I get ready to make chicken piccata, I pull out a few cubes and defrost them and that yummy meal is on the table in no time.  There is a definite difference in fresh lemon juice and juice that you buy in a bottle.  Fresh is always best and I try to use it whenever possible.  There are lots of other things that lend themselves to food cubes.  Chicken or vegetable broth cubes can be dropped into a pot of soup. Mashed and pureed fruits can be cubed and added to smoothies.  Can you think of others?  Each cube is about a tablespoon, so it's easy to know how many cubes you will need for a recipe.

Now, I've added another item to my cube stash.  Eggs.  Thanks to Jessica and her pinning, she found this idea on Pinterest and passed it along to me.  And I'm glad she did, because it's that time of year when the chickens are starting to lay fewer eggs.  In years past, I kept a light on a timer in the coop and the girls continued to lay eggs all winter.   But this year I've decided to let them run their natural course and that means the egg production will stop until spring.  While I have eggs now, I'm putting some in the freezer.  I don't know if I will have enough cubes to get me through the winter, but I'll be grateful for every egg I have.  I mean look at the color of that yolk!  You just can't buy eggs like that in the store.

I find that having food cubes in the freezer is a frugal way to manage my food dollars.   And with the rising cost of food, every little bit helps.   Come back next Friday and I'll share another idea to help you save money.  And please, share your ideas with me!