Prices I Pay For Meat

With meat prices ever increasing,  it can be challenging to feed your family on a budget.  I'll admit,  we are not huge meat eaters.  By that I mean we don't eat big portions of meat with our meals.  On the weekends we eat simpler meals like toasted sandwiches,  homemade chunky soups or leftovers.  This does save us money on the food budget and gives us a chance to use things up.

I don't have a hard and fast rule for meat prices,  but I do work to a limit of what I'll pay per kilo.  My current limits are -

*  Beef Mince - I pay no more than $8 a kilo for the Coles mince.  I must admit,  this seems like an expensive price.  Tasman Meats had mince on sale in February for $5.99 kg and I bought four big trays with maybe 1.5 - 2 kilos per tray.  I portioned the mince out into 250 g lots and bagged it up for the freezer.  Some meals I use two portions eg - meat pie.

*  Chicken Fillets - If I can get them down to $3.99 kg then I buy up really big. Maybe 10 kilos worth.  The most I'd pay is $5.99 kg but at this price I'd have to be desperate for chicken and maybe only buy 1 kilo.

*  Legs of Lamb - $7.99 kg is the only price I'll pay for legs of lamb.  If it's any dearer then we go without and wait until next year's season.  At $7.99kg I'll buy 3 or 4 legs and always try to get the smallest.  This is enough to have lamb once a month with each leg giving the three of us 3 or 4 meals.  When I cook up the leg,  all leftovers are frozen in gravy for the following months.

*  Fish - I pay no more than $10 a kilo for frozen fillets and are usually bought from Aldi.  On the rare occasion I buy salmon from the deli section at Coles for $26 a kilo.  As I said,  it's saved for a rare treat.  Buying from the deli section is cheaper than the pre packaged salmon at $44 per kilo.

*  Corned Silverside - If I can get it for $5.99 then I'm happy and will buy 4 or 5.  I'd probably pay $6.99 kg if the cuts looked good and I was running low.

*  Roast Beef - I'll pay $7.99 kg if there is not too much fat on the meat and the cuts look good.

*  Chicken Drumsticks - I'd be in heaven if I could pay $1.99 kg.  I think those days are gone for now so the top price I'd pay is $3.99 kg.

*  Lamb Chops - I'll pay no more than $8 a kilo but to get it at that price it would have to be on clearance in the supermarket.  Regular prices for forequarter chops are now $16 a kilo.  We eat one chop per person and it's now a rare treat.

*  Whole Chickens -  I'd pay $3.99 kilo but I rarely buy whole chickens.  Drumsticks and fillets are quicker to cook and fillets can be stretched a long way in a meal.

*  Diced Beef - $8 or $9 a kilo is my top price but I have to get it on clearance.

*  Beef Steaks - Are rare in our house.  We bought the Drovers pack from Coles for Australia Day and the steaks were delicious.  I think we paid $22 per kilo but cut the steaks in half so our guests didn't eat too much in one hit ( I had other meat on offer ).

*  Sausages - I buy from Coles for just over $5 a kilo.

 

Supermarket Freezer Food.

How often have you walked past the supermarket freezer section and been dazzled by it's contents ? I used to be like that as a newly wed about 18 - 19 years ago. My cooking skills were limited so those prepacked, pre prepared foods looked like heaven to me. 

I'll admit that I bought a frozen lasagne or two. I also bought frozen sticky date puddings, a cheese cake or two, a few pizzas, apple pies, a few frozen meals as well as the staples like frozen vegies, icecream and fish.

At the time, these frozen foods tasted very nice. Divine infact. Then I saw the light or should I say recipe books and the internet. These two sources of information opened up a whole new world to me. I found easy to follow recipes that used normal everyday ingredients. Suddenly that frozen sticky date pudding that I thought was " oh so yummy " didn't have the same appeal any more. I could make it better and cheaper.

I now freeze my own lasagne, leftovers ( my version of a freezer meal ), sticky date puddings in muffin sizes, pizza dough to make my own pizzas and stewed apple to make apple desserts. My grocery budget has shrunk as a result of making my own and I enjoy my own food far more than anything made in a factory.

These days, the only things I buy from the freezer section are bags of fish portions ( not crumbed ) , icecream ( plain vanilla ), pastry ( to make my own yummies ) and beans and corn kernels. Everything else we either grow, bake or cook ourselves. 

The next time you walk past the supermarket freezers, have a think about making these foods yourself. Your family will be thanking you for it and you'll notice a change in your grocery budget.

Avoiding Tomato Stains

This nifty little trick was passed on to me from a cleaning client who regularly buys Tupperware containers.

If you are wanting to avoid tomato stains on your plastic containers,  give the container a light spray of canola oil or any oil of choice before you put in any tomato based food in.  The oil acts as a barrier that prevents the plastic from absorbing the tomato color.

Cooked tomatoes ready for the freezer. 

Ice Cube Trays - 5 Uses To Save You Money

The humble ice cube tray has been around for a long time.  With the invention of ice makers in fridges,  it seems that people are either donating their ice cube trays to the op shop or forgetting to use them.

Ice cube trays are not just for water.  They have many uses that can save you money and reduce food wastage.  Here are five uses for you to try -

*  Freezing lemon juice.  When your lemon tree has abundant fruit,  juice the lemons and freeze the juice.  If someone offers you a bag of lemons,  it as a blessing.  You may never need to buy lemon juice in a bottle again. 

*  Freeze tomato paste.  Have you ever opened a jar of tomato paste to only use a tablespoon or two ?  Usually the contents need to be used in a few days.  By portioning the paste into ice cube trays you are eliminating waste.  When cooking spag bol or other tomato based dishes,  pop a tomato paste cube into the dish for added flavour.

*  Chopped fresh herbs freeze well when a little bit of water is added to the mix and frozen into cubes.

*  Make coffee ice cubes for your iced coffee.  There's nothing worse than normal ice cubes watering down your iced coffee.  This idea is great for using up left over coffee from the pot.

*  Freeze yoghurt into cubes to add to your smoothie.  This is a wonderful idea for using up yoghurt before it goes off.

Tomato paste portioned.

Lemon juice has so many uses.

Stayed tuned for more ice cube uses in the coming months.

Making The Most Of Citrus Fruit.

When most people think of Winter they think of colds,  the flu and putting the heater on.  I love Winter for the cold weather,  comfort food and most importantly,  citrus fruit.  At this time of the year citrus fruit is in abundance and it's cheap. My girls love oranges as a Winter snack. They cut them up into eighths and eat every last drop of pulp.  Much better for you than store bought orange juice and cheaper per portion size.

I love to make 50 / 50 cordial for the family . It's made with 3 oranges and 3 lemons. So to have the cheap Winter fruit available for cordial in Summer, I zest and squeeze the oranges and lemons into a container and freeze. I also make a whole orange cake that uses one orange. I just blend the whole orange ( minus the pips ) in the food processor and freeze it in a container for all year round baking.

Lemons are coming into season too. With supermarkets selling them at 80 cents each, I'm very grateful that my lemon tree is in it's sixth season of bearing a good amount of fruit. To make the most of the "free" lemons, I zest them and freeze the zest for lemon slice, lemon and pistachio biscuits, lemon chicken and savoury chicken or salmon flan. Then I juice them and pour the juice into ice cube trays and freeze. The ice blocks are stored in an airtight container to be used on fish , pancakes, to make lemon butter, jam.  lemon slice etc, etc. This year I'm planning on slicing some lemons and freezing the slices to make lemon chicken.

It's great to have these items on hand in the freezer. It stops the need to run to the supermarket for one lemon. I'll bet it would be out of season and you'd be paying premium prices.

If you haven't thought about it before, growing a lemon tree is great. It looks good, the blossoms and fruit smell divine and a bowl of lemons on the kitchen bench is a little ray of sunshine in the middle of Winter. It can be grown in a pot too. Best of all, you'll get your money back from the cost of a tree in no time.

So if anyone offers you a bag of lemons, or your neighbour has a tree with too much fruit for them to use, you'll know what to do with it.

Lemon butter

Orange cake and muffins

Freezing the juice.

Lemon butter for presents

Getting ready to make 50 / 50 cordial.

Bulk Cooking

Bulk cooking is a great way to save time in the kitchen. For those of you who are new to this concept, it pretty much means exactly that. You cook multiple meals at the same time to store in the freezer. The benefits of bulk cooking are -

* It saves time in the kitchen at meal times.
* Saves on electricity / gas.
* Emergency meals on hand in the freezer
* Helps avoid the takeaway temptation.
* Meal preparation is simplified
* Older children can get tea ready for you if you are sick or faced with an emergency.
* Great for taking on holidays
* Unexpected visitors can be fed.
* Peace of mind
* Great for portion controlling the meat.
* Being prepared for sickness in the house
* Being ready for financial hardship.

The benefits I listed above really are wonderful.  Most importantly,  bulk cooking is about getting your house in order.  I cannot stress enough how important this is for you,  your family and your friends.  Here's a question for you to think about.  If an emergency came to your home,  would your family and friends have to feed you ?  Yes it's wonderful to have a meal offered to you,  but would you be relying on others to get you through a crisis or emergency ?

I've lost track of the amount of times I've been asked to provide meals for others.  I try to help when I can but often these requests come at a time when I'm away on holidays,  having a very busy week or I'm sick.  Also, to be honest my budget doesn't stretch to feed other families.  Then I feel a little guilty that I can't help. Then I worry that the person or family doesn't have food to eat.

We've had a few emergencies visit our family over the years.  Five years ago I was hospitalised for a kidney stone.  Thankfully my sister in law and her mother were able to take care of our girls at short notice.  Darren took food out of the freezer to bring into the hospital for him to eat while he sat at my bedside.  After I'd been home for a few days,  we remembered we had a visitor coming for lunch. This had been organised a week earlier.  Thankfully I had lots of soup and chocolate brownies in the freezer to serve.  The visitor didn't know I'd been in hospital a few days earlier.  She guessed something was up when I had to sit down while Darren and the girls organised lunch.

Both Darren and my Mum have been hospitalised right on Christmas a few years running.  During those times, I had to drop what I was doing to be with them.  Thankfully I had a menu plan and plenty of meals in the freezer to defrost and eat.  It was one less thing to worry about.

Most of the meals I bulk cook are made with beef mince or chicken.   I buy a couple of two kilo trays of mince at a time. I try to plan this when I have a couple of days off from work. I then weigh out the amount of raw meat I need for the multiple meals I plan to cook.  The other option is to cook a double amount of food when you are preparing dinner each night.

For spag bol I use 300g for the four of us. If I want to make four meals for us then I weigh out 300g x four meals = 1200g. I cook the mince in a large electric fry pan and add four tins of tomatoes, four serves of tomato paste and four times the amount of seasonings. Once cooled it is spooned into four containers and frozen.

I use 400g of mince to make pie meat. This is eventually made into a family sized pie that serves the four of us. If I want to make pie meat for four pies I weigh out 400g x four meals = 1600g. It is cooked, seasoned, thickened with gravy powder and corn flour. When cooled it is divided into four containers and frozen. When frozen I empty it out of the container and double wrap it, label and date it and pop it back in the freezer. When I want to make a pie, it's defrosted in the fridge overnight then spooned onto a pastry lined pie plate and topped with cubed potato. A pastry lid is placed on top then cooked in the oven.

I use 400g of mince to make a meatloaf. To make four meatloaves I weigh out 400g x four meals = 1600g. I need 3 tablespoons of uncooked rice x four meatloaves = 12 tablespoons. This is cooked and added to the raw mince with salt, pepper, onion, parsley, four eggs and large squirts of tomato sauce. Mix well and divide into four meatloaf / baking tins and cook at the same time in the oven. When cooled double wrap and place in the freezer.

I hope these recipe ideas give you inspiration to give bulk cooking a go. It only takes a few hours to have 15 - 20 family sized meals ready for the freezer.  It's a small sacrifice to make for your family's peace of mind in a crisis.

Chocolate brownies from the freezer

Single serves for the freezer

Hamburger patties in bulk

Trays of zucchini slice ready to portion and freeze

Soup for the soul and freezer.

Do you bulk cook for your family ?  How has bulk cooking helped you in a crisis ?

5 Ways To Reuse Bread Bags

Have you been known to throw out those bread bags and not given them much thought ?  I was guilty of doing this for many years. Then one day I had a light bulb moment.  Surely there must be a way to repurpose them to reduce my cling wrap and freezer bag use.  After all,  they are a perfectly good plastic bag.  Here are five ways to reuse your bread bags and save a little money -

*  Use them to line your bathroom bins.  If your kitchen bin is small enough use them there too.

*  Keep a few bags in your car glove box.  They make great rubbish bags and sick bags, 

*  Use a bread bag when scooping out the kitty litter.  Tie a knot in the top of the bag then deposit it in the bin.  By doing this you won't have a yucky smell leaking out.

*  When storing food in the freezer,  use a bread bag as a double layer against freezer burn.  I use cling wrap or a freezer bag to wrap the food then a bread bag as the outer layer.

*   Use instead of cling wrap to cover a bowl in the fridge.  If the bowl is small enough just slip it inside the bag and fold the excess plastic underneath.  If you need to cover a large bowl,  cut the bottom of the bag off.  Then cut the bag length ways to get a wider piece of plastic.  Cover your bowl and secure with a large rubber band.

Drying the bags out

Bin liners.

NOTE -  When you've finished eating the loaf of bread,  make sure you turn the bags inside out,  brush the crumbs off and dry for a couple of hours.  This will avoid mould growing in the bags

How I Freeze Food

A couple of weeks ago I showed you what was in my freezers and gave you the list.

This week I thought I'd explain how I store the food to avoid spoilage and waste.

Here's what I use -

*  Plastic containers of all sizes.

*  Takeaway food containers

*  Cling wrap

*  Foil

*  Freezer bags,  large and small

*  Cereal packets cut up into squares are used as go between to stop cut of meat or soup sticking together.

*  Masking tape and permanent markers for labels

*  Recycled plastic fruit and veg bags

*  Recycled bread bags
 

When I make soup,  I always make a big pot to save time and energy.  As yummy as it is,  we can't eat it quick enough.  So I always make sure I freeze some.  I have small flat containers that I use for this purpose.  They are the Starmaid brand but I don't think they are sold any more.  I fill up each container as this represents one single serve.  Once cooled in the fridge,  the lids are put on and frozen in a stack.  Once frozen,  I pop the soup out of the container.  I slip a piece of cereal packet on top of the soup and pop another soup serve on top.  Then they are double wrapped in freezer bags and placed back in the freezer.  If I have multiple types of soup in the freezer,  I label the soups and date them.

I pop the soups out of their containers because even though I have lots of containers,  I very quickly run out.

Lamb chops are taken off their trays and portioned into meal sizes which is usually one chop per person.  Once again I slip a piece of cereal packet between each chop then double wrap in freezer bags.

Mince is portioned into 300 gram and 400 gram serves.  300 grams is for chop suey and spag bol, 3 x 300 gram does lasagne.  $00 grams is used for meat pie,  meatloaf and cassroles.  Each portion is wrapped in cling wrap.  Then a few portions are put into large freezer bags and labelled and dated.

Diced beef is portioned into 500 gram lots for stew.  I pack it into a snap lock bag,  flatten and label.

Roast beef and silverside is always cut in half as it's way to big for the four of us.  I wrap it in cling warp, label and date then wrap in a freezer bag.

Sausages are portioned into meal sizes which is six for us.  I wrap in cling wrap then multiple portions are put into a large freezer bag.

Single serves of leftovers are put into the flat takeaway food containers.  They are dated and labelled.

For chicken fillets,  I take the skin off,  trim the sinues off  and place individually into frezer bags.  Multiple fillets are then placed into a larger freezer bag.  It's easy to grab the amount of fillets needed when they are single.

Hamburger patties are stacked on top of each other with the cereal bag squares put inbetween.  We only have one atty per person and they are double wrapped.

Lemon ice cubes are placed either in snaplock bags or takeaway food containers.  Same with tomato paste.

Any baking is double wrapped.  Cakes are dated and labelled so I know what the flavour is.

Final notes -

*  Bread bags are used  for the outer wrapping for many items
*  I always rotate all meat,  baking and meals to avoid food being frozen for too long.
*  I delegate one shelf for each type of meat where possible.  All beef mince and hamburgers on one shelf,  all chicken on one shelf,  all roasts on one shelf,  all soup on one shelf,  leftovers in one drawaer etc etc,
*. I label meat with masking tape on the first layer of plastic then wrap again.  It prevents the label falling off.
*  I don't have glass containers in my freezer because they are too expensive and I'd need so many.
*  It sounds like I use a lot of plastic bags and wrap but I try to recycle where I can.  I bought a big roll of large freezer bags from Tasman Meats a couple of years ago.  This has saved a lot of money and I reuse them..
* I use everything within one year. 


I think that's explained most of the ways I freeze things.  I guess the most important things to do is to double wrap,  rotate and label.

If you have any questions,  please feel free to ask.

Freezer meals - free food

Chicken curry ready for the freezer

Pasta sauce in meal sizes

One of my freezers

Freezer equipment

Starmaid containers

Takeaway food containers given to us.

What's In My Freezer.

I guess the title of this post should read "What's In My Freezers " as I have three freezers.  No I don't collect freezers as a hobby but I do love having the space to freeze whatever I want.  I have a 660 litre side by side fridge / freezer   I think about 240 litres of it is freezer space.  I have a 120 litre freezer and a 180 litre freezer ( our latest addition to the freezer family ).

For ten years I fed my young family out of the 120 litre freezer and Darren's old fridge that had a small freezer compartment inside.  Space back then was at a premium and boy,  did I stack those freezers well.  Not one box of convenience food could fit in those freezers ( not that we could afford it back then ).    Bread,  rolls and icecubes went into the little freezer compartment in the fridge and mince, chicken  and a few meals went into the 120 litre freezer.

When we outgrew Darren's old fridge we upgraded to the 660 litre side by side.  About 2 1/2 years ago we were given another freezer but unfortunately it only lasted two years.  So a few months ago I bought the 180 litre freezer.

As you know we have a vegetable garden and fruit trees.  The freezers come in handy for storing excess  garden produce.  This saves us money as quite often we can eat our produce from the freezer when it's out of season and costs a fortune at the supermarket.


Here's a list of what we store in our freezers -                          LEGEND -

MEAT
                                                                                                  HM = homemade
Mince divided into 300 gram sizes
Lamb chops 4 per package                                                       C = convenience
Chicken fillets individually wrapped
Fish                                                                                           G = from our garden
Legs of Lamb bought in Spring on sale
Sausages 6 per package
Diced beef in 400gram snap lock bags
Roast beef cut in half to serve 4 people
Silverside cut in half to serve 4 people
Salmon patties 10 per package     HM
Fish fingers   C
Sliced ham
Hamburger patties     HM
Whole chickens
Chicken drumsticks 4 per package


SOUPS

Chicken stock     HM
Vegetable soup    HM
Pumpkin soup     HM
Chunky chicken and veg soup    HM
Chunky beef and veg soup    HM
Potato and leek soup     HM

MEALS

Spag bol sauce     HM
Lasagne portions    HM
Leftovers of casseroles in single serves     HM
Pie meat - ready to make a pie     HM
Meatloaves          HM

BAKING

Raspberry and white choc muffins     HM
Blueberry and white choc muffins      HM
Chocolate choc chip muffins              HM
Wholemeal bread with extra goodness      HM
Pita bread     C
Rolls      HM
Pumpkin scones        HM
Plain scones        HM
Chocolate brownies      HM
Cakes for church morning teas       HM
Biscuit dough - assorted varieties     HM
Saved bread crusts to be made into dried bread crumbs      HM
Raisin bread    C or HM
Pizza dough      HM
Hot cross buns      HM

VEGETABLES

Corn cobs     G
Beans           G
Corn kernels
Celery
Capsicum
Broccoli stalks diced     G
Broccoli       G
Cauliflower   G
Cooked and pureed pumpkin
Cooked tomatoes     G
Zucchini    G    

FRUIT

Lemon juice in ice cubes    G
Raspberries     G
Strawberries     G
Cooked apple
Oranges - blitzed
Blueberries
Bananas
Fruit icecream      HM

OTHER

English muffins    C
Crumpets     C
Sweetened condensed milk in 1/2 and whole can portions     HM
Tomato paste in ice cube size
Mini quiches / flans     HM
Sausage rolls      HM
Rice - cooked leftovers
Icecream    C
Yoghurt - to be used as a starter      HM
Butter
Vegetable stock ( given to me )     HM
Icypoles    C or HM
Pastry    C
Zucchini slice    HM


I think that the entire contents of our freezers.  Of course we don't have everything stocked at the same time,  but we do try to keep as much a possible.

In a few weeks I'll talk about the best way to store food in the freezer

This is the freezer part of my side by side fridge.  That's pita bread on the top shelf bought at a market.  Baking is on the next shelf with the lemon ice cubes and sweetened condensed milk. Crumpets are on the third shelf with cooked rice stored in the white container. Veggies are on the next shelf.  .

Then there is the bread shelf and below that are two slide out drawers with frozen fruit and biscuit dough

  

The 120 litre 23 year old freezer and our new 180 litre freezer.  They hold the meat, soups,   garden produce and freezer meals

                                                 Our 660 litre side by side fridge / freezer