Using Resources Wisely

In our attempts to cut back and do the best we can with our resources we are learning a few tricks of the trade. I thought I would share some of our Bye Family tips and you can share your ideas with me.

Fruit: I started buying the industrial size cans of fruit for Jordan to eat. He goes through a can in 5 or so days. I then save the juice in a qt. size baggie and freeze it (flat) and we use the juice later for smoothies, stir-fry, or something like that.

Chicken: We aren't using as much of the bonless, skinless chicken anymore. I have been buying the whole chickens, and cooking them in the crockpot (I have one of those with the removable dutch size pan...I love it!!). In the bottom of the crockpot I put in 1 onion, 3 carrots, and 3 celery stalks. You put the chicken in and salt and pepper it on both sides. Then you need to fill up the crockpot to around 3/4 with water (allowing for the fact your chicken will produce some juice from the fat). We put in the chicken about 7:30 or so at night and then at 10:00 we turn it down to warm to cook overnight. Then, we pull the chicken out to use and save the broth in a gallon size freezer bag (freeze flat) for later use.

Broth: I heard a tip on one those food shows on Food Network that I thought I would pass along. If you want to get the fat out of your broth (chicken, beef, turkey, etc.) and use it in a short ammount of time: put the broth in a freezer bag and let it sit for a little bit (maybe in the refrigerator or on the counter) and the fat will rise to the top. Then take a pair of scissors and cut a hole in the bottom of the baggie to drain out the broth. You just watch it and stop the flow before the fat flows out. We have tried this a few times and it works great!

Rice: Ok, I know everyone doesn't eat large quanities of rice at their house but due to Jordan's diet we do. We have started buying cooked rice (instead of Minute Rice) and we are able to get it in sufficiently large quanities to feed our growing boy. It's a little more trouble but every little penny counts. I also found some wild rice which we use for soup a lot (again a Jordan diet thing but we found we all love it) for 10 cents a pound cheeper by buying it in bulk at Whole Foods.

Have a great day!