Save Big on Nutrient Dense Food

Most everyone always wants to save when they can, but recent world events have really affected the price of food. And the cost to raise and produce food. I wanted to share some of the tips I have learned over the years to help you save AND still buy quality nutrient dense food straight from the farm.

The number 1 way to save when buying chicken is to buy WHOLE CHICKENS. Even if you are only a white meat or dark meat eater, you can make this work. Learn your favorite way to cook a whole chicken, it’s different for everyone. Roast it, smoke it, grill it, simmer it! 

Recently I have been cooking my whole thawed chicken submerged in water for about 2 hours until the meat is cooked. I remove the chicken and have a great meat broth already done as well! It’s a time saver for me. I serve the chicken whole to my family with other sides to add to the meal. (You can even add carrots etc. to the water as you cook the chicken to add to your meal.) Everyone gets to eat their favorite parts first time around. 

After the first meal with the whole chicken, I pick all the meat off the carcass. Here is where you get to be adventurous. Find recipes to make with the chicken, try new things or always make the tried-and-true recipe you love. Chicken soup is an easy one, chicken enchiladas, chicken salad, chicken chili, the list goes on. When using chicken in recipes like this, whether it is dark or light meat doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. Depending on how big your chicken is and your family, you may stretch your chicken into 2 more meals.

Don’t throw away the bones! The bone still contain minerals and vitamins that you can extract and make bone broth. Save up your bones, or do one carcass at a time. Use your favorite bone broth recipe. The Weston A. Price website is a good place to start. I have one customer that will cook their bones at least twice and up to 7 seven times to keep extracting minerals. Talk about saving money. I’m not sure of the validity of making broth 7 times with the same bones, but I’ve definitely done it twice. Your second batch and on will not have the great chicken taste, but you can use this for cooking noodles, potatoes, rice and adding in place of water to any recipe. 

Use your meat and bone broths to nourish up more recipes! Whether you are going to drink a glass of broth with your meal, or use it in recipes. You can really get creative in using up your broth.

Now with that one whole chicken, the lowest per price per pound (currently $5.79), you can use it in up to 3 plus meals to feed a family.

Number 2, BUY IN BULK. You already know this. But get a big freezer and buy a whole or half pig. A half of pig only takes up about 3-4 cu. ft. You can have your portion of pork processed into cuts your family likes. Do you like ground meat, sausages, chops and roasts? You can get creative and grind what you don’t like or have your ground made into tasty sausage or brats. Those are easy grilling meals in the summer! The hardest part is rationing out the 10 pounds of bacon per half of pig.

Number 3 is START USING OFFAL. Liver is one of the most nutritious animal parts and not as expensive. If you aren’t a big liver fan like myself, a trick I have found is taking frozen chicken livers and grating it into recipes. No one is for the wiser and you just added nutrition to that meal. 

These are my number one go-tos for saving money, and time, when feeding my family. What are your ideas?