A frugal tip for the week!

So, part of my reason for wanting to have a Blog is to be to able journal the meals that I fix each week and frugal things that I have done to make meals stretch
and just money stretch in general, etc....
and to also journal the events of the Smith Family in a fun, creative way.

I’m not trying to impress anyone...This is for me… a place to put my thoughts, feelings, passions and interests, however, I do hope that it interests you and hopefully will inspire you in some small way as I have definitely been inspired greatly from many people from many walks of life.

Since my January got away from me I just want to share my frugal tidbit for the week. Albertsons had whole chickens on sale for .69 per pound and you could get 4 of them for this price and so the 4 chickens I got cost an average of $3.00 each and I bought 4 whole chickens for $12.83. (that was including tax).

I froze 3 of the chickens and cooked the 4th one on the top of my stove for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon and then after the chicken was falling off the bone, I pulled all the meat off the chicken and saved the broth and put it in the fridge.
I also set aside 1 large chicken breast to use for sandwiches.
(I would have made Haystacks this night, but Jade was at Ski School until 9:00 and I wanted to have a nice family dinner together with all of us there).

On Thursday morning I made all 4 of us a chicken sandwich for lunch (on French Bread I had made on Tuesday) and then we had Hawaiian Haystacks AKA “Chinese Sundaes” for dinner on Thursday. It was the first night all week that we had all of us there to sit around the table and talk and have a great family dinner.
I loved it!!

There is no better time of the day than we when we are all together sitting around the table eating dinner as a family and enjoying great conversation one with another!

The Haystacks are actually an economical way to feed a family and the kids feel special and in charge as they get to go along the counter and put on whatever toppings they want on the top of their rice/chicken gravy. So a $3.21 chicken made 2 dinners of Haystacks, 4 sandwiches on Thursday, Ethan and I sandwiches for lunch on Friday Tracy and Jade took Haystacks for lunch to work/school on Friday

The price of the Haystacks were (on top of the chicken) 6 stalks of celery that averaged out to be about $1.00, 3 tomatoes that cost $1.43, 1 bell pepper that was .50, 1 can of olives that was .79, 1 can of pineapple tidbits that was .89, about .75 worth of rice and ½ can Chinese noodles that was .50.
So $9.07 fed 4 people 2 lunches and 2 dinners.
Pretty economical if I do say so myself
and very healthy and tasty as well!
(recipe is shown below)

Chinese Sundaes/Hawaiian Haystacks

Sauce:
¾ cup flour
1/3 cup butter
3 cups chicken/turkey broth
3 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
2-3 cups chopped chicken or turkey
(great thing to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey)

Melt butter and stir in flour. Take off heat and slowly stir in milk and broth and salt. Heat to boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Add in chicken or turkey.
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I usually make this at 2:00 in the afternoon and then I put this in the Crock-pot on low until dinner time. The longer cooking really makes the chicken really tender.

I then chop all of the veggie toppings and have them in containers so when it’s dinner time all you have to do is cook up some rice and then pull out the toppings and the kids can make their haystacks to their own liking.
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This is ALWAYS a hit at our house.

Serve over rice with grated cheese (optional) and any of the following toppings: Chopped celery, chopped tomatoes, chopped bell peppers, pineapple, coconut sliced olives Chinese noodles, sunflower seeds OR cashews, or anything else that sounds good to you.