Kitchen Secrets

Here are some frugal tips from my years of raising five healthy, hungry youngsters.

Milk (ten gallons a week) - to make those expensive gallons of milk go twice as far, I change each gallon into two by adding reconstituted powdered milk. Use clean empty jugs to split the milk and add the well-mixed powdered milk. Nutritious, and virtually, undetectable when the milk is icy cold.

Time (about 7 hours a week) - This time is saved in meal preparation. We all work and/or go to school so, on Saturday morning, the team cooks. In just a few hours we prepare 7 main courses, like beef stew, thick soup, roasted chicken, spaghetti, meatloaf. We even make desserts. All go into the freezer so that, when the designated team member comes home after school, s/he puts the frozen dinner into the oven, makes a salad, veggie and pasta or spud. In less than an hour of preparation time, the meal is ready to serve. Fast, yet nutritious and varied. Saves money, too. Fast foods are not economical, nor good for us as a steady diet.

Waste Not - keep a quart sized tall plastic container in the freezer. After each meal, don't discard the two tablespoons of corn or half-cup of pasta or green beans. Instead, put these small amounts of perfectly good foods in layers into the freezer container. When it's filled, you have the fixin's for a nice pot of ham bone soup which, incidentally, you can buy for little money. Not only does it flavor the soup nicely, but oftentimes, there's still a lot of meat left on the bone.

These Tips brought to you, compliments of Joan Bramsch

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