The Bone Collector

A few friends who read my blog suggested that I make soup.  I've already made beef stew, so I decided to put the many chicken thighs that I've purchased to use.  I've been collecting chicken thigh bones in my freezer for a week.  I've also been saving the ends of my carrots, onions and celery in another bag for making stock.  Why waste perfectly a good carrot when I can save the ends when I cut them into sticks?  Besides, the mirepoix gets thrown out at the end of stock making anyway.

Scott thought my bag of bones was a little gross, but I've had two friends admit that they also have bags of bones in their own freezers waiting for stock-making.  I'm glad this is a common practice and I'm glad I now know to do it; I always felt wasteful throwing away chicken bones.  Now I can use them to make stock.  Making stock is pretty easy, but when I wasn't sure how to get all of the bony bits out of the stock pot, I poured the soup through a paper coffee filter and it worked surprisingly well. 

My plan was to have chicken soup for tonight's dinner, but we had the remaining servings of 5 Bean Taco Soup for lunch and I didn't want soup two meals in a row.  Instead, we had chicken tacos and used a few frozen chicken breasts that I bought last week.  It was a nice change from the ground beef or ground turkey that I normally use in tacos and was a smash with Connor and Grant.  I'll move chicken soup to Tuesday or Wednesday and along with it, I want to make homemade bread.  Almost every recipe in The Joy of Cooking calls for Bread Flour and I only have All-Purpose.  Normally, I'd go out and buy the different flour, but instead, I'll do a little Internet research to find a different recipe.  I don't need two flours when one will do.

Scott had a monthly meeting at work today and since it was catered, he took his own lunch.  I know it must have been really difficult to eat soup when there was likely a delicious meal, but Scott is really honest and committed to keeping an accurate food budget.  Besides, it gave him the opportunity to share our story with his co-workers who were very impressed and supportive. 

I went to Aldi today and was amazed how much farther my food dollar stretched.  A few of the great prices that I found was fresh pineapple for half of my normal grocery store's sale price and imitation Ritz crackers for half the price of my local grocer.  This store is definitely worth a look if you've never been.  Just know that they don't accept credit cards and since they don't provide grocery bags, either bring your cloth ones or grab an empty box from the shelves.

Here's what we ate today.

Breakfast
- S Cereal with Milk
- KC&G Toast with Margarine and Milk
- C Yogurt
Total $1.08

Lunch
- SKC&G 5 Bean Taco Soup
- S Orange and Cookies
- K&C Jiffy Corn Muffins with extra Corn
- C&G Milk
- G Blueberries
Total $4.95

Dinner
- SKC&G Chicken Tacos (chicken breasts, taco powder, taco shells, tomatoes, cheese, green onion, and sour cream)
- C&G Milk
- G Crackers
Total $3.85

Dessert
- G Cookies
- SK&C Chocolate
Total $0.64

Total Spend $10.52

Tomorrow, Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Ma'am