I think one of the biggest issues as a one income family that most home schoolers face is how to eat healthy on such a small food budget. Unlike most public school kids, our children eat all three meals here in our home. This means that we have to plan for all meals, and shop for them too!
Thankfully, we have some very good friends who own a Whole Sale Food Company. This means when I go to see "Uncle Tuffy" that I buy in bulk. Serious Bulk. I just got 20 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts (for a dollar a pound).They have to be separated, a gallon of ketchup (for $2)ditto! Anyway, some things just have to be taken care of and one of the best deals we get is Cheese in a 10 LB block and Deli meat that has to be sliced.
I have a treasure of a friend (several post's about Debbie here) who loans me her meat slicer. I then roll up my sleeves and get down to work. About half the way threw, DH rolled up his too and helped me finish up!
I started with the Classic Rotisserie Turkey. I label EVERYTHING almost Chix for some reason. Probably a bad habit, since anyone and everyone get's into the deep freezer.
This is what 10 pounds of shaved Turkey looks like
If you shave it the RIGHT way, you get a bit of seasoning on each piece.
This is how I package large quantities. I sometimes use freezer bags but they tend not to work as well and still get freezer burned or ice crystals on them. So for me, using wax paper and then re-wrapping them in butcher paper works well.
I label the kind of cheese. Note: if you actually let this stuff sit in the deep freezer for any amount of time you should date it. In this household NOTHING stays in the freezer long.
I try to weigh out each package into 1 lb wraps. DH weighs them into 2 lb wraps.
I try to leave 1-2 pounds of each out in the fridge. The rest all gets put away.
The next project, Honey Mesquite Smoked Turkey. Side note: the best part of having to do all the slicing is also getting to taste!
The packages when we are done.
This was the messiest of the bunch because it has rubbed pepper seasoning on it! But it was YUMMY!
Lastly, the very under used appliance that was loaned to me. I would love to have one of these myself, and some day I just may. However you don't see them all the time and as long as my girlfriend will loan me hers, I can stay in "business".
Each of my turkeys cost me $15.00. The cheese cost me $15.00. Compared to the $3-$5 dollars per pound I would have spent at the grocery store... This was a most excellent deal for me! Even if it did mean I had to work a bit more.
