The Evolution of a Pot Roast

This month, for various reasons, our food stamps were delayed by 5 days. Previously, this would have been a catastrophe! Most months, we run out by the third week, and coast by on the odds and ends in our refrigerator. I'm pretty creative that way, lol!

The last 2 or 3 months, we've had to do all our grocery shopping by biking to the store with our bike trailer, or by taking the bus. This means that instead of making 3 big trips to the grocery store, we've had to make about 6 or 7 smaller trips. This is bad for several reasons. It makes buying in bulk harder. It literally takes 3 or 4 times longer, and we always feel like we have no food in our house.

However, on the plus side, our food stamps have lasted longer, which means that we still had 10.00 on our EBT card (the credit card we get our food stamps deposited onto) by the time we should have gotten our new allotment. At the same time, Hubby finally sold his car to the junk guy. We decided that we had a budget of 30.00 to spend on food to last an indeterminate amount of time. That means that we had to buy something that would last a LONG time.

In our cupboard, we had a can of organic corn and a can of organic green beans, 4 boxes of organic pasta, and some organic brown and white rice - which I had somehow hidden in the back and forgotten about. In our fridge and freezer, we had half a container of sour cream, 2lbs of butter, 2 jars of pickle juice - the pickles had been eaten - 1 frozen turkey neck, and sweetbreads. I need to save the sweetbreads - which is not actually bread at all fyi - for a day when everyone is in the mood to try something new and different - so that was out heh heh. But hey! They were cheap, and will make an interesting meal.

Anyway, I decided to buy two 5.00 bags of organic red potatoes, and hubby insisted on getting a 10.00 beef roast. This roast was huge! We also bought 10.00 worth of ground beef. I figured that mixed with what we had, I could make several meals.

The first night, I made pot roast and potatoes (in water with seasonings - I love drinking the juice!). I'm a diabetic, and potatoes are a no no, even if they are organic. So - naturally - I ate way more than I should have. One whole 3lb bag of potatoes disappeared that first night, but I wasn't the only one chowing down on them :-)

The second night, I still had 2/3rds of the roast left, so I cut it in half, and cut half of it into chunks/shreds. I added the other bag of potatoes, the can of corn, and the green beans. I also added a bit more water, and adjusted my seasonings.

We now had more than a gallon of soup, and this fed all 4 of us for dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast again. If you're keeping track, this means that the pot roast and potatoes - costing 20.00 - plus two cans of veggies - costing less than 5.00 - have fed us for 3 days, and we still have some left!

Tonight, I'm taking the other half of the pot roast I set aside previously, and - after boiling up some of the brown and white rice - I plan to serve a slice of the roast along with some rice. I'm making enough rice so that I will have leftovers - of both the roast and the rice, and that will be turned into a simple stirfry for lunch tomorrow.

In other words, I successfully fed my family of 4 on 30.00 for 5 days! We haven't even touched the ground beef yet, but that is enough to feed us for another couple of days. The good news is that our food stamps came in today so I can finally restock everything we are low on. (In several small trips...)

Hubby was digging into a bowl of soup/stew, and he looks at me. "You know, this is really cheap! We should make this at least once a week." I roll my eyes... I've only been telling him that for about a year now! He much prefers to buy ribs, steaks, chicken breasts, and ground beef. Knowing that I can get so much more out of a meal if I buy a whole chicken or a roast, I've been trying to persuade him to let me do so more often, but he hates soup.

It seems he's finally coming around, lol! I told him that our special project for this month should be cooking up a whole ton of rice and veggies, plus maybe a pork roast. Then we can portion the food into containers and freeze them. That way, when we want a quick heat and eat meal, we'll have something ready to go. It doesn't involve soup, so hubby is on board! My next project after that is this post from a woman I'd like to be one day :-)