It's now half way through the month, and I'm beginning to get a little concerned about some of our pantry supplies. The one 4-lb jar of peanut butter has about 1/5th of a jar left; we've gone through the vegetable oil faster this month than last; and we have 1 1/2 lbs of butter remaining (not pantry, but info indicating that we can't turn to butter to replace the vegetable oil). We'll make-do on the peanut butter, but the vegetable oil has had me worried. So, I use vegetable oil in baking breads and muffins, making granola and cookies, in stir-fries and sautes, and baking cakes. (This month has 2 birthdays.) It looks like we have about 2 cups of vegetable oil in the jug. Vegetable oil is on my shopping list for the first of May. So, I am thinking about how to make the vegetable oil stretch.
Next weekend is Easter, and we'll have a ham. I always save ham fat for cooking use -- that should help. Tonight, I'm making meatloaf. Tell me if this is something that you would do. I'm thinking on saving the fat at the bottom of the pan from baking the meatloaf to use in cooking later this week. I've saved ham, bacon, chicken, and even turkey fat, but not ground beef fat. So, this will be new territory for me in the just-how-much-can-I-stretch-the-grocery-budget department. Besides sparing some of the vegetable oil, I'm also attracted to the idea of saving meat fat because it will keep the fat out of the landfill (and not feed the vermin there), it seems like a more responsible way to treat an animal that gave its life for my plate, and it fits my waste-not, want-not ethic. So, what do you think? Barring health reasons not to eat beef fat (and in that case, maybe shouldn't be eating beef at all), would you save fat from meatloaf to use later in cooking? BTW, I'll freeze the fat, so there's no chance of spoilage and making my family sick. A trip to the urgent care clinic would not be frugal at all!
Any input?
