In trying to get the most bang for my buck with my own drinking milk, here's a new way that I've been looking at it.
(Just to clarify, I'm not supposed to have dairy milk, as I'm lactose-intolerant. Drinking cows' milk or pouring some over oatmeal, or eating a bowl of cream soup will leave me very miserable for about 2 or 3 days. Bummer, right? I can take pills if I really want ice cream. And I seem to be somewhat okay with small amounts of cheese. But, for my personal "milk" consumption, or when I cook something containing milk, for the whole family, I have to use an alternative "milk".)
Here was my question to myself:
Can I approximate some of the nutritional value of purchased soy or rice milk with a combination of homemade rice milk plus supplements?
These alternative milks are expensive in the stores. Even the bargain-basement soy milk that I buy from Dollar Tree is $4 per gallon.
The nutrition that I am most interested in with soy or rice milk is the calcium and Vit. D. (The protein is not significant in the super-duper cheap soy milk that I buy (4 grams in 1 cup). And I believe I get enough protein from other sources in my diet.)
Commercial soy and rice milk do not naturally contain high amounts of calcium, but are fortified. My body doesn't really know the difference between the minerals it receives from a fortified product and me taking a supplement. If you can understand where I'm going here. It's kind of like how eating a bowl of fortified, cold cereal is not much different to my body than eating a bowl of oatmeal and taking a multi-vitamin.
This week, I bought a bottle of calcium citrate plus Vit. D supplements. Each caplet contains roughly the same amount of elemental calcium as 1 glass of dairy milk or 1 glass of commercial, fortified soy or rice milk. and each caplet cost about 3 cents. For calcium/Vit D alone, I get the same amount of these nutrients in 4 caplets (at 12 cents for the 4), as 1 quart of purchased soy milk (at $1 from Dollar Tree).
To make homemade rice milk, my cost is about 30 cents per quart. If I add the 12 cents for 4 calcium/Vit. D caplets, I'm up to 42 cents per 4 servings/1 quart equivalent of my homemade rice milk, supplement combo.
Let's say, for argument sake, I did need that 4 grams of protein that 1 cup of Dollar Tree's soy milk provides per cup. I could also add half of an egg for that amount of protein. My recent price on eggs works out to between 8 and 9 cents per egg, or 4 1/2 cents per 4 grams of protein. If I wanted to add in the cost of 2 eggs for an equivalent amount of protein that 1 quart of soy milk contains, that would add 9 cents to my 42 cents per 4 servings/quart of equivalent homemade rice milk, supplement, and now egg combo, for a total of 51 cents, as compared to $1 at Dollar Tree for 1 quart of purchased soy milk.
What's the hands-on time investment in making rice milk at home? I've now got my formula memorized, and have streamlined the preparation process. It takes me about 15 minutes of hands-on time, to make 1 quart of rice milk. That's only about a $2 savings per hour of work. Not the most lucrative way to save money. But I can do this while I'm already in the kitchen preparing dinner.
Yep, I'll be continuing to make my own rice milk, for the time being. I'll still buy an occasional quart of soy milk, for convenience when I don't have my rice all soaked for rice milk. But will primarily use the homemade rice milk.
In case you didn't guess, I do enjoy these little calculations, for the mental exercise they provide. But also, if the exercises help me save a bit more money towards our financial goals, then they are well-worth the time. I can use this tidbit of information to continue saving money for years to come, only occasionally filling in different numbers as prices of the different components rise and fall.
One last calculation. I will probably save about $1.50 per month by continuing to make rice milk at home. Multiplied out by 12 months in a year, and I'll save $18 in the next year. Over 10 years' time, I could save $180. Not too shabby, I think.
I just love math!
Friday, June 5, 2015
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Last week I bought beef, this week I bought chicken
. . . lots and lots of chicken.
I found a 40-lb case of chicken hindquarters on sale for $19.99, or just under 50 cents per pound. Again, I worked the pros and cons back and forth over this.
I realized that even I have a hard time with these large stock-up purchases -- a hard time, mentally. If I buy just a regular, weekly amount of any one thing, then I know that my risk is small. If we don't like it, or it takes up a lot of space in the freezer, or if I come across a better price, then my smaller purchase has limited effect.
But with a much larger purchase, it stays in the freezer for a much longer time, taking up space. If we don't like it, we still have to eat it, for months on end. And if I find a much better price later on, then I have locked myself out from those savings, by making such a large purchase, now.
And with the chicken hindquarters, there was the issue of how to deal with such a large package? Will I be able to break the quarters apart to cook them individually?
So, you see, these major stock-up purchases are not comfortable for me, either.
The tipping point which enabled my purchase was all of the conversation about potential rising poultry prices. If both chicken and turkey prices go up in this coming year, then this purchase will tide us over until next spring. And even if these price increases are not as bad as some anticipate, then I have still made a purchase with a more favorable price than even what I see for whole chickens.
In the case that I bought, the chicken was packaged in 4 10-lb bags. Not super convenient, like IQF (individually quick frozen), but these are manageable, enough. The frozen-solid quarters can be broken into chunks of about 3 large pieces in each of the 10-lbs bags, with the help of a mallet. I figure that thawing and cooking the chicken in this amount will be the equivalent of cooking up a small whole chicken, and will yield about 3 family meals per large chunk.
The other night, I cooked up 3 hindquarter pieces. We had teriyaki chicken the first night, chicken in marinara sauce the second night, and we'll have chicken soup for tonight's dinner.
I know that occasionally supermarkets put these 10-lb bags on sale for a good price. The obstacle for most folks is that the chicken is frozen solid in one large chunk, not exactly user-friendly for family dinners. The way around this, though, is if the frozen mass cannot be broken into smaller portions, the whole thing can be thawed, cooked up, then refrozen in individual pieces, to use the meat later. When you think about it, it's not much different than cooking up 2 whole chickens, or 1 large turkey at a time, then freezing the meat for later use.
Thawing a 10-lb bag of chicken parts takes about 2-4 days in a refrigerator. Once thawed, it can be safely held for 1 or 2 days more. (This means that you could cook up half of a 10-lb bag on day 1 after thawing, and the other half on day 2 after thawing, making the cooking a little more manageable.) And according to the USDA, thawed meat can even be refrozen, though there may be loss of quality. But this is only the case if you thaw the chicken in the refrigerator. If you thaw it in the microwave or in cold water, then it does need to be cooked immediately. Read that page in the link above, for complete information on safe thawing and cooking of frozen meats.
Currently, hindquarters are the least expensive option for chicken. The next best price on chicken that I have seen this spring is as whole chickens, at 88 cents per pound. I saved nearly 40 cents per pound on this 40-lb purchase, over buying the same amount in whole chickens. That's a grand total savings of $16.00. I can use that $16.00 to buy a lot of groceries for our family. AND, I have a hedge against potential rising poultry costs, including turkeys this next fall. Should turkey prices go way up, I may only buy 1 or 2, instead of 4 whole turkeys. I may still have chicken hindquarters in the freezer at that time, as well as a ham and possibly my last turkey from this past year.
Food inflation may be escalating on some items, but there are still some avenues to get around these high prices.
Now, I need your help, here. 40 pounds is a lot of chicken legs and thighs, which I prefer if the flavor is more disguised. I have a well-stocked spice cupboard, and a lot of basic ingredients to work with. What are your favorite, flavorful dishes that use dark-meat chicken? Do you have certain spices or herbs that you like with chicken? How about ethnic chicken recipes? Any that stand out as favorites in your house?
TIA, and I'm eager to hear how you like to prepare chicken legs and thighs!
I found a 40-lb case of chicken hindquarters on sale for $19.99, or just under 50 cents per pound. Again, I worked the pros and cons back and forth over this.
I realized that even I have a hard time with these large stock-up purchases -- a hard time, mentally. If I buy just a regular, weekly amount of any one thing, then I know that my risk is small. If we don't like it, or it takes up a lot of space in the freezer, or if I come across a better price, then my smaller purchase has limited effect.
But with a much larger purchase, it stays in the freezer for a much longer time, taking up space. If we don't like it, we still have to eat it, for months on end. And if I find a much better price later on, then I have locked myself out from those savings, by making such a large purchase, now.
And with the chicken hindquarters, there was the issue of how to deal with such a large package? Will I be able to break the quarters apart to cook them individually?
So, you see, these major stock-up purchases are not comfortable for me, either.
The tipping point which enabled my purchase was all of the conversation about potential rising poultry prices. If both chicken and turkey prices go up in this coming year, then this purchase will tide us over until next spring. And even if these price increases are not as bad as some anticipate, then I have still made a purchase with a more favorable price than even what I see for whole chickens.
In the case that I bought, the chicken was packaged in 4 10-lb bags. Not super convenient, like IQF (individually quick frozen), but these are manageable, enough. The frozen-solid quarters can be broken into chunks of about 3 large pieces in each of the 10-lbs bags, with the help of a mallet. I figure that thawing and cooking the chicken in this amount will be the equivalent of cooking up a small whole chicken, and will yield about 3 family meals per large chunk.
The other night, I cooked up 3 hindquarter pieces. We had teriyaki chicken the first night, chicken in marinara sauce the second night, and we'll have chicken soup for tonight's dinner.
I know that occasionally supermarkets put these 10-lb bags on sale for a good price. The obstacle for most folks is that the chicken is frozen solid in one large chunk, not exactly user-friendly for family dinners. The way around this, though, is if the frozen mass cannot be broken into smaller portions, the whole thing can be thawed, cooked up, then refrozen in individual pieces, to use the meat later. When you think about it, it's not much different than cooking up 2 whole chickens, or 1 large turkey at a time, then freezing the meat for later use.
Thawing a 10-lb bag of chicken parts takes about 2-4 days in a refrigerator. Once thawed, it can be safely held for 1 or 2 days more. (This means that you could cook up half of a 10-lb bag on day 1 after thawing, and the other half on day 2 after thawing, making the cooking a little more manageable.) And according to the USDA, thawed meat can even be refrozen, though there may be loss of quality. But this is only the case if you thaw the chicken in the refrigerator. If you thaw it in the microwave or in cold water, then it does need to be cooked immediately. Read that page in the link above, for complete information on safe thawing and cooking of frozen meats.
Currently, hindquarters are the least expensive option for chicken. The next best price on chicken that I have seen this spring is as whole chickens, at 88 cents per pound. I saved nearly 40 cents per pound on this 40-lb purchase, over buying the same amount in whole chickens. That's a grand total savings of $16.00. I can use that $16.00 to buy a lot of groceries for our family. AND, I have a hedge against potential rising poultry costs, including turkeys this next fall. Should turkey prices go way up, I may only buy 1 or 2, instead of 4 whole turkeys. I may still have chicken hindquarters in the freezer at that time, as well as a ham and possibly my last turkey from this past year.
Food inflation may be escalating on some items, but there are still some avenues to get around these high prices.
Now, I need your help, here. 40 pounds is a lot of chicken legs and thighs, which I prefer if the flavor is more disguised. I have a well-stocked spice cupboard, and a lot of basic ingredients to work with. What are your favorite, flavorful dishes that use dark-meat chicken? Do you have certain spices or herbs that you like with chicken? How about ethnic chicken recipes? Any that stand out as favorites in your house?
TIA, and I'm eager to hear how you like to prepare chicken legs and thighs!
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