Chicken Count Down

My husband and I have decided to go even more vegetarian at the end of the year. By this I mean, we have both given up red meat about two years ago. Now we have decided to give up chicken as well.

Personally, I have never been a big fan of meat and survived most of my 20s as a vegetarian with a rare, but occasional piece of chicken. When I married a carnivore, I began to eat more meat. When I became pregnant, I ate ALOT of meat, particularly hamburgers, which probably had something to do with the fact that I could smell them cooking all day at work. At the end of my pregnancy, my cholesterol had skyrocketed.

I have always been a little grossed out by raw meat. I have never cooked any meat that was on the bone or eaten it off the bone for that matter. All of the gristle, bones, and veins don't do it for me. So the plans to stop eating chicken is a welcomed decision for me.

Of course, I have stockpiled chicken in my freezer. I last purchased chicken in August and we decided to drop chicken from our diet in October so I have been using up the chicken we have with the knowledge that I will not buy anymore.

Yes, my daughter will also go vegetarian with us as well. When she first started going to daycare we told them she was not to eat red meat or hot dogs. (there's nothing good about a hot dog) Although, we will still allow her to eat chicken at daycare. I will make an effort to make sure she receives all of the nutrients she needs to grow at home.

At this point in time, I have one baggie of frozen raw chicken, seven baggies of cooked, chopped chicken, and two bags of breaded chicken nuggets. So we will definitely run out of chicken before the end of the year.

Stockpiler's Nightmare

Today I began packing for our trip to the beach. We are renting a house with the rest of my family. So we will be cooking all three meals and have to bring all of our essentials with us. Space in the car is a concern so I have to be careful as to what I pack, I can't bring everything so I will need to shop at the grocery store in the area when I arrive... this is the stockpiler's nightmare.

What exactly is the nightmare? Going to a grocery store without doing any research, having to buy things not on sale and also without a coupon. But even more of a nightmare is forgetting something and having to buy something at the store that I have stockpiled at home. For instance, my husband forgot to bring his toothbrush on our recent trip to New York. Of course I have about 5 toothbrushes at home that were purchased for next to nothing! Argh, so I headed over to Duane Reede and purchase him a store brand toothbrush for $14.50, ok maybe it was more like $2.79, but it really irked me!

So maybe I will try do some research and see what the local grocery store has on sale and do my coupon match-ups before I go to the store. But maybe, just maybe I will just go and grin and bear it and share the cost of groceries with my sister and mom. At least I can convince myself that the actual cost for groceries is less when split three ways!

But I know for sure that I am packing a toothbrush for the hubby! :)

Failed Contest

Well, I only made it one week in the contest. It would have been a lot easier to do if it was not in the middle of summer and vacations. Not only did we take a trip to DC for a baseball game and eat 2 meals out- we went to NYC for a few days. This made it impossible to stay on budget.

I am still trying to save money in other ways and use my coupons and sale match-ups each week in planning. This past week, chicken breasts were on sale so I stocked up. I bought 10 packages of chicken ranging from 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 lbs. I then spent the next few days cooking all of the chicken except two packages. I froze the breasts in baggies. The cooked chicken is in the process of being diced and frozen for future meals. It is time consuming and I really don't love chopping chicken, but it does save me a lot of time when cooking during the week. I should have enough chicken to last me through the end of the year or close. So the fact that I have bought almost all of my chicken for the year, means I will be saving a lot on money in groceries each week, since I will not be buying any meat.

I may pick up a few packages of Quorn veggie crumbles for beef recipes. Which, by the way they have been running coupons for $1.25 off- so I will be stocking up and searching for those coupons since it is a product I know I will use. I may even consider purchasing them, because a)my family loves this products and b)this product almost never goes on sale and c)it's a great coupon.

I used 1/2 bag of the Quorn veggie crumbles for dinner tonight. We had Chilli Mac skillet. This is a very easy meal and all of the ingredients are all things I have stockpiled: can of pinto beans, can of tomatos, a can of tomato sauce, 1/2 bag of Quorn veggie crumbles, and of course cheese!