So Much Chicken



Over a month ago I took over all grocery shopping for the family.  Maddie and I typically go grocery shopping on the weekend.  I've been comparing prices at various stores and looking through the weekly ads to find the best buys, particularly on ground beef and chicken breast.  I was elated to find this Aldi special in the newspaper:

I left after dinner on Wednesday and purchased 16 lbs of fresh chicken breasts for $27.  Score!

In case you're wondering why I purchased sixteen pounds of chicken, a fellow triplet mom posted a link on how to make and freeze large batches of shredded chicken.  She remarked on what a big time saver it was and that she only buys meat when she finds a great sale and stocks up.   

I placed one 5-lb pack of chicken breasts in the crock pot, along with 4 cups of water, 2 chicken bouillon cubes, a dash of garlic salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of Stevia.  I cooked it on high for five hours.

One of the tips I read was to shred the chicken in a stand mixer using a paddle attachment.  I was skeptical of how that would work, but the chicken was perfectly shredded in under a minute!

Five pounds made just over 12 cups of shredded chicken.

I portioned the chicken into freezer bags with three cups in each.  This was just the first batch:

I repeated the five hour process with the second batch of chicken breasts, and froze the third batch as individual breasts.  After all was said and done, $26 bought me 24 cups of shredded chicken (enough for 8 dinners + leftovers) and 6 large chicken breasts (enough for three meals). 

Some of my favorite dinners that feature shredded chicken breasts are chicken pot pie, chicken tetrazzini, enchiladas, quesadillas and taco soup.  Of course, I'm always happy to try new recipes if you have any favorites to share.

Baby Dinner on a Dime

$1.98 for jar of unsweetened applesauce.......46 oz
$3.38 for 8 sweet potatoes....................made 54 oz
$2.19 for a bag of pears........................made 16 oz
$1.09 for a bag of carrots......................made 18 oz

That's $8.64 for 134 oz of baby food (or 33.5 4-oz jars). 
That's roughly 26¢ per jar if I were to buy them as packaged baby food at the store.  Good luck finding jars of baby food for that price.  It's great being able to combine my love of cooking, healthy eating, and saving money!

Crunching Numbers

I'm pretty dead set on staying home one more year.  I've been spending a lot of time this week exploring ways to make that work.  Jesse and I have one joint bank account in addition to our own individual bank accounts.  The mortgage comes out of my account each month through automatic billpay.  Jesse covers all other expenses.  In order for me to stay home, I need to somehow be able to pay the mortgage for another year.  This means I need to save/earn roughly $13,000.  Is this possible?  I'm leaning towards yes.

-I assume we can expect a sizable tax return in a few months, in addition to another tax return in 2015. 
-As far as jobs go, I think my best bet would be tutoring.  I sent out an e-mail to all 5th grade teachers that teach at schools within a 15 minute radius to pass my contact information and credentials along to parents. 
-A local mom suggested I apply to Sylvan or another tutoring program.  She was a stay at home mom/former teacher and worked from 5-7 two days a week on 9-1 on Saturdays.  That is definitely doable.
-I've been checking local listings through mother's groups and applied for a position for sitter/cleaner from 5-6:30 two days a week.  I haven't heard back and suspect that I won't, but I'll keep looking.
-Another mom suggested I take in another child during the day to watch, but I think that would be an awfully tough sell.  I would never have sent Jackson to stay with a mother I didn't know who already had four young children of her own.

I have to believe that something will work out and I'll be able to care for my children while contributing financially.  If anyone local has any leads, I'm all ears!

Baby Food Making 101

The only baby food I ever made for Jackson was mashing up a banana.  I assumed it would be a mindless task, especially since I'm no stranger in the kitchen.  I should have known better!  I attempted to make homemade applesauce by boiling apples in a pot with about an in inch of water.  Ten minutes later and the water had evaporated, natural sugars had crystalized, and I almost ruined the pot.  After a bit of web surfing, I found this website to be the most helpful resource.  I used a Target gift card we had generously been gifted to purchase a food processor and some really cheap 4 oz Gladware containers.  I spent most of the day in and out of the kitchen.  Here's what I made:

Homemade Applesauce

Slice and core a bag of apples.  (Clearly, I had not cored them yet.)

Place apples in a shallow baking dish with an inch of water.  Bake at 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Once tender, place the baked apples in a bowl of ice water. This allows the peel to be easily removed using a paring knife.  (An alternative to baking would be to core and peel the apples, then steam them.)

Place apples in food processor. Use the water from the pan to thin out the apple puree to your desired consistency.
 

Pour puree into small, freezer-safe containers.

Sweet Potato Puree

Place bag of washed sweet potatoes into a roasting pan.  Bake in a 450 degree oven for an hour.

Slice baked sweet potatoes.  Scoop out flesh and place sweet potato in food processor.

Use liquid (water, formula, breastmilk, or homemade vegetable stock) to thin out puree to desired consistency.

Spoon puree into freezer-safe containers, ice cube trays, or muffin tins.  Cover with plastic wrap or wax paper.

If using ice trays or muffin tins, freeze for a few hours, then empty puree into a freezer-safe bag.

Pureed Carrots

Peel carrots and cut ends off.  In all my reading, carrots are questionable because of the excessive level of nitrates.  You should not use carrots that have roots or and hairs sprouting as that indicates higher levels of nitrates.  It was also not recommended to use baby carrots as they are often washed in a chlorine solution prior to packaging. 

Steam carrots for 5-10 minutes.

Place in food processor and pour puree into ice cube trays, muffin tins, or freezer safe containers.


Pureed Peas

I just used a 1 lb bag of frozen peas,

steamed them for 5-10 minutes,

tossed them in a food processor with a fair amount of liquid, and froze them in ice trays.

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I included a similar version of this handy dandy chart in my previous post, but I wanted to include it here as well so I could easily search for it. 

Amount	Price of Produce	Total Oz of Baby Food	# of 4 oz Jars Produced	Price per jar
1 lb bag of carrots	$0.99	20 oz	5 jars	$0.20
1 bag of sweet potatoes	$1.69	24 oz	6 jars	$0.28
1 bag of small apples	$3.29	28 oz	7 jars	$0.47
1 bunch of 8 bananas	$2.68	32 oz	8 jars	$0.34
1 lb bag of frozen peas	$1.25	18 oz	4.5 jars	$0.28

Next items for the baby test kitchen are avocado and squash. 

More Math Facts: Baby Food Edition

If you recall from a previous post, I am all about calculating savings.  Many of the parenting choices I've made are aligned with a more natural parenting style (breastfeeding, cloth diapering, making baby food).  While I truly do believe those things are beneficial to infants, the truth is, I do it because I can't afford not to.  Triplets are not cheap, so I'll do anything I can to save a buck.

When it came time to introduce solids, I decided to experiment with making my own baby food.  I had to do a lot of research to determine how to cook and store the food, which foods should be introduced at what ages, etc.  I couldn't find any information on how much pureed food typical bags of produce would yield.  Here's what I ended up buying at the grocery store and creating:

Amount	Cost	Total Oz of Baby Food	# of 4 oz Jars Produced
1 lb bag of carrots	$0.99	20 oz	5 jars
2 bags of sweet potatoes	$3.38 ($1.69 x 2)	48 oz	12 jars
1 bag of small apples	$3.29	28 oz	7 jars
1 bunch of 8 bananas	$2.68	32 oz	8 jars
1 lb bag of frozen peas	$1.25	18 oz	4.5 jars
Total	$11.59	146 oz	36.5 jars

I compared prices for Gerber, Beech Nut, and Earth’s Best.  The cheapest price I found for a 4 oz jar of Stage 1 baby food was $0.89 per jar. I calculated my savings based on that price:

$0.89 x 36.5 jars = $32.49

$32.49 (store bought) - $11.59 (homemade) = $20.90 savings

Therefore, making my own baby food costs one-third of the price as store-bought baby food.

Since we only introduced solids three weeks ago, the babies are still eating a small amount.  However, they have already progressed from nibbling a few teaspoons of food to devouring small bowls of food.  They currently split a banana in the morning, a few ounces of rice or oatmeal cereal in the afternoon, and either sweet potatoes or apples in the evening. 

According to other triplet moms, the norm is to go through 12 jars per day.  If that’s the case, I spent my afternoon making enough food for three days.  Clearly, I’ll need to be making much larger batches!  I’m certainly not opposed to buying jars of food if I find a great deal.  I looked back through the blog and read that we bought dozens of 4 oz jars of Stage 2 baby food at Big Lots for $0.30 each. 

In another month or two, we'll be able to introduce table food.  I'll be more likely to toss our own meals into the food processor for a few quick pulses so the babies will eat the same thing we eat. Hopefully, that will eliminate additional expenses and will motivate Jesse and I to make healthy meals.