From my cookbook…How to feed a family on a budget
With food prices higher than ever, we are all looking for ways to stretch our food budget and still serve delicious meals. That’s right, the solutions are in my cookbook!
There are over 300 recipes in my recently published cookbook, Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us (Click on the link in Note 5 to get your own copy). Even in these inflationary times, we can prepare delicious meals for our family and do so in a way that does not break the budget. And it’s all in the cookbook!
The holidays are over, time to check the budget
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the holidays were full of joy and excitement. I especially enjoy the time of thankfulness, Christmas decorations, family time, presents, and of course the food!
But it’s now a new year, and perhaps we will have to confront our spending. Here are a couple of interesting statistics for you regarding holiday spending:
36% of Americans took on debt last season, in 2024, averaging $1181, with 42% of them incurring interest rates above 20% (Note 1). Yikes! Everything I’m reading says this year will be worse.
86% of millennials overspend during the holiday (Note 2).
I’m afraid it’s not just spending that is the holiday problem, it’s the eating as well. Full disclosure: This is my biggest problem of the year…Yes, I have to admit it and confront it as well. Check out these statistics:
Two different studies estimate between 65% and 85% of people overeat during the holidays (Notes 3, 4).
Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? NOT!!
OK, so here we are at the beginning of the year, and we need to figure out how to reduce our spending, improve our recent poor eating habits, and keep our family well-fed and satisfied with delicious and healthy meals. All at the same time. Hmmm, if we don’t know what to do, it could be difficult…
I have a solution for you! Yes, it’s a shameless plug for my cookbook! But before you click off the post, read on a bit and see what you think of the examples I provide.
One of the major themes of my cookbook is how to be efficient in the kitchen. Efficiency is defined as spending our money and our time wisely. Making the most of everything we buy and how we spend our time in the kitchen, and still turning out delicious meals that everyone wants to eat.
One turkey, one ham, six meals that feed a crowd
I’d like to give you a few examples, a few you have seen in recent posts:
How can you get the most out of your Thanksgiving turkey? Meal one is the Thanksgiving dinner. The next day, for meal two, you can make David Giustozzi’s Angel Hair Pasta Marinara with Leftover Turkey. The following day, meal three, you can make David Giustozzi’s Chicken Noodle Pasta Soup, substituting turkey bones for chicken to make stock and using any leftover turkey.
Now, let me tell you something about these recipes and put all of this in perspective for you. This is a LOT of food. I just made this combination from this past Thanksgiving. We had 11 people for Thanksgiving dinner, and I made a 15-pound smoked spatchcocked turkey (boy, was that good! See Note 6). One of the kids took some leftover turkey home for their family. Besides Thanksgiving dinner, the angel hair pasta was about another seven servings. Doing the rough math, that’s 18 servings from one 15-pound turkey. Of course, there were plenty of side dishes, but I think you get the point. I paid 97 cents a pound for the turkey (turkeys are often loss leaders for grocery stores, as they want you to buy the rest of the meal from them as well), and pasta is pretty inexpensive, so it’s going to be pretty hard to eat delicious meals more economically than this. Update: I made stock with the turkey bones and froze it. I then made chicken pasta soup with an added rotisserie chicken. That was about a $7.00 additional investment that provided about 15 bowls of soup on top of everything else, so what’s that? 29 servings (not counting the leftover turkey that I don’t know about that went home with one family) from one 15-pound turkey and a few other inexpensive ingredients?
Let’s talk now about your Christmas ham. Not quite as economical, but still an outstanding deal. Diane bought a spiral-cut ham for $1.00 a pound at Walmart. Yes, another loss leader, to be sure. Hams are typically precooked and only need a warm-up to be ready to eat. I smoked our ham, and I’m telling you, if you’ve never had a smoked ham, it sure is good. We fed the crowd and still had leftover ham for sandwiches for a few days. Afterwards, I used the bone and scraps to make David Giustozzi’s Navy Bean Soup. Like the Thanksgiving turkey, the bone, leftovers, and scraps get triple duty, and you end up with a lot of meals for a little bit of money. Even in these inflationary times! Later, after we were sick of the ham, I flash-froze individual ham slices and placed them in a zip-lock bag. When I'm ready for a slice for a sandwich or for breakfast, I pull a slice from the freezer and heat it up. I’m not even sure of the total meals from $8.00 worth of ham and a few other ingredients, but it’s a lot.
The cookbook is full of ideas like this! Finding the best way to use what you have to make delicious meals and save time and money. You can either have your own copy or give one as a gift by clicking the link in Note 5.
That’s all for today!
Feed a crowd with a smoked spatchcocked turkey
Afterburner Success Partners
What’s in it for me?
Good eats, that’s what!
Call to Action
Show someone how much you love them by preparing a delicious meal for them. Later, enjoy the time and money you save by relishing your leftovers, either for lunch at work or dinner at home. Take comfort in knowing you are eating healthy food you prepared. All because you made a good decision to follow the recipes and tips in the cookbook I developed just for you.
Besides getting a copy of the cookbook for yourself, it makes an excellent gift for those you love and care for, especially for those with a young family who are looking to save time and money in the kitchen. And learn a few things in the process! What a great idea!
Recommended Resources
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us by David Giustozzi (Note 5).
Up Next
Back to our regular post schedule.
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
36% of Americans took on debt, averaging $1181, Lending Tree: https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/holiday-season-debt/
86% of millennials overspent during last holiday season, CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/select/millennials-overspending-during-holidays/
Ohio State survey finds Americans struggle to maintain healthy habits during the holiday season, The Ohio State University: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/mediaroom/pressreleaselisting/americans-struggle-maintain-healthy-habits-during-holiday-season
Navigating Recovery During the Holidays, UNC Nutrition Research Institute:https://uncnri.org/2022/12/15/navigating-recovery-during-the-holidays/#:~:text=During%20the%20holiday%20season%2C%20more,recurrent%20episodes%20of%20binge%20eating.
Everyday Cooking for Everyday People Like Us by David Giustozzi: https://amzn.to/437OhVQ
I don’t have a smoker, but I can still have delicious smoked meals. I purchased a smoke generator and cold-smoked my meat on the grill. Cold smoking is not turning the heat on but pumping the smoke into and around the meat until it absorbs the smoke well (about an hour for these two dishes) and then baking in the oven per the recipe directions.