Cutting down a turkey to make ground meat (amended)

Before you an $11. turkey.
Purchased at Easter

Watch as we make a feast for a family of four that has at least 18 meals represented. 

That is 18x4=72 meals plus left overs. All for $11 of meat.

Begin with the prep of all the supplies that will be needed at hand. This is very important for the meat must be prepared very quickly to maintain the chill needed for safe handling. The small sauce pan is for the gizzard and heart that will go to a boil to make the home style gravy later. Place paper toweling under the cutting board and have extra to keep the juices contained. As much as I try to avoid paper products this is an exception. Do NOT use your cloth towels, news paper or paper bags if you must.

Here you see the breast cut off, The leg and wing drum sticks set aside. Return to chill while working the carcass for the meat scraps to make ground turkey.

Once the carcass is cleared of all meat that is scraped as well as cut from the bones, set it aside.

All the other meat get to chilling it promptly

Set the bones and the wing tips on to boil. I only use reverse osmosis water to cook with. It is found that the tap water can really contain things (even in small parts per billion) that I do not want my family to ingest.

grind the scraps down after removing any extra skin. A tip here as much as we like very lean meats it is a must to have a very little amount of the fats/skin added in the grind to hold it together and to give it a binding agent of sorts. This will be made into a meat ball recipe, and a half of it will be pre-cooked and then all refrozen for another day.

Now with the turkey breast de-skinned they are carved into tenders. This a good summer time cut. No oven needed. The thigh is added to the boiling pot for adding back a little of the dark meat will give it a deeper savory flavor.

Tenders to freezer par-freeze. Keep them apart from each other then you can use the plastic by cutting them apart wrap the piece of meat as you cut it apart and then all goes into a freezer bag. Remove as much air as possible. That is all the by-product left it is to be tossed. I should of bagged it first but neglected to do so.

Clean all work surfaces thoroughly use care here this is where cross contamination and e-coli can occur if not careful. There is the pot with the stock cooking down. Once done a good 2-3 boiled hours it is cooled. skimmed removed from the stew pot. Meanwhile cut down the celery/carrot/onion when the pot is emptied of the stock and the bones cleaned of scrap use a gee or rue (butter with the milk whey removed) heat it well and saute the veggies well. Add a bit of flour and thicken add broth. The beginning of your soup. Go from there with your own creativity.

In oven the drum sticks, corn bread and the baked golden Yukon yellow potato. Oh those are so good even cold for a snack. They are naturally buttery. I just love them as my carb mid day.

Now make sure that the turkey is cooked to 170*F

The left over broth in the pan...cool it then de-fat it this is the concentrated base for the gravy.

Now the gravy use the finely diced gizzard and heart in the gravy I think there is another post under cooking in my lists that show the method.

Remove the bones to cool
start gravy and the broth is strained into a bowl
It is added to the gravy as it cooks and thickens
This becomes extremely concentrated in flavor boy howdy this is livin'

Rue to empty stock pot and then when hot add root veggies.
I also fine grated the last of the parsnips from the garden
Parsnips now that's the flavor of the homemade soup, use it in any poultry based soup.

Finely and I mean VERY finely dice the heart gizzard and liver (I got cheated a liver in this bird)
Now I know that just sounds nasty but this is the flavor of the gravy

Remove the meat off bone dice to medium size and toss into the stock after the the flour is added as a thickening agent, add stock to thick veggie/flour mix (all in the pot)
I added three organic carrots at a large slice for texture boiled it another 5 minutes on a high rolling boil.

Powered down by 1:10 yee haw!

Enjoy!

Wow that was the first long post in some time. It is so good to be getting back to my old self again.


The break down...

4 family meals of tenders (16 meal portions)
4 family meals of ground turkey (16 meal portions)
Meal for 4 of drum sticks (4 meal portions)
soup stock for several meals (example rice boiled in it yum)
Gravy
Large pot of soup (20 meal portions at least!)

Lots of left overs too

.15 cents a meal

all for $11 and a two hour labor of love.
Now find me a job that pays those kind of hours, free childcare too.

Find me a dishwasher too, that would be cool
:)

Tackle it Tuesday household inventory

pencil is erased and the main list is not needed to be rewritten.

before and after....

Everything is inventoried on the sheets in my homemakers inventory manuel every freezer, pantry, supply closet and laundry cupboard. The garage things such as motor oil as well.

By using this method the budget is guarded from the expiration dates costing spoiled goods.

The door is insulated with ice blocks all above.

Cold sinks, heat rises. So the lower door has food goods.

Everything in upper door is ice. By using the old jugs, ice cream containers and such we both reuse and recycle. The old ice cream container make great ice blocks.

All the chill packs for my knees will be easily located for the kids.

Over the next several weeks I have an infusion on the 8th then knee injections for both knees every Thursday there after for 3 weeks.

The medication supply is also inventoried.

We purchase on clearance the items that are a common, looking always for new packaging.

This is done every so often.

First they send coupons, then they down size with coupons. Once they hook us they then increase the price. For what a "good deal" they leave us to think.

So when an item you commonly purchase sends out that first round toward the new packaging look for the former packaging to show up on clearance.

Great for tooth brushes too.

Meal Plan Monday

 There is a turkey and a roast left in the deep freeze.

 

The turkey will be thawed and then carved raw into a breast or two to bake.

Scrap to grind into turkey burger then the carcass to soup. Perhaps a potato base.

There are several of the potato the golden Yucatan, oh man they are so good.

With a large bag of blue berries in the freezer there will be protein smoothies, berry pancakes too.

A meal of deep water ocean fish will be mid week.

Salad of Romain, cucumber, celery, carrot, bell peppers of three colors, onion.

Herbs to abound over it all.

click image to enlarge

This is the second to the last week of the children home so it is the end of the freezer and pantry for the summer. Like the mountain women of old, we store up before the heat comes and run low at the beginning of fall just sorta flip side of the frozen tundra HA!. The clearing of the deep freeze marks the beginning of a new school year. Inventory removes any old foods ignored and forces them to be used up so the new can be welcomed in come the fall. With temp over 115* some days it is safest to live this way. Perishables are well...perishable and there is nothing worse than food poisoning from the heat that builds up in a car. Our cars can reach an easy 160* inside. Ice chest help.

The children have not to be bothered with shopping nor do I for that matter in the middle of the heat. 

Steve will stop here and there during the weeks and grab few perishables. Or in the evening I'll shop a little for fresh produce. Once in a while they come just to keep the skills up. We pick advertising apart with abundant humor.

 So here are a couple of ideas to conserve and reduce.

With the left over ground beef a nice rice dish was made.

It is settling  in to me that we really do not need to use as much meat.

By reducing the 1 pound to 3/4 pound in recipes and adding the rice up and the veggies up to the full measure the meals are just as good. 

Our little family really dislikes the 'Heal' of a loaf of bread.

This is a use for it we often find for salad there is non better.

Simply butter with softened butter and layer a good shower of garlic salt and Italian seasoning.

Cube with a heavy knife then crisp toast or as I did use the heat left in oven after a cake is baked.

Use up any thing even heat that is left in the oven.

Just think ahead a bit.

The garden is beginning the fall awakening.

Dug up several small onions while soaking the soil in preparation for the planting of the early beans.

That is the sad ol' tired and hot sweet potato plant, poor thing.

This desert heat plays hard on the garden and the gardener alike.

After the soak soil turned and the straw blanket it will rest another week or two.

The pre-emergent is in for the lentil family.

It is just too

HOT

Sleep over

With a house full of 5 little girls and a boy too it is a jabber of voice and talk of shared knowledge

Friday Funnies

Coming home from taking Dove to the dermatologist yesterday she pipes up..."donuts" as she waves the magic fingers over me as if to put me into a trance.
"ooo temptation" I tell her
Dash pops her on the head from the back seat with an empty water bottle

"donuts" she chants repeatedly

My mind envisions going into the store and getting some, well...I could get some other groceries too...

"donuts" chants she

"Don't temp me " say I

"Donuts...DONUTS"...she heightens her chant with fingers from both hands now in my face. All the while she is turning the radio on and off waiting for a song with inappropriate lyrics to get over. She repeated her chant over and over.

She reaches over and I kid you not!

She hits the radio button once again and out of the speaker comes...

"don't look fat in those jeans"

We laughed our fool heads off!
And No much to her chagrin we did not stop for donuts :)
I am down 13 pounds now in weight!

The Letter of the law

Of late the lessons being learned on the letter of the law have been very controversial. It is an amazing thing to learn in the freedom that to some may come as an offense. Some of the wonders have come through the experiences that left me appalled and even down right angry.
Now through the obedience of learning trust lies the truth. The core is the opportunity to stretch my willingness. A risk that has been and is being opened up to me.

The letter of the law refuses to let freedom come to open our lives and hearts up fully to one another. 

Usually a fear of judgment or rejection refuses the risk.

Yet far better is it to walk in this bewildering freedom. To trust in all opposition to the things that hinder our sense of decency. Sometimes however that very repulsion has to be challenged. LOVE covers a multitude of sin , I once heard this quote. I had a real hard time taking it to any other definitive other than Christ on the Cross. Yet it was the very cross that became the greatest offense to the nations.

It has been through millennium that mankind has made every effort 

not to tick God off. 

I believe that this is an excuse and a cop out in humanity not to walk in the freedom of Love.

If we LOVED as God loves us?

Even if it were just to learn to love ourselves
we would stop being afraid to 

Anger God.

I know I know that this may be misinterpreted as blasphemy. Yet if what I was really trying to convey could be heard...If we were freed from these things LOVE could prevail and the opportunity to learn through the things that offend our sensibilities would really open us up to LOVE. Understanding is the BEGINNING of knowledge. Then it is in practicing that knowledge we gain wisdom and live through it.

If we never attempt to understand because we are so afraid of Anger, rejection and loss of God loving us we will never have understanding. The chain leading up to a life more abundant broken.

An abundance found not only in things but in who we really are to God.

To our Creator we are His.

Every true parent loves the kid no matter what.

A true parent will even allow choices that they may not agree with in order to watch the child gain maturity. I see God more like that.

What is God to me?

My Parent, my security that give me the sense of self that allows me affiliation with others.

He gives me that sense of mission and the understanding how to follow that through to competency.

Do I want my children to fear me? Is that the rule?

May it never be so but that they respect me.

Trust me.

Rely on me to love no matter what.

Human sacrifice has been perform from the Inca to the modern religious terrorist.  It was that Christ however did not sacrifice himself for himself but for everyone. A big difference. It is our very core fear that we do not want to anger God that keeps us from loving and living side by side with others.
It is the very offense of liberty that creates religions.
Letters of the law...
those laws that are an interpretation of mans idea of the the "law".
It is used to rule our understanding of God.

It is and was through the Sacrifice once for all of Christ that the letter of the Law was written on mans heart. To follow and to walk with and in the presence of one that is closer than a brother or a friend. The Father I an actual Adopted heir. I do not need to fear Him.I should not need to fear others. It is the Law that seperates us form loving each other. It is that fear of God.
I would rather be ruled by Love than by fear.

2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

I am officially the mother of a teenager!

and I am blessed...
to be continued.

Meal Plan Monday

join us here


Oh my goodness 

A menu finished with even a post!

Well what ya' think?

"I'm Back"

:)

click image to enlarge

Yes the energy is coming back, as are the organizational tasks that help keep me on track.

Dove has her 13th birthday tomorrow! How did that happen so fast? 

This week the prep is focused on getting all things 'heat related' finished before 1P.M.

The house to power down until 8 P.M. as is the custom for this uncommon household.

Our electricity is more expensive in the summer time during high peak hours.

This last month alone our saving was $30.!

So the burger was cooked this morning, as was this evenings Spanish Rice dish, the left over meat will be used for a lunch of tacos.

By cooking in the components that give off heat, the kitchen stays cooler in the heat of the day. Here you see where this is done and set aside.  An added benefit to this, by late afternoon (supper time) I am exhausted with a hungry family! Supper is half finished.

Getting back to work will help my family tremendously!

The lethargy of the last year is now passing and the gaining of  strength puts me back in the running of our home.

Cauldron at SunsSplash

Cauldron at SunsSplash

Thunder Bay at SunSplash

Thunder Bay at SunSplash

Lazy River at SunSplash

Lazy River at SunSplash

Avalanche Slide at Big Surf

Avalanche Slide at Big Surf 

 

 

 

Oh my I had so much fun today!

Next

Spiritual Sunday

As the hot summer days are drawing faster again, there are many people who prefer to go the swimming pool and have their time of relaxation there. But, the customers should take some precautions about the dangers related to swimming especially when it comes to using the public swimming pools.

There are some reports by the Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) that swimming pools that are being used by the public are not safe. They said that the bacteria in these places are high and could be risky to one’s health. As the CDC went around for some investigations, they have reported that 1 in 8 public swimming pools hold violations on the health and safety code. Some of these pools are too dirty that could threaten the public health, while others had other problems like missing safety equipments. According to the CDC, kiddie pools have the most disinfection problems where they found some bits of fecal matters.

I took the kids swimming yesterday in a public pool , he said he felt bad when we pulled into the driveway afterward. He said he swallowed water.
In the night he awoke in a night sweat (he never wakes in the night) this morning a low fever. Later he came into the room to get me again awake and Daddy man tended him.God is here no need to "invite Him" :) we did open our thanks and praise up to him that Dash can fight it off. He asked if this meant he had to have infusions. :(
I told him Nope that fever is your good guys fighting off the bad guys. The good guys are burning up the bad guys.

Thanks for rejoicing in my life. Beauty helps me see that reflection from HIS eyes and reminds me that HE IS HERE, and to remember HE AWAITS ME

Praise HIM...always...  I am seeing the difference of praise for it or begging it of him strange to try to put into words though.

Join us for 

Spiritual Sundays 

Here

Alex did here very poignantly

John 3:16 for God so loves us

It is he who is a waiting our presence. He is here all along. Come home to where our hearts belong.
In suffering we turn our heads to the wall. Stuffing all the hurt and fear trying to be brave. It was a good touch on the shoulder that Alex gave to me to remind me to roll over and to turn my face with all of the courage I had mustered and look at HIM with my eyes. Seeing my reflection in HIS eyes reminded me of who I am. Who HE is and how He is ever present. It is I who he is inviting to stay that way...
PRESENT.
Far too easy to become removed face to the wall and suffer in a silent vigil of self mustered courage.
So he is here to tell all too, to speak the truth too, to trust the outcome from all the challenges we are blessed with. Those many trials that are more about HIM than anything we might be going through. I have known this in my mind but forgot it in my heart through becoming wherry in doing good. Wherry in the tough of the trial.
Growing up a bit more today. Turned my face from the wall as it were that I used to close my eyes in the fatigue of trials.
Now open my eye to the reality of HE IS PRESENT and I do not have to remove myself to be courageous.

HIS presence is the courage in me.

Thankful Thursday

cuddly little boys bring frustration first and then so much joy

needing mom wanting to be a wee child again just for a few moments

no this can not be spoken it is all a hush

a secret world of a mothers healing touch

What does LOVE look like in your home?

  Bread on the counter with meat and cheese slices placed, chips in a baggy and we embraceWell wishes for a good dayA Quiet cup of teaStopping the world as a child awakes

Extending mutual efforts delegation of tasksbellies all fed up to health for the dayDogs chickens and childrenChildren treated as one would anotheras a friend or sister or brother.respect given amends quickly offered


Green grass and it's cover Earth life and beauty waiting to be discovered.Quiet alone time easily turning to company of one anotherExpectation of pleasure Accepting dis pleasure as wellSelf care and healths preservationnurture soul body and spiritwelcoming others
Laughter love flows to those that come in from afara glass of water given freely when others think of meas quickly as would each other is as selfpoetry of living and giving and so much morethis only the beginning of what love looks like at my door.
this only now as the day just begins

Good Friends

A wonderful night out with some of my dearest friends

This to celibate 'L' and My own birthdays (mine belated)

The four(sometimes 5) of us meet several times a year for birthday times together.

This is so fun check it out.

Two of the girls gave me the set of perfection.
Every thing needed to have a pampering.

Now on the left 'T' got the foot care and a clipper with three polishes.

On the right 'L' got for me a foot file, nail file and toe spacers. 

Also gift card to get some magazines.

Now look at the colors of the polish.

Both of the light pinks are glitter transparent

NEITHER ONE KNEW WHAT THE OTHER WAS GETTING!

How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Isaiah 52:7

Now in three weeks when I have to sit for 6 hours getting the next infusion I can read a new magazine and tend my hands and feet.

We are all so connected to each other with those cords that can not be broken.

My sweet 'M' gave movie tickets and we had had a date the two of us (Steve and I) 

She is such a gift as are all of you.

Thank you Girls that was so very refreshing to be with you and get out of my self!

Tackle it Tuesday *cleaning the wood floor

With a renewed energy that is still baffling the floors had just left me working on them. 

Just could not stand it another moment.

It was not hard today very easy.

Moving the sofas showed how very much my house missed me

The smaller dust mop is for the dry sweep. It also has a pad for washing.

The washing of the floor is done with the wide sweeper.

The pad is held on by velcro.

When soiled it comes right of and rinses out with water.

Water is all I use on these floors.

The smaller dust mop folds and the pad comes off for laundry.

It has 2 pads for dust mopping (this is a large house) and one to wash small spaces like the bathrooms.

Grab your chin...yes it really was this bad.

Oh what a difference this health is bringing to me and to my home.

Once the sofas cleaned an under them it was the kids set to task.

Yes I am learning to delegate and give them some opportunity to learn.

So Dove goes out to fill the blue pool for the dog and I see her fully dressed with long pants and a very nice shirt get into the pool and "slip" :) ya on purpose into the pool fracturing the sides of it. 

Daddy man epoxied it last night. 

Well so much for the pool.

It is so hard to maintain anger at these times. Having a special needs kid leaves questions like

"really? she did that and then tries to hide the act"

she chose to do it

Oh parenting, all of the laundry was done for  only 15 minutes!

Now dog jeans and a shirt and a special hand was for her b*a.!

The freshly mopped floor? 

The garage was opened up and she removed the wet things in there.

The floor had not even dried yet! 

I had to re-mop  it!

Good thing it was easy to do. 

I did get in a huff over it. 

Dash had unplugged the vacuum I was using and plugged his in 

and I over reacted.

Anger got the better of me when he walked in and announced

"I'm hungry and ready for lunch!"

"oh well that's nice... do you just want to snap your fingers then or perhaps ask nicely with a please added in there."

Deep breadth and here I bow to balance eating crow for the anger and dispensing of the anger.

Dash coming to me to apologize helped.

Dove came to apologize that helped even more.

lunch time

What a difference a few hours can bring

Amazed at the return of my stamina! Today for the first time in so very very long this was a very profitable day of duty. Almost all the laundry got done and put away! Spending several hours in my master closet it is actually clean! clothing sorted. A big garbage bag of things passed on even! It was so amazing to feel energy again! My temper was not lost even once!

Tired feet those tired feet that say I was up on them. Yes up on my feet giving the day the what for with peace. It is working guys. The infusion is working...
I think I would just cry with the relief of energy if I were not just so stunned. My body is so out of shape but it is working.

Bless God it is working. The hamster on the wheel is back! It is so surprising that it is just three days out from the infusion and this big of a difference. Even on Sunday this blip of a sensation of well being kept coming and going. Sorry for the wine. I should of served up some cheese too.

So today my right ear was numb, with a loss of hearing it was a bit disconcerting. Even told Steve about it when he came home. Ya know we are needing to get me the hearing aides. Well it was a concern so I just went to use a q-tip and check it gently. It hurt when I did so I sat down on my vanity chair only to look over and see the ear  plug used last night was broken. Yep, It was in my ear. I carefully got it out with tweezers. Goodness what a strange thing to have happen. I was straining to hear the kids all day! :)

Thank you for your kind thoughts and words. Wow I am actually tired from working and not just sitting lethargic wishing I could.

On life and the living of it.

Good Morning all

It is a fine morning here. Daddy Mans off with lunch and on his way. He took Friday last off and I had the infusion. I do not remember most of it. They had given me bennadryl and IV medication for nausea before the infusion began. Only two pokes for the needle painful but doable. All was a blur for the drugs really knocked me out. At one point Steve came in with a lunch but one bite of a burger, one bite of a french fry and a delayed injection of nausea medication...well it hit me hard and I vomited pretty bad. We know now not to delay the nausea drug even though it sedates me pretty heavily. The Doctor is going to withhold the bennadryl next time. I tolerated the infusion without much issue. A sore back and a little headache not to bad. When the globulin and the nausea medication met the vein at the same time oh it really burned that I remember:)

The neighbor boy needed tending on Saturday and with his parents watching our two the day before we felt obligated to do so.  I remember little of Saturday as well. The kids went with those folks to a baseball game. They were invited for a $5 seat. The mom purchased $25 tickets each without telling us until we were in for the costs, then by days end we had spent (they had spent for us) $80 on it because of snacks and drinks. I was a bit stunned. Glad the kids had a good time but a bit miffed how easy it is for folks to spend our money without even a say. I would never think to do that without checking in.

Oh well. 

The budget a shambles. We had the car in and that was another $1000! The problem not solved. Then Steve had a crown break. WOW we were really hit hard this weekend.

The assault on our resolve is on. 

:) 

We are not wavering on our commitment to do what we know is the right thing. 

That old line in the song...

"We are tired we are wherry but were not worn out"

Sunday church was a good service on serving one master or the other. God or Money cant serve both. So we trust and test it out just like in the instruction manual. We then drove over to the Grandparents. We had a real nice visit. We had a supper and then had to run out catch the store (Costco) before it closed.  At the folks we looked at an image of the great depression. It was striking how desperation of the masses calls a country to its knee. Our country is changing. Me thinks that the days are beginning to come at hand. Those days when consequence comes upon a land well abused by greed and wanton pleasures without thought as to what the true costs are.

I am so far over my head! 

Chores tasks and the summer days of a real messy house well lived in by my little family. It is a bit much. I do feel more strenght returning to me . Little by little I can feel it. So many many things to catch up on. The kids have only a few weeks left of summer and it is my hope to fill it with good memories.
The garden will be returning to glory soon. Once the heat breaks and the rains come. Oh the rains dear Lord let them come.

It is my hope that this old blog gets a wake up. Sorta abandoned it of late. Lost my direction. This was started to share my knowledge with the kids once I was gone. That they might have it and others might benefit as well. It morphed into something else and has gone down hill from there. When I can I will try to pull it up. It is as I have become more introverted somehow. Hushed by treasure of the pearls hidden under protection. I have lost my joy. Do not grow wherry in doing good. I have. That endurance through the testing has faltered. Guess I need God to carry me on the path because foot by food it seems my efforts are making little progress. Just keeping my chin above water here. Lord help me I am just worn out. Yet I just gotta shake it and keep pressing on.