In an effort realize the full value of our Thanksgiving
turkey, I have decided to keep track of how well this has fed us all. I am keeping track of this based on individual
meals. If my family of six sits down to a meal, I count that as six individual meals.
Our turkey this year weighed in at 24 pounds, costing $62.00. From
this, we served 16 individual meals including leftovers sent home with our guests. Over the next two days, lunch and
dinner was created with leftovers for a total of 8 more individual meals. Total so far: 24 individual meals.
Since I had plenty of leftover gravy (premeditated), I warmed this up
and added diced turkey. I served this for dinner and had one quart leftover for the freezer (which, along with mashed
potato and vegetable, I plan to get 6 more individual meals). Altogether, the turkey and gravy has provided 12 more
individual meals for a total of 36 thus far.
After making the gravy, I had PLENTY of leftover turkey meat, so I made
a roux for use as turkey divan. I then added the remainder of diced turkey and plenty of cheddar cheese. I froze
three quarts of this which will be thawed, poured over brocolli and baked. This will provide us with 18 more individual
meals (three seperate dinners), for a total so far of 54 individual meals!
Now for the soup. On Thanksgiving day, I started a soup pot.
Into it went all the celery trimmings and every bit of vegetable water that was used for cooking (except the beets -- I didn't
think I could get my children to eat pink soup). After picking the turkey, in went the bones with all the bits of meat
that were difficult to remove from the bones. After boiling, all these meat just fell off the bones. After picking
another quart of meat and straining the broth, the soup was under way using 3 quarts of broth. I added the meat back
to the broth along with a few vegetables and some rice. From this, I served dinner for 6 and froze a quart of leftover
soup. The frozen soup will be used for another dinner for 6 after the addition of corn and will be served with hot cornbread.
Altogether this has provided another 12 individual meals for total so far of 66!
Now, I am left with about 1 more quart of turkey meat (some that I won't
eat because Andy had done the picking and he has lower standards that I do). Andy will continue to pick away at this
using it in sandwiches and salads. He will probably get four more meals. We are also left with 3 quarts of broth
which will get used for sausage tortellini soup and other such recipes. Even though this will provide 18 more individual meals, many ingredients
will be required so I will count this as only 6 more individual meals for a total of 10 more.
So that is about 76 individual meals which will provide for my family
of 6, on the average, more than 12 family meals. This gives me an average cost of $5.00 plus the cost of pototo, or
corn, or homemade bread, each adding at the most $1.00 to the meal. Considering the high price of food these days, feeding
a family of 6 some of the healthiest food that can be found for about $6.00 seems like a bargain to me!
