Money Saver: Bone Stock

I'm going to start by apologizing. I haven't been on in a while. I haven't been feeling well for the past little while, spending my days in my chair in the corner, watching youtube videos of cats, Facebook creeping and skimming other peoples blogs. Nothing at all frugal, environmentally friendly (Does not driving anywhere count?) or really productive. But I'm feeling better now, so I'm hopping right back into this blog!

In a last year's post, I had mentioned our meat order from McDonald Farms. I loved, absolutely LOVED the meat. The lamb was the tastiest lamb I had ever had, the pork actually had a taste, while the beef was a little bit more wild than I or my husband was use to and so we have resorted to marinating it. But with our meat order comes not only meat. Got you curious yet? Well meat is attached to bones. And bones, to most people are to be thrown out or given to the dogs. You people though are missing out on a simple, easy, super tasty and money saving tid-bit by throwing them away. Bone stock people! You buy beef, vegetable or chicken stock from the store, when its basically 'free' when you make it at home.

After each meal, its my husbands job to clear the table (I slaved over making supper, so he clears the table as a thank-you), and I always remind him to save the bones. Pork chop bones, lamb shoulder bones, rack of lamb bones, etc, go in a ziploc bag that is in the freezer. After a couple of weeks, I have a good handful of bones, to which I put in a big pot of water, and boil it till I see fit. The result is a great stock that you can use in recipes such as roasted red pepper black bean soup (recipe to be posted!), pan steaming vegetables or making a gravy. You paid for the meat, got bones as leftovers, and water is pretty inexpensive where I live. The rough equivalent price of 6 cups of a simple broth or stock at the store is probably like $8.00 plus (depending on your brand). If I make this stock once a month, I'm saving almost $100 a year. Doesn't seem like much, but just think what you could do with that money. $100 worth of plants, which will provide you with food and extra money saving for example. If it seems like a bother and takes up too much time, you can put it on the stove before you go to bed, set you the stove element on low or put it all in a crock pot and wake up to a beautiful broth, to which you can put in jars and freeze till you need it. And you'll be happy to know what exactly everything that goes in it, and not playing the guessing game of what is this in the ingredients list.