How far can you stretch it?

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JustMe

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Not sure I'm in the right place for this thread, so if it needs moved, that's ok with me.

One topic that keeps coming up in my world is how many meals can you get from meat. Whether it be a pound of beef or pork or? Or from a whole chicken.

My family is currently the 3 of us. Myself and 2 young adult sons (22 & 20)......plus 2 dogs that want atleast a topper of wet food (homemade or canned) on their dry kibble though they would prefer to skip the kibble entirely and gorge on the wet stuff, and 7 chickens for clean up. We also have a cat, but she won't eat anything that isn't her dry kibble....so she doesn't count and I guess the chickens don't either, cause I never plan for them in our meal preps. They have their own and only get whatever is left of ours as a treat, if & when it's available.


Normally, beef & pork cuts are roughly a pound per meal. Except burger and that depends on what is made with it. If doing burgers, tacos or meatloaf, I usually use about 3/4 to a lb for 3 of us. Dogs not included. Anything else like spaghetti, chili, SOS, goulash, or whatever, I cut that back to about a half a pound for the meal.


As for chicken, that's another story. I usually buy whole bodied chickens, then cut it up myself. Most, if not all the time, I do up several birds at once just because it's easier to package it as meals. So to break it down easier, I'll use 10 birds for an example.........

1 bird saved for baked/roasted or cut up fryer, minus the wings that are saved for a 'wing feed'.......we eat what we want from the first meal, then I can usually get atleast 1 or sometimes 2 meals from the leftovers, not counting a couple of sandwiches for their work lunches. The carcass & leftover bones & neck is saved for stock.

All wings are sectioned and bagged (I use Ziplocs) together, wing tips are saved for stock.....so that's 40 pieces for 1 meal, plus 1 or 2 lunches or snacks as leftover (all depends on how hungry those boys are)

Leg quarters, 1 per person per meal,.........9 birds makes 6 meals, leftovers optional, but usually into dog food

Breast halves.......18 total, 1 per package but only for 14 meals. I count 2 meals using 1 half per person, and the rest is 1 half per meal for all of us.

Wing tips, necks, carcasses, leftover bones all go to the stock pot for soup, along with any leftover 'clean' meat or pickings, that hasn't been given to the dogs.



Instead of going by weight or calories, I go by serving size that is roughly the size of a deck of cards. When meat is cut up into smaller pieces, I figure one cupped handful per person or about 1/2 cup.



So that comes to roughly 25 meals from 10 birds??? And that's being generous. If push comes to shove that can be stretched to 30 meals, maybe more as long as I provide more sides and/or fillers.



How do any of you use or package your meats to get the most out of them and make them stretch further? This could be an important thing to think about or do, as meat and prices become out of reach and we have to ration what we have or lucky to get our hands on. As that time nears, I'll be working on how to get more out of what I have or can provide.


Anyone have other ideas of how to stretch a meal?


*Note*.....I have stretched burger in tacos to using 1/3 to 1/2lb of meat mixed with refried beans.
 
I should note here a couple of other things.

Livers are cooked & given to the dogs as well as any pickings or trimmings.

Hearts & gizzards are saved, but would take forever to get enough for one meal, so I'll add a few when baking or frying a whole bird, or add to the wing feed as an extra. No worries there, they are eaten first.



Also, my last trip to Walmart I picked up one twin pack of whole chicken with the intent of deboning and canning the meat. But got lazy before that happened and ended up cutting them both up and frying the whole bunch, including the backs as #2 son loves them. So 2 backs, 4 wings, 4 breast pieces, 4 legs, 4 thighs and whatever hearts & gizzards provided. Liver & necks were boiled for broth, meat picked off and all fed to the dogs. We ate what we wanted from all that. I think #3 ate about half a drumstick (he took 2) along with the taters & gravy, corn & biscuits. #2 picked off the backs and ate the gizzards & hearts. I had 2 wings (whole wings with tips), so there was lots of meat leftover.

Next day I went thru it all with a fine toothed comb. After tossing most of the skin, I trimmed off any of the crispy coating left, that included bits of meat, along with whatever meat from our plates that wasn't eaten and any cartilage that was safe and that went into the dog pile along with the meat from the other wings and drumsticks. There was about 4 to 6 cups(?) and there's still enough for 2 or 3 more days.

For us, I kept the breast & thigh meat, 4 of each. So far, I've gotten 2 other meals, plus 3 days of sandwiches and there is still one meal worth left. 1 meal was a stir fry with lots of veggies over rice and last night I mixed a bunch of it with a can of enchilada sauce and cheese and made a croissant pinwheel. This didn't really stretch the meat cause it seemed I used more for it, but it was good and one of those types of meals the younger ones will eat with gusto. Not sure what the plan is for that last bit, but may include a pot pie.
 
We had tacos night before last. I did extra taco meat. Last night we had taco soup in which the meat was the "base" and added all the other goodies. There is enough that we will both have lunch today and I will have it again tomorrow. It's just hubby and me so counting by meals, we got 7 meals out of about 1-3/4 lb. of HB. I suppose that works out to about 1/4 lb. per meal. Not too bad.
When the kids were little, I would do a good sized meatloaf. We would have meatloaf for supper, leftovers for cold, and I would chop it into about 1" squares to be the meatballs in spaghetti. Not sure how many meals we actually got out of it.
 
I have often cooked one meal with others in mind with leftovers. I know some people cannot handle leftovers, but I don't like being in the kitchen cleaning and cleaning up after cooking meals.

"Living on a Dime" is a Youtube channel where they show how to stretch meats and other foods. One of the things is that if we are at all overweight, we are over eating. I am as guilty as anyone about that. There are portion sizes out there, and if we eat a recommended portion size, we will do better as far as stretching foods.
 
We have never had to make it stretch, so I really don't know. Normally we get at least three meals from a pound of hamburger. Probably three or four meals from a chicken.

There are a couple of recipes I would like to try with that specific purpose; see how many meals you can getting by adding and stretching and stews and soups are at the top of the list. Good thread, JustMe.
 
I have a turkey (henceforth known as (chicken) in the freezer to bake next week. We will eat it baked first night, then cut up and de-bone.
I will pressure can white chicken chili, Buffalo chicken soup and chicken pot pie filling. The bones will make stock at a later date. Not sure how much I will get, but I always use extra beans and veggies to stretch meat--and it's better for us.

I also have a ham to bake. I will plan for that when I am ready to bake it.
 
I was just thinking with the prices the way they are, and going up at a steady rate atleast for some meat can become an issue to put on the table, and everyone fed & satisfied. So to come up with ideas on how to make foods stretch could be an interesting thread for ideas.

Love ham, ham & bean soup, ham & peas added to scalloped potatoes or macaroni & cheese, ham & eggs (breakfast for supper is always good), ham slice with some sweet potatoes with butter, salt & pepper and some kind of greens (I did steamed spinach) is also good.

Also, if you can.....grind up some ham, with some onions & sweet pickles to make a sandwich spread. Leftover chicken can be finely diced or ground, then add some mayo with salt & pepper for another sandwich spread similar to the Underwood Deviled spread. Beef, from a leftover roast, can also be diced up, add some mayo and a good dab of horseradish to give it a kick.
 
It really depends on what I'm doing with the meat. Example - I made burgers last weekend, using maybe 6/10ths of a pound to make 2 patties for me and my daughter. The next night I made a half a batch of chili, which was one can of beans and the remaining 4/10ths of a pound of burger. It came out just right for 1 meal for 2 people.

Just about any leftover meat can be combined with an inexpensive, generic bag of flavored noodles to make a quick and easy meal. I'm trying to consume a lot of protein right now so I load everything up with meat, and I don't get a lot of meals per pound, but even 4 to 6 ounces of chicken combined with chicken flavored noodles can make a fairly satisfying meal...
 
Throw a pack of Ramen noodles into a can of soup, and now it is a meal for two instead of one. What does a pack of Ramen noodles cost? A quarter?

I have a beef stew recipe I want to try this weekend. We will see how much it costs, and how many meals we get from it.
 
Yesterday, the wife made 6 chicken pot pie's for the freezer using leftover chicken from the stewing we did last week (8 thighs for Matza Ball Soup- 3 servings for 3 people) and 3 pints of 2 year old home canned turkey meat, she ended making a little more filling than she planned..... For dinner last night we had creamy chicken vegetable stew with drop biscuits, we have enough leftovers for 2 more meals, and we still have 2 quarts of the "filling" that we need to figure out how to use. The wife may split it into 2- 1 quart tubs and freeze for later use. So let see 6+9+6+4.... about 25 servings off of 8 chicken thighs and 3 pints of old turkey chunks.... If she were to add the filling to egg noodles she could double the servings out of the remaining 2 quarts of filling... had to add that after reading @Spikedriver 's post....
 
Yesterday, the wife made 6 chicken pot pie's for the freezer using leftover chicken from the stewing we did last week (8 thighs for Matza Ball Soup- 3 servings for 3 people) and 3 pints of 2 year old home canned turkey meat, she ended making a little more filling than she planned..... For dinner last night we had creamy chicken vegetable stew with drop biscuits, we have enough leftovers for 2 more meals, and we still have 2 quarts of the "filling" that we need to figure out how to use. The wife may split it into 2- 1 quart tubs and freeze for later use. So let see 6+9+6+4.... about 25 servings off of 8 chicken thighs and 3 pints of old turkey chunks.... If she were to add the filling to egg noodles she could double the servings out of the remaining 2 quarts of filling... had to add that after reading @Spikedriver 's post....

You have the record so far. Well done. :clapping:
 
How far can I stretch meat? Well, I have had 3 Swedish meatballs, 5 meals of fish, no pork, and no poultry during the past 4 years. :)

I beg to differ. That isn't stretching. That is fasting. I think I had more meat than that at Christmas dinner. LOL
 
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