Why wait?

Seriously, who can beat $5 to feed a family... twice over!

Y'all know that I love a good bird, especially one that can get me several meals.  Last shopping trip, we got a beautiful turkey because we love it and figured why wait for the holidays when we can eat it whenever.  So we made a delicious bird that weekend and from that beautiful beastie, we got another 6.5 lbs of meat which gave us six more initial suppers, of which we were able to get another six full suppers.  Breaking it down just for this bird - that $27 fed us for half of the month at 13 full meals, plus a few lunches for my husband.  Oh yeah, I love me some roaster birds!

Today, I'm taking one of those bags of leftover meat and making Turkey Alfredo.  It's a super simple recipe that anyone can make.  Sure, I have the ability to make the sauce from scratch but that's for times when we aren't attempting to squeeze blood from our pennies, so I went the super frugal route.  I can tell you that this entire meal cost me a grand total of $5.  Yep, seriously - and we'll get two full meals out of it so that would be $2.50 to feed my family tonight.  The bird breakdown at $2, the sauce was a bogo at $2 a jar and the noodles were just under $1.

It's great for nights when I have to work or just don't feel like "cooking" cooking.  You boil the noodles, heat the sauce, toss in the turkey because it's already been cooked so it just needs warming.  Once the noodles are done and drained, mix the sauce over it and you could call it done.  I like to put it in a casserole dish and cover it with Parmesan cheese and parsley, letting it bake in a 350* oven for about 20 minutes to give it nice crispy topping.

Just showing proof that I'm honestly & actually doing it.

Walla.   The three of us get nice full bellies and there is usually at least three servings left over, sometimes four.  I swear, just because it's frugal doesn't mean that it's nasty... I'm not talking Hamburger Helper, which would have actually cost me more and not gone as far.  When things get back to being more fluid, we'll go back to making our own sauces but for now, I'm not turning my nose at a jar because it tastes great and they're just as happy.

I'm happy to report that I have finished my book and I absolutely loved it.  It left me sad that I didn't have the second installment of the series to immediately dive into and that is an awesome feeling.  I can, with confidence, recommend "Beautiful Creatures" to anyone who enjoys a story about finding that one soul that you can truly connect with on every level possible.  A story about finding yourself and your capacity to love when you never thought it possible.  A story about strength, compassion and vulnerability with characters who are developed fully and that you can completely relate to on several different levels.  It is a wonderful story - it's not heavy but it doesn't pander either... it is simply engaging, captivating and intelligent.  I'm picking up the second in the series on Friday... if not, I may die too!