Frugal Kitchens 101 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is our Thankskiving Day Feast.  The Canadian Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the second Monday of October since 1957.  Thanksgiving is the ultimate in celebrating Frugal Kitchens because it is very much a celebration of the harvest. Today's feast menu for six: turkey with stuffing and gravy, mashed roasted garlic potatoes, niblet corn, green beans, homemade bread, homecanned cranberry sauce, and apple pie.

For the most part almost everything on the Thanksgiving table comes from the garden or local farmers.  All the wonderful local produce that makes the Thanksgiving meal like squash, green beans, apples, onions, potatoes and so much more are in season and quite inexpensive.  Turkeys tend to be a bit on the expensive side ($1.95/lb or higher) in Canada thanks to the pricing boards but enterprising Canadians raise their own turkeys or catch a wild one or shop in the US where turkeys can be had for as low as 29¢ per lb.

The real star of the meal is always the turkey and for me a turkey is about as frugal as you can get.  I can get a 22 lb turkey for about $10.50 or less depending on the sales.  That size will give a lovely Thanksgiving dinner for 8 with left overs for a few meals, the carcass to make soup and 14 - 500 ml jars of turkey stock.  Essentially the savings on stock alone more than pays for the turkey (store bought cost for same amount about $20.86) meaning I'm ahead by $10 and all of the meals were free.  In perspective even buying turkey at $1.95/lb that would cost $42.90 is still an excellent value considering half the price can be recouped simply by making stock.  For those who do not can, stock can easily be frozen.  Turkey is one of those meats that just goes a long way all the way around making it one of the most frugal meats you can buy.