Hubby Has a Frugal Breakthrough

It’s a tradition in our family that either Saturday or Sunday is bbq night, weather permitting.

Very often, the main item is “hamburgers” made from ground turkey meat.  (Yuk,  I hate beef).  I buy the stuff at Walmart grocery in one-pound “bullets”.  Right now it’s about $1.98 a pound, which is pretty good because not too long ago it was around $2.56 per pound.  But I long for the days when I paid $1.78.  Sigh.

My husband does all the barbecuing around here, so his usual way of making burgers is this: he adds an egg, some bread crumbs, and then divides that mess into 3 hamburger patties.  These turn out to be really huge hamburgers.

We are always stuffed after eating this and whatever side dish is on (usually Tater Tots).  After the last stuffing, we were sitting on the sofa feeling gastrically uncomfortable (as usual).  He turned to me and said, “Next time let’s only use 1/2 a pound of  meat.”

I couldn’t believe my ears.  I had proposed this very thing a long time ago.  I really think that two people eating 1 pound of meat at one sitting is excessive.  But my husband said “NO WAY!”.  And I of course, being weak-willed and a lover of eating copious amounts of food, didn’t  push the issue.

I guess he was just ready for a meaty change.  So we will try this at our very next barbecue, and I really hope to be able to report to you that we survived the experience.  I would feel bad if I left my dear readers in a lurch because I wasted away from eating one normal-sized hamburger for dinner rather than the more typical monster burger I usually eat weekly.

Yep, I really have high money-saving hopes for this experiment.  This is what I will do.  I will apply this half-pounder philosophy to most of my cooking endeavors from now on. I don’t think this will be too difficult, especially since I typically use ground turkey in a lot of casserole-type dishes.

When I buy the stuff, I’ll immediately cut the rolls in half before I put them in the freezer. That will make it more convenient and easy to stick to my 1/2 pound guns.

This may be a good time for me to try out TVP.  I’ve always wanted to, but I couldn’t really see why I need to use it to stretch a pound of turkey meat, which was already too much. But now it might be a good way to make that meat go further, especially when I make things like meatloaf and meat balls.

I can buy a small package of the stuff at the grocery store, which is expensive, but if I like it I can explore the availability of cheaper/bulk sources of the stuff.  I’ve seen it at Sprout’s Farmer’s Market, which is kind of a crunchy place.