Panic Mode

So I realized something last night as I stood sweating over a hot stove in this humid July weather: I'm going into panic mode. I have about $125 left on my food stamp card and in August, I get a whopping $16 for the month for food. I'm paying the minimum balances on all my bills. I'm trying to find cheap sources of protein, including eating egg yolks (I never liked egg yolks). And I'm buying cheap packages of meat (cheap, but not poor quality... I will never buy meat at WalMart and I will not buy meat that is all fat and gristle). Also, I am making big batches of soup and freezing it.

That's 6 quarts of soup there on the left

I have a chest freezer that has two 6lb chickens in it, as well as more frozen vegetables than a person can eat, and more soup. There's also frozen fish, and if I though I could freeze fish chowder I'd make a big kettle of that to put up. I feel like I'm hoarding food for my eventual financial ruin. It's kind of scary. All I know is that someone had better shoot a deer this year, because I can't live on a semi-vegetarian diet forever; chicken stock just doesn't satisfy.

The thing is, I have big beef roasts and those chickens which are too big for one person, and I never have anyone to cook for any more (no boyfriend, remember) so... using that meat is a challenge. A roast I can thaw and cut up into stew beef to make a soup or stew for (and freeze it) but as creative as I can be with a chicken, 6lbs of chicken is a lot, even if I'm making a chicken pie. So, for fear of food waste, I hoard all that stuff in my freezer.

Oh, and I can't believe how grossly overpriced pork loin is. You can get one of those vacuum sealed ones for almost $5 or $6 or, as I noticed at the grocery store, a freshly butchered one for just over $2. Yeah... I'm not the biggest fan of pork but a nice clean loin roasts up real nice. And Save-A-Lot... I don't know if this is a national chain but, not a deal. At all. Desperation makes you notice when you're being ripped off by flashy signs and warehouse-style buildings that don't use bags for your purchase. What is that?

Anyway, time to go re-stock on some basics that I'm out of. Re-stock, as cheaply as possible.