Your GLOP sounds good to me! My family is also on low cost dinners due to a significant drop in our monthy income last August due to a family death and unemployment. Last month I began trying to keep the total cost of our family dinners down to an average of $5 total for a for a family of 5 people.
Last month’s average was $5.50 per dinner, since we elected to splurge and get 2 family size Pizza’s from Papa Murphy’s one evening last month, and for the first three weeks of May we have an average cost of $4.41 per family dinner. It is pretty amazing how well a family can eat for $5.00 or less per meal.
Okay here is the last of the recipes my mother typed up in her cookbook that appear to be complete recipes. Once again I have included her notes in quotes.
Chili Sauce
1 tbs. Allspice
1 tbs. Cloves
1 tbs. Mace
1 tbs. Cinnamon
3 Tbs. Salt
4 quarts peeled fresh tomatoes
7 large onions
14 green peppers
1 quart vinegar
Chop vegetables into chunks. Throw all the ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook about 4 hours. Cool and puree or leave chunky, depending on how you are going to use it. Pour into bottles or jars and refrigerate.
“Great to make in a large batch and give some as gifts.”
Ok, this is the equivalent of FR blogging. My housemate is a 56 year old Chinese woman who does not speak a lick of English. I was getting ready to make my GLOP and she took my turkey away and has done the following:
1 lb ground turkey
3 tsp brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce light salt. 1/4 cup soy sauce dark
1 tsp corn starch
clove 5 spice
my bag of baby bellas 10 ounces.
So far she added some water to the ground turkey and mixed. Added brown sugar, mixed. Added soy sauce and mixed. Turned them into meatballs and has fried them. When I went to put them on paper towel to drain the oil, I got my hand smacked.
Cleaned frying pan. Took the little bit of turkey left in bowl, she added about a cup of water and put the mixture back in pan. To that she added meatballs, dark soy sauce for color, a clove of 5 spice and another teaspoon of brown sugar. Covered pan. Now boiling meatballs. Just cut my bag of baby bellas open. And there go the mushrooms. 10 ounces for those in Rio Linda. Flame went down to simmer and either we’re waiting 30 minutes or I just bought a goat.
So what do you talk about with someone who doesn’t speak English? And for 30 minutes? Well my landlady who is American and diabetic leaves her syringes all over the place. I think she is telling me the reason we all have diabetes is because we are fat and eat like crap.
Now she is complaining that the landlady eats too much bacon. Ya think? She buys it by the 10 pound box and cooks it all night. Says it is good for her gastric bypass. Uh huh. Now she points to her kidneys and says, bacon too much salt.
10 more minutes. By the way, anyone looking to hire an unemployed accupuncturist who doesn’t speak English? She has her own needles and she was published in some Chinese medical journal. Then again, it could be a menu.
Ding balls are done. Taste test time. With pork or beef this dish would be fantastic. Without the fat in the turkey it is ok. But the broth is unbelievable. Going to eat it as a soup.
And there you have it. Chinese 5 spice meatballs.
Enjoy
Just tasted the broth. Oh my god that is good.