Wait! Don't throw that out!

     Once upon a time there was a couple with 3 children (at the time). The couple was deeply in love. I'm talking head over heels, DEEP in love. Unfortunately, they were just as deep in debt. So, they learned to be creative, cheap, resourceful, and use everything! Okay, blah, blah, blah, The End. Seriously people we had NO money. Negative money actually. In that time it became troublesome to  me the amount of garbage we had. We needed much yet tossed much. And that was even with using cloth diapers! So in this post I'm going to run through a few things I have made in the last day or two and then what I made from the waste from the thing I made. Did I lose you? 

First, a while back I made vanilla extract because it was cheaper. I did the math it was hundreds of times cheaper. No kidding. Vodka or bourbon+ these vanilla beans +3 months=vanilla extract. I suggest buying the ginormous package and splitting with a friend to save the most. Anywho, I had some spent beans from the process and with that I made vanilla sugar.  Have you ever had this delightful product? It's a little piece of heaven, but a piece of heaven I am not willing to spend $3.49 PER OUNCE on! I'm not even kidding. To make your own, put the spent beans in sugar and let that sit a few months shaking the jar every now and then. Put it in your coffee, or water kefir primary ferment for a cream soda kinda vibe. Or you can add cinnamon to the last little bit like I did and sprinkle on apples for apple chips. 

Guess what happens next. Well, with apple chips you have cores and trimmings that are too small for the dehydrator. Toss them? NO! Did you not see the title of this post?! You put the apple waste in a mason jar cover with water, cover with a cloth and in 6 months you have your own raw apple cider vinegar! Like Bragg's but basically free. It is exactly that easy. Get yourself a big enough jar and you can keep adding to it. I used a 1/2 gallon jar and covered with a "hippie paper towel". (That's what we call the paper towels I made with receiving blankets I no longer used. They are the best!) You can use cheese cloth if you are still working on your granola-ness.

The next thing is chicken. This can go further than you think. I'll start by asking you this. What is the first thing you do when you pop a chicken in the oven? You cut up veggies (or pull out all your veggie scraps you've been saving in your freezer in anticipation of this day) put them in your crock pot so when you are done with your chicken the bones can go straight in. To get the most minerals out of the bones add a splash of, guess what. I'll give you a hint. It's something I mentioned ^^up there^^. Apple cider vinegar. Put on low and in the morning you will have broth. Again, if scraps and carcasses is something you usually throw away, you have just made a way to get free broth with the amount and type of salt you want to add. Also I doubt you'll add weird ingredients like msg. You can actually get a few batches of this broth by continuing to pull broth out and adding water and occasionally scraps for a few days. If it has color, it has flavor and nutrients. 3-5 days for chicken bones and a week for beef bones. Once you can easily break them between your forefinger and thumb they are done. You can can or freeze the broth but do NOT freeze in canning jars.They will crack.  Don't ask how I know. A friend of mine... Okay it was me. When you are done with the veggies they can go to the dog. As for the bones,  grind them and feed them to the dogs OR if it sits okay with you, your chickens. They are cannibals. They have no problem with it. Eww.

If we ever are in a situation like the great depression, or you just become broke like we were, and you have learned to use everything you have you'll not have a learning curve and you can just keep on keeping on.  If you ever wonder what to do with left over X or trimmings from Y, google it, you will be surprised, and educated, and people will think you are so cool and resourceful, mostly because you will be. 

Leftover hugs and kisses,
Meg