Since it has been an extra frugal week I am giving you an extra Frugal Friday tip.

We have lots of wonderful things growing in our garden, but right now we are abundant in tomatoes and okra. One of the tips to being frugal is to take advantage of what you have. The fact that steak may be on sale this week does me no good. Because I had an even smaller budget than normal. We had an overdue bill that took precedence. So, we have been back to good ole chicken and rice. I am tellin ya I could wrte a book on 101 frugal ways to make chicken and rice. Maybe I will. I think I did a post with 10 ways once. Anyway today it is gumbo. Can you guess why? I will give you 2 hints, in the garden there are tomatoes and okra!

so, here are the basics, if you need more details just ask.

2 chicken leg quarters, (from the 10lb for $5 bag)  boil, saving broth

1 each chopped onion, bell pepper, and garlic

tomatoes and okra, diced

uncooked rice

cajun spice

debone your chicken and dice and put back in broth, add rice, add okra, simmer

brown onions, garlic, and pepper in small amount of oil, then when they are half cooked add some flour enough to make a paste, then stir in a little of the hot broth, this will be your thickener

when rice is cooked, add thickener and spices and tomatoes, it should be a thick but not pasty soup, add water if necesarry, simmer a little longer, serve with bread

gumbo is often made with polska kilbasa chunks and shrimp in addition to the chicken, but then it wouldn’t be very frugal anymore, remember the key is to use what you have accesss to