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This is the story of the first meal I cooked for a street mission and how it greatly influenced my thinking.

It started when the minister and his wife, who ran the street mission, asked for a planning meeting. We sat in comfortable mismatched chairs across from his desk. On the menu was turkey tetrazzini

Did I know how to make that, they had asked. Sure I can make that, I had said, I had just one question: “How do I know when I’ve made enough?”

“Simple,” the minister responded, “fill all six pans on the steam table and that will be enough.”

OK, that sounded easy enough.

“Can you please tell me where I can find the turkey?” I then asked.

With that question they looked at each other, smiled and said. “Turkey? We don’t have any turkey.”

Now my great feeling of confidence started to fade.

“How much is the budget to purchase the ingredients to make 100 servings of turkey tetrazzini” I asked

As it was, and often still is, there was no budget at all.

They explained to me that the mission not only feeds 100 people every day, but also acts as a rescue operation. Each night they drive a van around to the universities, colleges and hospitals and pick up the unsold food.

Sandwiches are deconstructed with meat frozen in bags to be used for dinners; the lettuce, tomato and onion used for salads; and buns brushed with a garlic spread and toasted to be served on the side.

The message began to sink in.

I’d be creating 100 servings of this meal using only what was available between the rescued food and the dry goods pantry.

The minister, seeing my facial expression change from a look of complete confidence to a “Yikes, this will be challenging” expression, offered these comforting words: “We do have noodles, frozen parmesan and powdered milk.”

After the meeting, I checked the dry goods pantry for what I’d need. The recipe called for noodles, but there wasn’t enough noodles so we used a mix of many different kinds of pasta.

The freezers were full of small bags of sandwich meat. I searched to find turkey, but I had to use lots of other types of meat to get enough.

One thing turkey tetrazzini needs is cream cheese. There was none. I went to the minister and said: “It just won’t taste right without cream cheese”

“OK we have a meal emergency budget we can tap into. We can use that budget to pay for the cream cheese,” he said.

Now I had all my ingredients.

At 6 p.m. the people filled in. The steam table was full of turkey tetrazzini. My salad was ready. The garlic bread was nicely toasted and smelled delicious.

I watched with anticipation as each person received their plate of food: Would there be enough? Would they like it?

It suddenly became quiet in the dining room.

Everyone was eating. Several people came up for a second serving. The left overs were packaged up as individual dinners. These dinners would be delivered to folks who were home bound.

It struck me while we were cleaning up that every bit of food had been eaten or was packaged into dinners. There was no wasted food. It’s impressive how a soup kitchen can recycle unsold food into a nourishing meal for 100 hungry people.

After patting myself on the back, it was time to check the menu to see what the next day’s meal was to be. One hundred meals, seven days a week.

Working at that soup kitchen inspired me. The principles of economy they employed kept 100 plates full even on an Almost Nothing budget

Employing these principles of economy set the stage for us to begin our journey to a debt-free life.

The five principles that help us spend almost nothing are:

1. Keep a well stocked pantry
2. Create a food emergency budget
3. Be creative in how you source your food
4. Use what you have
5. Waste nothing

Super money saving tip

Double the recipe — make two of the meal instead of one, then freeze one. The next time you don’t want to cook, save the money you’d normally spend on take out. Pop the frozen meal (maybe tetrazzini) in the oven and dinner is served.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Original recipe cut down to serve six

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 1 stalk of celery chopped
• 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3½ cups milk
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 4 ounces soft cream cheese cut into cubes
• 3½ cups cooked turkey
• 8 ounces dry noodles cooked
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup crushed potato chips (for the topping)

Method

• Melt butter in a frying pan. Sauté onion, garlic, celery and mushrooms until cooked (5-7 minutes)
• Stir flour into vegetables
• Slowly pour in the milk as you are stirring
• Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and Worcestershire sauce
• Cook on low and stir until milk thickens into a sauce consistency
• Stir in cream cheese, cooked noodles and turkey. ( It is okay if the cream cheese doesn’t completely melt, it will cook in the baking)
• Scoop into a greased 9x13 baking dish
• Cover the top with the crushed potato chips
• Bake at 375 F until centre is bubbly and the chips are golden brown
• Remove from oven
• Cool 15 minutes before serving
• Store leftovers on the fridge