I just scored $64 worth of meat for $25!

I love getting a great deal and I have to share with y'all my trip to Harris Teeter just now.  The hubs wanted lottery tickets for tonight's $400M jackpot and asked me to run out for them.  He is already out but is unable to stop.  *sigh*  I was not happy about going to the ATM for cash and then hitting a grocery store at evening rush hour, but out I went.

As I'm walking in the door, I glance at the front page of the sales ad that ends today and see B2G3 free of shrimp.  Shrimp is B's favorite food in the world, so I headed back to the seafood department after getting the lottery tickets.  Turns out it was buy two 2 lb bags of shrimp and get three 2 lb bags free.  Ten pounds of shrimp is a bit much ;o) so I passed.

But while I was in the back of the store, I perused the meat section.  I only shop at the Teeter if I need one or two things (and I don't want to go farther to Wegmans) or I'm getting Teeter's Friday night fried chicken special.  But if I need to be in the back of the store, I check the meat department for markdowns.  I hit the mother load today!

1. Ready to Cook chicken breast stuffed with Bleu cheese and wrapped in bacon, 9oz.  Regularly $4.99, got it for $1.99.
2. Ready to Cook Chicken Cordon Bleu, 10oz.  Regularly $4.99, got it for $1.99.  Both this one and the one above have a sell by date of 3/19/14, so dinner for tomorrow is done!
3. Three Ribeye steaks, totaling 2.63 lbs.  Regularly $36.79, got them for $12.86.  
4. Trimmed and tied pork loin roast, 2.32 lbs.  Regularly $9.95, got it for $4.71.  That works out to $2.03/lb and I know I can buy a whole pork loin on sale for $1.99/lb.  But I'd have to wait for a sale, unwrap it, break it down into small roasts and chops and rewrap for freezing.  This roast is already trimmed and tied and a perfect size to feed my family for a week or to serve the next time we have guests.
5. Fresh Johnsonville Irish O'Garlic sausage.  Now, this one wasn't as big of a savings as the other items.  The 1 lb 3 oz package is regularly $5.49 and had a store coupon of  $1.50 on it since St. Patrick's Day is over.  This is for the hubs who will literally do a jig when he comes home and sees it.  Since I got such good deals on the other meats, and I want to see his jig, I "splurged" on this for him.

With tax the original price of all this would have been $63.77 but I got it all for $25.18.  It was meant to be and my freezer and I are very happy (we were down to just chicken breasts and ground beef before I went to the store).

Giving Freezer Cooking a Try

First of all, I want to apologize that the picture is not of all the freezer food I made over the past 4 days. Both my food photography skills and the lighting in my kitchen are atrocious.  So, although I took pictures of everything I made, the pictures did not all turn out well.  The wonderful colors of the foods  have disappeared in most of my pictures and very few are even in focus.  So, I'm showing you the big salad I made, the hot dogs and chicken I grilled, the bread I baked and a spoonful of soup I pulled out of the pot to taste.   Onto freezer cooking…

I've wanted to do if for some time but was afraid - of the amount of time needed, the cost of buying all that food at once, the kitchen being such a disaster that I would run from the house, screaming.  See, I had this idea in my head that Freezer cooking meant cooking all the meals your family would eat for an entire month, all in one setting.  That was the wrong impression I got from all the articles and books out there from people who spend time, one day a month, freezer cooking.  I equated "freezer cooking once a month" to "cooking everything my family will eat for the next 30 days".  It's not so.  Phew!

I decided to start small on Thursday but it wasn't small enough for this scatterbrain, because I didn't cook everything I thought I would.  I didn't get upset, though, and did a little more on Friday.  I did well, so I did some more Saturday and today, too.  Although I don't have every meal, not even every dinner, my family will eat this week, I have some meals and a some meal elements in my freezer that I can go to on those days when life gets away from me.  Those days when I didn't plan ahead or I just don't feel like cooking.  I enjoyed it because I took baby steps and I'd like to do this regularly to keep my head above water in the kitchen.

BABY STEP #1: Doubling Up.  I made Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes and roasted green beans for dinner on Thursday.  While I had the ingredients out and my hands were in raw meat, I decided to make enough steak for two dinners.  Just the Salisbury Steak, mind you, I didn't make extra potatoes nor green beans.  But the protein is always the hardest part of meal planning, for me; throwing sides together are easy.  So the extra portion of Salisbury Steak is in the freezer.

On Friday, I decided to make a fake-lasagna bake for lunch, so I doubled the recipe.  I dislike making lasagna.  The noodles are a pain to cook, they peel apart while I'm trying to put the lasagna together and all the layering is messy.  So now I just heat all the lasagna ingredients in a skillet, along with whatever shaped pasta I have on hand (B's fav is Rotini), pour into a baking dish, top with some more cheese and bake until the top gets some color on it.  The extra one went into a baking dish and received cheese on top, but went to the freezer before baking.

Asian Wrap

I made Asian wraps for dinner last night and they were so good!  A little sweet, a little tang, soft meat, crunchy cabbage...YUM!  I placed some raw pork chops in my electric pressure cooker on the meat rack, added 2 cups of water and sealed her up.  Set on high pressure for 20 minutes and let her go.  After the pork was done, I placed the chops on a cutting board and shredded them.  Poured most of the liquid out of the pressure cooker, then added the meat back in with some Wegmans Stir Fry Sauce.  Added lid to the pressure cooker and set on Warm.

The hubs sautéed some sliced onions and once they were soft and golden, he added them to the pork and sauce mixture.  Then he shredded and quickly sautéed some cabbage.  I didn't want the cabbage cooked or limp, just softened a little so you didn't feel like you were fighting it in the wrap.  Homemade tortilla, shredded pork/onion/stir fry sauce mixture and the quick sauté of cabbage on top.  Dinner DONE.  I wanted to add some shredded, raw carrot, too, but the hubs "poo-pooed" that idea.  They were so good, we're having the leftovers for dinner again tonight!

If you don't have a pressure cooker, no worries.  You can cook the meat up anyway you like, chop it up and add some sauce.  Great way to use leftover pork.  If you're tired of BBQ sauce in your pulled pork sammies, give this Asian version a try.  And, please, let me know if you do!

Easy-Peasy Pork Tenderloin in a Pressure Cooker

I had a 2.5 lb pork roast to cook for dinner and I really want to utilize my Nesco pressure cooker more often so I brought it out.  This one is great because of all the cooking methods it can do: steam, brown, slow cook and pressure cook.  I love that I can brown my meat in the pressure cooker so I don't have to dirty another pot.  I wish I had thought ahead and taken pix all throughout the preparation of this meal, but I didn't.  I actually didn't even think to take a nice picture of the final product until the hubs was about to take his 1st bite and snapped the top-left one, but it's a little fuzzy.  The top-right one is my plate with seconds on it.  :o)  The tenderloin in the picture is a 2nd one I have (they were a BOGO deal).  Anywho, let me tell you how easy this was!

Ingredients
2.5 lb pork temderloin, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 small apples, peeled and quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 C beef stock (if you don't have, use wine, chicken or vegetable stock or even water)
Salt and pepper
If you want to make gravy
3 tbsp butter, melted
3 tbsp flour (you could use cornstarch and water, instead of butter and flour)

When I unwrapped the tenderloin, it was actually in two, long pieces.  I cut both pieces in half, giving me 4 even pieces that fit in the pressure cooker.  Add a tbsp of your choice of oil to the bottom of the pressure cooker and set it to "brown".  Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper and brown all sides of the pork, two pieces at a time, in the cooker.

Remove the browned pork, place the meat trivet inside the cooker, then set the 4 pork pieces on the trivet.  Drop the onion, apple and garlic cloves on top (don't worry if some fall  through the trivet to the bottom).  Pour beef stock in and seal cooker.  Cook pork for 25 minutes.  If you have a manual pressure cooker, start your timer after it starts to jiggle.  In my electric pressure cooker, I can set the timer and then it won't start counting down until it's reached full pressure.

When timer is up, release pressure and remove pork and trivet; cover pork to keep it warm.  (I tasted the liquid in the pot and the onions and apple had flavored the stock nicely, so I removed them with a mesh strainer.  You could leave them in and use an immersion blender to puree them into your stock, thus thickening it into a gravy.)  Turn cooker back to "brown" and blend melted butter with flour (or water and cornstarch).  Once stock is boiling, whisk in butter/flour mixture and continue to cook until desired thickness.  Add salt and pepper, if necessary.

The pork fell apart nicely and was so tender!  I served it with green beans and potatoes - baked for the hubs and mashed for me and B.  If you try this recipe, let me know how you like it!

I absolutely LOVE practical gifts!

I am a practical girl.  I don't like to shop and don't have any purse or shoe addictions.  I got lots of Christmas gifts that fed my practical side this year - kitchen utensils, gift cards to movie theaters, the grocery and warehouse stores, mega packs of toilet paper and facial tissues and this  - an 11 pound, boneless pork loin.  :o)  I hacked it up into roasts and chops last night and I just had to take a picture of them.  Aren't they beautiful?!?!

I got one, what I would consider luxury, item that I didn't even know existed.  The hubs got me this tape that goes into the car's tape deck and has a cord to plug into my phone so I can listen to my music in the car!  (Yes, I have a car that has a tape deck and I'm proud of it.)

We also got lots of my favorite gift of all - experiences - this holiday season, but I'll be blogging about those later.  I hope y'all received at least one kind of gift that you treasure the most!  {{hugs}}

Leftover Wednesday - Breakfast Hash Curveball, Bagel Pizzas and Pork Fried Rice

I got busy today with leftovers!  We had leftover steak in the fridge and I wanted to make My Breakfast Hash this morning.  Sadly, I discovered we were out of potatoes.  *sniff, sniff*  Hungrily, I decided to clean out the bread cabinet and found 3, plain, mini bagels in the back.  I had made a batch of spaghetti sauce last week and still had half a jar left.  Ding! Ding! Ding! Bagel pizzas for B!  I looked in the fridge's cheese drawer but no mozzarella.  I went looking for mozzarella in the freezer and found something else I didn't know I had - half a bag of Arby's Curly Fries (not from the restaurant.  You can buy them in your grocer's freezer now).  I decided to try substituting the curly fries for the fresh potatoes in my hash.  Then I found an unopened bag of mozzarella for the bagel pizzas.  We also had half of the hubs pork loin from Monday night's dinner, so I assigned him pork fried rice.  Phew!  Here we go....

Opened bag of curly fries, bag of steak leftovers and an onion.  With the seasoned fries, I didn't need salt, pepper nor paprika in this dish!

Since I have so many pictures in this post already, I won't add play-by-play ones of my cooking; I'll just tell you.  I heated vegetable oil in my pan and added a handful of curly fries.  Once they crisped up on both sides, I removed them to a paper towel-lined plate to drain and added half an onion, chopped, to the pan.  While the onions cooked a few minutes, I chopped the curly fries up and added them back into the pan to crisp up some more and let the onion continue to cook.  I chopped the steak added it to the pan and heated it through a couple of minutes.  Here is the finished product!

These are the ingredients I had for pork fried rice.  Slim pickin's this week, I tell ya!  I'm trying to get better at buying less and not buying anything else until the next shopping day.  You get creative!  I only had 1 carrot left, half a bag of frozen peas, a tomato from my mom's garden, a shallot, some garlic, some ginger, the other half of the hash's onion and Wegmans Stir Fry Sauce.  No, I've never had a tomato in fried rice before, but it needed to be used up so we gave it a try. It worked.

The hubs grated the ginger, diced everything else and stir fried in our wok with sesame oil.  Carrot, shallot and onions first, because they take the longest.  Then peas, garlic and ginger.  Removed all that from the pan.  Tossed the pork around to reheat but not to overcook.  Removed from pan.  Threw a few portions of cooked brown rice into the wok and crisped that up, then added 2 eggs and continued to fry.  Once eggs were cooked, he turned off the flame, added veggies and pork back in and added some stir fry sauce to taste.  It was so good!  It made enough to feed both of us for dinner and lunch leftovers for both of us tomorrow.  Leftovers from the leftovers!  I love it!

B had bagel pizzas for dinner.  Not because he does not like pork fried rice; he really does.  But I wanted to use things up and he was thrilled to be eating pizza.  And, as the hubs said, "More leftovers for us!"  This is a shot of the ingredients for the pizza, but I don't have a shot of the result.  I'm sure you can use your imagination, though.  While the pizzas were in the oven, I ran out to chase and catch a full rainbow!  While doing that, the pizzas were done and B chowed down on 4.  I came back and ate one while the hubs was cooking our dinner and the last one fell on the floor.  Totally forgot about a picture.

But, I do have a video of the rainbow to share with you!  It was so big, I could not fit it in a picture.  Not the best quality, as it was on my phone.  Later, a 2nd rainbow appeared above it!  It sure is nice to be reminded of His promise, especially in these hard times.

How It Went At The Doctor's Office Monday

I'm sorry I did not update y'all yesterday on how I was feeling!  Still sleep deprived and we had a busy day that wore me out.  At the doctor's Monday afternoon, the strep test was negative.  I asked him how accurate those fast strep tests are because I have a ton of friends who kids were sick last Winter, the fast strep said negative but when sent off to the lab, a week later they were informed their child indeed had strep!  My doc, and I love him and trust him very much, said that although the fast strep is not always accurate on kids, it is pretty accurate on adults.  I didn't want to have strep, but it had been bothering me since last Winter and my doc will let me take up his time asking as many question as I like.

Since I'd been dealing with the scratchy throat since last Wednesday, he would be willing to give me an antibiotic if I wanted one.  It could be bacterial or viral.  If viral, they run for 7-10 days before getting better and mine had been getting worse for 6 days.  I do not want to be on an antibiotic unless it's necessary, so I opted to wait it out and see if it got better.  He said if later in the week it was not getting better, I could shoot him an email and he'll send the script to the pharmacy.  Isn't he awesome?!  I love that I can email my doctor!  Also, I told him I needed to schedule an annual physical with them for both me and B.  He said, "Since you're here, I'll save you the trip and do it right now."  So he gave me a physical and ordered the blood work I need to have done.  I just need to visit the lab in the next 90 days to have it done, when it's convenient for me.  And, BTW, I have Kaiser Permanente.  A lot of people bash HMO's, either because they had a bad experience or, mostly, because they hear bad things from other people and won't try it.  But we've had great experiences since we signed up in 2005.  With the number of times B's been sick, tested and to the ER, we have saved a TON of $$ with KP.  And I love listening to Allison Janney on their commercials, too.  :o)  Anywho, my two cents on KP.

My doctor also said that he'd seen nothing but sore throats for the past 2 weeks and a lot of them were allergy related.  The cooler than normal temps here in August were triggering the Fall allergens early.  After I got home, I realized that I had been outside a lot over the weekend working on a project and we'd had the windows open.  I also was not drinking as much water as usual because I was so busy.  So that night I took an allergy pill before going to bed. I still had to sleep upright, but I was able to fall asleep a few times for an hour or so - progress.  

Yesterday morning the temperature was 74 degrees, so I suggested we go for a bike ride.  I was exhausted after changing into my clothes!  But we went for a ride through the hood and then played with the neighbor kids when we got back.  We were out for close to 3 hours and I got me some sun.  :o)  I took another allergy pill after dinner and I was able to lay down all night!  Woohoo!  Now, I didn't sleep all night through.  B had a nightmare, came into our room, climbed in our bed and the hubs went to B's bed for the rest of the night.  B is an "active" sleeper, so I didn't get much sleep after that.  But I am on the mend!

Monday after I got home from the doctor's, I was so tired and had a headache from hell.  The hubs took care of dinner again, and made a fabulous pork loin with herbs from his garden:

Later today I will have three, yes three, leftover meals to share with y'all, one of them using the leftover pork loin!  Have a great Wednesday!

Milwaukee Pork Stew

I love this recipe.  It's so flavorful, filling and has a hint of sweetness.  I made it once for the hubs, long before B was born, and he did not like it.  (I cut this recipe out of a Betty Crocker recipe book that I bought at the checkout stand in the '90s.)  The hubs was not a soup man back then.  The past couple of years I have made more soups and stews and he is liking them during the Fall and Winter.  So if I had made this for dinner for all of us, he may have finally liked it.  But I didn't give him the chance.  I didn't want to set myself up for one of those dinners that I think is great only to hear complaints from both members of my peanut gallery and then have them request something else.  So I made them Baked Potato and Sausage Soup and kept the Milwaukee Pork Stew to myself.  (Although, if you look at the pictures of both dinners, the pork looks more like a "soup" and the potato and sausage looks more like a "stew".)  I halved the recipe, which is at the bottom of this post.

I cut a big, sweet onion into rings and then quartered them.

Cubed 2, thick-cut pork chops b/c that is what I had on hand, but you can use a pork roast, as the recipe calls for.  I mixed the flour with some salt and pepper and tossed the pork pieces in  the flour mixture to coat.

Browned the pork pieces on all sides in a medium-high heat dutch oven.

Then I added my onions, a diced shallot I wanted to use up and garlic.

Stirred occasionally and cooked until the onions softened. I had to give you a shot with the crusty bits on the bottom of the pan - my favorite part of cooking!  That's where all the flavor is!

I added the broth (beef b/c I had no chicken), beer, bay leaf, brown sugar and red wine vinegar.  I had no parsley so it was left out.  I had no caraway seed so I substituted celery salt.  Brought the pot to a boil, scraped up all the crunchies from the bottom of the pan, reduced the heat and cooked for 1 hr 15 minutes.

1/3 cup flour 

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 lbs pork boneless sirloin or shoulder, cubed 

2 tbsp vegetable oil 

4 large onions, sliced into rings and quartered 

1 garlic clove, minced 

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 

1 tsp caraway seed 

1 bay leaf 

14.5 oz can chicken broth 

12 oz bottle of beer 

1 tbsp packed brown sugar 

2 tbsp red wine vinegar 

Mix flour, salt and pepper. Coat cubed pork with flour mixture. Heat oil in dutch oven over med-high heat. Cook pork in oil until lightly browned. Stir in onions and garlic. Cook 5 minutes, stiring occasionally. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and cook over med-low heat 1 to 1.25 hours, stirring occasionally, until pork is tender. Remove bay leaf. 8 servings.

Don't forget to serve with The Bread!

Italian-Style Slow-Roasted Pork Butt

When I made my two-week menu plan and grocery list on the 6th, I added this recipe that I found on Wegmans website.  What attracted me to it was the ease of prep and the variety of meals I could get out of it.  So here goes...

Sunday night, I sliced up 3 oranges and 2/3 of the biggest onion you've ever seen!

I scored (cut criss-cross) the fat on top of my pork butt and rubbed all sides with minced garlic, salt, pepper and fennel seed.  Then I wrapped it up in plastic and stuck it in the fridge overnight.  Monday morning I set my convection oven (not my crock pot) to 275 degrees, unwrapped the pork, slid it in the oven and set my timer for 7 hours.  The first 3.5 hours, I thought the garlic smell was really strong.  I am a huge garlic lover, but I was hosting a homeschooling get together at the house that afternoon and I was worried about scaring off the other families.  By hour 4.5, however, the garlic had mellowed.  :o)

This is what it looked like the minute it came out of the oven...

...and this is what it looked like 15 minutes later after the hubs and I had done some "quality assurance" testing and I had pulled the bone out of it.  (Notice the hole in the center where I cut out a piece of crispy fat.)  At this point, you can shred the meat for tacos or add some BBQ sauce for sammies.  But I did not do that.  

After it had cooled for about an hour, I put the roast on a platter, wrapped it up in plastic again and stuck it back in the fridge to solidify.  BTW, have you ever noticed that there is no "d" in the word "refrigerator" but there is a "d" in the word "fridge"?  Wazzup wit dat?

Tonight I pulled the roast out of the fridge and sliced off 3 pieces.  For those of you who are reacting squeamishly over the pink color of my pork, get over it.  Pork is safe to eat now.  You no longer have to cook pork all the way through like poultry.  But this pink color is not b/c it is raw or not cooked all the way through.  It's b/c it had not been exposed to air yet.

I heated my non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and then dropped my 3 slices into the dry, hot pan.

I let them dry fry for 3 minutes and then turned them over for another 2 minutes.

Ta da!  I served it over garlic mashed potatoes with peas.  I had a busy day today, so I apologize for the lack of creativity on the veg.  

I'll tell you how to make wonderful garlic mashed potatoes without going overboard on the garlic flavor or biting down on a piece of garlic.  Into a small pan add 1/2 cup of milk and 3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves.  (Crushed means to lay the side of your wide knife on top of an unpeeled clove of garlic and pound once on your knife with the heel of your hand.  The clove will split somewhat and slide right out of the skin.)  While your potatoes are boiling, warm the garlic and milk up until the little heat "waves" rise up but not so that it simmers or bubbles.  When your potatoes are done, turn off the heat under your milk, too.  Throw the garlic cloves away and use the garlic-flavored milk as your liquid to mash the potatoes along with any butter, salt, pepper or sugar that you also may put in.  Yes, I said sugar.  I put sugar in my non-garlic mashed potatoes b/c my mom did when I was growing up.  And she did it b/c her mom put sugar in her mashed potatoes.  It actually tastes very good and I always get compliments on my patooties.  But you only put in a little bit.  Too much and your potatoes turn to glue.

The rest of my roast I cut into thirds and put into the freezer.  I'll use them for tacos or BBQ sammies later.  Or, I might just fry up some more slices!

P.S. - the recipe says to reserve the juices for gravy and you can serve the onions with the pork, if you like.  There was not enough gravy to separate the fat in my gravy separator and the oranges had been so obliterated during cooking, you could not separate them from the onions.  So I had to toss it all.  But the pork was tender enough that I did not need any gravy.

Recipes: Pan-Fried Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes and Iceberg Wedges with Ranch Dressing

Do you know The Pioneer Woman?  If not, you must get to know her!  She cooks up some darn good grub!  I have not liked every recipe of hers that I've made, but most of them, I do.  This past weekend, I made her Pan-Fried Pork Chops, some mashed potatoes and Iceberg wedges with her homemade ranch dressing.  Everything was a hit, except for the potatoes with B.  He does not like skins on his potatoes and I insist on cooking with them b/c of their nutritional value.  Also, I did not make gravy and B only wants to eat mashed potatoes with gravy on top.  Too bad, he had to eat what I served.  The best part was that B ate the entire wedge of salad that I put on his plate without a single grumble!  He loved the dressing that much.  I'm onto something here...  Oh, and my leftover-hating son ate the leftovers for dinner the next night, too!

Some modifications to the recipes:

I did not buy bone-in chops.  I have thick cut, boneless chops that I sliced sideways to make them nice and thin.

I have no idea what her secret is to cutting Iceberg wedges into wedges that stay wedges on the plate.  However, no one noticed or just chose not to comment due to the deliciousness of the homemade ranch dressing.  Oh, and I cooked up a couple of slices of bacon and crumbled them on top of the dressing.  Probably a bigger distraction to the lack of wedges than the dressing.

I didn't buy dill nor cayenne at the store b/c I was convinced I had some at home.  Turns out the hubs finally decided to do some cleaning in the fridge and the spice pantry w/o my knowledge.  *sigh*  So, I really missed the dill in the dressing, but the boys didn't notice.  Next time, they're going in the dressing though.

I used milk instead of buttermilk b/c I never use up all the buttermilk in a carton before it goes bad so I try to avoid buying it.  I could have made some, but I was lazy and hungry, so I just used regular milk.

I did add the optional vinegar, worcestershire and paprika to the dressing.

This dinner was a big hit and will be added to my dinner rotation.