Terrific Tuesday

It's Tuesday, the 15th.    It is a milestone for a family member and we are all jumping up and down to say "Hip Hip Hooray! " it's been a long time coming and we are all thrilled!    Well, my brain is jumping. My body. Not so much!  

Last night we had a vegetable bean soup. Cornbread, a  tomato and cucumber salad,and chocolate pudding for dinner.   It would be a very inexpensive dinner to serve.  You could put the soup in the slow cooker in the morning,  the cornbread is a quick fix as well as the salad. When you are having a soup that has a limited amount of protein in it, you need to add a side or desert that has protein in it.  
Pudding is one of those things that is easy to make without the box.  You are getting very little effort in the box for a lot of money.  

Averaging your meat costs is one way to afford a more expensive cut if meat every new and then.   I use a matrix when planning meals.  It makes it easier and affords a degree of balance.   By rotating your meats( proteins ) using the bulk system, your meal plans fall into place.

2 beef
2 chicken or pork
2 vegetarian
1 fish or shellfish

SAFEWAYS  has pork tenderloin and shrimp on five dollar Friday often.
I am finding a buck a pound chicken often.  There is an expose on deli chicken on an older blog. It's very enlightening.   I make our own ( actually I cut the meat up and my husband puts it through the grinder ) hamburger when it is cost effective.   Batch cooking hamburger is the most labor intensive of the batch meats.  I buy grated cheese when it is reasonable, otherwise I grate our own and add a little cornstarch to keep it from clumping. It freezes well.  

I can always get pasta for a buck a pound.  Often,  I can also get coupons or  coupons matching with a sale.   Pasta has a v e r y long shelf life.   Stock when you can.   I developed a pasta dish that is my answer to a  hamburger meal box.  Better, cheaper, faster.   My children call it no Brainer pasta.   There is a blog on hamburger meal boxes as well.    It's a real eye opener!  

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Jane