Freaky Friday : five series : proteins

I got up early and hit the bricks so to speak.    I watch Jimmy from "she's in her apron" o. U tibe.  She is really a motivated.   Sometimes it's all I need to get my sore butt out of bed and move.  I cleaned the bedroom.   Hubby shampooed the carpet in spots., cleaned the kitchen and started dinner.   Cleaned the dining room and the deck.  

I still have some more of dinner and clothes to fold and need to finish eight cards I started last night.  

On to food related.    We are having shrimp salad tonight and rolls,    It so very hot here and will be for he next few days- a salad on the deck sounds good to me about now,  

Shrimp is me of the most expensive proteins we buy, but because I shop thrifty and we can average, we can still afford it.  

here we go ...move cheap proteins

1. Eggs:   Lately they have been under a dollar a dozen.    Even in the dead of winter at two dollars a dozen, they are a bargain in nutrition.  Scrambled eggs, omlettes. Quiche breakfast burritos.    
2. Sausage.   I have got bulk sausage for as little as two dollars a pound.    It's always inexpensive   at Costco in a three pound chub.  You can add crumbles to a soup, make depression stew, make a quiche, pit it in red sauce for pasta.... 
3. Cheese.   Grated cheese is the least exoemsove these days.   I just paid 1.58 a pound for Mexican blend,   Mexican blend goes good with a lot of things    Cheese added to beans and rice makes burritos.  Grated cheese makes the best toasted cheese sandwiches.   The possibilities are endless  my target price is 2 .00  
4. Pork loin : can be sliced for pork chops, roasted, or cubed from the end pieces.   Cubes can be a meat pie or stew or braised on rice  or mashed potatoes.    My target price is 1.69
5. Chicken : whole, thighs, or split chicken breasts.    Whole chicken can be made into four meals : 1/2 breasts, dark meat, amd the bones for chicken soup     Thighs can be used as BBQ thighs, or the meat for tacos. Or pulled chicken sandwiches .  You can de-bone chicken breast for boneless, skinless chicken breast and use the rib  portions for soup stock and pull the chicken pieces.   It makes boneless, skinless, chicken breast a dollar instead of six dollars a pound.   Quite a savings for a few minutes work.    I only buy PNW grown chicken- Foster farms is best.    The Internet and cookbooks are full of chicken recipes.    
6. Beans and rice.    Just beans and rice.    Again, the possibilities are endless.   The thing that stopped me before was cooking them.  I invested in a 14.00 baby rice cooker and a pressure cooker. 

And one not so cheap:

Hamburger is not so cheap these days.   In actuality, ground turkey is about the same price and doesn't have the same nutritional properties. Turkey has a few grams less fat.   Beef has some amino acids not found  in any other meat.   I buy 7 percent fat usually and de-fat it.   De-fating is supposed to take up to 17 percent of the fat  away.  I don't know how that translates to  7 percent hamburger. LOL .   It can be crumbles for red sauce, taco meat, hambirger pie, sloppy joes, cheeseburger macaroni.   A meatloaf so a treat.  I have been buying meatballs because they come almost a pound in a package and with coupons they are as low as .98 .   I can't make them for that.    You can make a host of recipes from meatballs.   Speghetti, over rice with sauce, over mashed potatoes with gravy, meat ball subs. Another versatile protein.  

My life is all about set it and forget it.  I love passive cooking.   When I was young it was because I was working two jobs and had three kids at home and a house to keep.  Now, I have a granddaughter, a house and I'm old and feeling older everyday.   Physical therapy is helping greatly, but with one plastic hip and one screaming one, standing for long periods of time is not an option.