Of course it
is a long way from the fourth week of the year, but I finally had time to sit
down and pull out my menus for week #4.
The big bulk buy for the week was a vacuum packed boneless pork loin
from Sam’s Club.
When I first
started cutting up pork loins for my family I did so per the instructions given
me by a meat cutter at Sam’s. He had explained to me that the cuts I will
explain are basically all the same meat, just cut differently and sold at
hugely different prices. He also
suggested to me a book that explains how to save money on other meats by doing
similar cutting or substitution on all sorts of meats. That book was Confessions of a Butcher: Eat Steak on a Hamburger Budget and Save $$$ by John Smith,
you can read my review on the book here. Now the
slicing instructions are right on the pork loin wrapper on how to do it.
However, if
your store doesn’t supply the instructions here is how I cut one.
I buy the
large, approximately 10# boneless pork loin that is in one of the vacuum
packages.
I first open
one end and drain all the liquid that I can to help minimize the mess while I
am cutting it up.
Generally
these are larger than my cutting mat so I rest the part that doesn’t fit on the
mat on a plate or platter until I can advance it to the cutting mat as I make
progress with it.
The tools of
my trade are a very sharp large knife, a good pair of kitchen shears, and four
plates.
As I cut I
leave all fat on the meat to help prevent the meat being too dry when it is
cooked. It can be trimmed off later if need be.
Starting on
one end of the pork line I trim off the tapered end until I have a flat area
that would be one side of a boneless pork chop.
The part I trim off I cut into small cubes to use in pork stir fry,
chili, casseroles and similar dishes that would require diced pork. OR I put them on a plate to be ground up for
recipes that use ground pork or to make homemade sausage. I use the kitchen shears to quickly cut the
meat into the size cubes I want to work with. This is plate #1.
Plate #2 is
for boneless pork chops/pork steaks.
These are simply slices of the loin in the desired thicknesses for these
products. I do a variety of thicknesses
depending on the menu for the week.
Everything from Basic Fried Pork Chops to thicker ones to stuff or grill.
The middle
of the loin I cut into the proper size for roasting or otherwise preparing a
pork loin dinner. Plate #3
Moving on
down the loin I cut several thick slices, that I then use the kitchen shears to
cut into strips. These are either
boneless pork ribs or pork fajita meat.
Plate #4.
The
remaining bits are cut up and added to plate #1.
How much of
what type of cut you create is up to you.
If you are planning on several meals in the future that would call for
browned pork cubes. Then cut more of those up, brown now and then
preserve in your preferred manner for speedy food preparation in the weeks to come. You can either can or freeze them. The same goes for if your recipes call for browned ground pork.
I personally often
cut two small pork loins from one large loin for two different ways of cooking
it on different weeks. Or I may choose
to ground half the meat to have ground pork on hand, either browned and canned,
or frozen raw for meatloaves in the future.
Once all of
it is cut up I either vacuum pack it for freezing or can it per the Ball Blue
Book canning instructions. I can a lot because I have limited freezer space, plus we tend to have several power outages in a year and I prefer to have my meat dollar better protected. Unless I am
cutting it up to use that day, of course.
So now on to
the menus for the week.
BREAKFAST
OPPORTUNITIES:
Greek Yogurt either with the
fruit cooked in or topped with:
Grape-nuts or other cereals
Fresh Fruit bits
Dried Fruit
Cold cereal
choices
Rice Krispies
Corn Flakes
Grape-nuts
Hot cereal
choices
Farina
Multi-grain cereal
Beverages
Orange Juice
Grape Juice
Milk
Water
Fruit
Dried Mango
Dried Blueberries
Clementines
COMMENTS:
My son and I
love Greek Yogurt to the extent it was
starting to bust our grocery budget with the amount we were purchasing each
week, even using coupons. So I decided
to try my hand at making my own yogurt.
I may never
purchase grocery store yogurt again! I
used my dehydrator to make it and it was so super easy. Even more important it was delicious, coming
out the perfect thickness we love! You can read the step by step instructions,
complete with photos here.
The flavor
opportunities are endless, unlike purchasing it at the grocery from their
limited variety. We did find we prefer
using preserves or marmalade to using jam or jelly for that type of flavoring.
I do now
make a lot of plain yogurt to use in so many, many recipes.
LUNCH OPPORTUNITIES
Fish Tacos,
after the fish sticks are served later in the week
Leftovers of
any sort
Sandwich ingredients
Fish Sandwiches a La Mickey Dee’s after the fish sticks are served
Shaved turkey breast—see comments
PB&J
Toasted
Cream Cheese Sandwiches on Raisin Bread
Baby Spinach
Sprouts
Mayonnaise
Mustard
COMMENTS;
We love fish
sticks, so you will often see them popping up in my menus. They are scheduled for dinner one night this
week, but I will cook extra when I do so we can have fish tacos or fish
sandwiches for lunches. As long as you
do it in short bursts 15-30 seconds you can re-heat fish sticks for these foods in a microwave
and have a quick lunch.
I discovered
years ago that purchasing a turkey breast or boneless ham and asking the meat
cutter to shave it for me was far less expensive than purchasing lunch
meats. I also own a meat slicer so
sometimes I will purchase large ones of these to use for the bulk item of the
week. This week I just purchased a small
one for use in lunches and breakfast burritos.
The Cinnamon Raisin Bread Cream Cheese Sandwiches are your standard grill cheese sandwich made with those ingredients. It is a very nice change of pace.
DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #1:
Cole
Slaw
Blonde
Brownies
Water
Tea
COMMENTS:
The pulled
pork recipe is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on Pioneer Woman. We enjoy pork loin cooked this way as a main
dish or on sandwiches, in wraps, or in burritos.
DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #2
Jarred
Salad
Water
Tea
COMMENTS:
Canned or
frozen leftover Moo Gurgle from the week before makes this a quick and easy
meal to throw together on busy nights.
DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #3
Fruit
Salad
Milk
Tea
Water
Leftover
desserts
COMMENTS:
The burritos
can be filled with any variety of leftover meats you have from this week and
last. We particularly like putting in
the pulled pork from night #1 this week or the shaved turkey that I purchased
for sandwiches.
You don’t
have to follow a recipe for fruit salad, any mixture of fruit you
like will be a refreshing lift from the burritos. I personally eat extra fruit salad on this
night rather than a sweet dessert.
DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #4:
Fried
Potatoes
Cole
Slaw
Peas and
Pine Nuts
Pineapple
Upside Down cake
Tea
Water
COMMENTS:
Definitely a
heavy on the calories meal, but oh so good. These Butter Fried Pork Chops are different from the Basic Fried Chops, but just barely.
Peas and Pine nuts is exactly what it says. I use either fresh, frozen or canned peas and
prepare them in my normal manner, only I toss in a handful of pine nuts that
are either plain or toasted. It’s simply
a twist on peas and pearl onions, without the onions because my ds does not care
for onions.
DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #5:
Jarred
Salad
Pineapple
Upside Down Cake
Milk
Tea
Water
COMMENTS:
To make the chicken and dumplings I used home canned
chicken from Week
#2: Chicken Leg Quarters. The
salad and cake were of course leftovers from earlier in the week.
DINNER WEEK 4, DAY #6:
Fruit
Salad
Milk
Tea
Water
COMMENTS:
The original
recipe I use for the chowder calls for bacon pieces in it, however, for the
pork loin week I browned up small bits of the trimmed pork from plate #1 to
season the soup. I also used all pepper
jack cheese to make it a spicer soup.
The refrigerator
nut cookies were my dad’s favorite cookie.
He would have me make up a triple or quadruple batch of them the day I
mixed them up and freeze additional rolls of them for future treats.
This is when
I learned that I could do this with any cookie dough for fast slice and bake
cookies on hand at all times. Doing so
saved me many a headache when my kids were in school and I was informed at a
late time that the kids needed cookies to take to some meeting or another as
they were growing up.
DINNER WEEK #4, DAY #7:
Fish
Sticks
Macaroni
and cheese
Peas
and Pine Nuts
Leftover
jarred salad or Cole Slaw
COMMENTS:
Any leftover
pulled pork can either be canned per the instructions for cooked meats in the
Ball Blue Book canning cookbook, or frozen for future meals.
The other
leftovers can be used for lunches for this week or next. I believe you could freeze the leftover corn
chowder, but I’ve never personally done it, because we consume the leftovers
quickly for lunches.
In fact most
of the meals in this week would reappear in one of our lunches later in the
week/next week because they all re-heat well and give us a large variety of
lunch foods to stave off lunch boredom that could lead to visiting a fast food
joint and wrecking your budget.
SNACK OPPORTUNITIES FOR
THE WEEK:
Yogurt with any variety of toppings or
plain
Clementines
Fruit
salad
Blonde
Brownies
Pineapple
Upside Down Cake
Popcorn
So there you
have it Week #4, using foods you have previously stored in conjunction with
your purchase of a single large pork loin that you cook for this week’s meals
and for future meals.
You now
basically have a month’s worth of meals you could use each month for a year, or
you can continue to come back as I slowly at 52 different meal plans over the
future weeks/months. I am making a
serious effort to work on my blogs more, but life happens here on the Rock ‘n
Tree Ranch and the New Life on the Ranch can
be both fun and a lot of work. Please be
patient with me all 52 are coming, eventually.
Jan who is
sorry the 52 weeks are so slow in coming in OK
