Groceries the week of August 13-20

I scored a great deal on chicken leg quarters this past week - $.79/pound!  It was a 3-day special at Winn Dixie. I bought the last 10# bag at the price - and obtained a rain check for 2 more bags.  I'm SET for chicken for a while.  

Here're the rest of the proteins I bought this week:

• Ground pork $2.49/pound (bought at Publix) 
• Pork chops $2.99/pound (bought at Publix)
• Boston butt pork steak $1.73/pound (bought at Winn Dixie)
• Boston butt pork country style ribs $2.08/pound (bought at Winn Dixie)
• Thick cut bacon $3.33/pound (bought at GFS in bulk)
• Thin cut bacon $4.50/pound (bought at Publix in 1-pound pkg - next time I'll buy it at GFS)
• Beef back ribs $2.99/pound (bought at Publix)
• Jumbo chicken wings $1.79/pound (bought in bulk at GFS)

Because I bought so much (more than I intended), I split up the packages and froze most of it.  This time I remembered to separate* the pieces before freezing them so they don't freeze together in one lump.  Now I can defrost single or double portions at a time.  

I spent $75.74 on protein.  I bought enough to last 30 entrees.  That works out to ~$2.81/entree/protein.  That seems reasonable.  I'll learn more as I fly this path and have a trail to go back to and compare.  For all I know, $2.99/pound is horrible for pork chops.  Besides the chicken leg quarters, I know the bacon was a good deal:  bacon these days is normally $9-11/pound.

It's a good thing I bought the protein last week - there's nothing on sale at the stores this week that I want.  Except for salmon - it's on sale for $6.99/pound.  I'll wait until Monday or Tuesday to decide if I want any salmon.  I have 2 pounds of cauliflower in the freezer so I don't need veggies for another week or two.

*Nearly every time I write out the word "separate" I flash back to when I first learned how to remember how to correctly spell it - from watching TV.  No, not Seasme Street or Electric Company - although I watched those growing up.  No, I learned it from a police procedural.  When I was a child, I watched Adam-12 on television.  Officer Reed (Kent Mc Cord) was writing a report and used the word "separate."  He mentioned to his partner, Officer Malloy (Martin Milner) that he never remembered how to spell the word.  Malloy responded with something along the lines of "remember that you have to separate a rat" from his friends.  That memory trick stuck with me for over 30 years!  That show, and Hill Street Blues and S.W.A.T., also set a life-long enjoyment of police procedurals.

Sloppy Porky Stuffed Green Peppers

I mentioned in my last post that I decided to start cooking again.  Cooking real food - not just hotdogs.  Not just making chicken salad from store-bought rotisserie chicken.  Last week I made a pizza with a meat crust.  I used the recipe from Karen Barnaby's book The Low-Carb Gourmet.  This cookbook is my all-time favorite cookbook.  Next time I make it, I will take a picture and post it.

Last evening I prepared Sloppy Porky Stuffed Green Peppers.  I started with this recipe for Sloppy Joe Stuffed Peppers from Linda's website.  She ROCKS the low carb recipes!  I changed it up a little bit.  Ground pork was over $1 less expensive than ground beef or chuck so I went with that.
  

Ever since I started cooking for myself, I've avoided stuffed green peppers.  I was forced to eat them as a child.  I HATED them.  Oh, I loved the stuffing.  Just not the green peppers.  I tried them a year or two ago and eat the innards but tossed the peppers.  I'm prejudiced against the word "pepper."  Pepper to me means spicy-hot.  Yuck!

So, as you might guess, I was a bit hesitant to use peppers this time.  However, they were on sale ($.69/each). So I bought 2.  And a large tomato.  I figured I'd stuff 2 peppers and a tomato, just in case.

Weeeeellll, I ruined the tomato* before I even stuffed it.  So that left the 2 peppers.  I have to confess, I was prepared to eat the sloppy joe mix and skip the pepper.  BUT! I tried the pepper with the first bite.  And then the second bite.  And third.  You get the picture.  It was really yummy!  There was no heat to the pepper.  It simply added a bit of a stronger flavor to the bite of food.  Some people describe it as bitter.  I don't think that describes it.  I can tell you, I'll eat the rest of the peppers.  I give this recipe 5 wing flaps of yumminess! 

I ate one half a pepper and bagged the remaining three.  One is in the freezer to see how it freezes.  The other's I'll eat later this week.

Here's the recipe I followed:

1.  1.09# ground pork

2.  1 oz white onion, chopped (larger pieces)

3.  1 stalk celery, chopped

4.  1 clove garlic, minced (smallest pieces)

5.  1/2 cup tomato sauce (I used Contadina because it was - you guessed it - on sale)

6.  1 drop Sweetfreez

7.  2t white vinegar

8.  2t Worcestshire sauce

9.  1t yellow mustard

10. 2t Jane's Krazy Mixed Up Salt

11. 1/2t sea salt

12. 8 oz mild yellow cheddar cheese, shredded (shredded results in bigger pieces than grated)

13. 2 large green peppers, cut in half (I cut it in half from top to bottom instead of around the diameter) with the ribs and seeds removed

Brown ingredients 1-4.  Mix ingredients 5-11 and add to the browned pork mixture.  Simmer for 10 minutes, occasionally stirring.  If it looks dry, add up to 1T water.   Preheat the oven to 300.

While the pork mixture simmers, par boil the green peppers.  I put the peppers (already cut in half and cleaned) in the water before it was boiling.  And I left them in there 4 minutes - until the pot started whistling.  Remove the peppers from the pot, drain and put into a baking dish.

At the end of the 10 minute-simmer, turn off the heat and add 1/2 of the shredded cheese to the pork mixture.  Stir the mixture.  Scoop the mixture into the pepper halves.**  Top with the rest of the shredded cheese.  Pop the stuffed peppers into the oven and let cook for 10 minutes or so.  When the cheese on top is all melty gooey, remove from the oven.  

*If you want to use tomatoes in place of peppers, don't par boil the tomatoes!  Oops!

**I had enough of the pork mix for another half a pepper - which I didn't have.  I put it into a bowl, topped it with a little cheese and scarfed it down.  Sloppy Porky in a bowl!

Nutritional information for the entire recipe:

Carbs:  30.4g (6%)

Fat:  144.1g (69%)

Protein:  115.5g (25%)

Calories:  1881

FYI - without the peppers, the fat percentage increases to 71%