A Tale Of Two Pork Chops (That Cost .15 Cents)

I dig meat with coupon peelies on them.  Do you know what this means?  If meat at the super market is about to expire, the butcher slaps a coupon on it.  Lately, I've been going to a Stop & Shop in a kind of trendy town (this would be Hingham - please don't stalk me).  I've been making some serious meat bank here with peelies.  I won't buy all skanky looking meat, but if it looks good and is a good deal, I'll snatch it up.  When I get home, I'll divide the meat if I see fit, or I'll just throw the packages in the freezer.

Well this is going to be a LONG post, so I'll try to keep it simple.  See how I made 8 meals with .72 lbs. of pork that I got at Stop & Shop for .15 cents!  That's less than 2 cents per portion for the meat!

On July 17th, I found this pack of pork at Stop & Shop with a $2 peelie on it.  If you look closely at the label, you'll see it was $2.15.  So with $2 off, this was .15 cents.  It didn't look all skanky at the time and it doesn't appear to be all skanky now when I defrosted it.  When I got home, I just threw it in my freezer.  I threw it in my refrigerator to thaw 2 nights ago and now watch how I made 8 individual healthy meals with it (6 adult, 2 kid).

I cut up my .72 oz. of pork.  Each bowl has 4 oz. in it.  The "choppette" on the scale is 2.7 oz.  I'm going to make Fried Rice with one bowl and Lo Mein with the other.  I'm just going to bake the "choppette" for the kids.

Fried Rice is a cooking!  I have rice going in the pot, I scrambled an egg to the left, and started cooking the pork (I put my recipe at the bottom of this post).  I have my "choppette" ready to go in the toaster oven.

The recipe for Fried Rice called for carrots and peas.  I didn't have any carrots.  I put a 1/2 cup of corn in it's place.  I also wanted to show that if you get those "Steamfresh" veggies that "steam" in the microwave - you don't necessarily have to do that.  You can cook with the vegetables in those bags just like normal frozen vegetables.  There is no added flavoring to most of the basic Steamfresh line.  Just a fancy bag.

After I cooked the pork (with seasonings) with scallions, peas, corn and scrambled egg, you add the rice and some soy sauce (and I add pepper).  Fry it in the wok for a few minutes.  Here are 3 equal servings of Fried Rice with only 4 oz. of pork.  Let's move on to my "kids' meals"....

The pork is done.  I cut it in pieces, threw some rice with it and BBQ sauce.  2 kids meals using 2.7 oz. of pork.  Moving on to Lo Mein....

Measure out 4 oz. of dry pasta on my WW scale and by using my Fasta Pasta (one of the best inventions ever).  

In the wok, I cooked up the pork with 1 tsp. of olive oil and some red pepper.  Threw in some garlic, scallions, green peppers, bean sprouts and cooked it some while my pasta is cooking in the microwave.  

When my pasta is done, I throw it in the wok with some soy sauce (I used Reduced Sodium just because).  Cook it for a few minutes and then.....

You have 3 equal servings of Pork Lo Mein with only 4 oz. of pork!  

So that my friends, is how I took a lonely package of 2 pork chops that was sitting in Stop & Shop all pitiful.  At .15 cents, no one wanted those two pork chops, but I did.  

Here's the basic recipes and points values for these two easy recipes.  You can substitute or add things depending on what you have in the house.  Just remember that if you add something, you might have to recalculate the points value.  

Pork Fried Rice (Very Big portion)

POINTS® Value:    7 Servings:  3 Level of Difficulty:  Easy Course: main meals

Ingredients

	1 cup(s) Carolina Long Grain Rice, uncooked
	3 oz cooked lean boneless pork chop
	1 item(s) egg
	2 tsp olive oil    1 tbsp soy sauce Minced garlic.  Some say 1 tsp. but I like a lot so I used about 1 tbsp About 1 tsp grated ginger root (optional, but it does add some great flavor)
	1/2 cup(s) frozen green peas
	1/2 cup(s) Green Giant Niblets Corn, Frozen
	1/3 cup(s) scallion(s) 1.  Cook rice according to however you like to cook rice. 2.  In bowl, take pork and add ginger, garlic, 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tbsp of soy sauce 3.  Take the egg and beat it with a fork. 4.  Scramble egg in small skillet. 5.  In wok, cook pork mixture for about 3 minutes.  Add scallions.  Then add scrambled egg, peas and corn.  Cook until it looks good.  Add cooked rice in wok.  Mix up a lot.  Add more soy sauce depending on your tastes.  I also added some pepper. -  This recipe could also be 6 servings and used as a side.  1/3 of this recipe is a very filling meal in itself. Pork Lo Mein POINTS® Value:    4 Servings:  3 Level of Difficulty:  Easy Course: main meals Ingredients 4 oz uncooked whole-wheat spaghetti    3 oz cooked center loin pork, lean and fat    1 tsp olive oil    1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes    2 tsp minced garlic    1/4 cup(s) scallion(s)    1 cup(s) bean sprouts    1 cup(s) frozen pepper strips    1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce 1.  Cook pasta according to directions. 2.  In wok or large skillet, heat oil.  Add garlic, pepper flakes and pork.  Cook for a few minutes. 3.  Add bean sprouts, scallions and pepper strips.  You could also add other vegetables too - cole slaw mix (cabbage), mushrooms, regular onions, etc. 4.  Cook until vegetables look cooked. 5.  Drain spaghetti and add to wok.  Stir and add Soy Sauce depending on your taste.  Cook for a few minutes.