Pork- Its what's for Dinner

Long time ago, back when my husband and I were doing Weight Watchers. We started cutting back our portions of meat. We started to look at the amount of meat in our meals and decided that we didn't need to eat that much meat. I started looking into ways to cut back our meat. Adding lentils  - great way when you're using a ground meat, but less helpful when using shredded meats. The price of ground beef went up and we started looking at alternative cheaper somewhat healthy meats. Using more beans in Mexican-inspired dishes help with shredded meats.

Over time we have moved to eating more pork. The cost of chicken has gone up too. It took me a while to figure out things to make with pork.

When I buy pork I try to grind some of it. We have a Kitchen Aid grinder attachment. Then we have ground meat to use in any recipe that I would normally use ground meat for (Shepherds Pie, pasta, meat balls, sloppy joes).

The rest of it I freeze and then cook in the crock pot. I put about 3 lbs in the crock pot, first cutting off big sections of fat. I'll add some water to the pot so it won't burn. Also remember that the cut of pork -shoulder, roast, butt, are all less important. But not chops or ribs. I look for packages that are cheaper but are boneless when possible.

3 lbs will make 6-8 meals for my family of 6 (granted one baby and twin girls).
Meals:
pulled pork sandwiches (takes the most meat)
pulled pork on rice
pulled pork tacos
pulled pork taco salad
Fancy Burritos (like Chipote)
Nachos
Quesadillas
Tamales
Enchilladas
Baked Tamale Pie
Shredded Pork over Zucchini
Taquitos *never made these myself, but have had lots of friends suggest it

Cheap Meals: Ham and Potatoes

Easy recipe that used affordable ingredients. As is the recipe feeds 4 full adult portions.

It uses:
oil (of your choice just enough to cover the pan for use)
6-8 potatoes (scrubbed and diced) approximately 30 ounces of potato.
1 cup chopped loose chunks/cubes ham/pork meat (thick sandwich ham, leftover Easter ham, pork roast, bacon, hot dogs- use what you have or what is cheapest, I have even used diced chicken).
1 can cream of whatever (I prefer cream of mushroom) *
1/2 can milk
1 TBS flour or gravy thickener mix
salt and pepper to taste
optional- 2 TBS sour cream (if you are feeling extravagant more makes a nice creamy sauce. My mom always used a whole 16 oz container in one meal)

*to save money, if you double this recipe, don't double the soup, add an extra 1/2 can milk (for a total of a 1 1/2 cans of milk)

directions:
dice potatoes, put into hot oiled pan, on a medium heat cook the potatoes till they are just starting to soften, add your meat (the more raw your meat is the soon you'll want to add it)- add it by creating a space on your pan for the meat to go. Let it sizzle for a bit and them start mixing the two together. Cook together until the meat is cooked and the potatoes are softy and getting crispy outers. Add the cream of soup, milk, and thickener. Stir well and let sit only stirring to keep it from sticking to pan bottom. Let everything thicken and attach to the potatoes. Remove from heat. Add sour cream just prior to serving after removing from heat. Suggest serving with cooked peas. My mom often mixed cooked peas in, I serve them on the side.

Enjoy. My kids all love this dish. It is one my mom always made for us. She used SPAM (because she liked it), I hated and swore I would never make it for my family. Then one day I was craving the version she'd make after Easter with the leftover ham and I made it. Still can't eat it with SPAM- but if that is what you have it totally does work. (My disgust for SPAM lead me to make this crazy fake cooking show video for a contest back in my single days).

downloadable and printable recipe card (right click and "save as")

Meal Cost Breakdown: based on my last shopping trip (6/16/2015)
potatoes +.69,  bacon(in the picture used 1/4 of package I bought for 2.50) +.62, can of soup +.98, milk +.12, flour +.02, sour cream +.05=2.48 for the main dish + sides