Pinching Pennies with Pork

Making smart food choices to feed a family can be challenging in today’s economic climate. For a protein choice that’s flavorful, economical and cooks in a flash, give ground pork* a try. Kid-friendly and versatile, ground pork will quickly become a grocery cart staple. For another great value option, try a pork shoulder roast.
Spicy Asian Ground Pork Burgers use Asian flavors of crushed garlic, grated ginger root, soy sauce, garlic chili paste and some fresh minced mint for flavorful patties. Grill and serve on sandwich buns for a tasty lunch or dinner.
Other ideas:

• Beyond meatballs, burgers and meat loaf (all definitely tasty with ground pork!), sprinkle cooked ground pork on pizza, rice, taco salad or a baked potato.

• Fill tacos, burritos and casseroles with ground pork.

• Stir ground pork into chili, stew, sauces, dips and sloppy Joes.

Don’t Throw out Lettuce or Celery Again!

Summer of Savings Series

Guest post by: Cathie Frausto

I found this money saving tip by accident. We were out of storage bags so I told my husband to wrap the left over lettuce in aluminum foil He didn’t quite get it all covered so I added a second layer of foil and we put the salad in the fridge.
At the time there were just the 2 of us, now there are 5 with the addition of daughter-in-law and grandchildren, so it was almost 2 weeks later before we needed some lettuce again for tacos. I took the foil out expecting to open it up and find that slimy smelly mess of decomposed lettuce. Lo and behold the lettuce looked like I had just put it in the fridge and when I went to tear a piece off it had that crisp snap sound. We now bring our lettuce home from the store and immediately remove the plastic wrapping and double wrap it in foil, we very rarely throw out lettuce and save money by not having to buy it so often as it will last 3 to 4 weeks as long as you keep it double wrapped.

We found this also works for celery. The only difference is it works best if you wrap the celery in paper towel before double wrapping it in the foil.

Hope this helps save you some money and have a grandmalicious day!