Day 23 Yes! Beef!

     I spoke with another mother during the weekend wedding festivities about my 10 for 10 for 10 project.  One of her first reactions was, "But my family really loves meat!  I don't know how I could do it!"

     Well, we are carnivores around here, too.   And I've had a hankering for beef.  Here's how I worked it into our day today.

     First, let's back up to last week's shopping.  I happened by some decently priced beef roasts on sale.  I was actually looking for some affordable hamburger meat, which is not easy, and noticed that the roasts were cheaper by the pound than the ground beef.

     Beef roasts have another advantage over the ground beef---they are not 30% fat.  Or even 23%, like the "lean" ground hamburger.  These roasts were completely trimmed.

     So, here's what I did.  I asked the butcher to slice up the roast for me, in thin slices---very thin slices.  Around our area every grocery and supermarket provides a slicing service for roasts.  It's part of a Mexican tradition for Carne Asada, and so there is often a line back in the meat department of ladies waiting to get their beef sliced up.  I asked the meat cutter to slice it even thinner than for carne asada, and here's why:

     Thin sliced meat goes farther in a meal.  More people get more bites of meat.  More eating pleasure from the same amount of beef.  Just the same as nibbling small corners from your chocolate bar rather than wolfing the whole thing right down.

     So, I take the sliced up roast and further prepare it before frying by cutting it into narrow stips, like stir-fry.  I brown and fry the beef, then salt it and divide it up into meal-sized portions and freeze it up for later.

     There is nothing like walking in late, with a hungry family waiting, and being able to pull together a quick and yummy meal because you have the meat all prepared and ready to add to vegetables or gravy in short order.

     For 10for10for10, I just make equal portions from the roast, and then divide the total price of the roast by the number of zip-loc packages I have portioned out, and I immediately know the cost of the meat for a meal.  I like to simplify my calculations.  So, for this roast today, which cost $6.28, I made four portions, each costing me $1.57.  Next time I get one out, I know it will cost me $1.57 again.

     Here's a quick overview of our food day:

 breakfast menu:  cold cereal and milk

cost:  $1.75, because milk is cheap this week

choice today of toasted oats, oat squares, or life cereal, measured out:  1.00

1.2 gallon milk:  .75

sack lunches:  cheese sandwiches, orangejuice/lemonade mix, sliced carrots, celery sticks, dry oat squares for school snack

cost:  $2.34

.4 lb cheddar cheese:  .60

1 loaf my oatmeal bread:  .45

1 qt lemonade, 1qt orange juice, mixed:  .60

carrots:  free, given to us by unknown bride rather than thrown away

celery:  gift from same bride, to whom we are thankful

11 oz oat squares for munching:  .69

after school snack:  canned peaches, a favorite around here

cost:  $.50

1 quart jar we canned ourselves, yum

(so, don't tune me out about the home canned stuff, I know you can't can at this time of year, but good prices do come up...I just saw large 29oz cans of peaches for only .88 at bi-mart last week.  Keep your eyes open and you can find good prices) 

Maybe we can talk about canning sometime.  I'd love that...

 

     dinner menu:  roast beef and mashed potatoes the 10for10for10 way, petite peas, sweet corn, bread and butter

You can see, in the picture above, that even with everybody served a plateful approximately this size, there is plenty left in the serving dishes for seconds.

cost:  $5.12 for 10 people! and worth it, believe me

roast beef tidbits:  1.57

5 lbs potatoes:  .50

1 lb frozen petite peas: .98

1 lb frozen supersweet corn:  .98

1 au jus gravy packet:  .33

flour for thickening gravy:  .07

milk for mashed potatoes: .19

1 loaf fresh bread:  .30

1/2 cube butter:  .20

look at that heaping bowl of mashed potatoes

and all those happy kids

and all those happy kids

and look at that that silly loaf of bread, shaped by a happy kid (happy that they were about to eat bread, that is)

and, such beauty in the colors.  My mom used to insist on a variety of colors in the meal, I remember that.  Presentation is part of the effect of a satisfying meal.  Plus, the taste of that corn lived up to the package label.  It was super sweet.  Amazing.

Today's total:  $9.71

 added bonus:  I got unsolicited thank you's for the meal over and over, all evening.

This simple dinner was a winner.