Sunday's Plate

This week's Sunday Plate is about meat. Meat is a very controversial topic. Some people denounce meat as the first and last contribution to the decline of Western Civilization. On the other side of the ticket, there are those who regard meat as a constitutional right.

Let's put meat in the middle where it, and most things, belong.

Buying meat for a big family is a really tough project because meat is very expensive and then shrinks when you cook it. I remember making a lot of things that looked wildly big and having them all but disappear in the pan, pot, and especially the crock pot. The object is to buy enough but not too much. Meat is the one item on the table people will want to eat too much of - especially if it is cooked properly and tastes like it smells.

Let's look at what we are buying to understand meat. Meat is the center of most meals. It's what we base the rest of the menu on. So meat must be the first priority in constructing a week's menus. Meat is set up at the butchers by kind - beef, pork, chicken, and fish and shellfish, and if you add eggs, and cheese and beans, you have eight totally different meal bases for the a week. meat contains the essential amino acids we need in order to live. Meat is brain food for children and contains the fat that their hungry brains thrive on. But too much meat, or the wrong kind of meat will damage health. So arranging the diet and menu plan to be healthy means a little thought and a little domestic engineering.

We can start with Monday. If Monday is the beef day, you browse the butcher's for the best deal. There are so many kinds of beef dishes, it will be hard to run out of fun things to do on Mondays. If you buy a roast, it will be more expensive than if you buy ground meat, but with a roast, you will probably have a little left over for soup on Saturday. Sometimes there are sales on steaks, but rarely are there leftovers. Cubed meat make great fondue dishes, great stews, meat pies and stir fry. Ground meat can be the basis for a hundred different foods, and if you make meatballs, you can use them in as many ways as the cubed meat. Buying no more than 4-5 ounces per person is not only wise, it's a healthy way to buy beef. Buy the leanest ground meat possible because the fat just goes down the drain.

On Tuesday, you might choose pork. Chops, ground, sausage, hot dogs, ham, ham steaks, pork roasts, and pork steaks for piggie pie. Pork is bought the same way beef is bought - about 4-5 ounces per person, and it doesn't have to be served as a huge hunk of meat. You can use ground sausage, which is cheap, and it can be used in place of hamburger. It is great in chili and spaghetti sauce.

Let's take a breather from meat on Wednesday and use eggs and cheese. Eggs and cheese make great breakfast-for-dinner meals as well as quiches, Welsh Rarebits or open face cheese sandwiches. When you add pancakes or waffles to the show, everyone seems to enjoy this. Cheese also makes a great pizza night.

Thursday makes a great chicken night. The cheapest and easiest chicken meal is a whole baked chicken. You pop it into the oven at 350 degrees when the kids get home from school, and it's ready in 1.5 hours and best if cooked for 3 hours. Chicken pieces are easy to bake and if you crank up the stove to 400 degrees, it's done in 45 minutes. Legs, thighs, wings, all make great dishes. Chicken also makes a great last minute stew. You saute chicken pieces quickly and then add bouillon, wine, a tablespoon of ketchup and 30 minutes later thicken with a rue of cornstarch and water. Chicken is one of the most versitile meats there is.

Friday makes an excellent fish day. Fish is not hard to cook if you remember to thaw it out or buy it fresh on Friday. Fish cooks fast, so don't leave it, and don't cook it on high. Salmon makes a wonderful dinner and can be baked. Trout is a bit of a challenge, but talapia, sole, and cod can easily be baked, breaded and broiled. There are as many fishes in the sea as you could count, and shopping for fish should not be hard. Shell fish is just as easy to cook. Make sure you add your shrimp at the very very last minute or it will shrink up to nothing and taste like an eraser. When buying fish, buy 6 ounces per person. Tuna and canned clams make great patties and soups, and the cost is really quite doable. When making tuna patties use a lot of Parmesan cheese and make a cheese sauce to dip.

Saturday makes a great soup and bean day. By using all your leftovers, and adding a can of beans, you can make a great swamp soup that in a busy schedule will not hinder. Swamp soup is probably the best nutrition of the whole week. Everything goes into the pot - except tuna.

Sunday is a great catch up day. Whatever you didn't eat the week before is served on Sunday.

One thing to remember is that meat does not have to be served in a whopping big chunk. By using smaller pieces, and distributing it among vegetables, noodles, rice and eggs, you are making your meal a lot healthier. This weekend I stuffed acorn and butternut squash with brown rice and a pound of bacon. The bacon cost me $2.79. I fed six adults with a meat base of $2.79 and everyone thought it was wonderful. Meat does not have to be expensive.

For the frugal buyer a typical week's menu might be:

Spaghetti with ground beef cost of meat $4.00
Cubed ham steak in brown rice and cheese sauce cost of meat $4.00
Breakfast for dinner with bacon and eggs cost of meat $3.00
Roast Chicken cost of meat $4.00
Shrimp and pea pods on rice cost of meat $4.00 (Aldi's)
Pizza with peperoni cost of meat $3.50
Swamp soup cost of meat $0.00

This does not include all the other things needed to make dinner, but it does show that a good and simple diet can cost less. This, of course, is for a family of four. It does not overdue the meat but it does provide with an adequate amount.

Cheese sauce recipe:

1/2 stick of butter melted in a sauce pan.
Add 1/2 cup of flour and cook for about a minute.
Add 2 cups of milk, 1 tablespoon of chicken bouillon, 6 slices real American cheese
bring to a boil, remove from stove and stir in 1/2 cup sour cream. It's ready to serve.

Next week: vegetables