Sharing to inspire and acknowledge my own achievements today haha. I did one big prep and cut up bulk meat from Costco to try to save on groceries this month for my family of 4. I’m very fortunate to live nearish to a Business Costco which had even better meat deals. Shopped Saturday and broke down the chickens. Today I cut up a pork belly.: made 60 meatballs, 100 + dumplings, 10 boiled eggs (turned into Korean-style eggs), chia pudding, homemade granola, and yogurt Jell-O cups for snacks.

    Quick breakdown of the meat haul this week:

    Ground: $10 for 4 lbs → $2.50/lb

    Pork belly: $18.28 for 7.4 lbs → $2.46/lb

    Whole chickens (4): $20 total → about $1.00–$1.25/lb

    Total: ~$48 for around 30 lbs of meat

    For comparison my local grocery store has 4 chicken breast on sale right now for $15.99!

    Plan for Pork belly:

    2 large pieces → cooked tonight (red braised pork belly + rice)

    3 portions → freeze

    ~1 lb → sliced for homemade bacon -salt/brown sugar cured into the fridge 🥓

    ~1 lb 6 oz → thin sliced for Korean BBQ

    Ground pork:

    2 lbs + 2 lbs beef → meatballs

    2 lbs + tofu/veg → dumplings 🥟

    Chicken break down (4 whole):

    Bag 1: 4 leg quarters

    Bag 2: 4 leg quarters

    Bag 3: 3 breasts (sliced)

    Bag 4: 2 breasts

    Bag 5: 2 breasts

    Bag 6: 16 wings

    Bag 7: 2 carcasses for stock

    Bag 8: 2 carcasses for stock

    Bag 9: skin for shmaltz (fat) (frozen for now)

    Bag 10: chicken taco meat

    I’m tired after all this work, but I’m happy to see my freezer full and my kids snacking on granola and yogurt jello cups already. ☺️🙌

    What’s the word for meal prep that’s not single meals?
    byu/petizzysback inFrugal



    Posted by petizzysback

    4 Comments

    1. Artistic-Salary1738 on

      The rotisserie chickens are great for easy weeknight fajitas. I reheat the chicken with some fajita seasoning and lime and cook the bell peppers and onions separately (same time or before meat depending on hunger vs minimizing dishes that day). Throw on some tortillas, serve with cheese and bam easy dinner.

      Meatballs and dumplings sound delicious! Someday I’ll have to try to make dumplings from scratch.

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