One of the best ways to save money on the food budget is planning your weekly meals around sales at the grocery store. By watching the ads and finding the best sales for that week you can many times make your meals for almost half what you would have otherwise spent. Even though you thought you might make grilled salmon, when salmon is $9.99 a lb. and the store has tilapia for $4.99 a lb. or catfish for $3.99 a lb. it makes sense to switch gears and go for pecan crusted tilapia or grilled catfish in its place and save the salmon for next week when your store might offer it on sale for $5.99 a lb. This is how I came to be a fan of marinated pork loin roasts over the last two weeks. Not normally something I'd buy, I spied marinated pork loin roasts in the store regularly $9.99 each, on sale for $7.99. Although I make pork roasts every few months, I have always bought the cut and marinated it myself. Because pre-marinated meats are almost double the cost of a 'naked' cut, I would/could never justify the cost. Why pay more when I could do it myself? But at $7.99 each it was only about $1 - $2 more than the un-marinated version and with a mesquite bbq, lemon garlic herb, tomato and basil, citrus and more to choose from I decided to try them.
I chose a mesquite bbq pork loin and baked it in a shallow pan on foil for about 50-55 minutes (the directions called for 45-50). The flavor was not strong, more like a faint hint, but I knew I had something in the refrigerator that would bring it out a bit; Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce (You can try it for free by clicking on the link in the sidebar under the Featured Product!).
A drizzle of sauce, a minute under the broiler to heat it up and served along side garlic mashed potatoes and green beans which I whipped up while the pork loin was cooking - and I had a full meal on the table in under an hour.