Category: MENU PLANS

Despite growing up in southern California and having all the produce of the world available to me, I had never really seen these ‘Santa Claus‘ melons before so took a chance that it would be something I’d be interested in. Here is what I was able to find out about them: They are used raw in fruit salads or in fruit platters and served at room temperature. A good-quality Santa Claus melon will be fairly large and firm with a small amount of softness at the stem end. The coloring will be a mottled yellow and green. The skin will have a slightly waxy feel when the melon is ripe. Avoid a melon that is too firm, too soft, has dark blemishes on the skin or is extremely green-colored. Keep uncut Santa Claus melons at room temperature for two to four days or until fully ripe, then refrigerate for up to 5 days. Refrigerate cut up melon in a covered container up to 3 days. Keep in mind that once cut, melon odor will penetrate other foods. Santa Claus melons are available from California and Arizona from June until October, with the peak in July. Melons from South America are available during the winter months. For this reason they’re also known as Christmas melon. The flavor can be good on the winter melons, but they won’t be as sweet as those available in the summer months. This one evidently still needs a few days to ripen so the jury is still out, but they seem interesting.

All that aside, Tuesday is the day to shop at my local market. To start with rotisserie chickens are on sale for 2 for 1 at $8.99 instead of their normal $9.99 each which works out to $4.50 each with my buying power card. Then I found blackberries that are normally $3.99 each for $1 each and strawberries for $2 each instead of $3.99. The 38 ounces of FRESH (key factor for me) boneless, skinless chicken breast were $7.99 for the packet which breaks down into 4 separate meals for us.

I pull the meat from the bones and I put 1/2 of each herb rotisserie chickens into 4 separate Tupperware containers for future meals like quesadillas, salads or casseroles. Then I boil the carcasses, skin and juice and create 4 containers of broth for future soups or meals.

Almost everything here was on sale with the exception of the dessert cups (hubby loves these preservative full things) and the pillsbury bread sticks that I splurged on to make Martha’s pretzels with. My biggest splurges were the Santa Claus Melon and the Pineapple.

All in all I only spent $58.11 for 2 weeks worth of meals after saving $26.25 on the sale items.