While at the store, today, I glanced up and saw thin-sliced turkey cutlets in the meat case. I’m a good one for impulse buys, but I looked at the price and decided against them. I then looked down and saw a turkey breast portion – at three times as much weight for half as much money.

Guess what I bought?!?

Marketing really is everything. The expensive cutlets were packaged nicely and prominently displayed while the breasts were vacuum-packed and piled willy-nilly in the bottom of the case. Of course, had I not seen the nice packaging I may not have looked down to see the other, since I wasn’t looking for it.

It really does cost a lot more to have someone cut things for you – just as it costs a lot more to buy things already prepared. Madison Avenue has done a great job of training people to believe they don’t have time to cook. The reality is, you can have dinner on the table in the time it takes to cook the rice – from scratch, not microwave-in-bag. It just takes a bit of organization. Really.

I marinated the turkey in olive oil, red wine, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Onto the grill and 20 minutes later, we were eating salads!

The salads were greens, avocado, tomato, watermelon radishes, roasted golden beets, and barley salad. Dressing was Spicy French.

And the leftover turkey will make great sandwiches!