Nice and Cool to Drink

I thought I discovered something and then found out our son has been doing this for awhile now.  It is nice and cool and a way to use the Seltzer with some flavor.

 

I use the flavored icicle and then break it up into the seltzer.  It makes for a nice cold drink and does have any flavor you want.  At this time I used the orange one and here you go.

 



Memorial Weekend

We had a very nice weekend and was invited to spend some time with our friends.  There was a lot of food and conversation.  It was fun. 

 

One of the items brought was a dish that was easy to make and looked healthy and not fried.  I decided to make them myself on Monday just for something to eat as a snack. 

 

I went down to the store and picked up a small container of sweet mini peppers and some whipped cream cheese.  Now you are thinking of the Poppers that are fried.  These are not fried but baked at 325 degrees.  First you cut the peppers and then put the whipped cream cheese on and all you have to do at that time is bake for 20 minutes and you will see the cream cheese start to get some brown color on top.  They are done at that point.  Wonderful. 

 

The next time I try these I will put regular cream cheese and try to mix something inside to give it a little bit more pop.  Here they are.

Thursday Store Shop

Today the idea was to go to the store and pick out dinner and only use $15.  Could it be done?  I try to stick with the four items as always and work from there.  Today I went into the Albertsons store.

 

First I had to figure out what would work together for tonight.  I walked around the store and ended up in the meat section.  In the meat section, at the end of the meat area, there is a small area that they will put meats on sale.  I rummaged through what was there and they had a lot of pork today.  I found one package of Ribeye Steak with bone in with two cuts inside.  It was on sale with the price of $3 off of the original price so that made it $8.98 for two steaks.  Now I needed to see what I could find to go with it.

 

I went to the end of the store and they have a sale rack of items that are being discontinued and I found a can of Corn that was $1.19.  The date was good so no issues.  Figured that would fit in as well.

 

I then went over to the vegetable/fruit area and picked up a package of Garden Salad that was on sale for .88 cents.  Then I also picked up some Baby Bella Mushrooms for $2.29.

 

This meal for two was a total of $13.34.  Looks like I made my amount by $1.70.

 

Now to get home and get ready to cook this meal.  I started by letting the steaks sit out with seasoning on them to get to room temperature.  At that point I put them into a 350 degree oven to get started.  When they are about done I will turn on the broiler and let them put some color on the top.  The corn was easy since I just put them into the small pan and let them heat up.  The mushrooms I put a cube of salted butter in a pan and let the mushrooms sautee until ready to eat.  I normally put grated parmasen on them but I forgot to get the cheese this time.  The salad was put into the bowl and I put whole baby carrots with a hard boiled egg and some cheese sprinkled on top.

 

This was the meal.  Not bad for trying to stay under a given amount.  We will see what next week brings for the games I will play.



Wednesday Steve's Chopped Basket

I am going to try something a little bit different.  I have been doing dinners for my wife and I for some time and I am always trying to come up with something new and different.  I decided to write about what I chose and what I did to cook the meal.  This I will do in different forms to see if I can have fun with it and maybe get some ideas on what else to put together.  As you can tell I tend to watch a lot of "Food Network" on the television.  Let me know what you think. 

 

Tonight was the "Food Basket" variety. These items also had to be in the house and I could not go to the store for other items.   I chose four items and they were, Macaroni, Green Bell Pepper, Bacon and Velvetta Cheese.  I think it might be obvious at what I did.

 

I first started the macaroni and then cut up the bacon into little pieces and put them into the fry pan to cook and get well done.  I wanted to have them crispy.  I then made a rue with butter, flour, salt, pepper.  Once the sauce was mixed and ready I put in the Velveeta cheese to melt and added the crispy bacon.  Once the macaroni was done I then added the mixture to the macaroni and then cut up the Green Bell Pepper and added it to the mixture I had going.  I decided to add some French Fried Onion Rings to the mix and stirred this all up.

 

I was happy with what I accomplished and what I learned was that the cheese will set up if let stand too long.  This happens when my wife does not make it home at the time it is ready.  I try to time myself and see if I can have the meal on the table at the time she arrives.  Tonight it did not work that way.  Still I think the concept was good and it tasted good as well.  Will I do it again?  I don't know.

 

I will start taking pictures of what I have accomplished so you can see what I come up.  My wife said I would continue on to the next round.

 

Have fun in the kitchen.....