Stolen Moments - retro food!

How much do I love RetroFood.com ? A LOT, that is how much...
I keep trying to remember to do something special for grilled cheese month, but I still have a few weeks left.. (Do you have a favorite grilled cheese incarnation? Share it with us, please!)

And have a look around on the site - tons of great ideas and yummy nostalgic food!!

Beef Fajitas

(Pictured - at left, shreaded cheese and queso dip) beef and pepper strips in bowl, tortillas and lime wedges, right, and grilled onions - my plate only since The Hub isn't a fan)

Woops - I forgot sour cream or my zesty/cool taco sauce for our fajitas last night.. so I whipped out some left over queso dip from the freezer and we had that on our fajitas instead (it is liquid cheese, so obviously it was good.. duh). Beef Fajitas get made again and again at our house, they are one of The Hubs absolute faves, tho I am still looking for the perfect mix of seasonings that DOESN'T come out of one of those little envelopes...

I used this seasoning mix from "Self Reliant Yuppies" for the beef this time - but I actually quarted it because I didn't want to make that much of a blend I had never used... it was fine, we liked the flavor, but I don't think the search is really over either.
Not much to say on prep for these this time - I cooked the peppers and the seasoned steak strips in a little big of veggie oil in a hot skillet, and the onions in a smaller pan so they didn't "taint" The Hub's fajitas...
The queso made the whole thing for me!!

Chicken and Dumplings on a dime!

I should start by saying that The Hub has already requested that this be made again... he LOVED it!! It was very tasty, I won't argue - and it was shamelessly cheap to put together.

I took:
1 can Kroger Value Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 can Kroger Value mixed Veggies (drained
1/4 cup milk
1 cooked shredded chicken breast
I mixed all of that together in the bottom of a square Pyrex dish and then topped with:
1 can Kroger Value biscuits
I baked the whole thing for around 25 minutes (until the biscuits were brown and the mixture was bubbling away...

Seriously - It was good... and while I know that it might not be the lightest meal, The Hub ate a lot of veggies in one sitting with this stuff... and it was shamelessly easy.

Do you come here often? Happy Hour at Home..

I spent the day with my fabulous parents on Saturday, while The Hub got his Masters viewing on... (I can only take so much golf -seriously..)
I wanted to do something special since it was a weekend night, so I decided to bring happy hour home to him. A guy at the liquor store reccommened the Svedka Vodka (above) saying it has all the qualities of an expensive vodka, just not the price and that it would be perfect for dirty martinis, The Hub's favorite cocktail..

I used this recipe and he said they were "perfect"....
2 oz. Vodka or Gin
3/4 oz. Olive Juice
1/2 oz. Dry Vermouth
I shook it all together in a chilled cocktail shaker and strained it over 2 blue cheese stuffed olives into a well-chilled glass...
( I had to agree that they were tasty, but I usually don't drink my martinis dirty, so I wouldn't know any different..)

To go along with our cocktails, I whipped up some little "bar snacks".. Some "Savorings" that I had bought on sale at King Soopers last week, stacking the sale with a paper coupon AND a cellfire coupon loaded on my Soopercard!! (I think I ended up paying like 42 cents for them!).. I also marinaded some thinly sliced beef in balsamic vinegar and black pepper, threaded it onto some water-soaked wooden skewers and broiled them until just done, and made a traditional quesidilla too..

It was good.. it was all good...

I am a TOTAL cheater...

Growing up whenever we went to a diner with the fam, there was a good chance that my daddy would order an open-faced sandwich with mashed potatoes (especially, it seemed, when we were on a road trip)... and since I wanted to be just like my daddy pretty much ALWAYS, I usually did too.
Years ago, when The Hub and I were engaged, I discovered On-Cor brand frozen family sized turkey and gravy - and it was VERY inexpensive. We used to have it at least once a month, but it has been years now since I grabbed a package for us... Until last week at the grocery, that is.
I had a feeling The H was getting sick of pannini style sammies, but I like having the fixings for some sort of easy sandwich around for those nights when even the smallest effort feels HUGE.
And it is still very inexpensive.

So I cut a mini-loaf of sourdough bread in half and loaded it up with the thin-sliced turkey and gravy goodness. The Hub had green beans with his (out of the can, he doesn't like fresh ones... I just don't get it...) and I had a big salad (I swear, I could eat salad with every meal)...
I admit it.. it was good... long live the open-faced, smothered sammie...

HEY - a full freezer is more efficient anyway

This is my freezer:

I have had several people ask me lately if I have an extra freezer for all the stockpiling I do and the short answer is "no"... (The longer answer being something about how The Treehouse is just not big enough to house any more freezing space, and that I am not sure I would get one if I had room since it is just The Hub and me right now...)

However, I have a packed freezer pretty much ALL THE TIME. It had been a bit less full until I discovered that Safeway in our area has b/s chicken breast for $1.77 a pound right now.. The foil packets in the big freezer bags (bottom right) are 12 packets of 2 breasts each... The black containers are steaks from the recent Target coupon making Sutton and Dodge beef easy to find for around $0.25-0.60 a package... and wedged every where are the mini loaves of bread from Target, free with the coupon from their website recently...

The one thing I am not so proud of is that stack of Banquet meals... The Hub is at home every day for lunch now, and I simply refuse to argue with him about what he wants to eat.. I am not going to draw attention to the fact that he is no longer out visiting accounts and taking guys to lunch and eating what he wants by forcing some healthy or boring or unappealing lunch on him if he doesn't want it. So I get him the cheapy lunches that he will eat... and I work that expense in to my food budget... /rant

The door of the freezer is really NOT the best place to store things you want to truly stay frozen... I store ice packs and extra ice, extra coffee, and other things that I am not so concerned about in the door...

It only LOOKS scary... everything in there is actually right in it's very own place...

Slowcooker pork with DIY BBQ Sauce...

I actually put this in the crock pot on Monday morning, so it would be good to go for dinner that night.. but the call of the Michigan State fans came in, and we had to go support our pals (and eat Auntie K's amazing mole chicken tacos!).
So this actually had all night to sit in the fridge in the sauce after cooking all of Monday in the slow cooker.
I used pork stew meat, because it is inexpensive and it is all going to get mushed together anyway, right? I put it, along with this BBQ sauce into the crock pot, and it cooked on low for a little under 9 hours. I reheated it covered in the microwave and it was just as tender and moist as could be...
BTW - the sauce was just "alright"... something was missing for me, it needed more tang (more vinegar perhaps) and maybe a little heat or something.. it just wasn't flavorful enough for me - but it wasn't yucky or anything... But I will keep looking for a really good homemade sauce recipe. (If you know one, share the wealth, PLEASE!)

As you can see, I had mine with a nice big salad with broccoli florets, carrots, onion, green peppers and a sprinkling of corn, The Hub (who did have a tiny salad in a separate bowl) loves his corn, so he needed lots of space for it!