Frugal In Florida

*It's been a busy few weeks around here and I may have slacked off a bit on the blogfront ... never fear, I'm still here, just the little side gig I'm doing at night is taking up a bit of time and this here recipe is the perfect thing for those evenings where I'm busy elsewhere! You all picked up that I'm sort of still on a Pantry / Freezer Challenge, right? The fact that we are now a single income household (AGAIN!) and the potential, hopefully soon upcoming sale of the house and move to a much smaller place with only ONE, maybe TWO refrigerator/freezers, I kind of need to be eating down the Pantry and Freezers. W ell, I've got this lovely hunk of beef in the guest kitchen freezer taking up a LOT of space ... so why NOT make this really yummy, super easy crock pot recipe!  I didn't realize this was tied until AFTER I pulled it out of the crockpot! I've shared this recipe before but it's definitely something to keep on hand as it's so  ...

Every time I do this, I kick myself for forgetting how good it is. And then, every time someone ask how it's done, I kick myself for forgetting how EASY it is. Yeah. Really. Onions and Peppers. Grilled in the grill pan. On the gas grill (although, I'm certain the charcoal grill would be awesome too!) Cut your onion in half (root end to top) and then cut in thicker chunks. Toss in to a large bowl. Deconstruct your peppers: push the stem down and pull out, shake out the seeds and cut in half (bottom to top) and again, cut in to thick chunks. Toss these in with the onions. *Optional, if you like, you can add chunks of squash as well, which is what I've done here, but 90% of the time it's just onions and peppers in my household!* Grab some olive oil and add a bit to the bowl. No measuring allowed on this recipe. You don't want them swimming in oil, but lightly coated. Take some salt, pepper, and any other kind of seasoning that makes you happy ...

I love peppers ... red peppers especially ... what I hate though is the seeds and membranes and cleaning them up to eat :-) I wish you could just bite into them like an apple or something! So, when I came across this tip on Instagram a while ago, I was amazed at how much easier it is to do it this way and have been doing it like this every since! Let's Deconstruct a Pepper! 1. Wash pepper 2. Push in stem 3.  Pull stem out 4.  Tear pepper in half 5.  Trim side membrane off with a knife 6.  Trim off top and bottom 7.  Slice away Go ahead and give it a try! Looking forward to sharing with some of these   GREAT Parties   ... go check them out! *This post may contain affiliate links ...   click here to read my disclosure   :-)

Hey, hey! It's that time of the week again ... time to menu plan and meal prep! Last week was off. WAY off! I didn't even start a plan, let alone meal prep much of anything! Oops ... and I paid the price for it a few days ... one day was 2 clementines and an apple for lunch ... but the good news was we did NOT go out to eat once the whole week!  Trust me, I pushed and bitched pouted, but Hubby always held firm and I had to make due!  I mean, heck, we need to be conservative around here, you know?? The house hunt is still going, although that's slowing down ... and the house inquiries were really slow over the weekend, but I think the weather played a part in that so I'm not overly upset about that.  I am, however, concerned that Hubby is flying out on Friday and will be gone for 10 days where he gets sketchy phone service ... so he will just have to really monitor his voice mail while he's traveling if anyone wants to view the house. It will all be fine, I'...

FYI ... THIS IS VERY ADDICTIVE AND YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD MADE A DOUBLE BATCH! It's been a looooong time since I made this as we were making it every weekend and both Hubby and I decided that it was a little too indulgent to make "just because it's Saturday!" ... but guess what? We were going to some friends for dinner AND we are still cleaning out the pantry and freezers (you should see  ALL the white space in the freezers!) and well, it's just been kind of fun coming up with things to make with what we have on hand ...  Cheese? Yup, in the freezer! Onions, of course, and SWEET VIDALIA ones at that! Cream cheese? Yup, down to 2 now in the fridge. Mayo ... yes, sadly, store bought.  Parmesan cheese? Wasn't 100% certain but I have some!  This is one of those dishes that people will be crowding around, giving a little jab of the elbow at times to try and get a scoop of the yumminess ... We've had friends who just pull up a barstool at the count...

For years, and years, like every other veggie out there, I wouldn't go near asparagus ... that's like, a tree stalk, right?  It's right up there with the green tree shrubs ( broccoli ) and that funky white stuff ( cauliflower )! And then, I tried these little skinny stalks with garlic and olive oil and since then, I've been addicted to asparagus ... I'm the one in the produce section tossing the fat things aside, looking for the wimpy, skinny things. Yup. That's ME!! Hi! Sorry if I held you up!  If nothing else, Whole30 has made me branch out and try all kinds of different veggies ... that in itself is a NSV, you know? So a few weeks ago, Aldi's had asparagus. Imagine that!? $2.99 for a one pound bag. Now, mind you've I've seen asparagus there before, but it was either, you guessed it, fat and woody OR the tips were all mush which is a no-no in the asparagus world. So whenever, I see them model thin stalks, I scoop them up, run home and pr...

Hey, hey ... it's that time of the week again. Time to menu plan and meal prep! I did plan a menu last week ... but didn't do any kind of meal prepping or get around to sharing the menu ... things just got away from me ;-) Between putting the house up for sale, decluttering, packing excess stuff, my new side hustle, regular work and then just life in general, things really have to take a priority around here! Grocery shopping was pretty minimal this past week. Hubby and I did stop at the store after our usual Sunday afternoon target drive (looking for our next home) and I had a $5 off $50 Albertson's coupon to use at Publix. My bill came to $58 and guess what, THAT particular store does not take those coupons. WTF?? So, needless to say, I spent $58 today at the grocery store ... and all I have to show for it is Kcups, milk, big container of baby greens salad, strawberries, bananas, 3 12 pks coke (Hubby just won't give up), a 12 pk of lime LaCroix (for me!), organic ...

A while ago, I bought a large loaf of udi's gluten free bread from Costco knowing full well that no one but ME would most likely be eating it ... and of course, I try not to eat a whole lot of bread ... so what's a girl to do? Freeze it! But, oops, had you seen the insides of my freezers at that time, you would have said no way a whole loaf was going to get squished in any of them, not to mention, I sort of wanted to protect this pricey bread from freezer burn AND be able to use a little as I go along ... not the whole loaf. Brainstorm! Remember those sandwich bags I picked up to freeze the chicken breast? Remember the concept behind  freezing the chicken breast individually ? Oh, and freezing ground beef too?! Yup, applied the same thought process to freezing the bread. I simply froze 2 slices in each baggie. Folded them close and stuck them in a LARGE freezer style ziploc bag and stored that bag in the door of the garage freezer. Sweet. So now, when I get th...