Frugal In Florida

I still had those 3 NY Strip steaks I picked up at Walmart a few months ago in the freezer. Not the BEST deal but better than the usual, full price And well, because I was/am sort of on a Freezer/Pantry/No Spend Challenge this month, I figured now is the time to make them! I had everything on hand, believe it or not! Here's how we did it! 1 onion, thinly sliced - I had half a red and half a sweet so I used those two! 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced - I used a bag of mini peppers. The whole bag 1 clove of garlic, chopped fine 1 oz pkg ranch dry dressing mix generous shake of cayenne pepper (depending on taste, not TOO generous!) 1/3 cup oil (I opted to use Avocado oil cuz I have that on hand but original calls for canola oil!) 1/3 cup sun dry julienne cut sun dried tomatoes (pantry stock up from a great deal for $1 each per bag forever and a day ago!) large ziploc bag - or a shoebox! 1 1/2 lb steak (we've done ribeyes, t-bones and now, NY Strips...

We love sausage and peppers and I try to always remember to have some italian sausage links in the freezer ... AND because we are in the Pantry/Freezer Challenge, it's time to pull out the last package of sausage and cook it up! Just a note, I buy mine from Costco, they come in these four packs and cost about $12 or so for xx pounds.  I would much rather buy fresh made links but haven't been able to find an affordable source to do so, which means, for now, it's Costco. Anyway. The sausage and peppers.  The sausage typically will flare up on the grill at some point, usually when we've strolled back to the bar to get a drink and that means charred links. Not so very bad except that if it happens more than twice, they are toast. The onions and peppers are generally spread out on a baking sheet and cooked on the grill.  These will inadvertently get a little charred too, which again, is fine, but I H A T E cleaning that pan when we are done cooking. So ... whe...

Hi ... it's that time again!  My "not so" favorite time of the week ... mostly because it's Sunday and tomorrow means another 5 days of work! Ick. I'm so over that! But for now, it is what it is. I stayed out of the grocery store for TWO weeks! Amazing! Well, not so much, because I have been on a Pantry/Freezer Challenge which is sort of making some progress ... the pantry is certainly looking better ... BUT when I did go to the stores, I made up for missing a week. I stopped at Aldis and spent $23 (produce, breads and cheese) and then I stopped at the Produce Store and picked up spaghetti squash, mini peppers, zucchini, brussel sprouts and THEN it was my very LEAST favorite store: Albertsons.  I knew that I would totally stick to my list, if even that as the store here is just yucky. I went to get the 69 cents a pound chicken thighs, $1.69 chicken breast and the $5.99 a pound bone in rib eye steaks. Ended up spending $65 ... so between my 3 store stops, I spent...

Well, here we are, Day 12 of the Pantry / Freezer Challenge and so far, no issues to be had.  I DID add some stuff to the freezer this past week, 15 pounds worth of chicken for FREE using the Target $5 off $20 and Cartwheel AND some gift cards I had stashed. Since I was getting low on chicken breast, I didn’t feel bad about doing this! PLUS it was FREE! Oh, and yes, there was a stop at Costco, again, that was free as I used my rebate check and a gift card (and still have a few dollars left). I am also extremely happy to report that I ate all three meals at home this past week … even with Hubby traveling, I stayed on task. Granted, I had a lot of leftovers since Hubby had to travel at the last minute for the majority of the week … I spent a total of $66 this past week on food out of pocket, and yes, that did include $20 for beer and ice for our boating trip on Saturday … So, technically, I stayed under budget which is ALWAYS a good thing! Sunday always involves a little meal p...

The Boy and his girlfriend love Chipolte ... to the point where they had to take a break as the employees knew exactly what they were going to order since they were going so often ;-) Of course, I'm like, good grief kids, that gets expensive after a while and we can get a pretty close replica of that at home! Which reminds me, I need to be making Steak Bites again pretty soon ... So when I came across this recipe , I knew I had to give it a try as it totally FITS the Pantry/Freezer Challenge ... I've got everything on hand, with the exception of the cilantro ... which in MY house, has to be added to each individual plate since me and the girlfriend are the only one's who like it ... I even had the beer, and no, it wasn't Dos Equis, it was Corona ... thankful that I discovered this recipe at this particular time, had a cooler full of beer from the 4th of July festivities and actually had more than just the usual Ciders and Coors Lite on hand :-) The ULTIMATE sac...