Simple Saturday - Fajitas!

What do you do with the yummy leftover fajita fillings when you run out of tortillas?

There's running to the store - yuck!  Or making some more from scratch - which I also like but my simple solution that worked for the limited time I had to throw together my husband's lunch the other morning:

Mix with beans &/or cheese and call it low-carbing!


What do you think?

Monday Musing 4/18/11

I'm still here, just working on behind the scene stuff.  Also my camera ate its memory card and that threw a kink in my blogging plans.  So since this month is flying by I will just be on a blogging break and work on getting this blog going in May with a new header, about me section, more local links and of course some actual blog posts!

Monday Musing 3/28/11

Good morning!


Yesterday was actually a very good morning and I am not too keen on mornings in general!  Especially when I am tired and want to stay snuggled up in bed! Our church had a 35th anniversary celebration with a special service and meal together after-wards.  It was a fun day and I came back with two empty dishes so I must have finally figured out what to bring!


My guest post has not gotten up and we'll blame technical issues.  Hopefully it will get up this week.  I had some time to blog while the little one slept so several posts got finished and started.  Looking forward to a new month with a new budget.  Also looking forward to a friend's wedding out of town, so I will be planning some meals to make ahead and leave for the husband while I am away that weekend.


It is funny to me that everybody seems to either be loving the spring weather or hating the last spring snows that other parts of the country are getting.  I think I would rather have the snow than all the bugs this warm weather has caused to appear in my house!  I just have to be different!  Seriously after a bumble bee was crawling on my bathroom floor one morning after I had just killed the first carpenter ant of the season the day before, give me cold weather please.  


The warm weather did provide me an opportunity to do some spray-painting.  I purchased several shelves at a Goodwill store in Houston, TX awhile back and needed to paint them to match each other.  One was brown, one was white and another was blue.  The blue one will probably be painted red and I don't have the red paint yet so that one got put off again.  The other two have the same design but were different sizes and colors.  Now they are both black and will go so much better together.  Provided of course that the pollen did not stick to the paint...


Hope you had a good weekend and are looking forward to the start of a new week and a new month.  Lots of possibilities out there and I am anxious to see what is in store for us!

Cheeseburger Soup

 

Cheeseburger Soup

Adapted from this recipe.


Ingredients

1/2 pound grass-fed hamburger meat

1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped finely

Salt and pepper to taste

4 cups poultry broth (chicken, goose, guinea)

4 cups diced potatoes

8 tablespoons butter, divided

1/4 cup flour (ideally sprouted or substitute arrowroot powder)

1 1/2 cup raw milk or ½ cup coconut milk, ½ cup water & ½ cup yogurt

2 cups grated raw milk cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Brown the meat with some butter (4T) and the onions if using grass-fed meat.

2. Add rest of vegetables, broth and seasonings to browned meat.

3. Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat and simmer while you make the cheese sauce.

4. Melt the remaining butter (4T) in a medium sized sauce pan.

5. Add the flour to the butter a small amount at a time, being sure to stir it in completely before adding more.

6. Cook for a few minutes more than remove from heat and add the milk slowly.

7. After milk is combined return to heat and slowly add cheese to make a creamy sauce, thinning with some broth from the soup if needed.

8. Add cheese sauce to soup and serve.

Additional toppings if desired: Bacon, chives, croutons, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream, pickles, etc.  Almost anything you would put on a cheeseburger!




Printable page

What to do with Coconut Oil?

Love this coconut oil! 

Since I forgot to get any butter at the store, I had to melt some coconut oil for the brownies I was making.  Not wanting to waste the coconut oil left in the pot I had melted it in, I got to thinking about what I could do with that pot.  Sauteing something would have worked but I didn't not have anything so I just dumped some coconut milk and cocoa powder in it.  Several simmering minutes later I had hot chocolate!


Now if you have never had coconut oil in your hot beverage of choice, there is something you should know.  There will be little dots of oil floating on the top of your liquid.  I had read so many times about adding more coconut oil to your diet by using it in coffee, tea, smoothies, etc. that I finally tried it in my coffee.  Yuck!  I was not prepared for those blobs floating around.


I am still not too keen on it in my coffee but knowing what to expect does make it more palatable.  Anyway, I also had some coconut oil left in the container so I am still trying to figure out how to get it all out and what to do with it.  There is always the simple rubbing it into my hands but I was busy with other stuff. 


How would you get the last little bit out?  And what would you do with it?


Are you as obsessed with this stuff as I am?  Sometimes I feel like the father on My Big Fat Greek Wedding with his Windex because this oil cures everything! Some people do not like the "coconutty" taste but I tend to not notice it very much.  There are other kinds of coconut oil that do not have a strong flavor but this stuff works for me.

Thanks to Amazon's "subscribe and save" I get two containers of this delivered every month or so depending on how quickly I use it.  While this may not be quite as economical as purchasing a gallon at a time, it is the most convenient and budget friendly for me at this point.


Where do you get your coconut oil from?

Crawfish Etouffee

Crawfish Ettouffee

This dish is so easy to make and can be very nutrient dense.  I actually had most of the veggies chopped ahead of time when I was making another dish earlier in the week and the rice had already been cooked also so this went together very quickly.

Ingredients:

• 1 Stick Butter
• 1-2 chopped Onions depending on how much you like
• 1-2 chopped Bell peppers (I prefer green but red is good too)
• 1 Tbs minced Garlic
• 1 lb frozen Crawfish tails
• Cooked rice (preferably brown rice cooked in broth)
• Tony's seasoning or make your own*
• Hot Sauce, optional

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and saute onions and bell peppers for a few minutes then add garlic and crawfish tails.  Add at least 1 Tbs of seasoning and cook until crawfish are heated and onions are opaque.  Serve over rice with hot sauce.  Also good over pasta.  This makes about 4 servings depending on how much rice you use.  I used about 3 cups of cooked rice.


* I did not use the Accent seasoning in this recipe.

Monday Musing 3/21/11

If you can't find real food, grow your own!

Hope you had a yummy weekend!  We sure did. The picture is of our raised bed we just put in and I got the dirt in last week to finish it.  Right now I have Heavenly Homemaker's Vanilla Wafers baking and they do smell heavenly.  They were very simple to make even for someone like me who does not like baking.  Something about having a baby though triggered a baking instinct and I have baked more (and cooked less) in the past year than ever.


Nourishment does not come just from food, another way to nourish your family is to have a pretty and comfortable place to call home. Tomorrow look for me at Mystery Mom's Money for a frugal decorating project that only cost me $10.  I like decorating but not hanging things up on the wall so I am hoping that I will be encouraged by my blog to get more projects finished so I can show them off!


That crawfish recipe is still coming!