What's Cooking?

This weekend was a foray into making do with what you have on hand. On Saturday night the menu consisted of:

• Steak Fajitas-I had a London Broil in the freezer I had purchased for $1.50/lb and half a bottle of fajita marinade in the fridge. Throw in an onion and a green pepper and you're most of the way there. I cooked the meat on the grill after marinading it for most of the day. I sauteed the onion and green pepper on the stove using some left over marinade.
• Homemade Mexican Rice-I found this great recipe at the Red Velvet Cafe. It couldn't be more simple. Some rice ($8 for a 10 lb bag at Sam's Club), chicken stock and a can of Ro-Tel Tomatoes (around $1 regularly and $0.50 or better on sale) and you're in business. The only adjustment I made was to brown the uncooked rice in some olive oil before adding the liquid.
• Homemade Salsa-Never done this before because when Herdez Salsa is so good, why bother, right? Well, my vegetable basket from the co-op included a "Mexican pack" which consisted of tortillas, avocados, onions, jalapenos, tomatillos, limes, cilantro and some other peppers I could not conclusively identify. So I took the plunge. This is the recipe I used. Very easy and very good.

Dinner Sunday night was mostly courtesy of the freezer:

• Frozen cheese ravioli from the Treasure Box I picked up Saturday morning (more about Treasure Box in an upcoming post).
• Frozen Arrabiata sauce purchased at American Discount Foods. This place is like TJ Maxx for food. If a restaurant over-orders something or a food is discontinued or the can is imperfect, they send it here. You do have to inspect things carefully, but I have never been disappointed and the prices are the best. I bought gallon of this sauce (which tastes so good, it is clearly from a restaurant supply) for $2.49. It froze and defrosted beautifully.
• Frozen sausage-Now I would have been perfectly happy without meat in the sauce, but I bent to the palates of the men at the table and added some meat. This was actually the last of the homemade sausage from my Brother-in-Law's annual sausage making party. What? You don't have a BIL who hunts and loves to invite a boatload of people over to provide forced labor for his sausage-making party? Well, since the parting gift is a good-sized package of various types of sausage, I highly recommend you get one. More about this when it happens again in January.
• Salad from the veg in the co-op basket.
• Garlic toast (again from the freezer)

Both meals were met with compliments from the adults and some actual consumption by the kiddos. Success! I love it when I can make a meal (or meals) without going to the store for that one ingredient I don't have. The compliments were just the gravy, so to speak.