Tasty Tuesday

Tasty Tuesday is back, yay!

I have been so incredibly bored with cooking, as of late, that I seriously did not want to even post about food.  However, people love food posts!  I am drawn to other food posts like a fat kid to the Krispy Kreme hot light.  I cannot help it.

Let me go ahead and tell you:  This isn't some stellar food post with delicious photos and phenomenal recipes.

No, this is a post of what I have planned for us to eat this week.  I didn't scour my cookbooks or internet. No, I'm too lazy for that this week.  I did other things to figure out what we would have for dinner.  More scientific style things....

Like, thought about something I used to fix that the daughter loved....

Circa 2013

{An easy favorite} I posted on the blog 2 years ago...chicken, corn, black beans, diced tomatoes and a variety of little additions ...yummy!  Enjoy those old pictures of my tiny babies!  Why did I choose this? Simply put, I had three chicken breasts left in the freezer.  Three chicken breasts for four people...I need to stretch it further.  I dice it up and create this meal which requires little to no money (because I am queen of the tightwads) and ba boom we are good to go.

Denver Steaks are the cool cut these days...

As a kid I liked reading the cuts of meat at the meat counter.  I know that's odd.  Seriously, think about it.  Cuts of meat are like class system all up in your face.  Filet mignon....well we didn't eat that growing up.  Ribeyes....my dad loved those.  T-Bones....my mom enjoyed those.  Porter House....I still cannot really tell you what that is.

I never really remember seeing Denver Steaks in the lat 80s and the 1990s.  

Denver Steaks are pretty awesome and you shouldn't skirt away from them (get the pun?).  Chefs are loving this new addition to the "cuts" family because they are versatile for dishes other than your run of the mill steak and potatoes dish.  With the price of beef skyrocketing, cooks (and mommies) are looking for economical cuts of meat that won't kill the pocketbook and will provide some yummy goodness on the table.

Forbes magazine did a report on the hip new beef cuts.  I kid you not.  Click here to read it, it's worth your time.  The Denver Steak just may be the hot new ticket.

I have a few in the freezer and plan to not get too crazy creative with them.  Nope, I'm going to marinade them in a garlic salt and pepper with Worcestershire sauce for half a day and then throw them on the grill.  I'll also throw some asparagus on there and dice up some potatoes to roast.  

And we shall call that dinner.

I love hot dogs but this makes me vomit for him.

Sometimes when I blog I think I have known a word my whole life - like hotdog - and the oh so smart computer system says its two words not one.

But....

Who cares.

We are having hot dogs this week.  Why?  Because my husband told me about the World Eating Championship (which I have like five million problems with) and said the winning person ate like 62 hot dogs in 60 seconds.  He then followed that up by saying, "I wouldn't mind a hot dog."

Um...

So it just so happens I have some Ballparks in the fridge.  

I just remembered he forgot to pick out some chili.  Well that sucks for him.  I will whip up a little batch of potato salad to go with them because you have to have potato salad, duh.

That brings me to this question:  Yellow or White Potato Salad?  That's also the question of the day on the A Brownie World (ABW) Facebook page.

I prefer yellow because I love mustard.  My husband is boring and prefers the white, gross.  Life is better with vinegar.

Sometimes the grocery store does the meal planning for you.

I love Harris Teeter.  If you know how to shop there you realize you can save money by going there.  I don't buy everything under the sun when I go (some things I save for Food Lion of hand dandy Walmart).  Also, I'm not a raging couponer so half the time I only use one or two when I go.

What I really adore about some HT is that they still run a meal deal.  Mind you, its the same one for two weeks in a row, but its 7 times out of 10 a good one.  I hadn't planned a turkey burger night but after I saw the deal I decided on a turkey burger night.

I paid $11.99 for everything you see listed.  Basically I just bought the burgers and the tea (which I doubt I even drink but my husband can take it to work) and got the rest for free.  

I remember when Lowes Foods (don't get me started on them) and Food Lion did meal deals.  They quit.  They are losers.

For my kids....taco night

You have probably noticed that meals aren't the clean, fresh eating that I subscribed to before school let out.  Way to go, Sherlock.  You get a new monocle.  I'm not hungry for food food these days.  Instead I want other things.  I'll get to that in a minute.

We're having a taco night because life isn't as bueno without a taco night on the menu.  I secretly think my daughter lives for taco night.  They are the fun food for her.  

Taco night is pretty much across the board right?  In college my Bestie Ashley would have me over to her apartment (which was directly beside my building) and we'd have taco night.  Tacos are like the Ramen Noodles of being out of a styrofoam cup.  Seriously, you can make tacos for cheap and honestly, they taste way better.

Honestly.....

This is all I want to eat

Here's the deal....I can cook, grill, roast, toast, sautee all that crap above for my family.  But all I want is fruit.  Fruit, fruit, fruit.  I want to sit down and eat an entire watermelon and seven peaches and then go jump in some water.

I'm not a hunger monster in the summer.  I want to take more advantage of the produce farms (let me see your melons) and less of the meat producers (keep your beef big boy).  I want to bake up some cobbler and then make a big batch of zucchini bread.  I also want to sip some champagne and forget about cooking for a while.

It is just how I am in the hot months.  The girl who loves to cook opts to do other things when the sun is up and her feet are bare.

Give me some inspiration....what is your go to summer meal?

Monday, May I (RETURNS!)

So a long, long, long, long. long. long. long. long time ago on Mondays a blog bud friend (who is now retired and raising her two adorable cuties in that other Carolina) did a Monday, May I post just about every Monday.  I did it too because it made me accountable (ya'll, that's my favorite word) for stuff I wanted to get done for the week.

Like I said, she retired and eventually I quit doing that Monday accountability  post.

I decided I needed to get back to my Monday, May I posts.  I mean look, with summer comes some laziness that I just can't deal with.  OK, maybe I could deal with it in June but HELLO it is July.  It is time to get a bit more "fire under my tail".

This week my three four things are EASY.  I

1.  More exercise.
2.  More water.
3.  More devotion
4.  Get the weekend planned.



I haven't been getting in the sweat equity I need to.  I have been a lazy girl.  Lazy girls aren't cool girls.



My water consumption has been fair.  This week I am taking it back to spectacular.  I may go back to my shakes too.  Maybe....



More devotion to you my lovely friends and readers....just kidding.  I'm devoted to you.  Devotion in this challenge is more reading my Bible and my study book (that I got a couple months ago and totally did not finish.  I didn't much care for the book (study book) but I'll give it another try before moving on.)  I don't know about you but during the summer we slack on church. I will just be honest - its because we spend more time going and doing as a family and are off the regular routine of the school year.  I don't foresee me hell bound for this (though you may and that's cool I'll just volunteer to drive the bus down if this is what condemns me).  My daughter and I do a devotion together and that helps to keep me us in check.



Next weekend we have something to do that would be a lot easier as a couple and not as a couple plus two little people.  Hopefully, I can {either} talk some family into watching the kids or at least get the sitter for a little more time than usual.

Alrighty, I feel great just putting these out there. Next Monday I'll go back over these and either give myself an A for passing or a F for failure.

Do you have anything you want to get accomplished this week?  Share it!