It’s been a long time since I last posted anything. I know I’ve got an Author Spotlight to get finished and shared, but I thought I’d go a different way with this post. If you’ve followed and/or read my blog for a while, you know it’s just a lot of rambling, so, here’s some more rambling.
I work nights – 7am to 7pm and my meal choices after a certain time are limited to 24 hour chain restaurants and convenience store cuisine. This all gets old real quick, so I, on occasion, bring my own food. It started out being frozen dinners, which, quite frankly, leave little to be desired to a guy who’s six foot three and three hundred pounds. After some thought I decided I could create my own meals, which would not only be edible and filling, but also economical. By shopping at dollar stores and hitting sales on other store brands, I can create four and five meals for just a few dollars each.
It all comes down to creativity and a lot of experimentation, and it doesn’t have to be difficult or take a lot of time in the kitchen. Stores have a lot of prepackaged, non-frozen foods that make it easy to put something together. Now, I said non-frozen, but don’t count them out. Dollar stores have some nice choices of frozen entrees that can easily be added to for a hearty meal.
For the meal pictured above I heated the brats in the microwave and placed them in the buns. For the slaw I took some prepackaged slaw mix, enough for the two brats, and mixed it with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard with horseradish to top them off. The shells and cheese are a store brand microwaveable bowl; just add water and then mix in the cheese. It’s just that easy.
For the fish tacos I heated up the filets in the microwave (no, not the one at the office!), spread some homemade tarter sauce on the tortillas and added the shredded fish filets. To top them off I mixed a teaspoon of cocktail sauce with a half teaspoon of hot sauce, then lightly coated some of the slaw mix with it. Again, easy and didn’t take a long time.
It has been fun, strategically shopping for ingredients and experimenting with different combinations (although, not all of them have come out as I thought they would). I’ve been doing this for over a year now and, although I don’t have plans to turn this into a food blog, this may not be the last post of this kind you’ll see from me. I have an idea for leftover tortillas and frozen breakfast entrees for this weekend’s rotation. Stay tuned, and stay hungry, my readers.
Jim G Black Writes 