Quesadillas

 

Last night was a very simple dinner as it was just me home at dinner time.  Quesadillas.

I like onions on mine, but we obviously have no fresh onions right now so freeze dried it is!  I chose green onions, although you could use minced dried onions as well.
Lastly - the cheese. 
Not only do we keep blocks of cheese in the deep freezer, but when they are opened, I always use my vacuum food sealer to seal them tight for storage in the refrigerator.  This means our cheese lasts and doesn't get moldy or go bad!   So I had a food sealed 1/4 block of cheddar and a bit of Queso Fresco in the refrigerator which I used and then promptly resealed the rest of the cheddar again - which if we don't care to use it, will still be perfect a month or two from now (although we love cheese so it will probably be used this weekend as I cook with it all the time).

 

 

Grilled Steaks

 

 

Here is a quick photo of the steaks with the simple marinade I always use in one way or another - I don't measure.


Steak Marinade

1/3 c soy sauce
2 T oil
1 T brown sugar
3/4 t garlic, minced (about 1 clove)
1 t ground ginger
1 t seasoning salt (like Lawry's) 

Mix all ingredients, whisk until blended and cover your favorite steaks with it.  I find it easy to use a gallon sized Ziploc baggy - place 4 or 5 steaks in it, add the marinade, flip it over a couple times to cover the meat and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, up to about 3-4 hours.  Turn often to make sure the meat is marinated evenly.  Grill as usual to your favorite level of 'done'.


NOTE:  I often use Liquid Amino's or Coconut Aminios instead of soy sauce.  The photo above is Bragg's Liquid Aminios (similar in taste to soy sauce but healthier).  I used brown sugar 'sweetener' (zero sugar, low carb), and regular salt as I don't usually have Lawry's on hand and don't really fret it.

 

Jalapeno and Cheese Smothered Pork Chops

 

One of our regular favorite recipes (posted a few times already) is the pork chops, marinated in salsa, grilled and topped with a mixture of cheese(s), crumbled bacon and jalapeno.  So, so good... and this was a quicker, easier, oven version similar to that.

Pork Chops
Cheese of choice (I used queso fresco)
Jalapeno slices
Bacon 
Spices - salt and pepper and a chipotle mixture (use what you wish)

Laid a strip of bacon down, topped with a pork chop, layer of cheese, a sprinkle of your spices, top with jalapeno slices and lay a slice of bacon across it all.  Bake at 375 or 400 until it's crispy and golden brown.  Flip them over carefully as the bacon strip on the bottom for moisture and non-stick needs to be crisped up.  Hit the 'broil' and let them cook a few minutes until crisp.  Remove them from the oven, flip back over and serve.

Daily Bread Dough made into Pizza

 

Yesterday afternoon I took my 'plan' for dinner and tossed it out, and decided to make pizza.  Much easier and faster since I have my 'daily bread' dough in the bucket in the refrigerator every day.

Using the bucket dough (already posted about so many times regular readers are tired of it, I'm sure) I floured my hands, grabbed about a third of the dough and plopped it onto some parchment paper I had sprinkled with a bit of corn meal.

I used my fingers and hands to press it out to a round.  

Precook:  Preheat the oven to about 425 or 450 with a pizza stone in it, and then slid the parchment onto the stone to precook the pizza round for about 7-8 minutes.  Remove and let set (or you could freeze them at this point if you wished to save them for a later meal).   I did two pizza crusts this way and let them hang out on the counter, and turned off the oven until I was ready to come back and make them for dinner.

I made both into simple pepperoni pizza using homemade sauce from pantry tomato products and spice, pepperoni I have in the freezer (will switch to vegetarian pepperoni bites from long term storage when I need to), shredded mozzarella I still have a couple food sealed bags in the deep freezer but will use #10 canned freeze dried mozzarella reconstituted when I need to, and some parmesan - the green can version you can buy at the store, which I have a couple of in the 2-3 year food storage pantry.

Delicious and easy.  Thank you God for our daily bread.... or err, um, pizza dough!   

Pioneer brand Country Gravy (White Gravy)

As I previously posted, we had mashed potatoes and chicken the night before last.  I made extra for lunch/dinner the next day. 

I wanted gravy with it the first night, but didn't want to bother making it.  However, I knew when I had the leftovers the second day I would get my gravy.  I wanted 'white' gravy or 'country' gravy, which I love and was craving, but I have always, (always) made it homemade. 

I've never in my life made gravy from a mix or a powder. 

I taught myself to make gravy as a teen by watching my mother and grandmother and honestly have never, ever bought a gravy mix in my life.  My kids now also only make gravy from scratch - brown gravy and white, country gravy (sausage gravy)... biscuits and gravy are a favorite and they all make them from scratch.

I picked up a couple of these at Sam's Club at some point in the past few years and I knew I had them in long term storage, although I had never opened one or tried one because... hello, I seriously just make it all from scratch.

It's just add water.

I kind of chuckled and laughed at myself... being middle aged before I ever learned how to use a 'mix' to make gravy. 

So, 1 1/2 cups of water put to boil while you mix 3/4 cup gravy mix with 1/2 cup cold water, then add it to the boiling water.  I kept it on the heat and whisked until it just got thick, then removed from heat.

First taste test:  well, it's not homemade.
Second taste:  Ok, not homemade, but... still ok.
Placed it on my mashed potatoes and started to eat my dinner.
Third and Fourth bites:  this isn't bad at all.

After that I just really liked it.  It's creamy, smooth and good!  I finished off almost all of it, because truth is, I'm a gravy girl.  I only eat potatoes or biscuits with it because it's probably not socially acceptable to eat it as a soup with a spoon.  Ha ha.

I am thrilled with this product not only because it actually tastes good (and mine is like, at least a couple years old at this point - I didn't bother going to check the best buy date on it because I'm in the office typing this and the product is in the kitchen) but because this is a GREAT option for food storage.

Just add WATER.

That's it.
Now you have a pantry friendly gravy you can also add sausage to for biscuits, ground hamburger to for hamburger gravy on potatoes, use as is for chicken, potatoes, etc.