Super Easy Cheap Dinner

Who doesn't want a super easy inexpensive meal??

I know I am all about easy and inexpensive as long as it's tasty too!  Maybe I should add that in the title, too ;o). 

The Recipe:   ETHEL'S CHICKEN

Who is Ethel?  Well, my Grandma had a friend named Ethel who sold me a solid wood bed set for only $70, but she didn't give me this recipe.  I believe this recipe came from my mother-in-law, who gave it to my husband, who gave it to me.  Where she got the recipe; I don't know? But it's easy and tasty.

Here it is...

1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
4-5 potatoes
5-6 chicken thighs
1/2 cup milk (I don't measure I just pour to the consistency that looks right)
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder

Wash and slice potatoes 1/2 in. thick(no need to peel).  Place in the bottom of a baking dish.  (Use a 9x13x2.  Tonight, I used my one 9x13x2 pan for brownies so I used two smaller dishes.)  Salt and Pepper potatoes.  Place chicken thighs on top.  Mix two condensed soups together with a bit of garlic and milk.  Then pour over the chicken and potatoes.  I like to make sure all the potatoes have some of the soupy goodness on them, so I pour some over the potatoes before adding the chicken.  Top with some more pepper and then bake for 1 hour at 375*.  Voila!  Easy Ethel's Chicken.  I serve this dish with steamed broccoli.

Enjoy...

Homemade Corn Totillas

Recently, we dined at a Mexican restaurant and were terribly disappointed.  It seems as though Grand Cayman is in need of authentic Mexican food.  I was absolutely astonished when the fish tacos I ordered were served with those hard corn tortilla chip-like tacos.  Not that I don't like those super cheap ground beef tacos from Taco Bell or Dell Taco, but when I am going "out" to dinner those taco shells simply won't do.  This experience inspired me to make homemade tortillas.

I simply used Maseca Corn Masa Mix and followed the recipe on the back.  After my first batch I doubled the salt it called for making them even more delicious.  Now, I don't have a tortilla press so I had to get crafty with my cutting board, a smooth glass lid for pressing, and a wine bottle.  I covered all surfaces with plastic wrap.  Then flattened the ball of dough as much as I could between the cutting board and the lid.  It wasn't flat enough so I used my handy dandy wine bottle rolling pin to finish the job.  It was more simple than I thought.  It did require more time than buying ready made corn tortillas from the market, but definitely worth it.

Today we enjoyed corn tortilla quesadillas for lunch.  Joie enjoyed them so much that she exclaimed,"I love homemade quesadillas!"  There is no need to convince her that homemade is better; she already knows.

Mmm..Beef Round Steaks

Wow!  I am thrilled that my round steaks were delicious!  I decided against the Sorta Salisbury Steak and combined the other recipes for frying the rounds.

  My beef rounds were about 3/4 in thick; I sliced them in half so they were roughly 1/4 inch thick.  Because the meat is normally very tough I needed to tenderize it. (shh... don't tell anyone that I used a dull serrated knife to pound my meat) I made sure to  use plenty of freshly ground pepper like the Pioneer woman suggested .  I love pepper so I wasn't shy. (Have you seen me eat my pepper with fry's and ketchup???) In addition to pepper in the flour I added some Lawry's seasoning salt.  Then I followed
 choice #1 Chicken Fried Steak for the dredge.  I liked the idea of having the extra spices on it, Tabasco, buttermilk(of which I made my own, milk plus vinegar or lemon juice=buttermilk), and fresh garlic cloves.  So it's flour, dredge, flour, fry.  I didn't have shortening so I used veggie oil a.k.a. soybean oil.  Once HOT I added 2 TBLS butter for browning purposes.   I fried the first side until the edges started to brown then I flipped it and cooked the other side for about 1 minute.  I also chose to make gravy using the oil I fried the steaks in.  I roughly followed the recipe from "choice #1"; basically I cut the recipe in half- I didn't want that much gravy.  If we would have been having mashed potatoes I would have made a full batch, but we had potatoes au'gratin.    Even though it was box potatoes they were still delicious and a perfect combo. 
Shame on me...I didn't take any pictures.

Beef Round Steaks???

What on Earth do I do with beef round steaks??

Joie and I went to the market yesterday.  Our goal was: meals for 1week=$100.  If we accomplished the goal we could get Breyer's coffee ice cream.  Normally Breyer's is all we eat; however in the States we buy it on sale typically paying about $3.  It is by far my favorite ice cream, but here in Grand Cayman its 7.50 CI that's almost $10 for the same size container.  Needless to say, we have retired our fancy Breyer's brand for the cheap stuff.  Both Joie and Jayden have been craving coffee ice cream, but they don't have it in the cheapy brand, so I figured we could splurge if we were wise with our money.

Now what does ice cream have to do with round steaks?  Nothing except that it was part of our trip to Foster's Food Fair Market.  At the check out counter, I discovered that I could save some money by getting 2 more meat selections, so I sent Joie on a mission to grab more.  After she asked what to get, I gave her the freedom to choose anything from the specified area.  She chose round steaks...

Now, what on Earth do I do with those round steaks???

Typically a tough meat and one that I have never made I have been searching for a yummy recipe.  I have narrowed it down to three

choice #1   Chicken Fried Steak    

choice #2   Sorta Salisbury Steak

choice #3  The Pioneer Woman Fried Round Steak

I am making it tonight, I really need to decide.  It would be so awesome if I could get some input and tips from others who have cooked beef round steaks.  Even if you are reading this after I make it please comment.  I'd love to hear what y'all think ;o)

  

Conch Ceviche

Can't get any more fresh.  Jacob brought one of these beauties home.  I would have rather him left it in the sea, but it was so neat to extract the animal and then eat it.  

 Eeeewww!  I'm gonna eat that raw?!  Conch Fritters are tasty but raw conch, I don't know...

Daddy-J cut it all up and made this spicy ceviche conch dish that all of us enjoyed.

Red Beans and Rice

Copy Cat Cover: Popeyes Red Beans and Rice

I love, absolutely love love love Popeyes red beans and rice.  They are smooth, spicy, and a perfect combo with biscuits or cornbread and honey.  So I decided I would try and make them myself, but had no clue as to what special seasoning made this dish so tasty so of course I checked out the wonderful world wide web.  Stumbled upon CopyKat recipes and got my ideas  Now  I didn't feel like using ham hocks or smoked flavoring because well, I didn't have it.  I had bacon, though....

Here's what I did...

For the first time ever I soaked beans to cook them instead of using a pressure cooker.  Note to self:  pressure cooker even if only used for beans is a good investment, haha. 

I fried up bacon...

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Added beans and water to finish cooking. 

 And seasonings...

A long time later...

             the beans were finally soft enough to eat.  If I would have been a little more patient I would have cooked them a bit more.  Make sure to add plenty of salt, like potatoes, salting while cooking is essential for the taste.  I made rice on the side and then mixed together, trying to mash some of the beans in the process.  The spice was delicious.  So was the cornbread drizzled with honey <3