Ok… so if you saw our last post, and thought we must be some Southern food junkies, your right.  This one probably tops it even more-so in southern-icity.  I just made that word up.  Thanks.

This meal is meant to replace a big meal at an eating joint.  Eating joint?  Did I just revert back to the 50′s or something.  Not sure where that came from.  We are suckers for going out to eat (that is why we are doing an intervention on ourselves) on the weekends.  We work hard all week and because of marketing in our lovely USA… we think that the reward is going out to eat to spend that hard earned money on FOOD!  They totally brainwashed us at some point in our lives.  So we knew the weekends were going to be the hardest and so we planned a big meal for the weekend.  It just so happened to be BBQ pork ribs. (go figure, since this is a gardening and BBQ blog).

We also put on some Opa’s sausage (jalapeno & cheese) & armadillo eggs (you seriously haven’t seen our recipe/how-to?) since we had the fire going.  We actually thew some Opa’s on the grill for lunch, wrapped them in wheat tortillas and had a few armadillo eggs as well.  Nice 3$ lunch.

Shala had put on a pot of beans when I put on the pork ribs (view the walk-through), I’m not a bean person – but Shala loves them and they will last a few meals this next week for her.  SUPER CHEAP of course.  Anyone who is familar with this merky water will know what’s in the picture below…

And what good is a pot of beans without some cornbread eh?  Nothing… apparently.  Like I said, not a bean guy – so I wouldn’t have a clue how to eat them.  Everyone around here (Texas) eats them on top of cornbread crumbled up.  We love cornbread and for some reason we didn’t really make it all that often – but we have changed that recently.  Cornbread is cheap and with some butter… oh man.

Since we are an equal opportunity lender, Shala got beans… I get a side to make it even – potatoes.  I love fried potatoes, with onions, garlic – bacon… cheese.  Yeah, I eat it mostly because it is so healthy.  I’m all about health.  Fried health.  Speaking of health, we picked a fresh salad from the Aerogarden – once again, the aerogarden is kicking butt and the salads are awesome.

Tomorrow will put us at 1 week without the monster we call eating out (or fast food).  We planned out our week while eating dinner tonight.  We have so many leftover ribs – so that will be peppered in throughout the menu.  $12.30 for the ribs (13 ribs on the rack – so $1 each is fine).  We ate a total of 3 ribs, so $3 in ribs, 1 potato ($.20), beans ($1 – but probably two more meals out of it), salad (free), sausage ($2.99 – we actually ate it at lunch and saved the ones from dinner for lunches… so we aren’t going to count it in this total), armadillo eggs – $2.  So our total… $6.20

Not bad.  Considering if we went to Outback or something like that locally – it would have set us back $50 easily.  One week almost done with… bring it on!

Tags: Barbeque, Cooking, Eating At Home, Food, Make A Difference, Money, Pictures, Recipes by James
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We might lose the health nuts with this one, but honestly… after last night – we needed some southern fried goodness.  Something to keep us going, something hardy.  Is this just a southern thing?  I wonder if some people are reading this on the West Coast going…

what the…

If anyone doesn’t have this now and again, you don’t know what your missing.

Here’s the spread…

Chicken Fried Steak (Cube Steak, egg washed & dredged in flour)

Fried Potatoes (Seasoned, diced onions)

-or-

Mashed Potatoes

Fried Okra

Gravy (CFS renderings, flour, milk)

2 Beers

The classic.  Chicken Fried Steak w/ gravy.  Potato of your choice (I went with fried potatoes, Shala – mashed), and we also had fried okra. 

Fried fried with fried fried and a side of fried.

And a salad (fresh from the Aerogarden Pro 200 ~ we like to call it by it’s full name, like it is in trouble) of course – to help soak up the fried.  I think this is about the 4th or 5th salad we have pulled from the Aerogarden… starting to pay for itself.  Kinda.

Here is a rundown of the cost of things  – $3.29 (2 – cube steak), $.90 (fried okra), $.31(potatoes) & $2.00 (beers).  We round up on everything, so really and truly – it is likely cheaper than what we say.  Tonight’s total – $6.50

This would run us about $30 bucks at an eating establishment.  Shala has half of her Chicken Fry for a sandwich at lunch tomorrow.  I ate the tacos for lunch the last two days (from Tuesday night)…  enough said.  Day 3 in the books.  Weekend is on the horizon, the real test to anything hard.  Let’s see what we can do.  How’s your quest for independence from the fast food industry?  Anyone fall off the wagon yet?  Let us know.  Wanting to get started… hop on board.

Tags: Cooking, Eating At Home, Food, Money, Pictures, Recipes by James
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My Mom may need CPR.  She read that title and looked to make sure she was on the right website. 

You read it right Mom… Fish (and not friend catfish), Baby Soybeans and Broccoli…

Can I be ungrounded now?

Here’s the menu…

Pan Seared Lemon Tilapia

Edamame

Broccoli & Cheese

Long Meadow Ranch Sauvignon Blanc (Bought @ Wine Rack in Midland, TX)

On a serious note, we do like Tilapia if we HAVE to choose a fish – and at HEB you can pick up some that are already seasoned/marinated.  So we do that simply because it is easier, for not much more than what it costs anyhow.

Shala picked up some Edamame one time and talked me into trying them.  You must understand I ate nothing but meat, bread, cheese and french fries for probably 5 years straight after leaving home, and even long after Shala & I got married.  She has slowly talked me into trying things again, and guess what… I’m not 4 years old anymore.  Edamame was one of the things and I kinda dig them now.

Broccoli & Cheese was the last side, and pretty simple there – but once again…  it is a hue that I haven’t been the best of friends with. 

Not a bad meal, not our favorite – but cheap… oh yeah.  The fish fillets were 3.50 (2 fillets), we had the Edamame from a while back frozen (so we call that free), .75$ worth of broccoli (half the bag – bag costs 1.47).  We did open a bottle of wine, but we bought a re-cork-er (I just wanted to use parentheses again and re-cork-er is almost a palindrome), so we re-corked the second half - a 7 dollar bottle, drank half a bottle.  Total: $7.75

What did you have for dinner?  Still on track?  Anyone else on board?  Talk to us, let us know – inspire others.

Tags: Cooking, Eating At Home, Food, James Is Wrong Too, Money, Personal, Pictures, Recipes, Wine Drunk by James
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