Shopping Around the World

This month we are highlighting easy dinner ideas for the summer months. Summer months are way too hot to be cooking in the kitchen making the house even hotter.

During these months, mom likes to go for ‘light’ foods that really don’t require a lot of cooking.  When mom/dad went to Chicago in May, my Aunt Tina got this salad in the picture below at Richard Walker’s Pancake House.  Mom was so amazed about the beauty of it and knew that she could do the same when she got home and she did!  So although this picture is not one of hers, she replicated it perfectly and has many times in the past couple of weeks.  It’s very feeling and I know that first hoof because mom has fixed me some too.  I’m a lucky pig, right?  So without further ado, mom will give you the breakdown below.  Enjoy my friends… I know I do!

Grilled or shredded chicken.  I buy a rotisserie chicken at our local Sam’s Warehouse on Sundays.  It costs $5.00 and I break it up into three different meals for two people each.  Part of the shredded chicken goes into this this salad.  Breaking it into three different meals makes it cost $1.67 for two people on this salad.

A head of lettuce costs $0.99 and again breaks it up into three different meals.  That makes this part $0.33 for two people on this salad.

Shredded cheese.  I buy medium block cheese and got a block on special for $0.99 a block.  It’s really hard to ‘cost’ how much it would be for this salad.  I use it on a lot of different things and shred some for this salad.  I’m going to assume I cut the cheese block up into four sections.  With that being said, this part in the salad would be $0.25 for two people.

Boiled egg.  A dozen eggs cost me $1.29.  If I know we will be doing several salads in the week, I will go ahead and boil 6 of them at a time.  That way I’m ahead of the game.  Two eggs (for two people) for this salad cost $0.11,

Avocado.  I love slice avocado but the hub doesn’t.  I buy one avocado and split it into two meals.  Avocados were on sale for $1.00 so the salad part is $0.50.

Tomatoes.  I bought six medium sized Roma tomatoes at the market for $1.39 – that’s $0.24 per tomato and we use one per meal for two people.

Broccoli – a head of broccoli was $1.59.  Again, we break it up into many different snacks/meals.  It probably ranged $0.40 per meal for two people.

Dressing for the salad – the hub uses 1000 Island and I use Italian.  We pay $1.50 per bottle and it breaks down to about $0.25 per salad for two people.

Now the fun part – putting the salad together.  The only thing I didn’t put in the salad was shredded carrots.  Jim is not a huge fan so we left them out.  To build the ‘salad’, we put shredded lettuce on the bottom.  And when you do this, I make sure all of it is ‘bite sized’.  I hate it when you order a salad in a restaurant and you have to use a knife to cut it up because everything is cut too big.  Don’t you?  After the lettuce, I then place the items above on top like the picture. I add the salad dressing and then toss to get everything coated with the dressing.  Then it’s time to jump into that delicious salad and enjoy.  Final cost $3.64 for two people.

 

Travels in the South

Welcome friends to another Travels in the South.  This week mom/dad went seafood.  At our local Joe’s Crab Shack, they have an appetizer that mom/dad like to get and share.  Pair it with a salad and you can say perfect meal.  What is this appetizer?  Joe’s Crab Shack calls it Crab Nachos.  Mom/dad call it a little heaven.

It has almost everything in it – lots of delicious crab dip, pico de gallo, black beans, lettuce, corn, cheese and an awesome avocado lime dressing.  And there are plenty of nachos to scoop everything up with and enjoy.  And the bonus is that the nachos don’t get soggy.  You know how sometimes they get limp and wet with regular nacho toppings.

So the next time you are craving something seafood but with a curb of delight, check out your local Joe’s Crab Shack for this delicious appetizer… or make it a meal like my mom/dad do.

 

Travels in the South

Welcome friends to another awesome Travels in the South.  Today we thought we would share with you one of dad’s favorite dishes from a local restaurant called Chili’s Bar and Grill.  This delicious looking dish is called a beef chipotle bowl.  It has almost everything in it that you could ask for – rice, lettuce, corn, black beans, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, shredded beef, sour cream, great little tortilla strips on top and an awesome spicy chipotle sauce.  It’s served with a slice of lime that you spritz all over.  This helps with the chipotle because it has a little zing in the taste.  You can bet that nine times out of ten, dad will order this delicious meal when he goes to Chili’s.  If you haven’t tried it and you have a Chili’s close by, dad highly recommends it my friends.

 

Shopping Around the World

My friend Fozzie and I have scheduled a group posting today of Shopping Around the World.   We thought it would be interesting to see the differences between different countries all over.Here are our prices for the following from our area – Georgia USA.

 Items to price this month:

• Milk.  Mom usually buys 1/2 gallon store brand which lately has been on sale for $1.00
• Tomatoes.  Mom loves Roma tomatoes.  They are small but meaty.  She bought some for the dinner at $1.29 a pound – that was about 4 tomatoes.
• Canned Product.  Black beans.  How could you possibly go wrong with black beans – especially when you can buy store brand for a $1.00 a can.  Mom bought two cans for the meal.
• Homemade Dish.  Jalapeno Cornbread with Black Beans 🙂 yum – see below
• Random Item of your choice.  Jalapeno.  Mom bought one very large one and it only cost $0.69 the day she was at the market.

 Okay my friends.  Mommy went easy – really easy on this month’s Shopping Around the World – go mom!  She was able to combine all of her prices and items into the Homemade Dish – which is one of our favorites here at the Hotel Thompson.

Jalapeno Cornbread made with with a diced up Jalapeno (according to taste how much you throw in), cup of milk, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 cup of cornmeal and shredded cheddar cheese.  We have a small iron skillet that will serve four slices of cornbread.  Mix ingredients, except for shredded cheddar cheese, and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  When done turn over skillet onto a plate and top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Black Beans with tomatoes, diced Jalapeno’s and diced red onions. So easy here – snorts.  Open store bought black beans and heat over the stove on medium heat.  Add a little chicken broth (or whatever broth you have on hand), diced Jalapenos (to taste for heat) and diced tomatoes.  When bubbles, turn down to low and stir.

When bread is ready, spoon black beans into bowl and top with more diced tomatoes.  Mom even added some cilantro into the mix this date.  A meal made for a king and queen.  Filling and hot for a cold rainy night that we seem to be having a LOT of lately.  Happy eats my friends.

Oh… and this entire meal when you break it down ends up to be around less than $6.00 for two people.

I hope you had fun my friends with this month’s edition of Shopping Around the World.  Hope to see you shopping soon!

 

Shopping Around the World

My friend Fozzie and I have scheduled a group posting today of Shopping Around the World.   We thought it would be interesting to see the differences between different countries all over.Here are our prices for the following from our area – Georgia USA.

This month we are working RANDOM CHOICES of the items mentioned.  List what is your favorite of the random item and price.  Let’s see how many things we can recognize in *your* area.

 Items to price this month:

• Random condiment of your choice.  Friends – I’m shaking my little piggy head here on this one.  Why do you ask?  Well, I stumbled into the kitchen – the land of the unknown to this oinker – and looked in the cabinet.  What I found was shocking and took me back a bit.  You see one of dad’s favorite condiments is… well… perhaps I should show you. See, this brings many questions to this pork butt’s mind.  Exactly where and what does he season with this item I’m not sure.  But it’s one of his favorites and he says it costs around $3.49 a bottle.  I think that’s kind of cheap for butt kickin’ – just saying.

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• Random frozen meal of your choice.  This one is SO easy.  In our freezer here at the Hotel Thompson, you will *always* find a Hungry Man television dinner.  Chicken is mom’s favorite and turkey is dad’s.  Do you remember these dinners?  Mom can usually find them on sale at our local Kroger for $2.00 each.  Not bad for a complete dinner with dessert, huh?  Yeah, mom knows they are full of bad stuff and carbs but every once in a while, it takes her back to her childhood and fond memories.  And I’ve heard the brownie desserts in the chicken ones are delicious.  Not that mom has shared with me but I hear her squeals of delight when she eats them.

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• Random dessert/something sweet of your choice.  Four words for you.  Edwards Peanut Butter Pie.  They cost $6.99 in the store and are worth every.single.bite.  So says mom and dad.  Again, I haven’t had a taste.  A single morsel.  Nothing.  Not even a crumb.  Do you see a pattern of abuse here at the Hotel Thompson?  Snorts and oinks.

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• Random Fruit of your choice.  Okay I got this one mom.  Our random fruit choice *has* to be apples.  I don’t care what kind, what size, what color.  I’m not discriminating.  I LOVE them all.  On a good day at the market, mom pays about $1.29 pound.  Sometimes in the summer/fall, she can get them a lot cheaper.  Which is good because I can put the apples away.

 

• .Random Item of your choice.  One of the things that mom likes to put in her salads and on her sandwiches is avocados.  Neat huh?  This week they are on special at the market for only 99 cents each.  This is great – have you ever had slices of avocados in your salad and on your sammies?  Awesome nice touch.  Snorts – I have had these lovely things – licks piggy lips.

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I hope you had fun my friends with this month’s edition of Shopping Around the World.  Hope to see you shopping soon!

 

Bacon’s Show and Tell

Is it time for Bacon’s Show and Tell now?  I thought it would never get here this month.  This month we are highlighting the one toy that you really wanted as a child but never got while growing up. This should be really interesting today to see – here we go with mom’s.

When mom was little, she wanted an Easy Bake Oven.  I bet there was more than one person who wanted this that didn’t get it.  Can you believe that over the years, there have actually been 11 Easy Bake oven models?

In 1963 (way before mommy was hatched – snorts), the first one came out.  It was turquoise and cost $15.95.

In 1965 (still before mommy’s time – snorts), Hasbro introduced Easy Pop Corn Popper, Birthday Cake, Party set and Kid dinners for the Easy Bake Oven.  I guess that was one inventive way to get kids to eat their veggies.

In 1968 (mom still not born yet), General Mills came out with boxed versions for the Easy Bake oven.

Finally when mom was born in 1969 – see all of this wonderful stuff led to mom’s birth – Hasbro came out with the Easy Bake oven in green with more dials and even a hood.

Then in 1970, the green was replaced with gold and it cooked cakes twice as big.

In 1978, the Easy Bake Oven went stream lined and came out looking like a brown and white microwave.

Over the years, more improvements were made and more colors and sizes.  Nowadays, the price of the average Easy Bake Oven goes between $29.99-$39.99, depending on what kind you get.  So not much of a price difference really in 51 years.  So many kids have loved these and played with them over the years.

Mom looks back and says she wanted one then but now she has a ‘real’ oven.  She didn’t miss out on anything growing up in not having one… well maybe more calories on her butt but then again that’s a good thing she didn’t have one – snorts.