Pepper Steak Recipe

As promised earlier, I am using this blog to keep me organized and accountable as to the changes I need to make in my life and household. One of the main problems that I have had recently is trying to make meals that everyone likes and that I have the ingredients out of  the freezer and pantry that I need for the meal that I want to make. I find that my meal planning is not the best and so I find many evenings that I am rushing to find a meal that I can fix because I have not gotten anything out of the freezer to thaw to cook.

Being that we live in a rural area and that we raise much of our own meat, I always have plenty of food in the freezer and so it is usually just a matter of being unprepared. I have decided that meals were easier when I used a meal plan or menu. I usually only make one to two weeks at a time, but I like to ask for ideas as well when I am planning. Tonight 's meal was not planned to be Pepper Steaks but as I was cleaning the freezer out I found some steaks that had been in there for awhile and I found some frozen pepper strips that were left over from the summer bounty. I really didn't have a meal planned for Thursday so I moved tonight's meal to Thursday and planned the steaks for tonight. Having a meal plan or menu does not mean that changes can't be made, it is just a way to avoid those last minute "what's for dinner" with no plan moments.

Being that Pepper Steak is the menu tonight, I decided that I would share my recipe.

4-6 steaks of whichever cut you prefer
Steak Seasoning, your choice
Bell Peppers
Red Bell Pepper
Banana Pepper
Onions

Slice the peppers and onions thin . Place steak onto a piece of aluminum foil. Place pepper and onion strips on top of steaks. Season steaks to taste. Wrap in the foil and bake at 350 degrees until steaks are done, usually 30-45 minutes based on cut of steak.

I am fixing teriyaki rice, broccoli, and corn with them.

Meatloaf with Cabbage Recipe

We find meatloaf to be a comfort food, especially in the winter, in our little farm home. I have finally found a new way of adding another veggie ( which is usually don't hard to get our family to eat- we love veggies) to our table- cabbage. A friend of mine suggested that I make meatloaf and add cabbage and potatoes to the pan. At first, I thought how odd, but was considering giving it a try.


To make this delicious dish, make your favorite meatloaf recipe and dice potatoes and lay along side of the meatloaf in the roaster. Cut cabbage into wedges and lay on the potatoes along side the meatloaf and make sure that some of it can get some of the grease from the meat on it. Add just a little water into the pan and bake for the length of time that you normally bake your favorite meatloaf.


If anyone tries this, I would be excited to hear how you and your family reacted to it. Mine loved it!

BASIC MEATLOAF RECIPE

1 - 1 1\2 pounds ground chuck
2 eggs
1\2 cup diced onions
1 small can tomato sauce
8-10 Ritz crackers crumbled up
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together thoroughly and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1\2 hours. I like to add ketchup to the top of it as it bakes.

New Year - New Theme

Well, here it is mid January and I am trying to finally organize myself a little more and I am trying to hold myself a little more accountable for what I do and do not do in a day's time. First of all, I am working two jobs now and still doing the animal chores, the housework, home schooling my daughter, and keeping up with 4-H and all other scheduled activities. I really don't mind and my husband works just as hard as I do so I don't feel right complaining so this isn't a complaining session. I am actually going to make this blog be a part of my daily life this year and I intend to hold myself accountable on here and see where I can make some changes to make things easier and I am looking at ways to cut costs anywhere I can.

I don't normally use coupons because I don't see that they save much unless you buy a lot of name brand items and sometimes items that we normally do not buy. I don't know of any store near us that doubles coupons so as I've seen the show "Extreme Couponing" I really don't believe that people can get as many deals as they act as they do unless they live in an area where the stores double or triple coupons.

Last year, I found that meal planning saved me money and helped simplify my life, but for some reason I seemed to run out of time to do the planning. Well, I am going to start planning again. There are meals that I know my family enjoys that I don't cook often and that is going to change. I also intend to start planning the meals that we will eat in a week whether I actually plan the nights that I will serve them or not. I will start this for next week. I intend to hold myself accountable by sharing some of those menus on here.

I also have made my own cleaning products for several years now and yet, it seems that I have suddenly stopped doing that. I will once again start that and I will share some of those recipes and tips here as well. I find that it is expensive to purchase laundry products and I am looking for a way to make dryer sheets that I can use instead of buying them. I will let you know if I find a way of doing those.

Reading is very important to me and although both of my daughters have struggled with reading, I have not allowed them to not read. I will be sharing some of the books that we are reading here and I may even have my daughter blog some about what is important to her as well. I recently seen an interesting idea that someone in our county decided to do to make reading available to all and I am wanting to get other places going with the same idea and I will be sharing that later this month as well.

Our pets are important to us as well and I will be sharing many stories with our horses, dogs, cats, pigs, and chickens we;;. Keep reading for further information on them as well. Many changes to come and I hope to gather more readers as well.