Absent

The mansion was an amazing time and I had this whole plan about doing a post about easy to eat items when you're away from home and... I may or may not have forgotten to eat when I was at the mansion. I mean, I DID eat, but not as often as I should have. So, pro tip, when you're on vacation EAT. Also, chobani flips are a great easy breakfast and avocados, and those ramen noodles in a cup are super easy to prepare and very cheap. But, again, my eating habits while in Vegas aren't my proudest.

Here are some awesome things I DID eat while was there though!

SUSHI SAMBA

This place was to die for. I got the Chu-Cumber to drink. It was amazing; it was refreshing, sweet enough to cut the heat from those "too much wasabi" moments, and the little pieces of cucumber made it PERFECT. And, I got my hands on the recipe! I'm not 100% sure about the accuracy because I remember that it had gin in it, but I'm sure this is pretty close in taste.

Cu-CumberEnjoy our refreshing cocktail at home!
Ingredients:.2 oz shochu
.5 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
1 oz sour mix
2 slices cucumber
2 bar spoons full sugar
Method: In a glass shaker, gently muddle cucumbers with sugar. Add shochu, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and sour mix. Shake with ice and strain. Serve in a martini glass and garnish with cucumber slice. Cheers!

Then I got the Green Bean Tempura and Tuna Sashimi Tiradito (tuna topped with granny smith apple, serrano chili pepper, and a lime sauce). The Green Bean Tempura was really good, except I forgot how heavy/greasy tempura can be so I barely ate any. The black truffle aioli to dip them in was really good though. Then I got the Kimono Maki (I got the 5 piece so it came with tuna, salmon, eel, shrimp and one white fish I can't remember, all as hand rolls) and Scott got Dry Aged NY Strip Churrasco. I really suggest that if you're not a sushi fan but you're with someone who really wants to go. It was amazing; it came with 3 sauces, collared greens (delicious), black beans, steamed rice, farofa and fingerling potatoes. All delicious. I'm so sad we went on the last day because we had no opportunity to eat our leftovers. What was great is that, while it's more expensive than dinner at Applebees you can still make it out without spending a fortune. With tip it came to around $130.

I also went to Bacchanal Buffet. In all honesty, it wasn't worth what we spent, but the food was decent. The desserts were especially amazing and there were oysters. Had I had more time (and more room) I'd say it was worth the money in quantity but what I tried wasn't worth it in quality. Still, I'd probably go again, but during lunch instead of dinner.

Another place to go in Vegas is American Coney Island. It's located on the main floor of The D on Fremont and is open 24/7. They have chili dogs that come heaped with onions. You have to add cheese but they don't really need it if you wanna save the 75 cents. The hot dogs have that pop when you bite into them, almost like a bratwust. And, they have gyros! The gyros are amazing as well. They have the meat on a spit in the back and they give you nice, thick slices. Honestly, I'm tempted to stay on Fremont again just for the convenience of having American Coney Island in my hotel!

I'll leave you guys with all this awesome food imagery, I'm going to try to figure out what to do with my green hair.

xoxo
Steph

Sick Foods!

I'm not sure if any of the stuff I was told as a kid is actually accurate when it comes to preventing sickness but, I still try to stick with it. And one of the things my mother taught me is that garlic will keep you from getting sick. Probably wrong, don't care, I'm eating garlic!

So, tonight, I decided to just throw some stuff together and go with it and I made noodles with a homemade pasta sauce, with lots of garlic. Really, you can add whatever you want to this, there's really so many different flavors you could involve.

Homemade "Sick Day" Pasta Sauce

1/4 cup EVOO
Chopped red onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Italian seasoning
Crushed red peppers
Can of diced tomatoes

1. In a saucepan heat olive oil and add red onion and cook till tender. Once onion is tender add crushed garlic (this is because garlic will cook and burn faster and you want to avoid scorching it). Heat till aromatic.  
2. Add crushed red peppers and Italian seasoning.
3. Add can of tomatoes with liquid into the olive oil. Heat until sauce starts bubbling. 
4. Serve over cooked angel hair pasta with garlic salt.

This sauce could be blended with an immersion blender if you prefer a different texture for your sauce or you could use the blended sauce for pizza.

I'm still sickish so I'm going to collapse on the couch now... Enjoy!

xoxo

Steph

Getting Sick...

Which is probably the result of not eating as well as I should. I've been drinking too much soda and not eating real meals because I've been too.

WHICH STOPS NOW!

So, to cheer myself up about being sick (and so close to the CamGirl Mansion too), I'm going to tell you about the delicious dinner I made today! I made an amazing beef stroganoff and I didn't even use a recipe. I skimmed a few online but otherwise made it entirely on my own with what I had on hand. (Because I had some round steaks that really needed to get cooked before they freezer burned. And... round steak, in my opinion isn't that great unless it's cooked in a sauce or a stew.)

Like many staple dinners there are basic building blocks and then it's up to you. Basically all you need to make beef stroganoff is beef, flour, butter, beef broth, and sour cream (and mushrooms, but I know a lot of people don't like them). So I made it how I wanted it to, trying to recreate how I imagine beef stroganoff should taste. Also, keep in mind this is my "let's try to make this work" kind of recipe, so you can of course swap out ingredients for better quality ones.

Beef Stroganoff

3-4 servings

1 1/2 lbs round steak

1/2 cup flour

Salt

Paprika

Pepper

3 Tbsp butter

1 cup chopped onion

Garlic powder

Red pepper flakes

2 beef bouillon cubes

2 cups water

2 cups sour cream

Red wine (this is a great way to use some of the wine you forgot in the fridge)

Cooked egg noodles

1. Slice round steak into thin chunks (think a little bigger than bite size, like 1x1/2 in pieces)
2. On a plate mix together flour, paprika, pepper and salt. You be the judge on amounts, but no need to go crazy.
3. Toss sliced round steak in flour mixture to coat lightly. You can do this in a ziploc baggie but I don't like wasting bags...
4. In a large pan melt butter. Add meat and lightly brown.
5. Remove steak onto a plate and set aside.
6. Add onion to the pan (if you're using real garlic add it now) and cook until tender. Sprinkle in garlic powder and red pepper flakes and allow them to become aromatic.
7. Add bouillon cubes, water and beef back to the pan. Stir. Cover and allow to simmer for an hour. 
8. When the sauce has cooked down, at the end of the hour, add sour cream and a good helping of the red wine. 
9. Heat over low heat (the sour cream will cool it down alot) and serve over noodles!

This is definitely a repeat menu item. My super picky roommate actually licked the plate and that's really saying something! Again, I'll try to remember to update this with prices later.

xoxo
Steph

Slacking

     The title of this posts means two things.

1) I'm sorry I've slacked and not posted lately. I got CRAZY busy with the holiday's and cam stuff and... haven't really cooked much... But I have cooked a little. :)

2) I feel like living on the budget also goes hand in hand with some other things. One of those other things is... being a college student/recent grad/minimum wage employee/someone else who doesn't often have the time or forethought to plan meals in advance. Like, we might plan a week of dinners but then every day we don't eat a thing until that dinner we planed. We often slack on taking care of ourselves and making sure we eat normal meals.

     Hey, it happens. We're all busy, and snacks just seem like an extra expense. But if we have an arsenal of simple snacks to make up, at the very least we might eat at least a mini-lunch. :)

Cheapish Snack Options:

• Peanut butter and apple slices
• Soft boiled egg and toast
• Cottage cheese with salsa (or tomatoes with EVOO and balsamic)
• Celery and peanut butter
• A handful of white chocolate covered pretzels
• Toast with avocado, EVOO and salt
• A muffin (banana nut muffins from last week are a great (and cheap) or for something different substitute pumpkin for the banana and your favorite pumpkin spices for the vanilla)
• Cucumber boat with turkey and cream cheese
• Radishes
• Cucumber, onion and tomato salad with a vinegar and sugar dressing
• Numi Organics Savory Tea (I do not work for them, nor am I getting any kickbacks, but this is a fairly satisfying drink)
• Crispbread crackers with many of these as a topping
• Any of these awesome ideas from BuzzFeed

The key with snacking on a budget is moderation. You don't want to stuff yourself, just have something small to tide yourself over until dinner. Otherwise, it will get expensive and if you're too full to eat all the dinner you've made it could potentially make that more expensive as well (you throw out half of dinner because you were too full from lunch to eat it, your dinner just doubled in price-per-serving). I COULD eat an entire bag of potato chips for lunch, but then my lunch cost me $4.50. Or, I could have a handful of chips with a glass of water and toast with peanut butter and apple slices and my lunch will only cost me about $0.75! It's all about portioning and using cheap items to make a good meal. 

Since I haven't provided you with much of a recipe I guess I'll tell you what I made the other day...

Chicken Fried Rice

3 tablespoons sesame oil (or canola, whatever you have)

1 small white onion, chopped

1 garlic clove

1 cup frozen peas and carrots blend (thawed)

3 cups cooked white rice (day old works best but you can make it a few hours in advance and toss it in the fridge)

2 eggs

1 chicked breast, cut into bite size pieces

1/4 cup soy sauce

1. In a large frying pan heat oil over medium low heat. Cook chicken, try to get it lightly browned in spots. Remove from pan onto a plate.
2. Add onions, garlic, peas and carrots and heat until tender. Push everything to one side of the pan.
3. On the empty side of the pan, scramble the eggs.
4. Add in the cooked white rice and soy sauce, mix until everything is well combined. Add in chicken.
5. Enjoy!

I'll try to update this with prices later, but, it's pretty cheap! 

xoxo
Steph