Meat on sale

 So I bitched a bit about Kroger in the last post, but I do have to give props where they're due: manager's special on meat can be a Godsend. I got a good-sized piece of top sirloin steak for $4.55, and I was able to turn that into 3 servings, so I'd call that a good deal.

For tonight's meal, I used 1 pot, 1 pan, 1 cutting board, 1 knife, 1 strainer, 1 wooden spatula, 1 wooden spoon, and 1 tablespoon. Ingredient-wise, I used about 1/4 of my sweet onion (~$0.22), half a can of cannellini beans ($0.99/can, so ~$0.50), my leftover sweet peas and sweet corn (~$0.95), a cup of rice (20lb for $11.57, so ~$0.26), half a can of chicken broth (~$0.45) and the beef, so we're clocking in around $6.93 for 3 meals, or $2.31/plate. Yes, I'm excluding pricing staples like salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, etc. Sue me. Please don't sue me I don't have enough money for that. Anyway, the whole process took 28 minutes. 

I started my pot on medium heat, and, while it heated, I diced up some onion. When the pot got hot, I dumped the onion in dry. I let it cook for a 2 or 3 minutes before adding in about a tablespoon of olive oil. 

After the onion had been softening for about a minute, I dumped in my rice and let it toast a bit in the oil. I love toasting the rice a scooch so it's a little fluffier after it's done.

Of course, I dumped in half a can of chicken broth (about half a cup, maybe?) then about a cup and a half of water, mixed it all up, put a lid on, raised the heat, yada yada yada cooking rice.

Of course, while onion was cooking, rice was toasting, and rice was cooking, I didn't just have my thumb up my ass. If you're wanting to crank out dinner in a timely fashion, you've gotta multitask some. Of course, pulling the thawed beef and leftover veggies out of the fridge is a must.

And of course you've gotta open the can of beans and rinse them in the strainer.

Also took the time to slice the steak. I tried to get around 1-2mm per slice, but I'm not precise. Hey, we do what we can.

Of course, while I was slicing the beef, the veggies weren't just sitting around with their thumbs up their asses. Heated up my pan on medium heat, threw in a tablespoon or so of olive oil, then dumped in the half can of beans. Once they'd heated a bit, The corn and peas went in. I mixed them around a little, then got back to the beef. So, technically, I think this would be considered succotash as it's sweet peas with a husked bean (lima beans would be more traditional according to The Googles). But fuck tradition, amirite? 

A little salt, a bit of black pepper, and the beef was ready to go. 

A heaping tablespoon of jarred garlic, some black pepper, and the veggies were looking pretty good, so I poured them into a bowl, put the pan back on heat, and added in another tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Then in goes the meat. Since it was cut so thin, it didn't take very long at all to cook, about a minute on each side, then onto a plate so the next batch would come in. I would like to point out, by the way, that, though I did once again burn my dumbass fingers with popping oil, I did not yelp like a little bitch tonight. Instead, in a deep, manly voice, I declared "Goddammit that fuckin stings why the fuck can I just... just not do this... shit... fuck!"

Or something like that.

I did deglaze the pan with a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, scraped the fond (aka brown shit from the beef) off the bottom of the pan, and dumped in some ground mustard. If you don't have ground mustard, that's fine. I do like the flavor in there, though. A bed of rice, a few slices (4 or 5) of steak on top, a little drizzle of the pan sauce, then a few scoops of succotash on the side. 

So, $2.31 for sirloin, caramelized onion rice, and succotash sound good to you? It sure as shit did to me. Tasted good as hell, too. You can skip the sauce if you want, it won't necessarily hurt anything. Also, if you've got some lemon juice, I feel like a little squirt of that on the succotash would be a nice touch. I just didn't have any. But, hey, that's what we do: we think about what we can do next time to make it a little different, a little better, a little more special. I want to make a joke about "Manager's Special" because of the meat. I can't. Fuck off.