Frugal Family Fun Fajitas

While cooking at home is frugal in general, Mexican cuisine lends itself particularly well to those who are looking to eat exciting food on a budget. One of the great things about Mexican food, aside from its thrift, is its versatility; once you have the basic framework of a meal you can supplement it with almost anything you have leftover in the fridge. Even better, if times are lean, it won’t be terribly compromised if you leave the extras out. I think that the key to imparting a “fajita flavor” is squeezing the lime over the chicken. Something about the saltiness and tang of a lime really brightens up the fajita flavor. Another way to easily improve your fajitas is to use a lot of onions. The caramelized onions might just be my favorite part of fajitas and I’ll snack on any extras I have left over at the end of the night. Fajitas can be the centerpiece of your meal but don’t forget the all-important side dishes. Once you’ve added beans, rice, and perhaps chips and salsa you’ve got a restaurant worthy Mexican meal for well under four bucks per person. So, frugal readers, tell me about your forays into the land of frugal fajitas (or any other frugal food for that matter)!

Making Fajitas: The Frugal Scholar Blog from SLF on Vimeo.

Frugal Son Peels Crawfish and Cooks: Videoblog

Wow! Readers, you are in for a treat. Once again, I am an overproud mom in spite of myself. Frugal Son has created the first videoblog for us. He is showing how to peel crawfish. What has this to do with frugality? Well, Mr. FS and Frugal Son went to a crawfish boil (I stayed home--by choice). There were lots of leftovers to be taken home. Frugal Son had the idea of combining the crawfish meat with some ratatouille that we froze last summer. Mr. FS and I are having difficulty consuming all the frozen eggplant we have, not to mention the greens that we have outside. Luckily, Frugal Son has returned from college with his big appetite. He also has a good sense of improvisational cooking. He ate the concoction with some bread: it was delicious. Enjoy the video and the music by New Orleans' legends, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

Crawfish Video for Blog from SLF on Vimeo.