Call me "Stretch".

On Friday I bought two large London broil. On Saturday, I marinated them in soy sauce, oil, garlic, ginger, parsley and dried onion. Overnight. On Sunday, after a productive day of garage organizing, Chris grilled these beauties...to perfection, I might add. I had him grill one for dinner that night...and one for use later in the week.

On Sunday we ate one of the slabs with that zucchini you see grilling up there, some flavored rice and some homemade onion rings you see down there.

I should really call them onion strings because they're really light. Luckily, we like them light because I can't get a good batter on an onion to save my life. No matter what I try, they come out light. And we all love them just the same. They're healthy. Yeah. That's what it is. They're healthy.

Well, Seth had a friend over for dinner. A 14 year-old male friend. And if you know 14 year-olds, especially males, you know that a large appetite comes with the package. So we pretty much polished off every bit of food we prepared. Every bit. And licked our fingers. The only thing I had left was quite a bit of rice. So I stuck it in the fridge and hoped to use it up later.

So Monday was a holiday. And I worked (for time and a half...nice!) from 1-5.

When I got home we took half of the leftover London broil, sliced it thinly, layered it on Hoagie rolls with spicy mayo, jack cheese and roasted chiles and broiled them until melted. As a side we had FROZEN FRENCH FRIES...yes, you read it right. Frozen. From Idaho. In plastic. Just making sure we're on the same page here, friends. We're doing what we can...right? And then being thankful for convenience when necessary!! Amen!

Anyway..it was a tasty, and easy, dinner.

Tuesday night was DIY night in the kitchen. Seth had baseball practice. Chris had a meeting at church. Both boys had youth group. Everyone needed to grab what they could, when they could. I was off the hook. I think the majority of us had bagels and cream cheese. And no, I didn't make either one. Again, keepin' it real.

So here comes Wednesday. I worked from 1-5. This could make dinner prep a little dicey...but thank goodness for leftover London broil and TV food hosts like Robin Miller who shows us ways to cook once and eat twice...or three times in our case. Last night was a good dinner night. And it was, essentially, leftovers. I had leftover steak and leftover rice. And I was determined to use it up. After looking at what I had in the fridge I decided that we would have steak quesadillas with a fajita flare and a Spanish style rice.

I sauteed bell pepper and onion until tender, chopped the steak into little pieces, grated a LOT of jack cheese and went to town assembling our dinner. While the rice was warming up with some onion, salsa, chile powder and frozen peas and carrots added in I cooked the quesadillas. And oh my...were they ever GOOD. So cheesy and yummy and filling. And the rice? It was really good. I wasn't sure how that one was going to come out...but we were all pleasantly surprised. With a side of grapes and orange slices we had a complete, nutritious and GOOD meal. And really...in no time at all. I don't know that I'd say "30 minutes or less"...but it was quick enough!

So, even though I bought fries that have traveled more than I have. And bagels that were neatly wrapped in plastic. And a few other things that were convenient and I'm grateful FOR that...I was still able to make a difference in that nothing went to waste. I used it up. All of it. And I call that doing my part and making a difference...in ways that work for me and my family. We got three meals out of $12 worth of meat. Four if you count my lunch yesterday...and five if you count Chris' lunch today. I'm telling you...I'm tempted to change my name to Stretch. Or Cheap-O, I haven't decided yet.