Whats best during cold weather? Stew of course.

Sometimes I really do not like the weather that we are faced with here in Florida.  A few days ago, it rained and rained and rained and the cold weather came with it.  Usually I do not mind the colder weather, but since we do not have heat – colder weather just sucks now. Lol  With the change of weather comes a migraine for me. Yup, have had it for a few days now.  Hopefully it will go away – Disappear!  Disappear!  Crud, it didn’t work. Lol  We decided that since it was 49 when we woke up yesterday that we might need to purchase a small heater or electric blanket.

Who am I kidding!?!?!?  There is not a store near us that has electric blankets.  We really wanted to do the blankets because we felt they were more safe.  We were stuck purchasing a small area heater.  From the reviews I have read, it has heated a whole family room for some, so it should heat this little camper, oooppps CONDO, if needed.  It also has where if it tips over it is an automatic shut off.  This is important to us because we have son and our little doggie.  We want to make sure that both are safe.  We also decided that if needed, we would use it during the day, but never let it run through the night.  I just am not ready to see how quick our little condo can go up in flames and hubby and I are sure not ready to join our dads! By the feeling of it outside, we just may open up the box and plug it in tonight.

$19 – hope it works well!!

Despite having a headache (oh my gosh I cant type today.  Just retyped this 4 times), I knew that my lil man needed to eat dinner last night.  What is the best thing to have on a cold night?  STEW!!!  My mom taught me how to make the stew and if I am not mistaken, she had said that her dad taught her.  I could be wrong!  But we are just gonna go with it. Lol

I call my stew “Poor Mans Stew” because it doesn’t cost very much to make it.  I get potatoes, carrots, onion, can of stewed tomatoes, stew meat and a packet of McCormick Stew Mix. I peel the potatoes and carrots and cut them up.  This time, I used the baby carrots because they were on sale for 50 cents.  I put them into a pot and cover them with water and start boiling them.  I chop up the onion and put it into the pot too.  Open the can of tomatoes and throw them in.  Then I take the stew meat and cut the pieces smaller.  I guess its kinda tricking our brain to think we have more meat in the stew since we get a little piece with almost every bite. Lol  After I get the stew meat cut, I put it in the pot too.  Then I mix in the McCormick Stew Mix.  Most of the time, I use store brand items for all of my cooking needs.  I cut the fire down to low, cover and let it cook for a bit.

Son came running from the bedroom area, “WHATS THAT SMELL MOM?”  Sometimes he acts like I never cook. Lol  He was at the stove quicker than I could answer him.  Pulled up the top and said, “Oh mommy  – ITS STEW!!!  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!”  I think he likes my stew. When the carrots and potatoes were soft and the meat was cooked I made rice for the stew to go over.  Ok, my two guys eat rice, I do not.  So I just had straight stew.  If I was brave enough to cook with my oven, I would have made cornbread (from scratch) to go with it.  We have yet to refill our propane tanks and this might be because I do not use the oven. I use our crockpot instead.  Saving $$!

Dinner went off without a hitch, but poor hubby wasn’t here to share.  His schedule is working until late at night.  We miss him being here during this family time.  I have been trying to make our “dinner” for lunch and having our “lunch” for dinner so that he can eat with us before he goes to work.  Yes, family time is super important.   Tonight, looks like a sandwich for me and mac and cheese for son!!  We had leftover stew for lunch today so that hubby could enjoy it too.  I made a huge pot and these two guys of mine devoured it. I did that so that we could get more than one meal out of it.  Oh, and the 10 lb bag of potatoes – on sale for $1.80!!  I only used about 5 out of the bag. I have enough to make many more meals with it.

Stew!

I just want to say again – thank you all for following me!  I really do appreciate it.  Thank you all for reading and I am wishing you an amazing day!!

The Perpetual Campers.