Friday, May 30, 2025

More Ready-to-Eat Entrees + Beauty

We are continuing to explore easy to prepare meal items.  In this edition, there were no losers among our selections, although we do have favorites.  Goal = meals with little, zero or minimal preparation... Snacks count too!


We bought this pack of 18 Stonefire Mini Naan Originals at Costco... As described by Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads, these mini naans are "delicious, fluffy, versatile and downright unforgettable, it's made to upgrade every meal, from breakfast wraps to midnight snacks".  Laurie and I concur and we've already used them with breakfast eggs, garlic dip, Bar-B-Que and more


Instant pulled pork!  The downside is that there isn't any 'bark' from smoking the meat.  The upside is that you have 2.5 lbs. of pulled pork to do with as you'd like.


Del Real's carnitas/pulled pork is not strongly seasoned so the good news is that you have multiple options with the 'right' addition of seasoning or sauces.


For this meal, Laurie paired some of Del Rio's pulled pork with one of Stonefire's mini-naans, adding a simple salad as her side.  She used BBQ sauce with her pork and she liked it a lot! 



We've enjoyed a couple other meals using Del Real's carnitas/pulled pork.  No surprise that I toasted a bun, covered it with shredded cheddar cheese, nuked it in the microwave and then slapped a couple of over medium fried eggs on top!  Great breakfast!  This product was purchased at Costco.


I don't know if its any healthier or worse than the salty snacks that we usually go for, but lately we have kept some sliced stick salami and pepperoni in the fridge...along with sliced sticks of cheese.  Cabot Creamery's 3 year naturally aged cheddar is one of our 'go to' cheese options. It has a distinctive flavor and it holds up well when sliced in 'sticks' or strips.  Yet another Costco purchase.


We have never found a garlic dip that was worthy of the name...until now!  Most anything labeled as containing garlic here in East Tennessee barely qualifies as 'garlicy' in our estimation.  A bit of Toom Garlic Dip and we knew that we had a cure for those pesky vampires.  I'll bet you can guess where we bought it!


Yes, this bag of Daphne's Beef and Lamb Gyro Slices was indeed purchased at Costco.  It contains 2 packages of meat.  I chose to heat up the meat in my frying pan with a little butter and pepper.  We both like a little char on our gyros.


It is hard to find gyros, (lamb and beef combined), anywhere here in East Tennessee.  We were very happy with the way that Daphne's gyros turned out.  Laurie plated her gyros on another one of those mini naans with mixed greens and cherry tomatoes.  The tzatziki sauce was very nice but lacked the garlic hit that we were used to back in Chicago.  We'll add garlic to the sauce/dip the next time.  The brand was Hannah's Tzatziki - Greek Style Yogurt Dip.


I thought that I'd end this post with a non-food photo.  That very pretty and delicate looking flower above is from a Spotted Wintergreen...a native wildflower that some bird...or more likely the wind, probably planted for us.  This small perennial evergreen herb is native to eastern North America and Central America.  Lucky for us, this plant is very tolerant of acidic soil and shade...both of which describe much of our backyard everyday.  The Creek Indians called it "pipsisikweu", which translates to "breaks into small pieces".  This was because it allegedly had the ability to breakdown gallstones.  Another use by Native Americans was to use it's leaf tea to treat rheumatism and stomach problems.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

4 comments:

  1. Looks like you're getting successful at not having to cook. I'm not there yet but I think the time is coming.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here we can find gyro everywhere :-) Greek and Turkish food are very popular over here. Those naan sound pretty awesome. I prefer homemade meals, but have absolutely no problem using those almost ready-to-eat products if they are good. Sometimes I do worry about the meat products mixed with lots of unknown fillings...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful selections of delicious sounding goodies. I buy plain yogurt, then add fresh or frozen fruit usually. Or chocolate chips if I want desert. I'm moving away from so much nut consumption for now. That flower has two kinds of leaves it seems...which is confusing . That's easy to happen to this brain these days. I've found a place that sells small servings from what they cater around the area...thus some great sauces on chicken and pork tenderloin medalions, and sometimes salmon, and sourcream mashed potatoes and several kinds of beans...and a great salad that's just called "That Salad."

    ReplyDelete