BASIC COLESLAW DRESSING RECIPE, GRATITUDE & A TIP

 At the beginning of the month, I made these open-faced Philly Cheesesteaks and they were delicious!!!!!  I don't have an exact price, but I will tell you what I used.  I bought the onion, bell pepper & mushrooms on sale.  I bought the bread (12 rolls/50 cents!) at the Alpine Valley Bread Outlet and just pulled 6 rolls out of the freezer for the meal.  I found the meat already sliced thin and sectioned out for individual sandwiches at American Discount Foods for $4/2 lbs.  It was divided out in 7 sections.  We used 4 and have 3 in the freezer still.  I was just going to used sliced provolone, but decided to try Bobby Flay's provolone sauce.  I was on my way to the store for the provolone and decided to stop and visit with a friend first.  She asked what I was making for dinner and I told her Philly Cheesesteaks.   She told me that she had made French Dip sandwiches last night and had some provolone cheese that they wouldn't use....could I use it?  YES, please.  What a blessing....but wait, the blessings don't end there!  My mom brought me a prepackaged broccoli salad from my aunt and uncle.  I thought it would be a great addition to our feast.  I put together my current favorite dressing (recipe below) for the slaw and then opened the bag to empty the contents in the bowl.  Apparently, I didn't really pay close attention to the bag and was surprised to see a smaller plastic bag fall into my bowl with the veggies.  It contained a dressing packet, crasins & cashews packet and finally a crumbled bacon packet.  After the embarrassment passed, I put the packet in the fridge to use at a later time.  (After finding 3 heads of cauliflower for $1 at Superstition Ranch Market, I came home, cut the cauliflower and added the broccoli salad packets to it.  It was actually quite good!!! The best part....it only cost me $0.33!)

BASIC COLESLAW DRESSING
(it's currently my favorite dressing)
1/2 c. mayo
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper
Whisk together the ingredients in the bowl you will serve the coleslaw in.  Then add your 4 -6 c. thinly sliced cabbage or broccoli slaw.  Toss well to coat and serve immediately or refrigerate to chill.

and finally......A TIP!

I used to buy the 5 pound bag of shredded cheese at Costco.  Since it was so easy to get out and use, it was used up quickly! It would last our family only two weeks and I didn't have the money to buy a different cheese, so we had to use one kind for everything.  I now buy a 2 pound block of mild cheddar and a 2 pound block of mozzarella from Costco. I love having different cheeses for Mexican Fiesta and Pizza Night.  The boys used to go through tons of cheese for nachos.  Now they grate their own with a little hand held fine grater.  It doesn't take long before they are done "working" for their meal!  On pizza night, I grate up one pound of the mozzarella for all of us to share.  This still lasts for the two weeks, but I've spent less and had more variety....WIN-WIN!  So the tip in a nutshell....

Buying block cheese and making my kids 

grate it themselves uses less cheese and saves me $$$$!