A few weeks ago, one of hubby's tooth cracked. It's now started to hurt and he's finally made an appointment with a dentist. He hasn't seen a dentist for as long as we've been married, and I don't know when he last saw one before we got married. I can't say that I've been much better, I've only seen one once so far during that time. Mostly because we haven't had dental insurance with our jobs. Anyway, we've got some insurance now, and a need. He's found some one and he's got an appointment on Monday. We are both hoping it's not going to be too much money. So in preparation for this, we're eating out of the pantry/freezer this week, and maybe more. This means I can buy fruit/veggies, and some deli meat for him and milk this week and maybe even for a few more weeks. It'll make Weight Watchers intersting, and if it goes on for long enough, could make dinners interesting. (Oh, speaking of WW - I lost 2.2 lbs last week. Yay!)

Anyway, the first dinner this week is: Swiss Steak. I have some Cubed Steak in the freezer that was given to me by my sister when she had to clean out her freezer when her new "shipment" of her part of butchered cow was coming in. This recipe is from "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook" and I make it all the time. The book automatically opens at this page actually. I like it because it contains no cream-of soup and it's different since it contains dry mustard. Today we're trying it with Hunt's Fire-roasted tomatoes, but I expect it will be tasty. Since the meat wasn't thawed I skipped the dredging and browning and just threw everything into the crockpot. I also added a cup of beef broth (leftover from roasting the hunk of beef last week that I had frozen) so we'll have more juice that I can make into gravy to serve over mashed potatoes (of which I actually only have 3 real potatoes but plenty of dehyrated type since I bought some from Costco a while back and made potato bread using it but still have a bunch left. It's not as bad when you use buttermilk to make it instead of milk It's also good when you're sick and hubby doesn't know how to cook *grin*.). Anyway, without the extra cup of broth it still makes enough sauce, I just wanted extra. This will probably fall apart, especially since it's using cube steak- but since this is from a butcher it's not formed ground beef it won't be quite so bad. I will probably even have enough leftover since there's just the two of us to make either a small cottage pie (shepherd's pie) or a pasta sauce.

Swiss Steak
From "Fix-It and Forget-It: Feasting with your Slow Cooker by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good"
Recipe contributed by Marilyn Mowry, Irving, TX

Makes 4-6 servings

3-4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 1/2 -2 lbs round steak
oil
1 cup sliced onions
1 lb carrots
14 1/2 oz can whole tomatoes
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Combine flour, salt, pepper, and dry mustard

Cut steak into serving pieces. Dredge in flour mixture. Brown on both sides in oil in saucepan. Place in slow cooker.

Add onions and carrots.

Combine tomatoes, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour into slow cooker.

Cover, cook on Low 8-10 hours, or high 3-5 hours.