Topic: share your favorite recipes

[1981cb650c]

We are all feeling the economic pinch. Why not share our favorite recipes that meet the following criteria:

- cheap
- easy
- few ingredients
- not from a box (hamburger helper, taco kits etc)

With the broad range of members, we should get some really unique regional results.

btw, I really have none to offer, that's why I started this thread!

[Grumpol]

I do a couple of simple easy soups, chicken and a pea and ham.
For the chicken save the chicken carcass from your roasts and freeze them, when you have four or five throw them in a good size soup pot (i use a 20 litre pot, plenty for the freezer that way. Boil it up for an hour or so and then strain the solids from the stock.
Add roughly chopped veggies (I use celery, potato, onion, turnip and carrots) add a good handfull of dried soup mix and return to the boil, throw in a handfull of diced chicken if you like. When its come to the boil turn the heat down and let it simmer for a couple of hours.
For a pea and ham use a couple of double smoked bacon hocks instead of the chicken carcasses and dried split peas instead of the soup mix. pull the meat off the hocks after its boiled till it starts to fall off the bone, remove the bones add the veggies and the split peas and bring to the boil, turn down and let it simmer for a couple of hours and eat.
This will also get your neighbors knocking on the door "just saying hi" if they live anywhere near 

[Soos]

Toast with peanut butter and a glass of milk.





cheap easy, and filling.



Or another I LOVE.



about 1/2-1 cup of vegetable oil, and about 2 lbs of potatoes, and 1-2 onions.
cut the potatoes in half, then slice as thin as you like(I like mine pretty thin)
do same to onion(s)
fry, and enjoy.
I personally cook them until they brown pretty good(not crunchy, but crispy)
turning infrequently to get them all evenly crispy.
Keep cooking until you have them browned to your taste.


I like mine with ketchup on it.




Another.
tomato juice(i can my own tomaotoes, from my garder mostly) and macaroni.

Boil the macaroni(shells, elbow, whatever you got) until done, drain, and add the tomato juice, heat again just until the juice is warm(hot, whatever you like)

A little pepper, and it's great, and pretty healthy.


l8r

[benly- ben]

une Quavers butty;

Ingiedients;

2 Slices of bread.
Some butter.
and za bag of Quavers.

Method;

1,  2 slices of bread layed out on chopping board.
2,   Butter the bread.
3,   Put the quavers on and cut the sandwich In half.

This beautiful meal In just 3 easy steps, enjoy.....
Ben

[78CB750CAFE]

Anyone here make any of Biker Billy's recipes? Really good stuff, easily adaptable for non-vegetarians, or great sides/apps to go with that big bloody chunk of cow ya got grillin'.

They run his column in a few regional motorcycle mags like my local mid-east Motorcycle Times I get free at my local Honda dealer, and he has a good book (get it at the library, remember times are tough!) as well. I met/rode with him quite a few times BITD and worked on his public access show in NY a few times (one of many cooking shows I worked on) before he did his network show (PBS? I forget). Very cool guy, with an interesting story, and long time Honda dude before he got Hardly Dangerous $$ from his show/book deal.

search "Biker Billy Cooks With Fire"

[Uncle Ernie]

That reminds me I haven't seen him (AKA Bill Huffnagle) in a while.  Great guy.  He rides a Buell, believe it or not!

[TwoTired]

I don't use recipes much anymore, unless for baked stuff like muffins, corn bread, and cakes.  That stuff needs correct proportions to be edible.

I just throw stuff together, that I find in the kitchen.

Here's something I made last night that came out pretty good.

Hamburger "dish" (I don't bother with names) That standing joke in our house, is enjoy what you're having 'cause you'll never have it again.  I seldom write down recipes and I can't ever remember just exactly how I made it last time.

Big 12 inch non stick frying pan.
One half a big union from the garden chopped up... about 3/4 cup.
One half a bag sliced fresh mushroom.  about a cup, I suppose.
Enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a non-stick pan.
Sweat the onions and mushrooms in covered skillet, pouring in about 1/2 cup red wine.  Sherry would be good, too.  Use low heat while you do these other things.
Slice some carrots,  maybe a cup and toss them into the pan with the onions and mushrooms.
Slice up about four small zuchini. (You'll add later.)

I used some all-purpose seasoning and sprinkled some cumin and lemon pepper into the sweating onion mushroom and carrots.

Here is when I decided to put this over pasta.  So I got out the big pot, put water in it and started to get it boiling.  I found some sea shell pasta in the pantry and decided to use that.

After the onions are clear and the carrots are starting to get soft I pushed it all over to one side of the pan and dumped the pound of hamburger into the other side and turned the gas up to high (no cover).
Broke up the hamburger in small chunks and sprinkled Worcestershire sauce onto the hamburger while it was turning brown along with a little more lemon pepper.
About time to throw the pasta shells into the boiling water.
Flip the hamburger around to brown all sides.  And when looks pretty even, then mix it all up with onion, mushroom, carrots from the other side of the pan.
Then put the zuchin on top.  It should be pretty soupy at this point so put a lid on it to help steam the zuchini while the flavors and spices blend with the hambuger under it.
While that's happening, get out the sour cream, yellow mustard, whipping cream, and grated sharp cheddar cheese from the fridge.

Uncover the skillet and check the zuchini and overall soupiness of the contents.  I waited till the zuchini was just starting to get soft and flipped it all in with the hamburger mixture, and then waited for the water to boil off, but keeping the mixture tossed so as not to toast it.

Then squirt some mustard on the hamburger, then sprinkle with the cheese, and wait for it to melt.  When there's a good melt going on, spoon on some sour cream, and stir it up enough to give everything a nice coating.
Drain the pasta and put some on the plate(s)
Finally adjust the "sauce' fluidity by stirring in enough whipping cream so it will make a nice coating on the pasta.

Spoon the hamburger mixture over the pasta.

Corn bread or corn muffins go well with this.

This made enough for 3 or 4 people if there is a salad, side dish, or some bread to go with it.  It took about 45 minutes from opening the fridge to sitting down with the plate and fork.

Cheers,


Interested in spicy pork chops, or shrimp & okra?

[Dusthawk]

Shrimp and Okra? Hook me UP, I love Okra!!!!

[TwoTired]

Shrimp and Okra? Hook me UP, I love Okra!!!!

I remembered writing down the "recipe" when I made this.  and I've made it a few times since it's creation.  I searched around and found it.

Shirimp
Okra
Butter
Peas and Onions
Salsa
Italian herb Red wine vingar
Soy sauce
Hickory smoke seasoning
Garlic & Herb Seasoning (McCormack)
Heavy Cream


That's all I wrote down. LOL

Here's some elaboration.  Since my wife hates both shrimp and okra, I only make enough that I want to eat that night.  So, chose amounts accordingly.

I used frozen cut okra, found in the grocery store.
Also, frozen raw shrimp, tail off.  I think it's Contesa brand.

Throw some butter in the pan, the frozen okra, and the tiny frozen onions.

Put the frozen shrimp in bowl of water to thaw
Walk away for 15-30 minutes while these thaw.

Light the fire under the pan of onions and okra.  About medium heat.

When the onions and okra begin to soften, add some (2 or 3 spoons) of salsa, sprinkle on some RW vinegar, a few squirts of soy sauce, the hickory smoke seasoning, an the Garlic&Herb seasoning.
With it all blended and the okra almost soft enough to eat, throw in the shrimp.
The shrimp will turn white when cooked.  And, you'll have to toss the mixture to get both sides of the shrimp cooked.
With the shrimp done, throw in the frozen peas.  This will lower the temp.  Let it get back to temp, but don't make those peas into mush.  I like when they pop while eating.
Finally stir in just enough heavy cream to make everything coated in it.

Plate and eat.

Cheers,

[Dusthawk]

Sounds Awesome, TT, thanks.

I have a cheap and easy for everyone interested. Actually, I just finished a plate of it a few mins ago. I don't do small portions so you might want to adjust for your pot and appetite unless you have small containers to pack into the freezer as I did.

Ingredients:

1 pound bag of dry beans, your choice on what kind. I used pinto's.
1 8 ounce bag brown rice.
1 can green beans.
one bag McCormick beef stew mix.
1 small onion quartered and flaked.
8 ounces flank or skirt steak.
salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
olive oil

Soak beans in a pot overnight. Rinse well before cooking.
Start heating a skillet. While it is heating, cut skirt or flank into strips across the grain.
While draining the beans, add onions to the skillet,
when they are softened, add the steak, salt, pepper and garlic powder. When the steak is browned, cover and set aside.

Put pot of beans on heat, add water, stew mix and rice.
Once the rice is halfway cooked, add the skillet mixture and turn to low heat and let rice and beans finish cooking through.

Enjoy!

[BlindJoe]

Ingredients:

    2 slices of bread
    1 banana
    2 T. Peanut Butter
    1 T. Butter

Directions:

     Spread peanut butter on both slices of bread, thinly slice banana, put in between slices, melt butter in a small pan, and brown both sides of the sandwich, just like making a grilled cheese.  Cheap, easy, delicious, and nutritious (kinda; it rhymed).

     If you wanna get fancy you could mix up some milk and eggs, dunk each side of the sandwich carefully, brown it in the pan and you've got yourself a peanut butter and banana french toast sandwich! Add a dash of nutmeg and a drizzle of syrup and you're golden.

[KARamsay]

Drunken Mushroom Soup (fungus hating wife - loves this soup)

You can make it in one pot

Caramelize 1 onion and 1/2 garlic (butter - add a bit of sugar)
Add 1-2 trays around 4 cups of mushrooms sliced or chopped (whatever you like - I mix button, oyster, #$%*ake)
Quench with around a cup of Vermouth (I use whatever I have  - sweet or dry)
Then add around 6-8 cups of beef broth
Add 1/3 cup barley
Bring to a boil and simmer for around 90 minutes until the barley cooks tender 

Salt and pepper to taste - you may need a litlte extra water or broth depending on how the barley soaks it up.  You can aslo cut out the barley and make it in around 20 minutes although I like it a bit heartier.   

[Frankenkit]

Some of the best, healthiest 'budget' cooking comes from small, local ethnic markets. I've found a lot of the time they have the best veggies around.

My take on pad thai-
buy the cheap little jar of pad thai sauce- make sure it has tamarind paste in it.
The one with little shrimp bits in it is good, too.  Unfortunately, these jars are never in english so I can't tell you the brand.

1 pkg pad thai noodles (3mm wide rice noodles)
1 carrot
1 decent head of broccoli
1 onion (or the powder if you have it around)
roasted unsalted peanuts to taste (I omit them)
peanut butter (jiffy et all in a pinch, but the 'natural' kind is best for this)
honey
1 egg,
1lb. tofu (xtra firm)
1-2 cloves garlic (or the powder, if you have it around)
a nubbin of ginger (or the powder, if you have it around)
soy sauce
sesame oil
peanut oil (you can use one or the other, I tend to use both)

Put some sesame oil and/or peanut oil in a pan, heat it 'til low-med heat. My cooking is fairly chaotic, so directions are a stretch.
Cube your tofu and throw it in.  I use it b/c it's cheaper than 1 lb of most edible meats and flavors well.
Gently stir the tofu around in the pan, evenly heating and coating with oil.  Dice up a bit of onion to taste and add it.  Mince the ginger VERY finely along with the garlic and add them.  Cook everything together so the tofu absorbs this flavor.  Splash some of your soy sauce on it.  Amounts are fairly arbitrary, just don't overdo it.

When the onions are approaching clarity, add the grated carrot (you can chop them but they take longer to cook) and cut up broccoli.  Cover and cook until tender.

While they're cooking, throw your rice noodles in a pot of water and heat just until boiling, then remove from heat and let them sit and soften.  Overdone rice noodles are overly squishy.

When broccoli and carrots are more are less tender (add a little water if necessary to keep things from burning to the pan) push everything to one side of the pan (or if there's no room, get a different pan) and scramble the egg until 'well done' and crumble it finely with your spatula/scraper/whatever.  Throw it in the stirfry with the veggies and tofu.  Mix well.  For the next trick, move everything to the side again (don't need as much space for this) and add a spoonful of peanut butter and an equal spoonful of honey.  melt them together.  Unload the jar of sauce into this mixture, mix, and spread through the stirfry.  Add the noodles that should be soft by now.  Mix again until the noodles are all equally covered by the sauce.  If you must, add the crushed peanuts. Done.

[Frankenkit]

oh, and spring rolls.  At the same little oriental market you can find rice paper circles.  They're really fragile and crispy so be careful.
1 pkg spring roll rappers
1 avocado
1 grated carrot
1 pkg mai fun
1 lb xtra firm tofu
1 clove garlic
onion powder to taste
sesame oil
another small nubbin of ginger.
hoisin sauce

Put half the pkg of mai fun in a small pot and cook according to the directions on the package. Drain and set aside to cool when done.

mince up the ginger and garlic really fine, throw them in a frying pan just larger than the spring roll wrappers.  You'll use the pan later for something else, too.
Add oil and simmer the tofu, bathing it in flavor. mmm flavor.  Sprinkle some soy sauce on as well.

When the tofu has been adequately seasoned, remove from heat, put on a plate to cool, rinse the pan out and put 3/4" of water in.  Put on the same burner and we'll oscillate from 'off' to 'low' heat so you don't burn your fingers, but keep it warm enough to soften the wrappers.
Put in the first wrapper, soften, and spread out on an empty plate.
Put a 2nd wrapper in the water and have it softening while you lay out the grated carrots, sliced avocado, mai fun (pinch off the long noodles) and tofu on top of the 1st wrapper that's on the plate.
Wrap- sides first, fold top over, then bottom. I wrap them kind of like shut up burritos.
Wrap in the 2nd wrapper which should be soft by now.  Double wrapping keeps them from coming apart in your hands too badly.
Repeat this 'til done with your ingredients.  The recipe makes a lot for relatively cheap, and they pack well for lunches.
To eat, dip cold in hoisin sauce.