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Cooking your meals from home/scratch keeps coming up. So I thought a thread about frugal recipes would be a good idea...
Here's mine.
Mashed potatoes and carrots
Boil potatoes and carrots together. Mash them as you would mashed potatoes. Place in a greased casserole dish, sprinkle with a little cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 min.
What I really like about this (other than it's so easy) is it can be made a head of time, you can use your leftover mashed potatoes (just add the carrots) you can use your leftover anything (that little piece of ham, peas etc) I've put minced onion in some of mine, another lady who started do this uses salsa in the mashing process. It's a good simple recipe, with lots of options.
Okay,
what's yours
Not really a great "recipe" but I can get an inexpensive, whole chicken (fryer) to make two incredible filling and good meals. I cook it in the oven with a bit of water in the bottom and seasoned to taste on the first night (usually with rice and a side of some vegetable) and then the next night, I cover the "carcass" with water in a pot and boil it, let it cool, pick out the meat and do chicken soup. I buy some inexpensive wide egg noodles to toss in, with some carrot, onion, celery, more seasoning, and I always add the previous night's bake-pan remnants (even the gross gooey stuff). Sometimes instead of the noodles I put in a handful of rice, or a few chopped potatoes. I pay maybe $4 for the chicken and it makes two dinners for 5 people every time, and the family LOVES it.
Also, Tony Saccheres, the cajun seasoning, is the best all-around seasoning if you dont want to buy alot of expensive seasonings. Mixed with brown sugar and rubbed on bbq meat sealed in tinfoil will cause everyone to run to your backyard for dinner...(lock the gate, hehe). But be careful as it should be used as you would use salt, because it has salt in it.
Bean burritos are inexpensive and easy to make. Buy store-brand refried beans, some cheese, sour cream, salsa, burrito wraps and you can do them in the microwave very quickly. There will be enough for several meals as long as you get a couple of cans of the refried beans. Whole family loves these. They can also be baked with enchilada sauce - comes out more like a Mexican lasagna or something if you sprinkle with cheese and the enchilada sauce - but again, very inexpensive. I make egg/cheese/salsa/sour cream burritos for dinner, breakfast, lunch - inexpensive, healthy, delicious!
Salad greens, fried chicken strips (when they are on sale), whatever veggies you have in your fridge, and honey-mustard dressing makes a big salad that, with the meat, makes a meal that is really tasty.
Buy inexpensive dry kidney beans and soak them over night, drain and put in a large pot to boil/simmer for several hours (keep covered well with water). Use cajun seasonings and a couple of bay leaves to season water. Add some sausage (or shrimp or chicken or ground beef) IF YOU HAVE it but not necessary! Add 2-3 cups of rice depending on how many you have to feed. Look up "red beans and rice" recipes...its a very cheap meal but very healthy. Then later, make your spouse sleep in the next room...
Kale soup: Take a bunch of kale, two cans of low sodium chicken broth or veggie broth, one or two cans of white beans, some chopped green onion.
Cook the kale down in the chicken or veggie broth. Take half the white beans and run through a food processor set aside. After kale is cooked down a little add the white beans and onions and continue cooking. When kale is fairly well cooked add the processed beans which will add some thickness to it. You can add other things, but this is a great little budget meal.
I made this the other day and it turned out actually quite tasty.
I browned one pound of ground turkey with some onions, drained (not really necessary), added a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and a small can of chopped green chiles. Sprinkled a little cheese on top and ate with tortilla chips, very filling, not overly spicy, and lasted for two meals. Cost less than $2.
When I was in college and very broke, we used to make this dish:
1 package off brand mac and cheese. 1 can of off brand cream of mushroom soup. 1 can tuna.
Boil macaroni then mix with packet of dry cheese, soup and tuna. Serve.
Feeds 2-4 starving college kids.
My friend used to make basically the same dish to feed her kids. She used Kraft shells and cheese, a can of cream of mushroom, 2 cans of tuna (she had 4 kids), and a can of green peas. I ate this several times with them and it was quite tasty. Dinner was ready in 15 minutes, it made A LOT, and the kids loved it. We liked it w/ a dollop of sour cream on the side.
Recipe......add your computer to any leftovers.
I had leftover cooked cabbage. I couldn't imagine any good use for it so googled for 'leftover cabbage side dish" (didn't want to make any soup, etc)
Found virtually the same recipe I use for potato cakes and was surprised at how good they were.
This has given me many new ideas when there are a handful of ingredients laying around that I don't want to just reheat or use as is
Homemade dough. I buy flour in bulk. $6 for a 25lb bag of flour. Cheese I buy in bulk and freeze.. $1 per pound. Yeast I buy in big bags..though I couldn't tell you how much it is since I rarely ever buy it. Maybe $5 for a whole pound? I use a spritz of olive oil, and a sprinkle of garlic powder, as I'm not a big fan of tomato sauce. Though if I were to use tomato sauce, I spend $3 on two #10 cans of tomatoes, and make 20-25 cups of marinara sauce.
Anything I add after that is generally scraps from the fridge. A bit of onion, a bit of tomato, a handful of capers, some cooked chicken, a few sliced olives. So it's not an exact price I'm sure...but it comes out close to .50-$1. Plus I count it as a win if I can keep stuff from going bad in the fridge.
I use Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Dough recipe..you should be able to google it. The best I've found. Just cook your pizza at 500 degrees, on a pre-heated unglazed terra cotta tile (about $2 at a hardware store, versus a $50 pizza stone ). It makes either four personal size pizzas, or two large ones.
Homemade dough. I buy flour in bulk. $6 for a 25lb bag of flour. Cheese I buy in bulk and freeze.. $1 per pound. Yeast I buy in big bags..though I couldn't tell you how much it is since I rarely ever buy it. Maybe $5 for a whole pound? I use a spritz of olive oil, and a sprinkle of garlic powder, as I'm not a big fan of tomato sauce. Though if I were to use tomato sauce, I spend $3 on two #10 cans of tomatoes, and make 20-25 cups of marinara sauce.
Anything I add after that is generally scraps from the fridge. A bit of onion, a bit of tomato, a handful of capers, some cooked chicken, a few sliced olives. So it's not an exact price I'm sure...but it comes out close to .50-$1. Plus I count it as a win if I can keep stuff from going bad in the fridge.
I use Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Dough recipe..you should be able to google it. The best I've found. Just cook your pizza at 500 degrees, on a pre-heated unglazed terra cotta tile (about $2 at a hardware store, versus a $50 pizza stone ). It makes either four personal size pizzas, or two large ones.
Thanks for that description. I consider myself pretty frugal at times but I know I can't touch feeding 4 adults for .50 total costs.
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