GLP Recession Proof Meals - Cooking goes a long way in lieu of buying crap

heat a small cast iron skillet in 450 oven while you mix this, about 5 min.
1 cup flour
i cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1tbs baking powder
mix those up, make a well in the center.
mix in small bowl
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
pour into the well and mix gently, more like smooshing..overmixing cornbread makes it funky.
just mix enough so there are no huge lumps.
take the skillet out and add a few tbs butter or marg. put back in till it melts then pour in the cornbread batter.
if you like it sweet you can add 4 tbs sugar. sometimes i add just one tbs, you can't tell it's there but it enhances the corn.

this recipe is tried and true, even my dogs love it.

Last Edited by deadcat bounce on 01/20/2014 06:48 PM

eh, I live alone. I eat cheap.

I go to the dollar store. Canned food is too salty. I buy Eggs, cheese, butter, oatmeal, pasta, bread and them fruit cups in juice. Prunes also.

So I eat buttered noodles, or buttered noodles with cheese. I eat oatmeal with some sugar. I eat egg/ cheese sandwiches. I eat buttered toast, or cheese grilled sandwiches. I eat hard boiled eggs.

So that covers protein, carbs and fat. It covers vitamin A, B and D. Calcium and Iron.

Them fruit cups is for dessert and vitamin C. I also like prunes for dessert or a snack.

It all tastes good to me and is easy to make and I think healthy. I am 5'6" male 150#. I also take vitamins just in case...

Since we all grew up eating too-large servings of meat anyway, I always save my stale bread for "trashburgers" with either beef, turkey, salmon, chicken, whatever. I just cut the meat with the crumbs. Simple as that.

I juice, and I have found that my local farmers' market sells bruised apples, loose carrots, and loose grapes for less than 1/2 the cost. I get the uglies for juicing and serve the pretties to my picky fam.

Romaine lettuce is dirt cheap at Costco and almost dirt cheap at the supermarket and surprisingly nutritious. It's a great juice recipe ingredient to bulk up the more expensive, nutrient-dense ingredients, and it's a cheap way to have a nice salad every night with dinner.

[link to www.incrediblesmoothies.com]

let the lentils water cook down so it's like a thick stew. i go heavy on the masala.
i found out when doing the chapatis to get them all rolled out before you start grilling them. it was hectic today, i was rolling and grilling at the same time and it almost got out of hand.

for inexpensive nutrition beans and rice and some cheese and sauce from the bottle with the wooden stopper. Look in the ethnic aisle for a bottle with a wooden cap.

Authentica.

Haha. I know the feeling. That's why most t.v chefs have a glass of wine in their Hands.

I have no idea what chapatis are. Indian bread? I wouldn't have the patience to bake Bread. Fair play!!:-):-):-)

My friend lowered his sugar from 345 to 120 without drugs by throwing out refined carbohydrates. Stop wasting money on white bread, white flour, white sugar, white rice. These things just take away from your health, and give you nothing but diabetes in return.

He also found out the other day, because he measures his blood sugar twice a day, that diet sodas - with aspartame - RAISE HIS BLOOD SUGAR! Lots of people think that diet sodas won't affect it, but it really did. So did the sugar alcohols in some "sugar free" candy bars. He gave those up, too.

He mostly eats high-quality protein (beef, chicken, pork, fish, other seafood), vegetables, raw and some roasted nuts, cheese, heavy cream in his coffee, with stevia for sweetening (stevia doesn't raise blood sugar), and has been avoiding fruits, as he's still sometimes going above 120, but not too much. He also takes a multi, fish oil, and a probiotic, as well as gymnema and cinnamon with chromium to lower blood sugar. No meds.

I'm not a doctor, and am not advising this for anyone. Check with your doctor before trying this approach.

Bottom line: To be healthy, whatever your budget, eat natural foods, and drink plenty of water. God bless you and yours!

lol. my working space was cramped. the hounds started pestering me, and i broke out in a sweat...
chapatis are indian flat bread, just flour, oil and water. they puff up like a pita. i posted a recipe for them. i will get good at making them, it will go faster.
they're spose to be round but you have to fold them into a triangle, so mine were pretty triangle shaped, but oh well, they were really good.

get heirloom seeds and fluorescent lights make a small garden indoors for veggies.

food banks...day old bread stores and church food pantries.

my neighbor is diabetic and she's a mess. she doesn't try at all with her diet and she drinks diet soda like she should be drinking water. i told her it was prob worse than real sugar for her, she don't beleive it. it's sad to see someone wreck their self like that when the proper diet would save her a world of hell on down the line.

Good thread! This sounds really good. Gonna test it on the fam and see what they think.

My contribution is to do all the hardcore cooking on the weekends and freeze some and eat the leftovers on the weekdays.

80% of my grocery purchases are on sale and had with regular and in store coupons. Got some lunch meat I normally eat for $1.50 as opposed to over $5.00. On sale for $2.49 with a $1.00 off coupon.

If it's not on sale I don't buy it and look for an alternative that is on sale.

Soup is so cheap and easy to make. Make large batches.

Pre-cooked chicken sausage links (on sale of course) sliced into rounds and set aside. Sautee and onion, potato and any other veggies you want in olive oil, add spices and broth, bring to a boil, add the sausage and simmer for 20 minutes.

It would up the price a bit, but adding- butter/poppysead/almond extract to these noodles are delicious and a change of taste.

Rice and pasta meals are inexpensive. You can add about anything to your pasta salad.

Greetings,

We are doing spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and salad for dinner.

2 LB grass fed ground beef

crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste.

Plenty of garlic, onion and EV Olive oil.

Cook the sauce and the pasta.

Cook the garlic bread in the oven with the broiler on.

A nice side salad of romaine lettuce, onion and tomatoes will be served with the meal.

It will be tasty and there will be left overs for a couple of days.

This is very easy and yummy.....

Pillsbury Crescent Dinner Rolls is the crust!

INGREDIENTS

* 1 bag (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables or 1 large can of veg-all
* 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
* 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed reduced-fat reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup
* 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed reduced-fat reduced-sodium cream of mushroom soup
* 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

DIRECTIONS

1. In large bowl, mix vegetables, chicken and soups. Pour into greased or sprayed 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish.

2. Unroll dough into 2 long rectangles; press perforations to seal. Place rectangles over chicken mixture; pinch center edges to seal. Press outside edges of dough to edges of baking dish.

3. Bake at 350°F 25 to 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Pillsbury now makes the crescents in an un-perforated option, they are perfect for recipes like this, or for braids where you fill the center of the sheet with a filling of your choice and cut the sides into strips, then fold over center like a braid.

Tonight I made a large pot of brown rice. We will eat rice with black beans, avocado, homemade salsa, and shredded cabbage slaw with tomatoes with cilantro dressing. Layer all ingredients in a bowl. You can add shredded chicken if you like. On Mondays, I declare it "meat free Monday" and we don't ingest meat. This dish is so filling and flavorful that you really don't miss the meat. Enjoy!

I really like brown rice, just plain with butter on it. It's good with other stuff, too, but a lot of times dinner for me will be brown rice, a veggie and an apple.

Tonight my husband came home early, and he was Hungry! So we had a quick breakfast: biscuits, gravy, home made sausage and scrambled eggs. I'll cut up an apple and we'll eat that later. Right now he is groaning from an OD on biscuits.

I don't know why I try so hard, he would eat that every night and be in heaven.

He can eat the same thing every day if it is something he likes.

another is stuffing casserole

stale bread (for stuffing) *add oinion powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder

1 egg - if you need another ok
can of chicken, turkey or beef broth
can or jar - even packet of gravy - same kind as broth

if you have leftover chicken, turkey or beef - chop it up
add it to the stuffing. add onions, celery. 2 tblsp butter.

add peas, carrots.

shredded cheddar on top

bake 350* til done - apprx 35-40 mins preheated oven.

when youz make a turkey - dont throw the carcass out (same with whole chicken)

youre going to boil the carcass (use drippings from roasting pan to begin broth base.

boil til meats ready to come off easily.

pull out carcass, remove all the meat (especially the bottom) same with neck bone.

strain broth for any meat that fell off during boil.

now all this meat you can make "salads with" *ckn salad, turkey salad etc

or you can do this - i generally fill 2 gallon ziplock bags.
(turkey)

make croquettes (stale bread or bread crumbs, onions, seasonings, spice. 1 or 2 eggs.

ice cream scooper (large) and mold it into a ball. now press to flatten.

**i fried them but didnt like it - so i baked it at 350 preheated and lightly oiled baking sheet, turned them over after 20 mins. theyre done when both sides are brown.

use respective gravy. serve with carrots


and i make a fuckload of them too. ***also an alternative recipe is to add next day mash potatoes to the croquette mix - yields you more. just dont make it runny or messey bc it has to hold together

Last Edited by Phennommennonn on 01/20/2014 09:14 PM

Have the ham hocks gotten any lovin' on this thread yet?

1 smoked hock - place in a pot, simmer until it falls off the bone. You can't simmer it too long.

You can set aside the bones for another soup base, or put them in a mesh bag to make the stock heartier. If it's a meaty hock, you can pull out some of the ham for other meals. I usually get 2 gallons of soup + enough for a breakfast for 7.

Add in whatever veggies you have in your fridge. Potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, peppers, cauliflower, zucchini, tomatoes... Softer veggies go in last.

Top it off/stretch it out with some beans to taste. If I'm making this, I start soaking the beans when I pull the hock out of the freezer.

Salt and pepper will do ya for seasoning, but you can get creative.

I love soups, stews and chili. Recipes are optional, and it's a great way to use up the surplus.

Last Edited by ssle on 01/20/2014 09:21 PM

fire away we really didnt have much on this

Black beans and rice

I take about half a bag of dried black beans, rinse them and cover with approx 5 inches of water, bring them to a boil,add a dash of olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. Then turn the temp down low to simmer for 4-5 hours. Add water as needed.

Serve over brown or white rice. I add chopped roma tomatoes , cilantro, and fresh onion to the top and done.

I also make a double batch as it takes so long to make and freeze the extra. I have had no problem reheating them later.- Enjoy

Just a tip on how to make rice the easy way- for white, jasmine or basmati rice- 2 cups of rice, 4 cups of water or broth, put all in a casserole or other microwave safe dish with a lid . Microwave on high for 20 minutes (longer for red or wild rices- more like 30). No fuss, no mess, no over/undercooking, just perfect every time.

I can vouch for this!

Knock, Knock,
Who's there?
Lettus.
Lettus who?
Let't'us in it's cold out here!

It is. I have 25 pounds of lentils vacuum sealed and in a sealed bucket. Those things go a long way.

hahaha thats a good one

Nice posts....I thought this off the grid cooking concept, in the works, has crazy cool applications for cooking, heating and electrical generation.

[link to www.offgridworld.com]

Thanks Phen.

Great thread Phenn:) I love to cook and I love cooking and food saving tips. Here's a couple I have found useful.

On freezing:
I buy milk when it's on sale and freeze it. Don't worry about it bursting. It won't. Just bring it home and throw it right into the freezer. To thaw, just put in warm water and check it every 30 minutes or so. Give it a good shake and rotate till it's in the loose but still slightly slushy stage. Then place in fridge for use. Set a timer though, as it's easy to forget about it. Then when you're almost out of milk, just pull one out of your freezer and thaw. Note: Your milk will appear yellow when frozen. Don't worry. This is just the cream separating from the rest of the milk. As it thaws it will appear white again. When using from the fridge..give it a good shake each time.

Some meat prep tips:
As others pointed out. I too divide the cuts of meat I buy, chops, steaks etc. into portions. I place each one in those cheap fold over sandwich baggies you can get at the dollar store and then I place each of these into a more expensive gallon size freezer zip bag. Label and date. This saves on using too many of the more expensive freezer bags, yet still keeps the meat portions nicely separated and well preserved. Also..reuse those freezer bags. Just place empties back in the freezer till your next shopping trip. Just make sure to check for wear and tear before adding fresh meat to them. Here's another tip. Before closing that freezer bag. Place the label from the package of meat that you bought, into the freezer bag so you'll know exactly what it is, its use by date, and what store you bought it at. That way should you have any problems with it later or if there's a re-call..you'll know what's safe to eat and what isn't.
Here's another tip: When breaking up your ground beef, and after placing each portion into a baggie, flatten out the meat instead of leaving it in a big lump. It thaws much faster this way and stacks nicer in your freezer.
For quick access bacon:
Single layer that thawed package of bacon in between layers of wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze for several hours. When done, you can place your now frozen single bacon strips into a freezer bag. Label and date. You now have instant easy access to bacon for all of your recipes or just breakfast for one or two people! You can also take advantage of buying it on sale and freezing it this way. When ready to use, pull out however many pieces you want and cook as you normally would. You can also cook frozen sausage links like this too! Just throw the package in your freezer and using a fork or a butter knife, separate how many links you need and cook as you normally would. I buy the 8 pack of Farmer Johns sausage links because it's usually at a very good price. Neither of these meats need to be thawed and they cook up just the same:)
As others have pointed out. I also buy my onions and peppers and dice them up ahead of time, place in freezer bags and take out what I need for recipes. Saves me sooo much prep time and it's easy, convenient and healthy!

I hope you guys find these tried and true tips useful. If any of this sounds like far too much work after a lengthy and tiring shopping trip. Throw it all in the fridge till the next day when you have more energy for food prep. After all...that's where you found most of it..in the fridge section at your grocery store..one more night can't hurt;)

Last Edited by Aware & Watching... on 01/21/2014 03:32 AM