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

i like to buy a boston butt 5-8 lbs.4 grownups. cook in crock pot with maple syrup brown sugar and pork rub. cook it overnight on low. dont take the lid off.cook baked beans separate. when butt is done, pull bone and fat. shred butt, put back in crock pot and mix in beans. you can add whatever to make side. def. fills you up. lasts us 2-3 days.

can add bacon bits or chopped bacon to this also.

My children love rice done the following;

couple of pieces of bacon chopped
onion
chicken broth
Rice
Thin spaghetti noodles put into smaller pieces
salt.

Sometimes I add black beans at the end.

Very tasty meal and doesn't cost much.

They will have this with salad and shawarma chicken home made.

An actual useful thread on GLP!

Thanks!

If you have left over whole chicken, I place that in a pot and let it fall off the bone by cooking slowly.

Put potatoes in the pot, carrots, onion, bell peppers and celery, salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary.

Let it cook for a while, and then make your dumplings;

Egg,
flour
milk or water
thyme or rosemary

Place them in the pot from a spoonful and let cook. Your chicken will become thick.

Now you have chicken soup. You can add rice or noddles too.

Thanks for all the great recipes! Can't wait to experiment on the family. Surprisingly I have most of these ingredients. And many of them I see on sale.

Thanks for reviving the recession proof threads, Phenn!

Chicken and Peanut Stew (sorry, no proportions, I just kind of wing it when I make this).

Grind together whole star anise, peppercorns (I used a mix of black, white and red), whole cumin, ginger and mustard seed. Heat oil in a dutch oven, throw in spice mixture, let cook a few minutes.

Add chicken pieces, and brown on all sides. Add in one medium onion, chopped fine, and garlic to taste, brown. Add one chopped bell pepper, and whatever hot peppers you like, all chopped. Once vegetables have cooked a few minutes, add one 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes, 2 cups or so of stock (I had turkey stock that I had made after Thanksgiving, but use whatever), and a cup or so of chunky peanut butter. Stir, salt to taste.

I either put the covered dutch oven in the oven at 350 for about 2 hours, or use the crockpot on low for 8 hours or so. Seperate chicken if using whole pieces, serve over rice.

Thank you AC! This is very fast and tasty dinner for busy working people. Yes, you can put some ketchup on top of the meatloaf after 40 minutes of baking and back to oven for another 15-20 minutes. I don't have kids but I can imagine they would like it because of the ketchup, of course!
And if you serve it with FF and more ketchup... LOL

And how nice to have the left overs for sandwiches instead of some store bought cold cuts with all those chemicals inside.

I don’t use bread crumbs, I go Saltine crackers crushed.

Also 1/3 ground pork and 2/3 ground beef makes a good combo and lightens up the meal.

+ Little bit of salsa if you have it laying around.

Last Edited by Chrit on 01/14/2014 02:15 PM

Cheeseburger Pie ($1.10 per serving) Kids go ape for these...at least mine did !

1 can crescent rolls
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup finely chopped onion, OR 1 teaspoon onion powder
1/3 cup chopped dill pickle slices
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons dill pickle juice
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups shredded American cheese, divided



Preheat oven to 375°.

Unroll crescent rolls and press into the bottom and up the sides of an 8 inch pie pan.

Cook ground beef in a skillet until browned. Drain well.

Stir in onion, chopped pickle, ketchup and mustard.

Sprinkle with flour and add pickle juice and milk. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

Remove from heat and add 1 cup of shredded cheese.

Pour into the prepared crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden brown.

Remove from oven and top with remaining cup of cheese. Let stand until cheese melts.

Garnish with extra ketchup, mustard and pickle slices.

I can't pin it but here's a quick'n'dirty for a bump:
Fix a bag of Ramen (beef or chicken). As it boils, toss in a couple of eggs, some diced onion and garlic salt and stir in some Heinz 57 or generic sauce. Turn off the heat and toss in some cheese (sliced, block, or shredded, it doesn't matter. Stir it up and let cool.

I was eating that crap for a while. Had a guest who said they were unable to tolerate gluten. I ate some of what was left. It was horrid. And the little thing who professed to be gluten intolerant is no such thing. Bump all of that.

Also know someone (a child) who was gluten intolerant who overcame that by taking Protandum.

Gonna plan supper tonight from this thread. Thank you everyone.

Tonight we are having a simple but really tasty and cheap meal..

Canadian Tourtiere

1 1/2 lbs ground pork
1 large baking potato (pre- bake this a head of time)
1 large onion diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 pinches all spice
1/2 cup water
1 egg
2 deep dish pie crusts (either home made or bought)

Preheat oven 350

Cook potato & peel it
Cook ground pork, addd onion and all the spices , throw in the potato and mash that up, add the 1/2 cup of water to make thick.

Place cooked pork stuffing into pie crust, place second pie crust over top
Beat egg, brush egg over crust

Bake in Oven 350 for aproximately 45 minutes - 1 hour.

We are having this tonight with bacon wrapped asparagus bake, Carrot Marsala and buttermilk mashed potatoes.

Everything very cheap and enough for left overs.

ill be addn more later. ive been trolln pinterest

Last Edited by Phennommennonn on 01/14/2014 04:45 PM

I make this meatloaf with either a little oatmeal or cracker crumbs, and sometimes use 1/2 can tomato soup instead of ketchup. We eat on red potatoes out of our garden all winter, so I usually have those and toss in an extra one or two.

Next day I make soup out of the meatloaf, the rest of the tomato soup, a bullion cube or other stock, some mixed veggies and the extra potato or two.

Was thinking today that it's time to do that again.

Here is a thread about veggies which will regrow from their scrap

[link to www.godlikeproductions.com]


You can regrow celery from the left over base, Did you know that? No excuse for not having fresh vegetables...

Today I cooked my own receipt CABBAGE SOUP:

I made very small meatballs (ground chicken, one egg, little bit of bread crumbs, salt and pepper to test) and simmered them in a big pot with water for about 20 minutes. Then I added fried chopped onion, small pieces of carrots, chopped half head of small cabbage and 2 chopped fresh tomatoes. Cooked it all together for another 20 minutes and then added small pieces of potatoes and when they were tender, I turned the heat off and added small can of red kidney beans and chopped fresh dill with green parsley. Little bit of lemon juice will make the test even better.

I used in my soup spices like bay leaf, nutmeg, all spices, seasoned salt, Worchestershire sauce, Knorr chicken cube, a dash of cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper.

The secret to meatballs (or hamburgers) being tender is to separately beat very well the egg white and then fold carefully in the meat at the very end.

If I do any dish using tomatoes, I wash them first in very hot water which makes the skin coming off easy. Then I chop the tomatoes and fry them little bit with a spoon of oil and a dash of brown sugar. It takes the acid taste out of tomatoes. Even when I cook tomato soup using tomato paste, I fry lightly the paste first and the soup have much better flavor.

Sorry for my grammar!

It's the working poor who overextend on the townhouse and car and their matching warehouse furniture sets who can't afford decent food.

What we ought to do is teach the paycheck poor who aren't eligible for foodstamps how to shop like a foodstamps mom.

1. Determine your food budget. Put it in a separate billfold if possible. Never buy movie tickets or five dollar DVDs or beer out of the food money. Don't rob the food budget for your traffic tickets.

2. Start a pantry. Buy some things you like in bulk. Don't waste money on big sacks of flour unless you love to bake and have a freezer. Things I like to buy in bulk even when its just me are the thirty pound bag of premium rice. I love rice, and premium basmati is more nutritious. It's not just filler. It's nutritious food. I buy lentils and pintos in bulk, and gallon tins of olive oil when they are ten dollars off. Also big jugs of corn oil for frying, butter on sale if you have a freezer. Gallon cans of tomatoes for homemade tomato sauce.

3. Of you have a freezer,buy y produce in big bags on sale. Mashed potato dishes freeze wepll. So do cut up onions and celery and carrots. Always buy the big bag of carrots and have a carrot chopping hootenanny. Sharpen your knives, clear the counters, and prepare your big mouthed mason jars (only the pint and half pints freeze) and plastic baggies and make matchsticks, coins. chunks, and whatever. Compost the peels. Make a carrot stock. This isn't just cheap, it is a quick way to assemble a soup or sauce if you have half pint jars of carrots, celery, onion, leek, plus the usual snips and snaps. When home cooking is easy, Marie calendars pies lose their appeal.

3.5. I had an ancient freezer in the garage we called the lasagne freezer. I also had stacks of Pyrex pie pans and lasagne pans. Ii bet thrift stores are full of them. When you get ahead foodstamp pr money wise if you have space and time make up a dozen pans of lasagne or pot pie or casseroles you like. If you only remember to pull out a pan to thaw, you will never blow money on frozen or delivery pizza again.

4. Snips and snaps deserve their own number. Never throw away mushroom stems, or oddments of a quarter onion, half the tomato that got refrigerated, wilted parsley. Chop and freeze. Learn to make soup stock and sauce. It will serve you well. Meat fat lay be toxic but its nutritious. If you are broiling a ribeye and not cooking for a week in the fat you are a wastrel. Good carnivores eat drippings and cracklings.

5. Once you have the Pantry built up and the freezer full of snips, you can eat dirt cheap and tasty, with Money to spend on good coffee, berries, whatever your pleasure.

6. Never buy inferior food because its cheap.

7. Don't deny yourself pleasure or nutrition because of cost. If you have five dollars to your name you may as well spend it on blackberries.

The best part is not saving money but improved health. Id rather feed you foodstamps and see you smile than see you working and bitching and hurting and ruining the world with Your attitude.

Travel tip: buy good thermoses. Chicken stock in a thermos can keep you from spending all Your pay at Starbucks. If you travel you arrive richer and healthier by not eating shlt food on the road. If traffic stops for an accident. Din din! Better than being upset.

Just wanted to report that I went to Goodwill today to see if they had another crock pot- I have a real large one and I wanted a "normal" sized one. Wow- they had a TON of crockpots priced from $3.99 (size I wanted) to $9.99 (practically new large one like I already have). If you don't have a crockpot or certain pots and pans...go to Goodwill or your fave thrift store and get ta cooking!!

Dirty rice.

Simmer chicken livers in water with tumeric and onion.
Throw the onion and water away. Drain and blog Fry livers with paper towels.
Sprinkle livers with cinnamon and black pepper and sauteed in butter.

Stir liver mixture into cooked basmati rice.

This is cheap, healthy comfort food. High iron. Anti-inflammatory, warming.

If you want to he super cheap, instead of cutting up an onion to waste save the cut ends of all Your onions for this dish.

Quick Note Here: When I last made baked beans- soak them overnight in water to "de-gas" them - do not salt the water - it will make them tougher in the cooking process.

When making baked beans in slow cooker or oven add 1/2 teaspoon or so while cooking. This will soften them as they cook. I found out the hard way.

I soaked them overnight , put them in the crock pot & they still weren't ready after 18 hrs. If I had a little baking soda they would have ready to eat within a reasonable amount of time.

Who remembers salmón patties?

Mix a can of pink salmón, bones and skin and all,
With crushed saltine
Dices celery and onion and maybe green pepper
And an egg and a little cream.
Salt and pepper

Form patties. Roll in corn meal or corn flour and sauteed in butter or Fry in corn oil.

Real americana.

I remember being bored with steak as a child and thinking spam was something special. Seriously. Americans used to raise our own beef. Mom quartered a head of lettuce, added a dollop of miracle whip, popped a can of popnfresh rolls or warmed white Bread and broiled a couple of porterhouse or t bones, kids got the little tenderloin.

Pineapple for dessert.

The crock pot is a slow cooker. I cook pintos on the stove. They dont take long. An hour maybe? The beans cant be old. Last years beans wont cook fast and may not cook at all.

Just bring to a boil, let boil a while, turn to low and simmer until done..

You cant forget red beans and rice

Cook rice.
Cook red beans. I like anasaki beans. Not the cheapest. Its still a cheap dish.
Mince a green pepper and a yellow onion to add.
And a lot of thyme. Fry or fresh or powderor leaf or whilw does not matter.

I dont eat pork so I add a lump of butter.

Its traditional to add hamhock but thats haram. Its not halal and its actually haram. Not kosher either. So I add butter. Vegans dont have to.

The important thing is to cook off the water and mush the cooked beans so you have about one third of them mushed into a thick bean gravy.

People like to dress this up all kinds of ways but it s best just plain. Ladle over hot rice. Top with salt and red hot sauce. Serve with cornbread.

I loved salmon patties as a kid. That reminds me of another recipe I will post!

Another very cheap but tasty meal, I used to eat as a kid when we had pretty much no food in the house..

Cream Salmon on Toast.

One can salmon (pick out skin and bones or mash bones)
Milk,
Flour,
Butter,
Toast,
Peas

In Pot, make a roux (white sauce, of melted butter, flour and milk), add peas and flaked salmon, stir until warm. Make toast. Put Cream salmon and peas sauce on toast.

It actually tastes really good and you got your food groups for cheap.

Sounds like dinner tomorrow night! Awesome sounding. NOt sure how you blog livers though!