The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

Awesome and cheap staples:

• Oatmeal: like the dry oats. One part oats to two parts water in the microwave.
• Rice: I eat it plain too. It's yummy.
• Frozen veggies: They're cheaper than in the can (per quantity) and in my opinion taste better.
• Dry Beans: Soak overnight and then cook all day. I use a little crock pot I bought for $9.

Most of this can be mixed together and make a healthy and filling meal. Or they need just small modifications for variety like the addition of nuts, jam, salsa, or something like that which is a cheap investment.

Now when it comes to meat, don't be afraid to buy discount. Those yellow tags are awesome. In general, as long as you either cook and eat it that night or freeze it and eat within a month, you're good. Beef doesn't hold as long as pork. Also, learn how to trim and skin your own meat. Chicken breast with the skin on is often cheaper than without by as much as 50 cents to 2 dollars a pound. It's a good skill to have in general and it's also really cost effective.

Farmer's markets and co-ops can be cost effective in some regions. I know down here in Arkansas they are expensive as hell and not worth the trouble. But they could be for you. Never hurts to look.

I shop at my local Dollar Tree and Walmart. Sometimes Kroger. I always buy store brands. They're the same things just significantly cheaper. Except for bread, which I get at the Dollar Tree. I can save $1.17 a loaf like that on my favorite brand that doesn't have all the high fructose crap and what not.

When I was in college, I made friends with people and we bought in bulk together. That could be an option as you meet people.

I bought a few pounds of ground turkey in my big grocery trip, for use with the boxed skillet dinners. They're currently the most involved cooking I do.

I was going to get tuna skillet meals, but they were out of those. Wish I'd bought some tuna anyway, I'm craving tuna salad.

It may be cost effective for you to also look at the packaged noodle or rice side dishes like from Knorrs. They're pretty much the skillet meal they're just not advertised as such. But one of those with your protein of choice serves the same purpose. If nothing else it could provide some variety at an equal price.

I use lentils as a meat substitute in situations like that. They don't have to be soaked before cooking, but they do suck up moisture so you may want to cook them separate then add them to your noodle or rice mix.

Another cool mix food is spinach. One cup of spinach (raw) is only 7 calories, but it's loaded with nutrients and honestly has very little flavor independent to itself. So whether it's a smoothie or a casserole, it's a good way to pump up nutritional value without messing with the flavor.

Now spinach doesn't last as long as other veggies, but it does freeze well so long as you seal it good.

Another easy, cheap meal is Ramen with frozen veggies added. Very salty, though, so not a good idea to have too frequently (or at all if you need to watch your sodium intake). I cut back on the sodium somewhat by letting the noodles sit in the flavored water for about 5 minutes after cooking and then draining before eating.

Baked potato also makes a relatively cheap, easy, and decently nutritious meal, especially if you eat the skin, too.

edited 3rd Nov '14 5:12:52 PM by Nocturna

Baked potatoes are easy, but it might be my least favorite potato recipe.

Meals I've done frequently when cooking just for myself:

Buttered Ramen noodles (drained)

Spaghetti with tomato sauce

Spaghetti with butter and garlic salt

Macaroni and cheese (cut from a block of off-brand Velveeta)

Macaroni and spicy cheese (cut from a block of Tex-Mex off-brand Velveeta)

Rice with soy sauce

Tuna skillet dinner (with canned green beans mixed in sometimes)

Hamburger skillet dinner (with ground turkey)

Powder-mix mashed potatoes

more expensive:

Chili (with ground turkey)

Pizza (with store-bought crust and spaghetti sauce)

Pizza (with in-house made crust and sauce from tomato paste and Italian seasoning)

edited 3rd Nov '14 8:25:30 PM by TParadox

I know this doesn't sound rational but, the packaged things? Way too expensive versions of things you can make your self at home better. I know this sounds counter intuitive because after you buy all the stuff, you've spent 8 times what the package cost but here's another way of thinking about it.

You can buy spices and staple things cheaper at Big Lots and Aldi's. Or what ever you have there that is like Big Lots and Aldi's. I know the food snobs say buy only the best and the freshest, but they got money and time to be food snobs. I've tried both the high and the low end when it comes to spices and yes you can tell the difference. But, um, not so much that blowing the budget is justified. So, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, mustard, coriander and cumin are good base spices if you like them. Oregano, basil, sage and/or rosemary (if you like them) are good herbs you can pick up pretty cheap dried. If you are going to eat parsley, and I recommend that, always go fresh.

Potatoes and eggs. Eggs and potatoes. Shred up a potato on a grater, rinse and squeeze it to pieces. Let it drain and while it is draining, beat two eggs with some salt and pepper, some onion (or onion powder) and then add the drained potatoes. Mix it all up. I add a pinch of cornmeal. Apparently, people who cook kosher use matzo meal, but yeah, OK. Cook this is some hot oil, ten minutes on a side and serve with apple sauce, or Greek yogurt or what ever will make you happy.

I know premade stuff is more expensive, which is why I avoid canned and frozen things, and stopped using store-bought pizza crusts quickly.

I want Mexican food...

I want old school rice with slow cooked beans, tortillas off the griddle and tomatoes...lots of tomatoes...

Hispanic food is just so filling and so practical!

Tried those lemon yogurt muffins again, figured out how to make them more to my taste

1) Use maple syrup instead of honey - less sweet and less prone to burning, plus easier to handle

2) Keep some flour at hand (I've used coconut because that's the kind I had within reach and I really like how it behaves in muffins - creates a soft mushy but sticky mass and absorbs liquid instantly, but actually any kid will do) and add it if you think the result looks like it's going to fall apart

3) There is no need to use mixer when making a muffin. Really. I've been averse to mixing anything by hand, but muffin can actually be thrown together in a few seconds in a bowl

Tonight's experiment: flavor rice without soy sauce.

I put a particularly generous dollop of butter in the water as it came to boil, then when it boiled and I added the rice, I also poured in some garlic salt (the kind with something green like parsley mixed into it) with it.

It is a success!

A very small bay leaf or a broken piece of a large one (whole massive one for 4+ people), a clove (one per person), some cumin seeds (I use the dip in my hand... but, I've got small hands: guestimate = half a teaspoon?), optional cardamom pod (I go for two for me, 'cos I love cardamom—if I can get hold of black, I'm happy), pepper and salt to taste: those'll see you right with rice. ^_^

edited 17th Nov '14 4:03:51 AM by Euodiachloris

I just ate half a 2 day old cheeseburger because I have no energy for cooking at the moment, but it's cold and raining.

I might summon the energy to make proper food in a bit.

When I was a student, I once retrieved an unopened bag of crisps I'd chucked in the bin in disgust at my lack of self-control in buying them, because I was hungry in the middle of the night and the shops were shut, which must be the food equivalent of a junkie raking through ashtrays for cigarette butts.

Don't feel too bad about it.

edited 19th Nov '14 10:23:30 PM by Achaemenid

Well, I take comfort in the fact that mine wasn't in the trash.

Change dinner plans, chicken Kiev to chicken parm, because the Kiev required too much prep work yesterday when I wasn't feeling it (the parm merely requires us to replenish the panko before Thanksgiving)

Today I made a vague soup to heat up my insides after getting home in the rain. I boiled pasta in beef broth for a few minutes with a couple of minced garlic cloves and a bay leaf. Then I added chopped tomato, potato, celery, and a bit too much pepper, and let it simmer another ten minutes to thicken a bit. I had some fresh off the stove, which was delicious. For dinner, I'll pour the stuff over rice.

Next time I'll see how it fares with vegetable broth so I can cook something for my niece when she comes over.

A habit I developed in bachelor cooking mode is pouring sauce on my spaghetti straight out of the jar, to save a pot. I'll sometimes set the jar on the stove near the burner while I'm heating the water to try to warm up the sauce a bit, but I don't directly heat it.

However, it is always much runnier than I'm accustomed to. I bought the cheap-label kind the first time, but I didn't like how think it was so when I ran out I bought the jar of Ragu that trumpeted that it was their thickest recipe, and it's still thinner than I'm used to.

Part of it is probably that at home we have ground beef or meatballs in the sauce, but I'm wondering if cooking it on the stove thickens it by letting excess water escape as steam. It shouldn't do so very much since the pan is usually lidded, letting the steam recondense and return to the sauce.

You can thicken the sauce by heating it in a pan with out a lid. Or you can add a can of tomato paste. Or you can can make a roux... no wait, I don't think you are ready for rouxs.

There is an excellent cook book called "Cooking for Geeks" that I recommend in this thread about once a year. It has recipes but it also has why and how. Another great one is called something like "What to Cook when there is nothing to cook" or something like that. It is good because it makes suggestions on how to stock your pantry so when the cupboard is bare, it isn't that bare.

Today I made cranberry sauce using a recipe developed by a woman from India. It has ginger and garlic and cayenne and apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper and honey. Then I made the bread cubes for the dressing with left over corn bread and some rolls. I also baked cookies, but they are not Thanksgiving related.

I'll make the brine on Tuesday so I can brine the bird on Wednesday. I'm thinking about home made rolls. It's just that the oven space is at a premium and certain citizens of this house realllllly like bread. In all forms.

I bought a ham for thanksgiving since that's what my Spawn requested. I have never cooked a ham before. I think slow baking it will be easy. It came with a glaze. I ddon't know if I want to use it though.

Any suggestions?

I'm doing a ham too, and I have NO IDEA. I was gonna look up a recipe. I was gonna put pineapples on it but only after it was cooked (pineapple on ham while cooking=hammush).

So. A honey-cinnamon glaze maybe? gonna go google, brb.

So paula dean says glaze the ham 30 minutes before it's fully baked. (recipe says follow instructions on ham package for baking so that's helpful...not)

I don't dare do Paula's glaze, as I do NOT want diabeetus, but I think if you alter her 4 cups of brown sugar and mustard to a more judicious application of honey and mustard you could have an excellent glaze. She also says to put the pineapples on 30 minutes before ham is baked but..remember ham mush! be smart in your ham baking.

ham.

hamhamham.

(sorry for double post)

edited 23rd Nov '14 10:24:30 PM by OriDoodle

I wanted to have a turkey dinner for one lined up for Thursday if I don't have anyone or end up being too busy to accept invitations. It occurs to me there might have been suitably thick-sliced roast turkey in the meat coolers, but I went to frozen foods, looked for a multi-serving entree, couldn't find it, and ended up going with a frozen dinner with two sides and a dessert. Fairly extravagant for me at the moment, but it's a feast day.

This works an absolute treat.

I part-boil my hams in cider before they see the inside of an oven. Depends on how salty I fancy the ham how long for and if I go for a cider-water mix or not. Always add spice to the boil. too.

I also prefer fruit glazes with a clove lean.

edited 24th Nov '14 4:04:21 AM by Euodiachloris