What are your favorite cheap recipes?

[cali]

I love fried rice:

Here's my veggie fried rice recipe:

1 c. white rice, cooked and chilled
1/2 c. finely chopped celery
1/2 c. finely chopped carrot
1 c. chopped onion
(any other veggie of choice, like peas or green peppers)
knob of ginger, finely chopped, divided.
4 cloves of garlic
bunch of scallions

2 tbs hoisin sauce
4 tbs soy sauce
half of the chopped ginger
chopped garlic
dash of sherry
2 tbs warm water

In a couple of tbs vegetable or olive oil, saute onions and other veggies except for scallion. When soft, add rice, saute five minutes or so, push rice and veggies to side of pan, add one egg beaten with a dash of water to center of wok or pan. scramble the egg lightly, mix into rice.

mix sauce ingredients and poor over rice. cook for a couple minutes more. Add chopped scallions. Mix in.

Enjoy.

cheap, delicious and filling dinner. serve with a salad of thinly sliced cukes marinated in white vinegar and topped with toasted sesame seeds.

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. I made my new favorite last night...

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Penne

Cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Minced Garlic
Hot Pasta
Grated Parmesan cheese

Cut tomatoes in half. Place on a baking sheet, and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes in a 325 oven for one hour. Transfer contents of baking sheet to a skillet. Cook pasta according to package directions. One minute before pasta is to be done, add minced garlic to skillet with roasted tomatoes. When pasta is done, add to skillet with tomatoes and garlic. Toss to coat pasta with skillet contents. Sprinkle with grated parmesan.

Eat with crusty bread and salad.

Cheap and Delicious, my favorite combination. Sometimes my husband will request a small steak or chicken breast, but the pasta is usually enough for me.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. Macaroni and cheese

I use a recipe I stole from James Beard's Pasta book, with some adaptations

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon Tabasco
½ pound macaroni elbows or double-elbows
½ pound grated cheddar
4 oz grated parmesan/asiago/pecorino romano
Some panko for a topping

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cook and drain the macaroni while making the sauce. Put the macaroni in a buttered baking dish.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the flour, and stir it with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes, until the roux is frothy and the taste of raw flour is gone. Meanwhile, heat the milk in another pan. Add the warm milk gradually to the roux, stirring all the while. Turn up the heat and cook, stirring, until the sauce is just at the boiling point. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. Now add the pepper and Tabasco. Don’t be afraid of the Tabasco: it will help to bring out the taste of the cheese.


Mix the grated cheeses into the simmering sauce. As soon as it melts, combine it with the drained macaroni. Sprinkle the top with the panko, and bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

[cbayer]

3. I like recipes that use a cut of inexpensive meat, like a chuck roast,

and calls for cooking them until they fall apart.

My favorite is to use an asian concoction in the broth and throw in carrots, potatoes and whatever else I have on hand during the last phase of cooking.

All cultures seem to have these kinds of recipes. They are easy, use what is available, can be made for a crowd and inexpensive.

Grillades and grits is another one of my favorites.

[Major Nikon]

4. I'm with you there

Anyone can take a tender cut of meat and get good results with very little culinary skill or effort. The other day I cooked a pork shoulder for 16.5 hours in the smoker after marinading and rubbing. It cost $1.99 per pound and even the leftovers went fast.

[cbayer]

5. Yum! Pork shoulder in the smoker. Love it.

I once had the great honor of going to a pig roast where they buried the whole pig in a coal pit.

It was, bare none, the best pork I have ever had, to say nothing of the overall experience.

[Major Nikon]

6. Here's an interesting bit of trivia about BBQ

To this day, BBQ cookers are often referred to as a "pit" although no pit is involved. The reason is because BBQ started on the east coast exactly in the way you describe. Pigs were allowed to free roam and as such were quite cheap, so BBQ became something of a special culinary tradition for the common folk. Texas BBQ evolved a bit differently. Germans immigrated to Texas in large numbers and many of them brought their skills in butchery with them and established meat markets. Migrant workers would flood into Texas during the harvesting season. Many of these were people of color who were not allowed to eat in a normal restaurant, but they could eat at a meat market that often had tables set up where prepared meats were served on butcher's paper. Texas had far more beef cattle than pigs, so that's what was usually on the menu. The Germans would often smoke their leftover meats as a way of preservation. These were often poorer cuts of meat that didn't sell as well and were cheaper. The migrant workers called it BBQ because it was similar to the pit smoked meats they knew from the east coast. The Germans had no idea what BBQ was, but they knew it sold well, so during the harvesting season they set up smokers and fed the demand. To this day the best BBQ in Texas is served by meat markets that can trace their beginnings to the 19th century and still serve smoked beef on butcher's paper.

[cbayer]

7. I had the great pleasure of trying many kinds of "pit" BBQ on a recent long

roadtrip through the south (including TX).

Some of the best is still served out of gas stations with their big smoker drums in the parking lot. I also went to a few meat markets that had only one or two tables, generally in the back, where you could eat what you bought.

From TX to North Carolina, every region was different and they were, without exemption, great.

I can't even pick a favorite.

Thanks for the history! It's a great story.

[maddezmom]

9. Pinto and I had a chance to eat at one of the best BBQ places in TX

Smitty's....wish I had got some to take home. Thanks for the history.

[pinto]

12. What I really liked was walking in the front entry by the U-pick-it-up-here big grill.

The stacks of oak by the side of the building. And the whole scene inside. Picnic tables, laid back. Felt like having a group picnic with a bunch of folks, though we were just passing through. Dr. Pepper and Orange Crush were on the drink menu, iirc.

A great meal and a great time.

[maddezmom]

13. It was hot as hell in there

Just glad Tman wasn't there... He is areal fire bug!

[pinto]

14. LOL. Yeah, you *knew* you were in a BBQ joint from the get go.

[pinto]

11. Neat background.

Thanks.

[Glassunion]

8. An old post... $15 steak dinner for 2.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/115718099

Just skip the wine.

[pinto]

10. Stuffed baked potato is one.

Large baked potato, steamed broccoli, minced garlic, whatever shredded cheese I have on hand, a dollop of sour cream, black pepper. Sliced cucumber. Simple and cheap.

Black beans and rice.

Omelet.

Mac 'n cheese. I do a lot of different add ons out of the fridge.

Supermarket broiled chicken. Makes 4 meals and soup.

Spaghetti with garlic and oil, red pepper flakes, grated cheese, basil, toasted bread crumb.



Oh, and whatever my sister is cooking when I go over.

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. Same as in college: Tuna "Casserole"

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1. Cook 1 pkg Mac n Cheese according to directions.
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2. Add 1 can tuna, flaked.
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3. Add 1/2 C. cooked frozen peas.
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4. Sprinkle each portion with Parmesan cheese.
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5. Scarf it down.
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[fizzgig]

18. that's one of my stand-bys

never used parm, i usually dump some salsa in there.

[spinbaby]

16. My latest discovery

Apricot chicken made with chicken thighs--99¢ a pound at Costco.

Put three or four pounds of chicken thighs, a small jar of apricot jam, a packet of onion soup mix, a small bottle of thousand island dressing, and a handful of dried apricots into a slow cooker and cook on low for four or five hours. Serve with rice or noodles. Even kids like it.

[Buck Turgidson]

17. Humble home-cooked beans by Jamie Oliver

So simple, so cheap, so good.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/humble-home-cooked-beans

[dem in texas]

21. Yes, beans are cheap and make a great meal

Being from Texas, I love pinto beans. I wash 1 pound bag, put beans in crock pot, add large onion, chopped, few cloves of garlic (can discard after beans cooked), 1 cup chopped ham steak, one ham hock. Cover all the way to top of pot with water and cook on low overnight. Beans will soak up all the liquid and the meat on the ham hock will be falling apart Take out the ham hock, pick out any meat from the bone and return to beans, throw bone away and give fatty meat scraps to two dogs. Add one can diced tomatoes, season with chicken bullion cube, salt and pepper. Add more liquid and if still in crock pot, turn it to high and let simmer until good and hot. If batch is too large for crock pot, place in large pan and simmer on low. Serve with cornbread or a good French bread, a bowl chopped tomatoes and onion. Finish off with watermelon and cantaloupe chunks for desert. Any leftover beans taste even better the next day.

[grasswire]

19. cheese souffle

a cup of milk
3 T each flour and butter
4-5 eggs
a cup of grated cheese
some dry mustard, S&P.

That makes a large serving each for two people.

A simple salad alongside, with vinaigrette.

Damn cheap!

[cali]

20. yum and thanks. I'm going to go make that