cheap food recipes

[Bikeage77]

i love cooking, and with that cheap food thread, i thought people could put up some of their favorite recipes up here...they don't necissarily have to be healthy, but that might be a plus...i found this on youtube awhile back, and its pretty easy to make, and delicious, if you have most of the stuff already (soy sauce, honey, etc) you can make it for 2 people for like 7 bucks...i'm going to try it with an orange next time

 

Sticky Lemon Chicken

[ewizabeff]

You can always go back to

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[GAME05]

i consider myself a decent home cook and eat on the cheap, too. i think the two go hand-in-hand.

 

I just made risotto tonight, which is cheap and easy, just takes a while. just be sure to get short-grain rice (short-grain brown is healthier and more filling), then I added anchovies and mushrooms, although you can use a lot of different combinations. you just need chicken or vegetable stock and some cheap white wine with the rice. be sure that at least 1/2 of the liquid you use for the rice is water, or it gets too salty.

 

I also like to marinade some eggplant, and then i'll throw it in the blender with some white wine or sometimes water, and that makes a good sauce for those large stuffed pasta shells (the particular spices you need can be tricky), in which i'll add bread crumbs, tofu if you like it, onion and peppers and diced tomato. or you can cut the eggplant in half, hollow it out and add those same intredients with the breadcrumbs on top and then bake it (be sure to sweat the eggplant a little first). Stuffed mushrooms work the same way, another cheap idea.

 

Otherwise if i'm making a simple tomato sauce, i'll just cook up some diced tomatoes, and if you can, add some brandy or vodka since tomatoes are alcohol soluble, so you'll get a lot of flavour out of a simple sauce.

 

one thing i'll make sometimes is a ghetto Shepherd's Pie. it's just Dinty Moore beef stew with mashed potatoes on the top, add some cheese on top of that and shove it in the oven.

 

a favourite of mine are those KFC Twister wraps (don't like them anymore now that they've added cheese). it's just grilled (i don't fry) chicken breast strips with lettuce, tomato and peppercorn ranch dressing.

 

one healthy one i'll make is just angel-hair pasta with olive oil and broccoli. just that. and it freezes well for work lunches.

 

one appetizer i recently made for a party that went over real well was won-ton wrappers in which i put shredded carrots and cabbage, and marinated tofu (basically marinated in soy sauce). i sealed the pastry with some eggwhite and baked them and they came out really well. they went over really good, too.

 

if you've got a vegetable steamer you can soften up some large cabbage leaves with that. i'll roll a filling with those made of pork and rice, oregano and definitely some paprika (it's a Slovenian food).

[sgtcluels]

I thought risotto required Arborio rice

[Bikeage77]

That's how I've always made it, i'm sure it can be made with brown rice, maybe just not "officially" I never made risotto with wine, always chicken or veggie stock, only because that was handy and the wine was not

 

Tator tot casserole is another really easy one to do, my girlfriend and I usually have enough leftovers for lunch the next day, you can opt how much veggies you'd like to use...

 

1 lb Chicken or pork

1 bag Frozen tator tots

1 can Cream of mushroom soup

1 can Cream of celery soup

Mushrooms

Celery

Green Pepper

Red Pepper

Onion

Cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, colby jack, whatever)

Minced garlic

Bread crumbs (optional)

 

Preheat oven to 375

Dice veggies

Cook meat

Saute veggies in oil, garlic

Warm both soups together

Combine meat, veggies, soup

Season to taste

 

Layer casserole dish with tator tots

Pour meat, veggies, soup on top

Layer with cheese

Layer with tator tots

Layer with cheese

Add bread crumbs

 

Bake for 30 minutes.

Serves 4.