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PlasticPaddy posted:I eat a lot of Wal-Mart brand spam. Can't tell the difference between it and the real stuff.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 00:58 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 15:17 |
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this was touched on in much earlier post. Store brands tend to be just labeled for the store by a regular producer. They tend to be cheaper than the name-brand stuff, but by and large they are the same stuff. Its just that people become mesmerized by the names like Hormel or Armour. Some cheaper stores do have cheaper canned goods but most places have pride and get a good deal by buying massive amounts from the producer. If you don't like to know how processed meats are made, don't look into Argentinian corned beef in a can (mmmm, bully beef, fabulous) and never, ever read the ingredients of those store chorizos. That they are made with pigs' salivary glands does not explain why the producer decided to admit to that!
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 02:54 |
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Here's a cheap recipie for ya! It's my grandma's from the 1930's. It cost about $3.00 Cnd and lasts about a week in the fridge. 1 can diced tomatoes 1 small can tomato paste 1 can cambells tomato soup (or no name if you like) 1/2 bag macaroni 3-4 cut up Wieners (optional) Boil the macaroni then mix in all the tomato stuff. mix in the wieners if you're using them. Let it sit for about 5-10 mins in the pot on the stove with the heat off with the lid on. if the wieners are still a little cold just pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds. You can top it with parmesan cheese if you like. I know it's not really gourmet but it's really good and dirt cheap!
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 05:51 |
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Yawgmoth posted:That's because spam is made with the bits of "meat" they they can only reach by blasting an air hose into the stripped carcass and collecting what meat particles the employees don't inhale (and later die from). Gotta love a meal with a story behind it. But seriously, some of this stuff is just gross. Macaroni, tomatoes and hot dogs? Good god why?
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 05:55 |
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nvm
Flour Bunny fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Jan 16, 2012 |
# ? Jan 16, 2012 06:02 |
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Flour Bunny posted:what is pasta sauce made with? magic? Considering there are about 8000 different pasta sauces one could make? They could be made from lots of things. If you're talking about straight tomato sauce, though, the basics are olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, basil/oregano, and salt/pepper. There is no need for canned tomato soup in tomato sauce. There is no need for canned tomato soup ever. In anything. Better to save that money and combine it with the cost of your hot dogs and use it on something that has not only a higher nutritional value, but actually tastes good.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 06:48 |
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Flour Bunny posted:1 can diced tomatoes Ooh, I usually use a bit of beef bouillon in my goulash, but this works too.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 06:51 |
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You can't go wrong with garlic red skin mashed potatoes. 2.5 lbs red potatoes, unpeeled and quartered 3 cloves garlic, peeled 2 tablespoons butter 0.5 cups milk 1 teaspoon salt Directions: 1 Put potatoes and garlic in small pot (I do this with a cast iron pan but who cares) 2 Cover with water. 3 Bring to a boil. 4 Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes, until potatoes are tender and skin sloughs off. 5 Drain well. 6 Mash with the butter, milk, and salt. 7. Eat.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 07:17 |
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Yawgmoth posted:That's because spam is made with the bits of "meat" they they can only reach by blasting an air hose into the stripped carcass and collecting what meat particles the employees don't inhale (and later die from).
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 07:47 |
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The thing with spam is, it isn't just 100% meat. It's been processed to oblivion.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 08:10 |
Actually Spam is pretty much just pork shoulder with some starch and preservatives.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 13:35 |
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Rurutia posted:Being as this is a 'I'm poor thread' and just for the sake of (you should never use bouillon cubes), you should make your own chicken stock instead of using bouillon cubes. Better yet, don't get boneless, debone your chicken, make stock, use meat. I don't know about anyone else's butcher, but for the few I've bothered to ask in the UK, bones are free. Chicken, lamb, beef, whatever they stock, you can make into stock. I freeze all my left-over veg peelings (except peppers and potatoes) in a bag, and make stock whenever I get chance - 30 minutes in a pressure cooker and you have ~1.5L (three pints) of stock. Reduce and freeze into ice trays. (Bag up the cubes once they are frozen, and then you can re-use the ice trays for ice. Or left-over wine. Or tomato-water cubes (to really gently caress with people who insist on putting ice in scotch and/or use in cooking). And if you're feeling particularly poor (or really want a tasty awesome snack), roast your beef bones cut-end up for about 15-20 mins, and spread onto some (preferably home-made) toast. Eat with something green. (Here is a great resource as to why this tastes so great http://www.marksdailyapple.com/bone-marrow-recipe/#axzz1jd5vhEuE)
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 15:05 |
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feelz good man posted:How is it GWS can both praise snout to tail eating and butchering lifestyles, have entire threads dedicated to eating obscure offal, then turn around and be absolutely disgusted by "bits from a carcass" or gland meat? It's not bad because of what it's made out of, it's bad because the process by which it is made horribly sickens workers with utterly debilitating nerve diseases which Hormel then fires them for so they're not stuck with having to cover them on insurance or workman's comp! This is a bad thing!
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 16:32 |
I've seen it mentioned in this thread, but good god are split peas the greatest thing ever. Seriously, 50 cents worth of them are delicious, give you a full days worth of protein (and way more than enough fiber), and only take about 30 minutes to make. On top of that, I'm trying to lose a little weight and a cup of them (uncooked) is only like 500 calories or so and completely filling. I tend to put a bunch of cumin and a healthy few pinches of cayenne pepper in them and it's soooo satisfying. For a cheap, relatively healthy snack (ignoring the sodium), I've also gotten into the habit of putting a bunch of peanuts in a crock-pot and cooking the hell out of them with cajun spices… over 15 hours seems best. I can get raw peanuts here for around $1.50 a pound and boiled peanuts are amazing. Question: I'm tempted to make a hummus out of boiled peanuts. Has anyone here tried this and can I (should I?) flavor it like traditional chickpea/tahini hummus?
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 21:34 |
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cymbalrush posted:I've seen it mentioned in this thread, but good god are split peas the greatest thing ever. Seriously, 50 cents worth of them are delicious, give you a full days worth of protein (and way more than enough fiber), and only take about 30 minutes to make. On top of that, I'm trying to lose a little weight and a cup of them (uncooked) is only like 500 calories or so and completely filling. I tend to put a bunch of cumin and a healthy few pinches of cayenne pepper in them and it's soooo satisfying. Won't this just make peanut butter? Not that it's a bad thing, just sayin'.
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 22:59 |
I was under the impression that you roast peanuts to make peanut butter. Boiled peanuts have a texture similar to (but more soggy) than canned chickpeas
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# ? Jan 16, 2012 23:09 |
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Mr. Wiggles posted:It's not bad because of what it's made out of, it's bad because the process by which it is made horribly sickens workers with utterly debilitating nerve diseases which Hormel then fires them for so they're not stuck with having to cover them on insurance or workman's comp! This is a bad thing! Food tastes better when it's mixed with the blood of the poor. ___ This thread has been incredibly helpful. I gotta ask though, it it worthwhile to make things that are already cheap like tortillas or pasta? I don't mind cooking now but making some things just seem like a waste of time.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:04 |
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Douche Bag posted:Food tastes better when it's mixed with the blood of the poor. I'd say that fresh tortillas are absolutely worth it because of how amazing they are, but dried pasta is better than fresh in some situations.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:15 |
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Operation pork chops was succesful! Since you guys helped me quite a bit I figured you deserved a trip report. I found some bone in chops. They weren't as thick as I would have liked them to be, but still slightly thicker than the usual family pack chops. Used a thermometer and pulled them out at 160f. Used the fat on the bottom of the pan (I removed some of the fat before cooking them, but let it melt in the corner of the pan) to make a roux and then added some old red wine that was hanging in the fridge, salt, pepper and some herbs to make some sort of sauce which ended up being too thick but still pretty tasty. The pork was pink and moist and very tasty. It was still gray/slightly golden on the outside, but until I get my hands on big rear end chops that's the best I'll be able to do I think. Also there was some meat close to the base of the bone that isn't usually there on deboned pork chops. This part was ridiculously good, is it usually part of a different cut of meat?
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:27 |
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cymbalrush posted:Question: I'm tempted to make a hummus out of boiled peanuts. Has anyone here tried this and can I (should I?) flavor it like traditional chickpea/tahini hummus? I recently saw a recipe for boiled peanut hummus (but I haven't tried it yet): 1 cup boiled peanuts 2 tablespoons tahini 1 garlic clove 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon cumin pinch of cayenne salt The recipe is from Hugh Acheson, and can be found here: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/05/boiled-peanut-hummus
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:27 |
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Douche Bag posted:Food tastes better when it's mixed with the blood of the poor. Depends on how much your time is worth. If you have more free time and really enjoy cooking, make the tortillas. If you're down to one spare hour in the day, and you can make a really amazing nutritious protein meat dish OR you can spend time rolling out tortillas, I'd go for the meat- much more bang for your buck. That said, store bought tortillas can be filled with nasty (and unnecessary sugary) ingredients (when all you really need is lard, flour, water, and salt, although I's guess there are better ways of doing it than just those 4). But stuff like stock? Make it yourself, it's worth every moment because the instructions are: 1. put leftover carcass and roughly chopped veg in pot with water 2. cover with lid and let simmer 3. walk away for 3 hours, and spend that time playing with your kids, writing quartlery reports, paying bills I don't know. But I view that investment in time as me MAKING money using ingredients I already have, instead of buying a box of lovely stock for $4 and devoting a few minutes of my life to tracking it down at the grocery. Honestly, the prior 2 paragraphs guide me in most of my culinary choices: - how much is my time worth - what is the health, flavor, and enjoyment payoff - make resulting decision cymbalrush posted:I've seen it mentioned in this thread, but good god are split peas the greatest thing ever. Seriously, 50 cents worth of them are delicious, give you a full days worth of protein
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:30 |
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Flour Bunny posted:Here's a cheap recipie for ya! It's my grandma's from the 1930's. It cost about $3.00 Cnd and lasts about a week in the fridge. You can make this recipe twice as good by using ground beef instead of Wieners and adding some sauteed onion/celery.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:31 |
Yehudis Basya posted:Uh, no. 50 cents worth of peas do NOT give you adequate protein per day unless you're going for the anorexic-all-muscle-mass-lost thing. While peas are tasty, please supplement with more protein. It gets me about 55 grams which, in addition to a couple eggs and whatever else, seems at least enough.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 01:36 |
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KingColliwog posted:Used a thermometer and pulled them out at 160f. Used the fat on the bottom of the pan (I removed some of the fat before cooking them, but let it melt in the corner of the pan) to make a roux and then added some old red wine that was hanging in the fridge, salt, pepper and some herbs to make some sort of sauce which ended up being too thick but still pretty tasty. Bourbon is particularly tasty with pork. I remove my chops to rest, drain the grease, add a pat of butter and deglaze with bourbon, then add back that bit of juice that collects under the chops, heat to thicken. Then I swish the chops around in the bourbony goodness. KingColliwog posted:Also there was some meat close to the base of the bone that isn't usually there on deboned pork chops. This part was ridiculously good, is it usually part of a different cut of meat? It's part of the tenderloin.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 04:12 |
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wormil posted:Bourbon is particularly tasty with pork. I remove my chops to rest, drain the grease, add a pat of butter and deglaze with bourbon, then add back that bit of juice that collects under the chops, heat to thicken. Then I swish the chops around in the bourbony goodness. Good idea for the bourbon and reusing the meats juice. Will definitely try next time. Oh that's surprising, it felt more "fatty" and had quite a bit of flavor while the usual tenderloin isn't quite as tasty in my experience (I eat a lot of pork tenderloin since they get ridiculously cheap once a month or so). Might try my apple and maple syrup sauce I usually make for my tenderloin with the chops next time. Or may be bourbon-apple-maple syrup sauce... That sounds delicious
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 04:20 |
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Yehudis Basya posted:
for a faster stock do the above in a pressure cooker. It will cook in about 1 hour. You will want to strain it and then use it in something that will be opaque since your stock will be cloudy. Oh, and throw in a rib of celery, a diced onion, a chopped up carrot, a couple of teeth of garlic and a tablespoon or so of vinegar. The vinegar will help dissolve the collagen and marrow and other tasty stuff out of the bones. The veggies you treat as a garni and strain out with the bones, by the way. Oh, and for raw peanuts: boil them in brine with star anise and or boil and serve them with rice. Rule .303 fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jan 17, 2012 |
# ? Jan 17, 2012 05:13 |
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Douche Bag posted:Food tastes better when it's mixed with the blood of the poor. Those 50 count stacks of prepackaged corn tortillas are awful. A pound bag of Masabrosa (Maseca's cheaper cousin) is under $1.50. Totally worth it and way better.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 06:52 |
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Also, I know I'm late on the pork chop-chat but a good way to use them is smothering them cajun style. 1) Salt and pepper your (thick) pork chops then dust them with flour. 2) Fry them in HOT shallow oil in a cast iron skillet/dutch oven. 3) Set pork chops aside, lower the heat to medium-low, pour out excess oil (while leaving browned flour in the skillet/dutch oven). 4) Fry a ton of diced onions and some diced bell pepper (you can add celery and garlic if you wanna get fancy) in the oil left over. 5) Add pork chops back to the cooking vessel, cover with water. 6) halfway cover and let simmer till the pork chops are falling to pieces, the veg has mostly dissolved into the gravy, and the flour coating of the fried pork chops had dissolved into the liquid and created a gravy. If the pork chops are done but it hasn't reduced enough, take them out and cook on high till reduced. 7) Add finely chopped green onion tops and/or parsley 5-10 minutes before serving over hot white rice. 8) Serve with mustard greens and field peas/black eye peas.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 07:01 |
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That last post made me sad, I absolutely love field peas/black eyed peas, however the wife does not. Sometimes when she is out of town I will make a huge pot of field peas and another of yellow hominy and just eat that the whole time she is gone.
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# ? Jan 17, 2012 23:44 |
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Douche Bag posted:Food tastes better when it's mixed with the blood of the poor. Homemade pasta is absolutely delicious and fairly easy to make, with a machine (that you can grab for a good $20-30) at least. You can make whatever taste/variety you want, and it's much quicker to cook as well. Price wise, ~$1.50 for a pound of pasta would be around the same as the ingredients + labor, so it's a toss up. I really only buy shaped pasta now, because gently caress making penne by hand.
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 10:51 |
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I have a question for the people of this thread. As a Muslim I can't eat pork, and my doctor had recommended that I avoid beef and lamb, so most of the food I cook use chicken. This thread had many helpful tips on how to choose, prepare and cook chicken, but what about fish? Is fish generally not suitable for low budget cooking?
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 10:53 |
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So I bought a fuckton of pinto beans at Costco and planning on buying some rice (anyone have good all purpose tasty rice?) But I am at a loss for what to do with said beans. I have access to chicken stock and garlic, and I can go to the store for veggies or a protein and I have a slow cooker. I also have a food saver so I would prefer something awesome that freezes well so I don't eat beans for a week. Help?
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 12:13 |
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toanoradian posted:I have a question for the people of this thread. As a Muslim I can't eat pork, and my doctor had recommended that I avoid beef and lamb, so most of the food I cook use chicken. This thread had many helpful tips on how to choose, prepare and cook chicken, but what about fish? Is fish generally not suitable for low budget cooking? Fish is a great source of protein and absolutely acceptable for low budget cooking - but you have to be a little quicker to find it. Frozen fish is available but in my experience frozen fish is generally pretty terrible. What's better is to find fresh fish that has been heavily discounted, although fish goes bad very quickly so you should cook it within a day or so. Most fish is good with a little dab of butter and a squirt of lemon, fried up in a pan.
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 13:57 |
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toanoradian posted:I have a question for the people of this thread. As a Muslim I can't eat pork You don't have to believe something just because it's old. That said, I love some fried catfish, and I don't think it gets any cheaper than that. edit: As a Xenu I can't eat food. Any suggestions? indoflaven fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Jan 18, 2012 |
# ? Jan 18, 2012 17:17 |
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toanoradian posted:I have a question for the people of this thread. As a Muslim I can't eat pork, and my doctor had recommended that I avoid beef and lamb, so most of the food I cook use chicken. This thread had many helpful tips on how to choose, prepare and cook chicken, but what about fish? Is fish generally not suitable for low budget cooking? Fish can be cheap, but thinking "what meats can I use to replace the ones I can't eat" is probably the wrong attitude. There are millions of dishes you can make without meat that are cheap, healthy, and delicious. Most of the world is largely vegetarian not for religious reasons but through necessity, because meat is expensive. Once you learn to cook good food without meat, you'll be better off, because it's tough to find any good meat at all for less than a couple bucks per pound, and at that price, beans/rice/vegetables/etc. are all cheaper.
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 17:40 |
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indoflaven posted:edit: As a Xenu I can't eat food. Any suggestions? Look into breatharianism.
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 19:31 |
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I think people might not be mentioning fish because the price varies a lot depending on where you live. Fish is fantastic, but it can be expensive in some places.
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 21:02 |
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I know that I'll probably get some flak for this but..If you are looking for cheap easy fish protien you could do worse than to go for canned tuna. Pouched has better flavor and texture. Is it anywhere near as good as fresh fish? No. Not on your life. Is it cheap and convenient? Sure. You can find it in any store in America and probably anywhere else in the world. Can you make some tasty dishes with it? Just ask resident favorite celeb chef Alton Brown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-rbD3OsMjU - Part 1, mostly history + skits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnf48K3oTUw&feature=related - Part 2, recipe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pazkjvkMPDA&feature=related - Part 3, health notes + more expensive/fancy recipe
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# ? Jan 18, 2012 23:22 |
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The Azn Sensation posted:So I bought a fuckton of pinto beans at Costco and planning on buying some rice (anyone have good all purpose tasty rice?) But I am at a loss for what to do with said beans. I have access to chicken stock and garlic, and I can go to the store for veggies or a protein and I have a slow cooker. I also have a food saver so I would prefer something awesome that freezes well so I don't eat beans for a week. Help? Seconding this. I figure you should be able to make pinto beans and rice into some kind of never ending cheap meal. Google gives me something along these lines, I would probably sub out some of the stuff. quote:Ingredients:
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# ? Jan 19, 2012 00:54 |
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# ? May 21, 2024 15:17 |
indoflaven posted:You don't have to believe something just because it's old. That said, I love some fried catfish, and I don't think it gets any cheaper than that. Don't be stupid, we're trying to help people find something to cook that they want to eat.
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# ? Jan 19, 2012 03:00 |