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N'thing the recommendation for making your own bread. Making good bread may not actually be cheaper than buying lovely bread, but it's definitely cheaper than buying good bread, and nothing builds kitchen confidence like making bread. It's also a great way to eat on the cheap: I find that sticking a hunk of good bread next to pretty much anything makes it a meal. One of my favourite lazy lunches/dinners is just a bunch of greens, sauteed with some pork (you don't need much, and the more concentrated the flavour of the pork is, the less you'll need), tossed in a bowl with some bread on the side. You can mix up the flavour profile you're going for almost infinitely, too. Fry up a couple ounces of pulled pork, or diced pork tongue, or whatever, add a bunch of shredded cabbage, cook it down, then add some dijon and a bit of honey near the end. It costs almost nothing, tastes great, and it isn't too bad for you.
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May 18, 2012 11:54
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I'd like to make that honey wheat bread using my stand mixer, but when it' a recipe for a single loaf I wonder if it's too little volume for it to mix properly. Could I double the recipe and then freeze half of it for later? I just can't eat two loaves before they go bad!
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May 18, 2012 16:15
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How big is your stand mixer? I have a 5 gt stand mixer and 1 loaf recipes are not a problem at all. Also kneading by hand is always an option. I don't really like to freeze and thaw bread, it never tastes as good as fresh. Maybe you have a friend or neighbor who would like some tasty homemade bread.
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May 18, 2012 16:23
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I've never tried it, but I've heard that you can freeze bread after it has risen the second time and then just thaw it out and bake it when you want a fresh loaf. In fact I think I've even heard you can maybe freeze it after the first rise if you want but maybe I'm forgetting/misremembering.
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May 18, 2012 16:56
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Charmmi posted:How big is your stand mixer? I have a 5 gt stand mixer and 1 loaf recipes are not a problem at all. Also kneading by hand is always an option. I don't really like to freeze and thaw bread, it never tastes as good as fresh. Maybe you have a friend or neighbor who would like some tasty homemade bread. I think mine is 5qt too, it's the Kitchenaid Artisan. I am working on little counter space and the majority of space I have is a bartop/island that is juuuuust a little too high to make standing and kneading/chopping comfortable. I'll report back.
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May 18, 2012 18:34
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Thanks everyone. I'll be on the look out for a crock pot. Also think I will try some no knead bread this weekend, have not made bread in a while. Anyone have a basic recipe for black beans and rice? Attempted to make them the other day and they came out terrible. What I did (no one do this): - Soak 1/2 cup black beans in water over night - Next evening sauteed 1/2 cup white rice with a little olive oil and fresh minced garlic - Drain beans and add rice into there plus cup of water - Bring to boil, then cover and lower to simmer for 15 minutes until rice is done - Be very disappointed Some things I learned: - Before soaking beans, sort them and pick out ones that apparently are lovely - Do the same after soaking, also rinse the beans - Cook beans for a lot longer I am open for advise. Also Wiggles, love you avatar/title
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May 19, 2012 02:24
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Moey posted:Thanks everyone. I'll be on the look out for a crock pot. A tip for beans, put them in a pot full of water, heat to a rolling boil for 2 minutes. Take off heat and let sit 2 hours. Then drain and rinse, put in more water, boil until al dente. I personally make my rice in a second pot and mix them together at the end. 2 parts rice to 3 parts water, uncovered boil for a minute, cover and lower heat, simmer for 20 minutes. I'd also suggest adding spices. Cumin, for instance, goes great with beans!
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May 19, 2012 03:00
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Here's a recipe from cooks illustrated for black beans and brown rice - they had another one for cuban-style black beans and rice, but it was many more ingredients and steps, and you asked for basic.Cooks Illustrated posted:Why this recipe works: There's probably some way to convert this to slow cooker/crock pot cooking if needed, but that's a science beyond my ken.
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May 20, 2012 03:36
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http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/06/crockpot-beans-and-rice-recipe.html This would give you a basic idea on how to make beans and rice. I would adjust the spices to my liking.
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May 20, 2012 05:59
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Happy Abobo posted:N'thing the recommendation for making your own bread. Making good bread may not actually be cheaper than buying lovely bread, but it's definitely cheaper than buying good bread, and nothing builds kitchen confidence like making bread. The Superstore I go to sells fresh Italian bread for 99 cents a loaf. It's the best bakery bread in town weirdly enough, the outside is just the right amount of crunchy and the inside is wonderfully soft.
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May 24, 2012 15:43
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Beans and rice really isn't complicated. Soak beans overnight. Drain. Add fresh water, and put atop the stove, over highest heat. When the water comes to a boil, let the beans boil fiercely for 10 minutes. Drop down the heat to medium low, and let the beans bubble away for however long it takes to cook them through. When the beans are mostly cooked, sautee rice in oil, garlic, onions, and turmeric powder, along with a bit of salt. Sautee until the rice turns completely opaque. Dump the sauteed rice into the cooking beans, and add more boiling water until you've got the level of water about 2 inches and change above the level of the beans & rice. Let the water come back to a full boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Drop down the heat to medium low again, slam on the lid, and let it simmer for like 20 minutes. Everything will be done to a turn. Beans take WAY longer to cook than rice, unless you're using split peas and brown rice (such as when making a dish called kicahdi or venn pongal). Cook them until they're done, but not quite tender (they'll still be a bit crunchy, but you'll see them cooked through), then add the rice, and you'll be fine.
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May 25, 2012 00:06
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MuffinShark posted:I'm not a fan of shopping at Vons, but they have had some great "just for u" coupons. Right now I can get $3 worth of free produce. While that doesn't seem like a lot, over the last three days I was able to pick up 10 packs of tofu and 12 mangos for $2.
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May 25, 2012 05:22
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Moey posted:Thanks everyone. I'll be on the look out for a crock pot. I like to cook the beans and rice seperately. Like Dino says, if you cook them together the rice gets really cooked down and paste-like. I prefer to soak the beans for two days, rinsing twice a day, and then cook them with a cut up onion, and broth or cooked meat as a flavoring if I have it. This is not strictly vegetarian, but then neither am I. You can also add tomatoes, any of the savory type seasonings, celery, red pepper, the liquor you have left over from when you cooked the corned beef...pretty much anything to broaden out the basic bean taste. I also like cooking pintos with chick peas. A good bean stew is soaked beans cooked with dried split pea, onion garlic celery ham-hock or ham-bone and salt and pepper to taste, and if you use some broth it makes it really tasty but water to cover the beans is fine. I cook it in a pressure cooker for about 30 minutes. If it comes out too soupy, mix it in with the rice. Oh, Hey, EVG: I put extra dough in the fridge in plastic bags if I make more dough that I want to bake. You have to wrap it, otherwise it dries out. I've risen bread in the fridge for several days in pans when things got too busy to bake. It's not ideal, but I live in an imperfect world. Desiree Cousteau fucked around with this message at 15:15 on May 25, 2012 |
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May 25, 2012 15:02
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Dabbo posted:Just did the no knead bread and holy poo poo even if its technically more expensive im making all of my own bread from now on. Making and using bread you made from scratch fuckin owns Glad to see you liked it.
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May 25, 2012 21:41
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Posting again about making pasta sauce from (near) scratch. Pound of penne, can of tomatoes, can of tomato paste, some spicerack and an onion I already had, fed a family of three with leftovers for under three bucks.
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May 26, 2012 06:01
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PopeCrunch posted:Posting again about making pasta sauce from (near) scratch. Pound of penne, can of tomatoes, can of tomato paste, some spicerack and an onion I already had, fed a family of three with leftovers for under three bucks. Ah, the flavour of my first year of college. This was my first foray into the mysterious world of grownup food, I barely even knew how to cook an egg back then. Good times, so many burnt meals  Best thing about this is that you can basically bung in whatever veg you have left in your fridge and it will always taste awesome. I like to spice things up by adding some cream or even a spoonful of red curry paste. Also try pasta with fresh spinach, I wouldn't have hated spinach so much as a kid if my mom had fed me that instead of the disgusting snot from the freezer.
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May 26, 2012 10:59
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Any recommendations on what to do about eating lunch cheap? Leftovers are obviously a cheap option but eating the same thing for lunch and dinner for a few days at a time makes splurging extremely tempting.
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May 31, 2012 16:50
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captkirk posted:Any recommendations on what to do about eating lunch cheap? Leftovers are obviously a cheap option but eating the same thing for lunch and dinner for a few days at a time makes splurging extremely tempting. I've been making large batches of stuff on weekends or when I have time and freezing half in lunch sized portions. Now I have a variety of stuff to choose from. Just pick one that looks good the night before and it should be ready to microwave for lunch.
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May 31, 2012 16:53
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NitroSpazzz posted:I've been making large batches of stuff on weekends or when I have time and freezing half in lunch sized portions. Now I have a variety of stuff to choose from. Just pick one that looks good the night before and it should be ready to microwave for lunch. As an example, you can buy a batch of chicken thighs for a couple bucks, cook it up with some teriyaki or sweet and sour, along with a big batch of rice in the cooker, then pack it into takeout containers and freeze it. It reheats really well.
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May 31, 2012 17:04
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Along those lines, here's the recipe from CI that I use for just that! It's super easy, just keep an eye on the teriyaki sauce so it doesn't reduce into sludge. Or, buy bottled sauce, but this is really good and not hard so you might as well make your own. The only 'unusual' ingredient is the mirin, which is only a couple bucks and I've seen it at regular grocery stores, not only Asian markets. Ingredients 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 5 ounces each), trimmed, boned, and skin slashed (I've also used boneless skinless, worked fine as well - I just sprayed a little oil on it to keep it from sticking, and keep in mind that it will cook faster. I'm sure any bird pieces will work - buy cheap legs, thighs, quarters, whatver.) 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 2 tablespoons mirin 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon) 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch Instructions 1. Position oven rack about 8 inches from heat source; heat broiler. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper; set thighs skin side up on broiler pan (or foil-lined rimmed baking sheet fitted with flat wire rack), tucking exposed meat under skin and lightly flattening thighs to be of relatively even thickness (see illustration 6). Broil until skin is crisp and golden brown and thickest parts of thighs register 175 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 8 to 14 minutes, rotating pan halfway through cooking time for even browning. 2. While chicken cooks, combine soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic in small saucepan; stir together mirin and cornstarch in small bowl until no lumps remain, then stir mirin mixture into saucepan. Bring sauce to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced to 3/4 cup and forms syrupy glaze, about 4 minutes. Cover to keep warm. 3. Transfer chicken to cutting board; let rest 2 to 3 minutes. Cut meat crosswise into 1/2-inch- wide strips. Transfer chicken to serving platter; stir teriyaki sauce to recombine, then drizzle to taste over chicken. Serve immediately, passing remaining sauce separately. Make some rice to eat it with. I've also bought cheap fish filets (I think they were tilapia?) and pan roasted them to eat with this sauce over rice, and it was really good too. Very easy, not expensive, delicious.
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May 31, 2012 18:35
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Speaking of leftovers, my favourite dish is re-fried perogis. I buy the store brands whenever they're on sale. I usually make far more perogis than I can eat in one sitting, so the next few meals I re-fry them with onions, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce.
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May 31, 2012 19:07
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Eggie posted:Speaking of leftovers, my favourite dish is re-fried perogis. I buy the store brands whenever they're on sale. I usually make far more perogis than I can eat in one sitting, so the next few meals I re-fry them with onions, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. Roll out the dough onto a dusted counter top into one large sheet. Fill with your stuffing of choice (I use a leftover baked potato or two that I've mashed, a small chopped and sauteed onion, a bit of dill and chive, and some salt and pepper), and you're pretty much set. Buying them from the store will cost more than making your own, even when they're on sale. The amount of flour, potato, and onion you're using is chump change. You'll have enough for yourself and a friend to share, or for leftovers. And, since you control what goes in, you can use leftovers from earlier in the week to stuff 'em.
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Jun 1, 2012 00:15
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Best of all, if you can devote a couple of hours on, say, a Sunday afternoon to making an enormous bath of pierogi, you can then freeze them. That way, you have convenient frozen pierogi waiting for you, for a fraction of the cost of store-bought. edit: I didn't notice until it was quoted that that says "bath," not "batch." If you make a bath of pierogi, you will smell like onions and your pierogi will be disgusting. Dogfish fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Jun 2, 2012 |
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Jun 1, 2012 02:29
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Dogfish posted:Best of all, if you can devote a couple of hours on, say, a Sunday afternoon to making an enormous bath of pierogi, you can then freeze them. That way, you have convenient frozen pierogi waiting for you, for a fraction of the cost of store-bought. Great deal, that. EDIT: if you make a huge batch of dumplings, you can bring the stuff in front of your TV and just fold fold fold. It's loving mindless once you get the hang of it, and it's a nice meditative activity. When you freeze pierogi (or any dumpling), be sure to spread them on a pan in the freezer so they don't stick together in the bags. Once they're sort of frozen, then you can toss them in the bags Ghost of Reagan Past fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jun 1, 2012 |
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Jun 1, 2012 05:13
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I've never made pierogi before. If I were to make a filling out of ground beef, potato, chive, and cheddar, would that be considered some horrible Shepard Pie hybrid, or could I still call the dish pierogi in its own right? Also, I'm assuming cook all the way, then freeze?
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Jun 1, 2012 05:44
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Yehudis Basya posted:ground beef...Shepard Pie no, that would be cottage pie, shepherd's pie uses lamb, hence "shepherd". Sure it's pierogi, it's whatever you want it to be, call it a slavic jiaozi via wales if you so desire. If it sounds good to you, try it! At the very least you will know what not to do in the future, at best, you may have a new favorite thing. Edit: cottage pie....rogi 
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Jun 1, 2012 05:56
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Yehudis Basya posted:I've never made pierogi before. If I were to make a filling out of ground beef, potato, chive, and cheddar, would that be considered some horrible Shepard Pie hybrid, or could I still call the dish pierogi in its own right? Also, I'm assuming cook all the way, then freeze?
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Jun 1, 2012 06:25
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GrAviTy84 posted:Edit: cottage pie....rogi
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Jun 1, 2012 18:25
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LogisticEarth posted:If you eat a crapload of rice and beans, you'll be full. It's got plenty of protien and mass. I too love to have my rear end-trumpet sounding out my arrival, while spiking my bloodsugar and leading to pre-diabetes. Instead of advising on eating cheap and unhealthy food, we need a lesson on frugalism and creativity. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24879628/ns/business-retail/t/frugalists-bargain-hunting-lifestyle/
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Jun 4, 2012 02:36
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Dadbuck posted:I too love to have my rear end-trumpet sounding out my arrival, while spiking my bloodsugar and leading to pre-diabetes. Quick someone tell 95% of the world to stop eating legumes and rice before they get digestive issues and diabetes!
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Jun 4, 2012 02:47
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:Quick someone tell 95% of the world to stop eating legumes and rice before they get digestive issues and diabetes! As for beans I've never had digestive problems from beans??? Ghost of Reagan Past fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Jun 4, 2012 |
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Jun 4, 2012 03:06
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Plus beans contain high levels of soluble fibre, which may help to regulate blood sugar. Beans make you fart a lot if you don't poop enough. Poop more.
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Jun 4, 2012 16:56
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Dadbuck posted:I too love to have my rear end-trumpet sounding out my arrival, while spiking my bloodsugar and leading to pre-diabetes.
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Jun 4, 2012 22:19
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I have eight cheap little steaks that were on final markdown at the shop. What can I do with them that's a little tastier than "pan fry on large hunk of iron"?
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Jun 5, 2012 01:08
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GabrielAisling posted:I have eight cheap little steaks that were on final markdown at the shop. What can I do with them that's a little tastier than "pan fry on large hunk of iron"? Pic please so we know what you have!
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Jun 5, 2012 01:10
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:Pic please so we know what you have! They're half-inch thick eye of round steaks. My phone hates me, so I can't get a picture to the internet with the thing. I'm marinating the first four in beer and montreal steak seasoning (a gift from my boyfriend's recently vegetarian roommate). They will be fried in my tiny cast iron skillet tomorrow afternoon. The others are in the freezer for later this week or next.
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Jun 5, 2012 05:11
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GabrielAisling posted:They're half-inch thick eye of round steaks. My phone hates me, so I can't get a picture to the internet with the thing. I'm marinating the first four in beer and montreal steak seasoning (a gift from my boyfriend's recently vegetarian roommate). They will be fried in my tiny cast iron skillet tomorrow afternoon. The others are in the freezer for later this week or next. Just do this: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3440988 That steak seasoning is pretty disappointing.
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Jun 5, 2012 05:46
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GrAviTy84 posted:no, that would be cottage pie, shepherd's pie uses lamb, hence "shepherd". So I made the cottage pierogi last night- they were so deliciously unhealthy, and since pierogi were new for me, I was extra excited about it!  For the filling, I salted and peppered ground beef, then browned it. I then mixed it up with chopped white onion, 2 eggs, and freshly grated white cheddar. I also made mashed potatoes out of red skinned potatoes, cream cheese, butter, salt, pepper, and fresh chives. Mixed up the potatoes into the beef and voila, filling! For the dough, I halved Emeril's recipe: sour cream, peanut oil (ran out of olive but that sounds kinda gross anyways), butter, AP flour, salt, and eggs. According to him, using ground beef as a filling is a Polish thing. To cook, I boiled the cottage pierogi in salted water for 8 minutes (they really do float!), dried them with a towel, and then sauteed them in better to get the skins browned. So unhealthy yet so delicious! They're really, really filling though, 4 of them had me stuffed. A poo poo ton (uncooked in water) live in the freezer now (so even though the beef, sour cream, butter and cream cheese add up, you really get a ton of bang out of your buck), and should be perfect for days when I won't have time to prepare a full dinner, but can handle 8 minutes of boiling and 5 minutes of sauteeing! There's a lot of filling left over too, so either I'm going to make even more pierogi dough for even more deliciousness, or just cook the filling on the stove with roasted broccoli or something for a side. Edit- unhealthy because of the extreme excess of carbohydrates (all the flour and potato) compared to protein and fat. To make healthier, replace the red-skinned potatoes with cauliflower (mashed cauli is pretty yummy); that'll drop your carb level some. To make it actually healthy, drop the pierogi dough as well, so you get rid of the flour.... but then it would no longer be pierogi.... hence pierogi is a delicious yet unhealthy treat! Seriously going to make it with mashed cauli next time, though, or just leave out the mashed part entirely and add chives to the beef mixture. While quite tasty, the potato flavor isn't necessary; I wonder how much its absence would even be noticeable. Why do pastry shells with veg or meat fillings taste so marvelous? Samosas, chicken pot pies, pierogi, cottage/shepard pie, I'm looking at you!
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Jun 8, 2012 17:28
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Yehudis Basya posted:Awesome Perogis How much beef are we talking here? About 1lb or so? Also, I imagine that the potatoes were mashed/blended/processed smooth, right? These sound amazing and oh so bad for you.
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Jun 8, 2012 20:09
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I used 1 lb of ground beef and believe me when I say that the total filling volume dwarfed the amount I actually used in the pierogi. So much so that I went and got another pint of sour cream to make more dough today; I'll cook 8 pierogi tonight but will probably have something like 50 more to put in the freezer. Any remaining filling is going to be cooked on the stovetop with some side veg! The potatoes were red-skinned, and mashed with fresh chives, butter, cream cheese, salt, and pepper, and obviously I left the skin in. They were really hot and tasty and satisying; I'm excited to thaw them in August when it starts getting a little cooler. This food really is good to make on a budget considering the sheer quantity (the following takes into account making even more dough): $1.50 for half a cream cheese brick $3-4 worth of (fancyish) butter, total 79 cents chives ~$3 potatoes $7 beef (local butcher grassfed stuff) ~20 cents onion ~75 cents worth of cheddar off the brick cost of 5 eggs $5 for all the sour cream I've had to purchase to make enough dough for all the filling cost of AP flour, salt, pepper, and 2 tsp worth of oil ... lets just round up to $25. Depending on how large one cuts the dough, you get ~40-60 pierogi, or ~40-60 cents/pierogi, something like 10-15 servings depending on how hungry you are. If I hadn't used local beef and a nicer butter, or left out the extraneous mash (thus moving cream cheese off the list), I could have made it for a ridiculously cheap price. Edit- making a 2nd full batch of dough (so not halving Emeril's recipe) and this time cutting the rounds larger (3.5 in), I was able to use up all the filling and make 42 more pierogi. Actually, I had enough dough for about 5 more, but ran out of filling at that point. Yehudis Basya fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Jun 9, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 23:52
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