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Chicken thigh cycles to 69c per pound enough here. But we'd never get chorizo for less than 1 buck. Rotisserie chicken often costs less than raw.
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May 2, 2014 00:20
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Kafka Esq. posted:By the way, this has to be some kind of America only thing. I've found chicken legs at 1.19/lb once here, but every time I ask if they have something reduced for quick sale, that's near expiry, they look at me like I'm an alien. They don't have days where it's close to expiry, they just cycle the sales to get rid of it before then. Not only that, but it's incredibly regional. Strict rules don't help, instead keep track of food prices in your area to look for what you should be aiming for as your limit.
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May 2, 2014 00:22
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I started tracking sales across major chains and some smaller stores now. Online flyers really help. When you nail down what an actual good sale price is, you can safely ignore "stock up" flyers when they don't agree with your figures. So far, I've looked at three months of flyers across three major chains and two small stores. The whole thing has more info, but these are the lowest prices I've found so far: quote:Poultry Lowest Price
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May 2, 2014 00:45
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Kafka Esq. posted:I started tracking sales across major chains and some smaller stores now. Online flyers really help. When you nail down what an actual good sale price is, you can safely ignore "stock up" flyers when they don't agree with your figures. Agree 100%. I did it in excel for a while til I got a feel for prices.
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May 2, 2014 01:55
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Kafka Esq. posted:By the way, this has to be some kind of America only thing. I've found chicken legs at 1.19/lb once here, but every time I ask if they have something reduced for quick sale, that's near expiry, they look at me like I'm an alien. They don't have days where it's close to expiry, they just cycle the sales to get rid of it before then. I'm in America but I've never, ever seen chicken drop under $1 a lb It doesn't help that I'm in DC, I'm sure. I did find that I can save a lot on lunch by making more of stuff for dinner (which pricewise is usually only a little bit more or maybe stretching some stuff) but also the store by me sells prepackaged lunch meat at 50% off a few days before it goes bad. Not the day, at least 2 days before. A pound of deli meat for $2 is still pretty good for making quick sandwiches.
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May 2, 2014 04:59
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Bob Morales posted:
Best thing is, Mexican chorizo is so drat rich that you won't want too much in whatever you're cooking. Chorizo con Huevos is my go-to heart attack breakfast.
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May 2, 2014 17:13
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Bob Morales posted:
Yup, that's the brand of chorizo I get. And it is really good with refried beans....I think I know what I'm about to eat! Adult Sword Owner posted:What? I live on the planet known as California. Where do you live?
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May 2, 2014 18:17
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Rah! posted:I live on the planet known as California. Where do you live? DC My greatest mistake, I know
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May 2, 2014 19:19
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California's prices are so outside the norm they shouldn't be allowed to post about them due to pure enviousness.
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May 2, 2014 20:28
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I got a whole chicken for like 90¢/lb the other day, and I live in Mississippi. This was at a super thrifty local grocery store though, not like a chain. I understand food in America is crazy crazy cheap compared to most countries in general.
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May 2, 2014 20:34
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Kafka Esq. posted:California's prices are so outside the norm they shouldn't be allowed to post about them due to pure enviousness. Housing may be ridiculously expensive here in SF, but at least I can eat for cheap (inside my cardboard box).
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May 2, 2014 21:07
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New Yorker here. I'm lucky to get whole chickens for 1.15-150 a pound. I generally get pork for 1.5-2 per pound. I almost never see beef for under $5 a pound  I'm lucky to be upstate too, food costs more around NYC.
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May 3, 2014 01:49
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I posted some recipes on this thread before and people enjoyed them. I'm just a normal guy that eats normal food and I'm poor or cheap, probably poor. In any case, that shouldn't condemn me to a life a Ramen Noodles and I just don't have the time or give-a-care to get all Phantom Gourmet up in here so I love this thread. In spirit, this meal is cheap and good. It's just a seasoned pork chop with some vinegar peppers and onions to eat along with it. It's really good, simple, cheap and quick. You cook the whole thing in 2 pans so it's like minimal skill level. Pork Chops with Vinegar Peppers 1" Pork chops (Just buy a pork loin and cut your own chops so they are thick and good. The pre-cut chops in the store are so thin it's a bitch to cook them good). Steak Seasoning Garlic Powder Vinegar Peppers An onion, sliced White wine (optional) Some oil Cover the pork chops in the steak seasoning and garlic powder. Season them heavy, don't be scared. Cook those in a skillet on medium-high heat in some oil. When they sweat through, flip them. You want them to be like 140 degrees. Optionally, you could grill them. While those are cooking throw your onion slices in another skillet on medium-high heat with some oil. Saute those up for a bit. While those are cooking, cut your vinegar peppers into similar sized strips/bite size pieces and then throw them in the pan with the onions. Pour some of the vinegar pepper liquid from the jar into the pan. Simmer/boil that down until the peppers are tender. You can add some white wine into this too if you're into that sort of thing. That's it. Plate the chops with some peppers and onions on them and poo poo is magic. I usually eat them with green beans and garlic or beets in some balsamic vinegar. Butch Cassidy posted:A big pot of pasta e fagioli is a great way to get yourself through a tight month. If it gets tedious, freeze some and use it for lunches. And you can tweak each serving a bit with added goodies like shredded roast chicken thigh or whatever later on. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_e_fagioli Pasta Beans is a staple in my family since I was a kid and I make it regularly. Another delicious, cheap, normal meal that takes minimal skill level and is very filling. Pasta Beans 1 can of Great Northern White beans 1 can of chicken broth (low sodium) 1 8oz. can of tomato sauce 1 onion, chopped Garlic Olive oil Half a box of small pasta (elbows) In a medium sauce pan, saute the onion and garlic in the oil. Dump in the beans, tomato sauce and chicken broth. Stir it up and simmer for 35 minutes. In a separate pot, boil some water and cook your pasta. When all is done, take a small scoop of pasta and put it in a bow and then ladle a good amount of the soup onto it. You're making a soup, not a sauce. The pasta is a small component. Top is with grated cheese and enjoy the poo poo out of it. Only combine the soup and the pasta when serving. If you combine them together in a pot, then the pasta absorbs all the liquid and ruins it. How can something with so few ingredients be so good? It just is. Try it. If you want to get wild, you can add some chopped bacon or celery into the saute. qxx fucked around with this message at 18:03 on May 13, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 17:49
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I've always hated mushy rice, but never knew how to make it any other way. Last week, I found a recipe that blew me away with how simple and tasty it was. Basically, you treat the rice like a noodle instead of a grain. Here's what you need: 1 cup uncooked rice 1 quart water 1 tbsp salt 2 big bay leaves Boil the water in a medium sauce pan. Add the rice, salt, and bay leaves into the water, and give it a quick stir to make sure the rice isn't sticking to anything. Turn the heat down to medium, so that the water is just barely boiling, and partially cover with a lid. At this point, begin preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Watch that the water doesn't boil over, and let it go for 10 minutes. Once the time is up, sample a bit of the rice, being careful not to stir the pot. Stirring the water is bad, and makes the rice sticky and mushy. Once the rice is done, it should have just a bit of bite to it, like an al dente noodle, but not be crunchy. drain and strain the rice, and discard the bay leaves. Spread the rice out on a baking sheet lined with lightly oiled foil, and bake at 400 for 10 minutes to get the moisture out. Serve immediately. If you want, you can take out the bay leaves and 1/2 tbsp of the salt, but that's where all the flavor of the dish comes from.
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May 13, 2014 21:32
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Baked rice, eh I'm down for trying this.
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May 13, 2014 21:47
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Just a note that if you use the full tablespoon of salt, the rice will be a bit salty. The recipe is meant to be used as a base for other dishes, like Etouffee, or Gumbo, which can benefit from the added salt.
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May 13, 2014 22:00
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neogeo0823 posted:I've always hated mushy rice, but never knew how to make it any other way. Another easier method. Measure out 1 cup of rice. Rinse it thoroughly. In a skillet, heat some cooking oil. When hot, add a bit of cumin seeds (if you like), or whatever other seasoning you like (cumin seed + rice is pretty great though). Add the rice to the skillet, and cook over high heat, with constant stirring with a heat-proof spatula (if you're using a metal or wooden spoon, you'll tend to break the rice grains) until the water is evaporated off. Add 2 cups of water, a generous pinch or three of salt, and let the water come to the full boil. Drop down the heat to low, and slam on the lid. Let it simmer away for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, and let it sit for another 10 minutes. Test it for done-ness at this point. It should be done perfectly. IF YOU HAVE AN ELECTRIC STOVE. The times between the high heat and low heat will take longer to respond. Because of this, you'll want less time simmering. Bring the water to a rolling boil, slam on the lid, and drop the heat down to low. Once you hear the bubbles stop forming and making the rice in the pot all agitated (this should take 30 seconds - 1 minute) start timing for around 8 1/2 minutes. Turn off the heat. Let it sit on the electric range for another 12 minutes. The heat still in the stove will continue cooking it. With all the methods, if you want really fluffy, really separate rice, spread the rice out onto a lightly greased baking sheet, and just let it cool down to room temperature. To reheat, toss with a bit of water, and microwave for like 1 minute. Seriously, this isn't nearly as complicated as turning on the oven to make some rice. You really don't need much time to make white rice. Brown rice? That's a different story. Brown rice can go gently caress itself with its complicated and finicky timing.
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May 13, 2014 23:16
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Brown rice is basically not worth it nutritionally.
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May 13, 2014 23:23
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Kafka Esq. posted:Brown rice is basically not worth it nutritionally. Thank gently caress for that because I am sick to my back teeth trying to like that crap. Edit: for plain boiled rice I find the best way to cook it is to rinse it for at least 10 minutes, then soak it for another 20 to an hour or more, then cook super gently in a lot of lightly salted water until it is almost completely cooked and then drain and rest. Basmati will be perfect and fluffy after this, jasmine will still be a bit sticker but still not mushy and terrible. Pookah fucked around with this message at 00:14 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 00:10
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You're all weird, lightly sticky rice is the best. 2 cups of water brought to a boil, with a pinch of salt if you like, add a cup of rice, lightly stir just enough to spread it around a bit, decrease heat to a simmer, cover and let simmer for ~20 minutes.
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May 14, 2014 00:53
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Kafka Esq. posted:Brown rice is basically not worth it nutritionally. I would love to hear more on this. I have no sense of why that might be--I always go for whole-grain everything and had been opting for brown rice for most stuff based on that but if that's stupid and pointless I'd rather use white--the medium-grain brown sticky rice didn't turn out like my regular white sticky rice does at ALL.
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May 14, 2014 01:16
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Nicol Bolas posted:I would love to hear more on this. I have no sense of why that might be--I always go for whole-grain everything and had been opting for brown rice for most stuff based on that but if that's stupid and pointless I'd rather use white--the medium-grain brown sticky rice didn't turn out like my regular white sticky rice does at ALL.
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May 14, 2014 01:27
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Kafka Esq. posted:Brown rice is basically not worth it nutritionally. And it tastes weird. I had this argument with my ex every time I made rice. Then it turned into brown rice pasta and brown rice tortillas and brown rice crackers I hate all those stupid things so much.
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May 14, 2014 13:10
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I like the nuttiness of brown rice in pilafs.
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May 14, 2014 18:37
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I really like brown rice you people are weird.
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May 14, 2014 20:46
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Kafka Esq. posted:Brown rice is basically not worth it nutritionally.
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May 15, 2014 14:29
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Adult Sword Owner posted:I really like brown rice you people are weird. Yeah, they each have their place and are both tasty in different ways.
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May 17, 2014 06:08
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Coming out of lurking, I just wanted to chime in on this. Its always amazed me how much people love brown rice - its ok but it always massively gunks up my rice cooker. Its good, but if you are even trying to eat healthy you will get all the nutrient content other places than brown rice. My content - start by buying a gigantic bag of rice from an Asian market (I like jasmine or basanti). Start your rice cooker with a little oil and butter - set it to quick cook if you have a programmable one. Let it melt the butter and get hot - frozen veggies,maybe a can of beans (drained or you can figure out the liquid amount), and onions or garlic/leeks/shallot. Let that saute for a bit. When that is done just dump in the rice and mix to let it coat with the oils. Its now a pilaf (if you haven't been keeping up with it in this thread). Add an appropriate amount of liquid (usually 2:1 with liquid:rice). Let it cook a little then add some sort of protein - I use sausages or thin chicken cuts and some eggs too. Let it cook on the normal setting (white rice again if programmable). The resulting meal will have the protein fully cooked and easily transferred to a container for lunches or an easy dinner. Its not terribly difficult and can be spiced up with !spices! or salt and pepper and siricha. I eat a lot of this and don't get tired of it. Plus you get to be amazed at actually using up on those big bags of rice. Edit: if vegetarian/vegan this recipe is easily adjusted with beans or no eggs/meat bigDninja fucked around with this message at 00:05 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 00:00
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I've only had a couple experiences with brown rice, including when I grabbed a box of brown rice sushi from the grocery store without realizing it. The nutty texture really doesn't do that specific application any favors. IMO, if you want brown rice, start with white rice and fry that poo poo up. Unrelated: Is there any way I can convince my mother that it is possible to make chicken soup from scratch without boiling the gently caress out of chicken breasts in plain water for an hour and a half beforehand? I was planning to make soup myself by grilling the chicken beforehand and cutting it up, but she got to it while I was out of the house. It has this awesome texture like cheap canned tuna; dry, stringy, and it sticks to your teeth when you try to chew. The soup is great aside from that (she grew up in a poor family, so she knows how to make this stuff generally), just the way she has always cooked meat ruins it for me.
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May 19, 2014 01:06
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Fucknag posted:I've only had a couple experiences with brown rice, including when I grabbed a box of brown rice sushi from the grocery store without realizing it. The nutty texture really doesn't do that specific application any favors. That is how chicken soup is suppose to be made. By boiling the poo poo out of the chicken, all the nutrients that you need to fight off a cold comes out and hangs out in the broth. Grilling your chicken will equal a poo poo broth that is not that healthy.
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May 19, 2014 01:46
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Why wouldn't you just make the broth from bones and veggies and add the chicken late in the cook to let it retain a not poo poo texture? ed: I mean I guess you're out of luck if you don't have any bones, but there's no reason to ever buy boneless chicken parts if you're even remotely concerned about being thrifty. Pharmaskittle fucked around with this message at 02:04 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 02:01
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DrNewton posted:That is how chicken soup is suppose to be made. By boiling the poo poo out of the chicken, all the nutrients that you need to fight off a cold comes out and hangs out in the broth. Grilling your chicken will equal a poo poo broth that is not that healthy. Stock is made from the bones, he's right and she should be removing the breasts/meat as soon as it's cooked and then returning it to the soup right at the end.
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May 19, 2014 02:21
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bigDninja posted:Coming out of lurking, I just wanted to chime in on this. Its always amazed me how much people love brown rice - its ok but it always massively gunks up my rice cooker. Its good, but if you are even trying to eat healthy you will get all the nutrient content other places than brown rice. So I can throw eggs into a 20ish minute cook and they won't get kind of lovely? My biggest problem with cooking eggs is they always feel like they have to be the last protein in a meal and right before it's served. If I can throw them into this sort of recipe with chicken/whatever then I would be totally OK with that. Basically I want to see if I can make a rice-heavy one pot oyakodon and yes I know there's 20 other reason that it couldn't work, but I would like to come up with an easy and cheap analog. Fucknag posted:Unrelated: Is there any way I can convince my mother that it is possible to make chicken soup from scratch without boiling the gently caress out of chicken breasts in plain water for an hour and a half beforehand? You really should be boiling an entire chicken with broken bones to create a broth; boiling the breasts could, well, work I guess, but you want all of the chicken flavor in that pot when making a broth-based soup. If using an entire chicken you'd break it up into quarters and then rip the meat off later, but I don't see much extra value over cheating and using Better than Bouillon but I'm a jerk Adult Sword Owner fucked around with this message at 06:51 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 06:49
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Yeah when I make it myself I generally either make stock properly or use the cheater cubes. Was gonna do the latter this time, got the breasts cause they were BOGO and at reduced price. Ah well, next time.
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May 20, 2014 06:22
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Boneless skinless breasts are like $2/lb on sale here, but they have no business being in soup.
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May 22, 2014 13:34
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Bob Morales posted:Boneless skinless breasts are like $2/lb on sale here, but they have no business being in soup. Agreed. I will never understand the insistence on boiling the whole chicken. You strip the raw meat and then boil the bones and scraps. The stock comes out beautiful and thick and rich if you just use bones. The mistake most people make, I think, is trying to use one chicken carcass (stripped of meat or not) to make quarts and quarts of stock. You can make like three quarts of good stock with 2 stripped chicken carcasses, depending on how big your chickens were. I don't dilute more than that.
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May 22, 2014 17:29
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Rhulman says 3:2 water to bones by weight. I prefer to roast the whole chicken, break it down and then so the bones. I don't see a reason to break it down raw and use raw bones unless you were planning on preparing a specific part in a specific way.
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May 22, 2014 18:12
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Rhulman says 3:2 water to bones by weight. I prefer to roast the whole chicken, break it down and then so the bones. I don't see a reason to break it down raw and use raw bones unless you were planning on preparing a specific part in a specific way. I do that for a lot of reasons. I'm only cooking for myself and my partner, for starters. We were getting whole chickens in our meat CSA monthly, and we got a bit sick of roast chicken. Pulling off the breasts for one meal and the legs for another (where you will save the leg bones for the stock pot) is a bit more versatile than just roasting the whole thing every time. Plus, roasting is one of those annoying meals that both requires a long time and also a lot of attention for fear of overcooking; by comparison, individual breasts cook up very quickly and legs you can throw in a crock pot or oven and let go all day. The chicken stretches over more total meals that way as well.
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May 22, 2014 19:18
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I normally buy my vegetables at the Mexican market, Costco, or the farmers market. Lately I've been going to the 99 Cent Only Store 'cause good god, everything is only a buck and is by far the cheapest anywhere in town. The selection is random, but usable, and I can always find a bunch of stuff to my liking.
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May 27, 2014 22:54
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I've never heard of a 99 cent store with vegetables, where is this?
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May 28, 2014 03:07
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