Inexpensive Meals

What are some staples that help keep your food budget down?

For me, I make a Puerto Rican rice and pinto bean side dish that I grew up with that I just love..it is great for a main course or a side dish, and even for breakfast!

At a time when food prices are going through the roof, what are some things you do to keep your food budget in check?

Good question/topic! Besides lentils, which I mention all the time, I add garbanzo beans and potatoes, cook them all up in the same pot until most of the water has boiled off, mash them (yes I add cauliflower and turnip in the summer-I love them-too expensive in winter) and spread the mixture out on two pieces of wax paper as though I was making hamburger patties, and freeze them (some I hydrate in my hydrator, all about 1/4 in thick. The frozen ones are delicious as vegie burgers when broiled or sautéed in olive oil, garlic and butter, but I have also used them as chewey's when I had to, and they weren't that bad ('cause I doused them with Spike/American Heart seasonings first.....

Personally, I like turkey. A turkey goes a long way around here.

Turkey tetrazinni, turkey soup, turkey quesadillas, turkey peiroggis, and of course, turkey sandwiches!

I live alone so I tend to make one big thing at the beginning of the week and eat that all week. In the winter I make a huge pot of vegetable soup with a little stew meat or a big casserole of some kind, in the summer I usually fill a Tupperware "thatsa bowl" (32 cup) and a couple of others with salad and live on that. Oatmeal (not the microwave crap) is inexpensive and filling. Eggs and potatoes. If you know how to cook you can eat well for very little, especially if you don't mind leftovers.

Melissa you cook a big turkey? Really? I didn't know anyone did that exccept at Thanksgiving. I LOVE turkey sandwiches!

I think I'll roast one on Sunday.

MID, I do love to cook. What I have to get better at is not wasting food as it is just the two of us. I have to try to commit to only buying fresh produce when I know I have something I want to make with it. It is shameful how much food I waste.

Jhodi, I used to cook a turkey once a week. I stuff the insides with a cut up apple, a little sea-salt, and a few cloves of garlic. Cook it breast-side down so all the juices run into the breast meat. Voila! It's not pretty, but it is delicious, easy and lasts a long time!

Interesting!

A turkey usually lasts me a couple of weeks PLUS what I freeze. It sounds like it might be time to put up a Recipe catagory. I LOVE to collect recipes. Why don't ya'll come visit this summer and I'll cook for you. I'm not too far from either of you. We'll have our first church service too!!

Do you guys like seafood recipes? I lived in Cajun and Creole country so long that I picked up all the recipes - if you can call them that - they do not measure anything. Throw in onions and bell peppers and you can make a meal out of anything.

Meatball Stew (Made with a brown gravy and throw it on some rice)

Red Beans and Rice - this is really good. In New Orleans they eat it every Monday. It is a ritual.

Crawfish (Shrimp or Crab) Etouffee

Shrimp Creole and Shrimp Fettuccine

Stuffed Mirlitons (Pronounced Meli Tons in New Orleans) These are wonderful

Stuffed Bell Peppers. Mmmmm

BTM they fry their turkeys. Very good too!

I LOVE red beans and rice.

You have my overwhelming convictions. Food is it. I am actually writing a food/travel supplement to my travel adventures. (I really did travel around the world, playing piano/making the dinner party circuit, me and my lady cooking, catering and entertaining many people.

My favorite foods are hard to describe. They are (for the most part) inexpensive. I have a lot of North African (mostly Moroccan) recipes, Caraibbean, Mediterranean and South American recipes, lots of condiments/salsas, etc.

Here I'll start with my favorite: Caribbean Salsa. After chopping/crushing peeled tomatoes, add some pineapple (canned, crushed dole pineapple just fine), grated fresh ginger, garlic and GREEN MANGO or GRANNY APPLES if you can't afford mango (this is the sour part of sweet n' sour). Chop as much jalepéna peppers you want. The piece de la résistance is soaking everything in lime/coconut juice the night before, drain it and garnish with chopped cress, grated lime peelings, almost as simple as describing it, yet everyone will die for it, especially on scrambled eggs, or just plain rice!

JHODI! I'd love to have your Puerto Rican rice dish recipe. We have an incredible (most of the time, whole block line of customers waiting) Puerto Rican restaurant in Portland called Pam Biche. Their rice smells good when cooking, the black AND pinto beans, fried plaintain/? side dishes, really excellent. I wonder how they cook their rice. Do they cook it in coconut or pineapple juice perhaps? The restaurant cook won't tell....her secret....

For starters, you need some sofrito on hand. You can find sofrito in a jar in most latin markets, but I have to make my own because the jarred sofrito contains MSG.

To make the sofrito:

Makes about 4 cups.
If you can't find ajices dulces or culantro, don't sweat. Up the amount of cilantro to 1 ½ bunches.

2 medium Spanish onions, cut into large chunks
3 to 4 Italian frying peppers or cubanelle peppers
16 to 20 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large bunch cilantro, washed
7 to 10 ajices dulces --optional
4 leaves of culantro or another handful cilantro
3 to 4 ripe plum tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into large chunks


Chop the onion and cubanelle or Italian peppers in the work bowl of a food processor until coarsely chopped. With the motor running, add the remaining ingredients one at a time and process until smooth. The sofrito will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It also freezes beautifully. Freeze sofrito in ½ cup batches in sealable plastic bags.

You can experiment and use sofrito in lots of your recipes. And don't get hung up on any of the ingredients, you can substitute a lot. You just need to end up with a flavored tomato paste/sauce.

Now, just take pinto beans and cook them with onion, garlic, peppers, italian dried spices and about 2-3 TBSP of the sofrito. If you don't have sofrito, use ketchup or tomato paste (in a pinch).

It is kinda soupy as the liquid is yummy over the rice. I use brown rice.

muchos de grassy us! I can tell already it will be fantastic. Food that comes from contries close to the equator seem to be tops on my list, as much travel as I have done...who knows why....

I have to give you my favorite recipe. People ask for it every time. It too is tropical/rice & bean addition.

Aside from cooking rice normally, add turmeric a whole tablespoon to rice water, and fresh lemon thyme sprigs. Set aside.

Romazova (malagash tagine) is simple: cook chicken and or pork till it falls off the bone in ordinary chicken or vegetable broth/bouillion. Remove chicken and pork. Add two or three bunches (3qt broth) of watercress (wild spinach if watercress isn't available), a peeled clove of ginger, sliced thin (3in. length) add as much hot pepper you want, 4 seeded,peeled,cored tomatoes, one grated lime, lime juice, 3 cloves of garlic, tblspoon turmeric (or saffran(2-3pinches if you can afford it), 1 med. size sliced onion, add chicken, pork meat, cook over med heat until onions are tender. Serve over rice, and the salsa I described middle of page 1 of this thread(or your sofrito sounds good, too) and red beans, cooked with onion, garlic, bay leaf and thyme. Top everything with a good swig of Rum (on the side)