Friday, January 22, 2010
A Request to my Readers
I'm wondering if I can ask my readers for a bit of a favour in the form of some inexpensive, but filling recipe contributions. I've noticed that I have readers in India, the UK, Ukraine, Russia, and primarily Canada. It would be great to get some authentic international cuisine happening here. Here's the criteria for the recipes. They have to be inexpensive, feed at least two people, have some protein, vegetables, carbs - you know, the things that are good for you. Why this criteria? The reason I started posting here in the first place, was that there are other people out there in my situation: financially strapped (poor), have limited cooking resources/utensils (my kitchen is tiny and I have 2 pots, one chef's knife, and assorted cutlery to cook with). So the easier the recipe is to make, and the fewer pots/utensils it uses in preparation the better. Gimme a hand here and let's see what we can do.
Man-oh-man
The process to getting provincial funding so I can continue my work is nuts: 27 applications, filled out in triplicate. Robbing a bank would probably be easier, not to mention faster. I sent one app off yesterday, and have the rest to do over the next few days. That's why there are no recipes posted, My apologies. Anyway the stuff I've been feeding myself is really uninspiring. It consists of prepackaged macaroni and cheese mix with some hot dogs thrown in. That's what I've had for the past four days. Yes it's inexpensive, but man is it ever boring.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Feed Four for Five Bucks
The cupboard wasn't exactly bare, but there were a couple of boxes of generic macaroni and cheese things hiding at the back. So I thought "Why not? Let's see what I can do with these." This particular recipe will feed four easily for about $5.00 I'll be posting it shortly.
Monday, January 4, 2010
A Meal for Four - Total Cost $7.79... Not Bad
I made something for dinner last night that I thought I'd only make under threat of torture. Hamburger Helper! But the thing is that it turned out not too bad, and Bug liked it. I have one suggestion though. They don't give you enough pasta in that crappy cardboard box to feed more than one person. I recommend that you put their pasta in some storage jar or other and keep it for adding to a salad or something. I ended up taking 2.5 cups of Rigatoni, cooking them as per package directions, and adding them to the Hamburger Helper sauce mixture once it had thickened. The other thing I did was add about 1.5 cups of chopped up broccoli florets and stems, along with the same amount of grape tomatoes (they were on sale). I added the vegetables right after I combined all the ingredients for the sauce mix and added it to the browned meat. So the vegetables cooked as the sauce was doing its thing. It didn't come across as a prepackaged dinner at all. Best of all? It cost me $7.79 to feed four. You do the math. That's pretty darn inexpensive.
Friday, December 25, 2009
The Promised Recipe
It has been like a thousand years since I promised to post the non-pasta recipe. Yes I feel guilty, but posting constantly is a major headache sometimes because I put off other things, like living, to work on this post that I'm really not sure anyone is reading. This is going to be my last post for a while. I think I'll go on a two week schedule. That way I can have a life, and have something to say and test out new recipes for anyone who is following this post.
Ok. Here goes.
If you have a kitchen scrub brush for your dishes, soap it up, and get the cold water running at a good clip. Scrub all of the vegetables, except the broccoli, and rinse all soapy remains off them. Put them aside in some sort of container. Keep that water flowing because now you're going to rinse the hell out of the broccoli. Put that with the rest of the vegetables once done.
Take a breather, and put 5 - 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet or frying pan. Swish it around on the bottom to coat the pan, and set it on low/medium heat to preheat while you slice the vegetables.
I hope you have a cutting board to slice and chop the vegetables on. If not, clean off a good portion of the kitchen counter as your work space. (Be careful if you're cutting on the counter top and you, like me, are renting the suite. The super is sure to notice the damage and ding you for it once you move out.)
Trim off, the ends of the carrot, and cut it into 3 little orange "logs". Discard the ends. Cut each carrot log lengthways in half, lay it on the flat cut end and slice or chop into 1/4" thick pieces, set aside. Do the same with the beets. Since the beets are nice and fat, slice into 1/4" sections lenghtways, and then cross cut those in 1/4" cuts. This will give you reddish french frie like things. Take those fries and chop into 1/4" to 1/2" pieces and set aside with the carrots. What you did with the beets, you'll do exactly the same with the potatoes, and set aside from the other vegetables. I think you pretty well know the drill with broccoli. Cut off smallish florets, and chop up the larger ones into managable bite sized pieces. Use the stem of the broccoli too, but discard the end as it tends to be yucky. Set the broccoli aside separately, as it cooks faster than the other root vegetables.
Throw all of the vegetables, except the broccoli and potatoes, in the pan, stir to coat with oil, and cover. Raise heat to medium.
Wipe off your workspace. Take 1/3 of a pack of bacon and slice cross wise into 1/4" strips. In a separate pan, or pot with lid, that has been coated with extra virgin olive oil, toss in the bacon and cover. Covering it keeps in the steam from the cooking process and makes it go faster. Stir the bacon now and again to ensure even cooking.... on medium heat.
Wipe off your workspace, and now it's time to make stir fry strips out of the pork. Make the meat look like it's sliced in a Chinese or Asian restaurant: that same width and length.
Check your vegetables. Poke them with a fork. Cool one off and have a bite. If it has a bit of a firmness to it and the colour is nice and bright they're almost done. Throw in the broccoli. Stir things around for a few minutes until the broccoli gets a nice bright green colour with a bit of sweat on it. All the veggies are done now, so set aside in a container and cover with something to conserve their heat.
If the bacon is curling up on itself keep the lid off the pan/pot and stir occasionally until it begins to get crispy. Remove from pan/pot and set aside/cover. Drain off the grease in the bacon pan/pot, and add another 5 or so tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, followed by the pork. This stuff cooks quickly so watch it. Cover for a few minutes, remove cover and stir, recover, and so on. It will be done when there's no pink showing on the outside or the inside if you slice a piece. Take it out of the pan/pot and put aside, not with the bacon.
Toss the potatoes into this pan, cover and raise the heat to medium/high. Keep covered to speed cooking time, but stir every now and again. The potatoes will be done when their skins start to come off or stick to the bottom of the pan. But you can always do the taste test thing as you did with the beets and carrots. Remove pan from heat.
Take two dinner plates: put a good portion of pork strips in the centre of the plate, veggies on one side, potatoes on the other. Crumble bacon on top of the potatoes, and dinner is served.
See I do know how to cook something other than pasta.
Ok. Here goes.
If you have a kitchen scrub brush for your dishes, soap it up, and get the cold water running at a good clip. Scrub all of the vegetables, except the broccoli, and rinse all soapy remains off them. Put them aside in some sort of container. Keep that water flowing because now you're going to rinse the hell out of the broccoli. Put that with the rest of the vegetables once done.
Take a breather, and put 5 - 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet or frying pan. Swish it around on the bottom to coat the pan, and set it on low/medium heat to preheat while you slice the vegetables.
I hope you have a cutting board to slice and chop the vegetables on. If not, clean off a good portion of the kitchen counter as your work space. (Be careful if you're cutting on the counter top and you, like me, are renting the suite. The super is sure to notice the damage and ding you for it once you move out.)
Trim off, the ends of the carrot, and cut it into 3 little orange "logs". Discard the ends. Cut each carrot log lengthways in half, lay it on the flat cut end and slice or chop into 1/4" thick pieces, set aside. Do the same with the beets. Since the beets are nice and fat, slice into 1/4" sections lenghtways, and then cross cut those in 1/4" cuts. This will give you reddish french frie like things. Take those fries and chop into 1/4" to 1/2" pieces and set aside with the carrots. What you did with the beets, you'll do exactly the same with the potatoes, and set aside from the other vegetables. I think you pretty well know the drill with broccoli. Cut off smallish florets, and chop up the larger ones into managable bite sized pieces. Use the stem of the broccoli too, but discard the end as it tends to be yucky. Set the broccoli aside separately, as it cooks faster than the other root vegetables.
Throw all of the vegetables, except the broccoli and potatoes, in the pan, stir to coat with oil, and cover. Raise heat to medium.
Wipe off your workspace. Take 1/3 of a pack of bacon and slice cross wise into 1/4" strips. In a separate pan, or pot with lid, that has been coated with extra virgin olive oil, toss in the bacon and cover. Covering it keeps in the steam from the cooking process and makes it go faster. Stir the bacon now and again to ensure even cooking.... on medium heat.
Wipe off your workspace, and now it's time to make stir fry strips out of the pork. Make the meat look like it's sliced in a Chinese or Asian restaurant: that same width and length.
Check your vegetables. Poke them with a fork. Cool one off and have a bite. If it has a bit of a firmness to it and the colour is nice and bright they're almost done. Throw in the broccoli. Stir things around for a few minutes until the broccoli gets a nice bright green colour with a bit of sweat on it. All the veggies are done now, so set aside in a container and cover with something to conserve their heat.
If the bacon is curling up on itself keep the lid off the pan/pot and stir occasionally until it begins to get crispy. Remove from pan/pot and set aside/cover. Drain off the grease in the bacon pan/pot, and add another 5 or so tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, followed by the pork. This stuff cooks quickly so watch it. Cover for a few minutes, remove cover and stir, recover, and so on. It will be done when there's no pink showing on the outside or the inside if you slice a piece. Take it out of the pan/pot and put aside, not with the bacon.
Toss the potatoes into this pan, cover and raise the heat to medium/high. Keep covered to speed cooking time, but stir every now and again. The potatoes will be done when their skins start to come off or stick to the bottom of the pan. But you can always do the taste test thing as you did with the beets and carrots. Remove pan from heat.
Take two dinner plates: put a good portion of pork strips in the centre of the plate, veggies on one side, potatoes on the other. Crumble bacon on top of the potatoes, and dinner is served.
See I do know how to cook something other than pasta.
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