YNAB You Need A Budget

[jrg24]

here is one that is very simple and easy. Its not very healthy, but it is good and cheap. my mom used to make this all the time when i was a kid.

• ground beef or turkey
• water
• beef bullion
• Rice
• Cornstarch
• Salt
• Pepper

Brown meat, drain fat and return to pan. add enough water to where it is not quite covering the meat to make a gravy. drop a about 4 bullion cubes in the mix and bring to a soft boil until the bullion dissolves. slowly add cornstarch (follow package directions) until th sauce is thick. serve over rice. i like it with peas sometimes i mix them in with it. if you have leftovers, you can serve it over toast for breakfast.

[jrg24]

well, here is another one from my mom so once again it is not healthy. (give her a break, she is a southern woman). but it is cheap. we always had leftovers after feeding a family of 5 with big appetites.

corned beef hash.

• can corned beef
• onion, large diced
• potatoes,about 2-3 pounds russet or baking potatoes work best
• vegetable oil to fry potatoes

okay, you gotta peel the potaotes and dice into cubes, about the size of a caramel. you are gonna pan fry them until they are brown and tender. you may have to fry the pototes in batches. make sure you dont have stove is cranked up. med high or medium should do. after they are done drain them on paper towels or however else you see fit.

either remove the oil from the pan or grab a new pan and add the onion and corned beef. cook until onions are tender and corned beef is hot. mix the potatoes back in and enjoy.

you can also serve this with a fried egg on top for breakfast.

[boinga]

OK, I gotta post this because I've been eating it for lunch all week. It's one of those Great Depression era recipes that my mom and grandmother used to make when money as well as some food items were scarce. And I LOVE it. Serve it over some good whole grain bread with a vegetable on the side and it's even kinda healthy (main ingredients milk & beef. Ummm... NOT kosher

Chipped Beef on Toast

2 cups milk (whole, 1% or 2% OK)
2 T butter
3 T flour (or so)
1-2 packages Buddig sliced beef (about a dollar each)
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Warm milk and butter in saucepan til hot but not boiling. Mix flour with a little milk to make a runny paste. Then stir into hot milk. Keep stirring until milk thickens to a gravy-like consistency. Dice the beef slices into smallish squares (1/2" or so) and add to gravy. Add salt and pepper and warm for 5 min. Serve over hot whole grain toast with vegetable on the side.

Serves about 4 (or for me, 4-5 lunches)

p.s. I see its history goes back further than the depression:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:C ... f_on_toast
Maybe that's why my dad didn't like it!

[Flowerfire]

4 quarts of water
1 pound of Great Northern Beans
1 cup of olive oil
3 Tablespoons of minced garlic
2 Tablespoons of tomato paste
2 Tablespoons of salt (I use less)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil- crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano-crumbled
1/2 pound of small shell macaroni (cooked)

Rinse the beans, remove any grit. Heat the water to boil. Boil the beans in 4 qts. of water over high heat for 15 minutes.

Blend in olive oil and seasonings. Low boil for 1 hour 15 minutes- or until beans are tender. Add a little more water. Add the cooked pasta and let it warm up. Serve with grated cheese and ground black pepper.

This is STINKY! I guess I should say fragrant. But it's delicious. It's a big hit with good friends. (Between the beans and the garlic, I've only served it to good friends )

WOW! This sounds like one of my favorite made up recipes--except mine is pasta free! In mine, I saute veggies in lots of olive oil and use drained canned beans. I add 2 bouillion cubes, spices (Italian),some water, and some diced tomatoes, and let the whole thing cook a bit. It's great with rice, too.

[Flowerfire]

OK. The world's easiest cheap recipe for me is Tuna Noodle. I can get a cheap box of Tuna Helper (or generic) for less than a buck. Tuna is 50 cents per can. Throw in some leftover or frozen/canned veggies, and you can feed two to stuffed for less than a buck apiece. You can put buttered crumbs on top and brown in the oven for specialness!

You can make it homemade too, pretty cheap, but I like the convenience of the boxes.

Another favorite recipe (from an OLD Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cookbook and adapted for ease):

Scalloped Tuna

1 can tuna, flaked
30 saltines
1 cup milk
4-6 Tbs. of butter or margarine
salt and pepper to taste

Crush saltines and combine with butter and tuna. Spread into baking pan and cover with milk. Bake at 400-425 for about 20-30 minutes or until brown. Sounds weird, but it's wonderful. I serve with peas and cream of mushroom soup gravy.

[LoneStar]

[quote="boinga"p.s. I see its history goes back further than the depression:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:C ... f_on_toast
Maybe that's why my dad didn't like it![/quote]
My dad, a WWII vet used the less complimentary military name for dish, wouldn't touch it. Yet, he loved Spam, from his ration days. Go figure!

[jasonsandeman]

You know, I would love to see if you all would like your recipes on my website, for more exposure. There are a lot of good ideas here, so why not drop me a line at my PM box, and let me know if it is okay to put them up on my site. (Credit will be given of course. )

Sandeman

[samiam]

A while ago we had a couple around for dinner... I managed to do a three course meal for $3.50 a head with leftovers!

Anyway, my menu was:

Pumpkin soup with a crispy pastry top
Spaghetti bolognaise
Rockmelon sorbet

Here's the recipe for spaghetti bolognaise:

If you’re looking at the name of the meal below and thinking it’s too boring for having people over for dinner, think again! This is so tasty I’m always asked for the recipe the next day.

Ingredients:

Fresh basil
Beef mince (depends on how many you’re serving, but I use about 100g per person. I also prefer the heart-smart, low-fat option, but it’s more expensive)
Onion
Olive oil
Dry spaghetti
Garlic (optional)
Chilli oil (optionalish)
Brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Can of tinned tomatoes
Tomato paste (about three tablespoons)
Red wine (optional - I use a bin end wine so it’s very cheap!)
Splash a bit of oil into a pot on medium heat. While you wait for it to warm, cut your onion up into small cubes. (BTW, if your mother didn’t tell you… keep an onion in the fridge to stop it stinging your eyes!). Put the onion in the pot with the oil and if you feel like it, throw some crushed garlic in too. Stir the onion until it turns slightly translucent, then add the mince. Brown the mince lightly, being careful to separate it all to avoid “chunks” forming. Add the tinned tomatoes and paste. Feel free to beat up the tomatoes with your spatula a bit íf you bought whole ones. Add a generous splash of red wine. Reduce to low-medium heat but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t catch. Fill another pot with water and bring it to the boil. Once boiling, add the chilli oil and about a teaspoon of salt. Put your spaghetti in the water, remembering to separate it with a spaghetti server or a fork. When your mince is cooked through, add a very generous amount of roughly sliced basil, salt and pepper to taste and about two tablespoons of brown sugar. Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain it and return to the pot. Take a tablespoon or two of your sauce and stir it through the spaghetti. Serve the spaghetti onto plates in neat piles and top with the sauce.

It’s worth noting that the chilli oil DOESN’T make this recipe hot. If you’re allergic or something, you can skip it - the sauce tastes great without it! It’ll just give it a mild tingle that you’ll soon realise bolognaise really misses!

Budget tips for this recipe: Again, this is a great recipe because in most cases you’ll have a lot of this in your pantry already. If you don’t want to buy chilli oil, but still want the taste, you can marinate some fresh cut chilli in olive oil (if you put the fresh chilli straight into the sauce it will be very hot). Alternatively, put chilli flakes into your water with olive oil and salt instead. You can substitute low fat beef mince for ‘regular’ beef mince in order to make the meal much cheaper, but remember not to use as much oil, as the fat in the meat will make up for it. Brown sugar is used here for flavour, but you can use white sugar instead if you already have it in your pantry. Again with the wine, I buy bin-end bottles, so they’re about $4 or $5 each and you can freeze the remainder to use next time, or drink it over dinner! I use my cooking wine for several weeks quite comfortably.

[samiam]

Here's the recipe for the zesty pumpkin soup:

Ingredients:

Butter (margarine will do fine, whatever you already have)
One or two leeks
Chicken or vegetable stock (about a litre - that’s about 2.1 pints)
Butternut pumpkin (depending on how many people you’re serving for, a half usually does. I used two halves and ate three more meals from this recipe.)
Paprika (optionalish - it makes a real difference)
Salt and pepper (optional)
Cooking cream (I used extra light)
An orange
Pastry (I used pre-rolled sheets)
Garlic (optional)
Milk or an egg
Slice the leeks and warm the butter in your soup pot while you’re doing it. If you happen to have garlic around, feel free to throw some crushed garlic into the pot. Put the leeks in the pot on low heat and cover them in the butter. In the meantime, peel and cut the pumpkin into small cubes. When the leeks are soft and the whites are slightly turning translucent, put the pumpkin in the pot. Almost immediately, add the stock. Cover the pot, bring the whole lot to the boil and then simmer, covered until the pumpkin is very soft. Allow the soup to cool. Grate the rind from the orange and add it to the pot along with the salt, pepper and paprika to taste. Transfer everything to a food processor (or blender) if you have it, otherwise just mash it up! Add cream to taste. Cut the pastry to cover small ramekin dishes. Put the soup in the dishes and cover with pastry. Brush the pastry with the egg (whisked) or milk and bake in the oven until it’s golden.

The effect of this is to have what looks like a small pie served to each person. When they break through the pastry, they’re greeted with a waft of the citrus from the orange plus the sweetness of the soup. Everyone I’ve ever served this to has absolutely raved about it, and it’s so very cheap!

Budget tips for this recipe: The good thing about this recipe is that you’ll often have lots of the ingredients at home already. If you don’t have pastry pre-made, just make your own - I often do, it’s just that I was making this meal on a day’s notice and on a weeknight after work. If you don’t have cream at home, or are watching the pennies or your waistline, it can be substituted for milk. Same with the egg, milk will cause pastry to brown just fine. Even some of the warmed butter will have the same effect! If you’re so inclined, you can make your own vegetable / chicken stock in large batches and freeze it for future use. This is really cost effective, but is time consuming. I bought pre-made salt reduced liquid stock (it was on sale) but you can equally make up your own from stock cubes, which will cost you less than a dollar (just watch the salt content of these). If you don’t have paprika in the house, try cummin or cinnamon. Finally, I use butternut pumpkin because it’s sweeter than your regular pumpkin, but you can really have fun with the flavour by experimenting with different pumpkin types! It’s cheapest, healthiest and tastiest to buy whichever is in season.

Remember to put whatever is left over into a container and into the fridge!

[karenj2]

FYI - I love the recipe site http://www.recipezaar.com It allows you to put in what ingredients you have, and you can sort the recipes by highest rated (which gets you some really yummy stuff!)

I have no idea if this is cheap or not - I've unfortunately never priced out our meals. I just know that eating at home is cheaper than eating out...

My "fav" is actually a marinade for grilled chicken:
- Equal parts wine (don't use red), oj, italian dressing and oil
- Seasoning, to taste (I use one of the no-salt seasoning blends - the name is escaping me)

Marinate for 4 hours, then grill. (You can also make the marinade for sliced squash & zucchini - don't put the veggies in with the chicken, 'cause they don't cook long enough to kill any bacteria from the chicken.)

[MALMomma]

We went to Whole Foods last week to do our shopping. I had gone online to see what the store hours were and came across a new specials page. This pdf file has menu plans for one, two or four, plus entertaining. I jotted down the grocery list for the meals for four. Tonight, I made the Mexican Taco Stew. We have some leftovers, too. I added up what the ingredients cost me and divided the meal by four. $2.81 per person (with those leftovers factored into this!). Super easy, too!

Here's the link to their savings pdf, in case you want to look at the other recipes:

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product ... ledeal.pdf

And here's the Mexican Taco Stew:

1/2 lb ground beef or turkey (I used gr turk)
1 med onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 TB taco seasoning (I used red cayenne pepper, dark chili powder, & ground cumin)
2 C chicken stock
1 lg zucchini or summer squash, cut into sm cubes
1 15oz can black beans
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes (I used a big ol' Jersey tomato they had on sale instead of canned)
1 C frozen corn kernels
1 C salsa

Brown meat in lg pot over med high heat. Drain, remove & set aside.

In same pot, saute onion & garlic until onion is translucent. Add meat back to pot and sprinkle mixture with taco seasoning to blend.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, 10-15 minutes.

Karen

[maurinsky]

Delicious and inexpensive chicken recipe

1.5 - 2 lbs. chicken thighs
1 onion chopped
2 shallots chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 can chicken broth or 1 cup of stock or white wine
2 tb flour
2 tb olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 325. Season both sides of the chicken thighs with salt & pepper. Heat large skillet, add olive oil, and then add onion, cook down until softened, then add the shallots, cook down for a minute or so, and then the garlic. Move all the veggies to a large roasting pan. Then add the chicken thighs, skin side down. Brown on both sides, remove from skillet and place in the large roasting pan. You may have to do in batches. When all the chicken is browned, deglaze the pan with your liquid - use most of the can of broth, or the cup of wine or stock. Sometimes I do half wine, half stock. Let the liquid cook down and thicken a bit - if it isn't thickening, mix the flour with some water (or broth or stock or wine) and add into the skillet. When thickened, cover the chicken in the roasting pan with the liquid, cover the whole roasting pan with some foil, and cook for 1.5 hours.

This smells fantastic while it's cooking, and easily modifies to be cooked in a crockpot (although you do miss out on the brown, crispy, carmelized skin if you do it in the crock). Just do all the steps and add everything to a crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.

The meat is tender as can be, and the layering of the flavors of onion, shallot and garlic makes the sauce subtle and delicious. And it's inexpensive - I generally buy chicken thighs either at BJs for .89/lb or at the regular grocery store on sale for .99/lb, and everything else in the recipe is a staple. Great with mashed potatoes or squash, this is a good Sunday dinner recipe.

[domino]

My favorite cheap chicken recipe is "Pepsi Chicken":

1 chicken (the cheap pieces-and-parts bag from the freezer isle)
1 stick of butter
1 (12 oz) can of cola
1 (20 oz) bottle of ketchup

mix it all up in a skillet, cover and cook at 250 degrees (med-low) for 2 hours, turning occasionally. Serve over rice. Mmm-mmm fall off the bone goodness.

[Maggie Magpie]

There are some FANTASTIC "cheap" and "easy" recipes at: http://www.flylady.net

For those of you who have never heard of the Fly Lady, check it out. She's all about simplifying your life for pennies on the dollar.

[cgrange]

This is my favorite subject ever.

Here's a recipe I make a lot as a grad student who has no time and no money but won't buy processed food because its against her principles: Hearty Lentil Soup, lifted from 101cookbooks.com. Cheap and delicious and nutritious.

2 cups black beluga lentils (or green French lentils), picked over and rinsed (buy in bulk!)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt (or normal salt, whatever)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
3 cups of a big leafy green (chard, kale, etc), rinsed well, deveined, finely chopped

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan, add the lentils, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.
Heat the oil in a heavy soup pot over medium heat, then add the onion and salt and saute until tender, a couple minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, lentils, and water and continue cooking for a few more minutes, letting the soup come back up to a simmer. Stir in the chopped greens, and wait another minute. Taste and adjust the seasoning if need be. Ladle into bowls, and serve with a dollop of yogurt.

Variations:
- You can serve it with a poached egg on top,
- or crunchy, fried shallots,
- with a drizzle of chive infused cream,
- or with chunks of tiny pan-fried butternut squash cubes.
- Make a thicker version by using just a bit of water, and then spoon it over an omelette in the morning.
- Have some cooked farro or wheat berries around? Toss some in. Millet might be good too.
- You can finish the soup by adding your favorite spices or spice blends. Smoked paprika, crushed chiles, toasted cumin, would all work nicely.