Cheap Eaten

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bower
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#281

Post: # 10550Unread post bower
Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:14 pm

I made a black bean salsa for my nachos last night. Frozen tomatoes and a half cup of frozen not so well cooked black beans went into a pot and left to boil for a bit, then sat overnight on the stovetop. It thickened up great! So for supper I added more necessaries to the salsa - garlic, onions, peppers, salt, red wine and balsamic vinegar. It was good! But what a simple meal compared to the treat I made myself the week before when I had avocadoes! :roll: Refried beans I had made earlier and froze. Salsa as always frozen home ingredients, with fresh peppers this time, and that got dumped into the beans to heat up while I made guacamole and some cream cheese with garlic, lemon and the top of my surviving pot of dill. This is how I served it.
nacho-treats.JPG
That is not exactly the cheapest once you add up all the different parts, but one must enjoy special treats in february. ;)
The pork tenderloin I scored at my last grocery trip was really a bargain. They manage to make it look small until you open the package and out springs two! tenderloins that are much bigger than the pack. How do they do that? :lol: Anyway a good half dozen meals there for $6. Roasted potatoes and pepper strips with it. The salad is my own dear brassicas from the basement, chopped apple and of course chopped avocado.
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worth1
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#282

Post: # 10553Unread post worth1
Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:28 pm

That looks really good.
So tell me I assume you have been where you live all your life.
Just when in your life or year did this sort of thing start becoming popular where you live?
In the 60's you couldn't find a hot pepper where I lived much less other tings.
My mother was considered the queen of tacos with her so called taco parties she held from time to time.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#283

Post: # 10555Unread post imp
Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:59 pm

worth1 wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:28 pm That looks really good.
So tell me I assume you have been where you live all your life.
Just when in your life or year did this sort of thing start becoming popular where you live?
In the 60's you couldn't find a hot pepper where I lived much less other tings.
My mother was considered the queen of tacos with her so called taco parties she held from time to time.
Odd about the hot peppers being hard to find. Even my grand parents on one side grew them in the 1930's in Wisconsin on their farm, and my other grandmother in Pennsylvania also grew them. And I think I am older than you by a fair bit and recall them all over the south and even up into northern California in the 50's, too. Even Rob's folks grew them on the farm in south eastern Oklahoma, or rather the people that worked for them did; one of the crops that was sold from the farm.

Surprised me, I thought everyone grew both sweet and hot to very hot peppers all over the country for many decades. Learn something new everyday I guess.
Together, trees make an ecosystem that tempers the extremes of heat & cold, stores lots of water, & makes a lot of humidity. In this environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what.

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Re: Cheap Eaten

#284

Post: # 10571Unread post bower
Sat Feb 15, 2020 7:49 pm

@worth, I haven't been where I live all my life. When I was 9 we moved to South America. That was amazing from a food pov. So many fruits and vegetables that I'd never imagined to exist! I finished high school in the South Pacific. They had peppers there too. And I lived in Spain in the mid-eighties.
All the places I lived changed the way I ate, but I also met new foods throughout my life here just from different people. I was vegetarian for awhile and in the 80's that was strictly a specialty store.. I have a bad memory for dates, which makes it hard to say which decade things started to change in the supermarkets here. I can say for certain that in the 90's there were jalapeno's available everywhere.
As for a plate of nachos with trimmings piled on top, such as they are, I probably had that for the first time around ten years ago, because I remember who served it up. :) Young friend of ours who is really fond of Mexican food. We have made some variant of the same many times to eat together. There's a Mexican restaurant in town where I've eaten once or twice but that was maybe 20 years ago. I had a burrito. And we had chips that we dipped into a runny salsa. So the pile of nachos was not trying to be authentic, far from it! Just something we enjoy from time to time.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#285

Post: # 10600Unread post pepperhead212
Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:46 pm

I made a batch of ratatouille based lentils in the IP, with the chicken trimmed from the boneless skinless thighs, that I froze 5 lbs of, the other day. I browned the chicken some on high sauté mode, adding some re-hydrated eggplant, and cooked until the EP was starting to brown some, then removed them. Then, on regular sauté, I added a large diced onion, and cooked that until browning a little, then added a large, diced red bell pepper, and cooked that a few minutes, added 4 large minced cloves of garlic, and cooked 1 min. Then I added one 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 3 c of water, about a half tb of Serbian oregano (in place of the usual thyme), and a generous amount of chopped basil - I had a large handful of leaves, and used half now, half at the end. I salted the liquid with a generous amount of fish sauce - a favorite of mine, in these dishes. Then I added 1 c of rinsed puy lentils, and 1/4 c red quinoa, and about a tb of crushed Thai pepper flakes, and mixed in. I covered, and cooked 14 min. in the "porridge" mode - something I use when the dish will be fairly thick. It cooled 12 min., and I stirred in the rest of the basil. I will definitely make this again; would probably also be good with Italian sausage, or without meat, and maybe more veggies.
ImageRatatouille lentils, with chicken by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#286

Post: # 10603Unread post imp
Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:22 pm

Yum looking dish there pepperhead! How do you prep your eggplant for drying? I think it would be fun to try that method out with the eggplant.
Together, trees make an ecosystem that tempers the extremes of heat & cold, stores lots of water, & makes a lot of humidity. In this environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what.

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Re: Cheap Eaten

#287

Post: # 10607Unread post pepperhead212
Sun Feb 16, 2020 12:33 am

imp wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:22 pm Yum looking dish there pepperhead! How do you prep your eggplant for drying? I think it would be fun to try that method out with the eggplant.
imp, I cut the EP up a little larger than I would, if using it fresh, then spread it on the sheets, and dry them - that's it! They last more than one season, with no problems. I get so many EPs from just 6 plants every year, that I end up with a couple gallons or more of dried EP. 1 lb reduces to 1.45 oz. Last year, I still had a lot, and most got dried, even though I reduced to 4 plants, and my largest producer - Hari - did not germinate. That's why I experimented with the GA-3, and fortunately, got every Hari seed sprouted.

I use a lot of that dried EP in dishes like this, or soups, or curries. I just put a pound's worth of cubes (or however much I would want) in a container, run some hot water on them, and put a weight on the top. Within about a half hour they are ready to use, though I usually let them soak longer. I tried putting them in dishes dried, at first, but they didn't cook evenly - some would remain dry in the center.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#288

Post: # 10614Unread post imp
Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:22 am

Thank yo so much! Especially abut not adding it directly, great tip and saved me some trouble there. I think that would be a better way for me to save the eggplant for later as my freezer space is limited anymore. No dip in lemon juice before drying? Did you use a dehydrator, yes?
Together, trees make an ecosystem that tempers the extremes of heat & cold, stores lots of water, & makes a lot of humidity. In this environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this point, the community must remain intact no matter what.

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Re: Cheap Eaten

#289

Post: # 10642Unread post worth1
Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:28 am

Bower wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 7:49 pm @worth, I haven't been where I live all my life. When I was 9 we moved to South America. That was amazing from a food pov. So many fruits and vegetables that I'd never imagined to exist! I finished high school in the South Pacific. They had peppers there too. And I lived in Spain in the mid-eighties.
All the places I lived changed the way I ate, but I also met new foods throughout my life here just from different people. I was vegetarian for awhile and in the 80's that was strictly a specialty store.. I have a bad memory for dates, which makes it hard to say which decade things started to change in the supermarkets here. I can say for certain that in the 90's there were jalapeno's available everywhere.
As for a plate of nachos with trimmings piled on top, such as they are, I probably had that for the first time around ten years ago, because I remember who served it up. :) Young friend of ours who is really fond of Mexican food. We have made some variant of the same many times to eat together. There's a Mexican restaurant in town where I've eaten once or twice but that was maybe 20 years ago. I had a burrito. And we had chips that we dipped into a runny salsa. So the pile of nachos was not trying to be authentic, far from it! Just something we enjoy from time to time.
The areas I was raised in didn't have much for Mexican food at all.
My mom and some friends of ours were the only people I know of in the area that even grew hot peppers.
The big city 50 miles away had restaurants in the shopping malls though.
You might find a small can of pickled jalapenos and hot sauce in the store.
And the usual canned stuff.
Nothing like the huge selections we have today.
One of these towns I lived close to even today has only 1,083 people living in town and the area around it very sparse.
Looks like they have an El Rancho Mexican grill now.
The Mexican restaurant is where the Circle J cafe used to be.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#290

Post: # 10648Unread post bower
Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:51 am

You wouldn't believe how popular Mexican food has become here, as well.
You can't go down the junk food aisle without finding loads of jars of salsa various kinds, and a dozen kinds of nacho chips.
We used to buy the salsa too, but then I got serious about growing peppers and tomatoes about ten years ago, and the rest is history... nothing store bought ever comes close to making your own version with fresh stuff. :)
And of course, we make a meal of it!
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#291

Post: # 10724Unread post pepperhead212
Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:24 pm

imp wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:22 am Thank yo so much! Especially abut not adding it directly, great tip and saved me some trouble there. I think that would be a better way for me to save the eggplant for later as my freezer space is limited anymore. No dip in lemon juice before drying? Did you use a dehydrator, yes?
Dehydrator, yes, and I use a low temp - 115-120°, for this, and most things. Takes a little longer, but they haven't darkened. Often I have 4 or 5 shelves drying at once! I do grill a few EPs, and scrape the purée out to freeze, and I cook a lot of them throughout the summer, but the great majority goes into the dehydrator.
Bower wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 7:49 pm @worth, I haven't been where I live all my life. When I was 9 we moved to South America. That was amazing from a food pov. So many fruits and vegetables that I'd never imagined to exist! I finished high school in the South Pacific. They had peppers there too. And I lived in Spain in the mid-eighties.
All the places I lived changed the way I ate, but I also met new foods throughout my life here just from different people. I was vegetarian for awhile and in the 80's that was strictly a specialty store.. I have a bad memory for dates, which makes it hard to say which decade things started to change in the supermarkets here. I can say for certain that in the 90's there were jalapeno's available everywhere.
As for a plate of nachos with trimmings piled on top, such as they are, I probably had that for the first time around ten years ago, because I remember who served it up. :) Young friend of ours who is really fond of Mexican food. We have made some variant of the same many times to eat together. There's a Mexican restaurant in town where I've eaten once or twice but that was maybe 20 years ago. I had a burrito. And we had chips that we dipped into a runny salsa. So the pile of nachos was not trying to be authentic, far from it! Just something we enjoy from time to time.
You are so lucky to have lived in all those places, to experience the food of all those places. As a child, I lived in Spain - Dad was in the service, and I tried all sorts of foods, all over Europe (I would try any kind of weird foods, just to gross out my sister! lol). It wasn't until I started cooking for myself, however, that I got hooked on spicy foods. In the early to mid 80s, however, nothing was available in my area, including Philly, so I would drive 85 miles to NYC, every 8 months or so, and stock up on Mexican, Chinese (Chinatown there dwarfed the one in Philly), and many other ethnic ingredients. In the late 80s/early 90s, Philly started getting a lot more ethnic food areas, besides the Italian market, and Reading Terminal Market began to expand. And an area only 30 miles away (Avondale) had Mexican ingredients, and a tortilla factory - I could smell it from a few miles away, when driving out there! This was next to Kennett Square, which is known throughout the country for mushrooms! Slowly, Mexican started getting more and more popular in my area, and now, there is an authentic Mexican restaurant in the town I live in, with a grocery in front! I barter with the owner, and he is thrilled to get epazote and chiles from me, when I have excess.
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Rajun Gardener
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#292

Post: # 10801Unread post Rajun Gardener
Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:48 pm

Who says you can't make a good Pho in 2 hours?
I used beef shanks and tapioca noodles today, cooked in the old style PC for 30 minutes.
Topped with the usual and some shredded fresh garlic sitting in the middle on the shank meat.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#293

Post: # 10813Unread post maxjohnson
Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:36 pm

Rajun Gardener wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:48 pm Who says you can't make a good Pho in 2 hours?
I used beef shanks and tapioca noodles today, cooked in the old style PC for 30 minutes.
Topped with the usual and some shredded fresh garlic sitting in the middle on the shank meat.

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Now that's impressive.

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Re: Cheap Eaten

#294

Post: # 10822Unread post worth1
Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:00 am

That really looks good.
I had leftover ground chuck I needed to cook and get rid of.
With leftover rice and a big pile of mushrooms.
All in a skillet like hamburger helper.
Slat and pepper to taste.
It was a real break from all the spices.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#295

Post: # 10906Unread post maxjohnson
Mon Feb 17, 2020 4:42 pm

Made some sloppy joes. Possibly one of my finest cooking.

Also the pizza the other day had real fluffy crust, I fermented the sourdough in the fridge for one and a half day.

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Re: Cheap Eaten

#296

Post: # 10935Unread post pmcgrady
Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:46 pm

Cheap but excellent!
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#297

Post: # 11001Unread post brownrexx
Tue Feb 18, 2020 4:57 pm

Yesterday I was grocery shopping at Giant and they had a "meal deal" which was buy a family pack of 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and get a bag of carrots, container of chopped celery and onions, bag of noodles and a large box of chicken broth FREE.

Tonight I turned yesterday's shopping bonanza into a really nice stir fry, I put the noodles in the pantry for another meal, added some zucchini and broccoli to the free ingredients and cooked brown Basmati rice for tonight's dinner. What a deal that was. This really is Cheap Eaten!

Image20200218_172117 (2) by Brownrexx, on Flickr

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Re: Cheap Eaten

#298

Post: # 11287Unread post worth1
Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:02 pm

Finished off the beef vegetable soup last night.
It was a long haul but I did it.
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#299

Post: # 11322Unread post worth1
Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:38 pm

All of the above looks fantastic big time.
I had a head of cabbage that was going to the dogs.
I peeled all the slimy bad stuff off.
It is cooking in a kettle as we speak and will have it with some mystery sausage.
Worth
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Re: Cheap Eaten

#300

Post: # 11332Unread post Rajun Gardener
Thu Feb 20, 2020 6:42 pm

I made one of my favorite dishes, chicken in a tomato gravy and always served with corn. It's so simple and delicious. Simmered boneless thighs(seasoned with Cajun seasoning and Cavender's) cooked through then add a 14oz can of tomato sauce, I also add a tsp of sugar and 1/4tsp of baking soda to kill the acid. I add 2 cups of water and simmer it down till it make a thick gravy. It's simmered down twice with 2 cups of water each time and it's perfect. I usually add onions but this was perfect.

I can't tell where the gravy ends and the hot sauce begins!! :D


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