Cheap Eaten

[worth1]

2 fish and 7 ears of corn.
No idea if this will turn out but the recipe is...
1 cup of flour.
1 cup of yellow cornmeal.
2 teaspoons of baking powder.
1/2 teaspoon of regular ole poor folks table salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper.
1 egg mixed with about 1/4 cup water.
2 tablespoons soft bacon fat.
Mix dry ingredients.
Cut in bacon fat.
Poor in egg water combo.
Mix.
Add enough water to make it rather flowable.
Spoon into preheated and well oiled with bacon fat cast iron molds.
You want a pool of hot bacon fat in each mould.
The batter will push it to the edges and it should fry as it does this.
Bake at 400°F until golden brown on top.
If it turns out to be a disaster I'll show the disaster.
But here it is now.

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It wasn't a disaster I've been eating the overflow chrispys.

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[Uncle_Feist]

Bought 5lbs of baloney, a cull mater and a 50 cent can of pork n beans at the salvage store today. Washed it down with out of date milk and had a caramel nanner split for dessert.

[worth1]

I made this from a can of Alpo dog food.

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[LindaJean]

They say old people experience a " second childhood " ; I've been wanting all the kinds of foods that were packed in my grade school lunchbox. It's been years since I had a bologna sandwich - it's going on the shopping list with some Ruffles.

[worth1]

I warming up a bag of something labeled coco beef I've been eyeballing for a few months now.
It's from my thread on cooking with coconut.
It must have been good because I have at least a couple of frozen bags of it

Not for sure what it was like but I'm cooking some pasta to go with it.
I like a surprise..
It's yellow.

[worth1]

They say old people experience a " second childhood " ; I've been wanting all the kinds of foods that were packed in my grade school lunchbox. It's been years since I had a bologna sandwich - it's going on the shopping list with some Ruffles.

I haven't had a baloney sandwich in a coons age but everyday I have a cotto salami sandwich with mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish for lunch.
I don't even have a lunch bag or cooler.
I put the sandwich and a big frozen bottle of water wrapped in a tee-shirt under the seat.
I've been freezing that same bottle of water to minus 4 below F for about 2 years every day after work.
Weird but effective.

[worth1]

Not cheap eaten if you have to run out and buy everything.
But a well stocked pantry will allow you to eat good food at a very reasonable price.
Here is an example.
I put just about everything but the kitchen sink in this skillet of non traditional Texas chili.
Or is it?
Much of it Left over from other cooking and some of it not.
Leftover refried beans form last night with added water.
A leftover onion.
Leftover taco meat with added 1 pound of ground chuck.
A ten ounce can of hatch chilies with diced tomatoes.
Several types of chili powder including ancho what was left of HEB brand chili powder Fiesta brand chili powder chipotle powder.
A small dried up chunk of cheddar cheese I left out last night.
Why not use it?
Cumin powder.
Busted up cumin seeds.
Garlic powder.
Freshly ground black pepper.
Water.
Leftover ground up oven roasted spicy Spanish peanuts.
3 failed attempts at making crispy taco shells ground up in the molcajete.
Lastly I put in some Mexican oregano.
It's going to simmer for quite some time.
And I'll probably add more ancho powder.

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[worth1]

Last but definitely not least.
I added a good amount of ancho powder and a teaspoon of chipotle powder.
And a big tablespoon of Hershey's dark cocoa powder.
It's perfect.
Just enough heat to make me sneeze once.
Sneezing is my measurement for spicy heat level.
One sneeze tolerable.
3 or 4 sneezes almost and or intolerable and not enjoyable for a main dish but okay on the side like a salsa.
Weird but it works for me.
This is going to go great on spaghetti topped with picorino romano.

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[worth1]

Putting this here.
It's a culmination of everything I've cooked this week and it goes together and my final goal.
My taco meat.
My Roman beans.
The Mexican rice.
All put in one kettle to cook down after spices were added.
It's practically got everything in it including masa harina.
Probably add some fresh chopped tomatoes too later.
Some would call it chili but it isn't, not to my definition.
And it's very tasty and going on some spaghetti or fettuccine just the tick the Italians off yet one more time.

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[worth1]

I left the h off on purpose because I don't pronounce it with an h at the end and I say it the Hungarian way gulyas.
The Carne goulash is in 4 freezer bags ready to go to the freezer.
Four ladles each.
Cheap eaten for later on this week or whenever.
Simply put the whole frozen bag in hot water on stove in a kettle to thaw out and get warm.
No dirty kettle.

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[AKgardener]

I love hamburger gravy over mashed taters definitely a childhood memory

[PlainJane]

I took the weekends haul and made a sort of quick eggplant parmigiana. Baked the eggplant slices on sheet pans until mostly cooked then layered with tomato sauce from the pantry and cheese laying around in the fridge.
The divot in the corner is where I tasted it.
Not bad at all, and saved breading and frying.

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[worth1]

Homemade hamburger helper with 90% less sodium.
Actually a person might be tempted to add a little salt.

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[Uncle_Feist]

Salvage store baloney and cheese again today.

[worth1]

I'm gonna run with southwest style leftover gumbo.
No relationship to any Cajun or Creole gumbo.
More of a flavorful southwest style.
I made the dark roux and all that from drippings from the pork tenderloin I cooked.
Used the leftover Mexican shrimp cocktail juice and other ingredients but pulled the shrimp.
About a half a cup of leftover spaghetti sauce I made.
Its gone now why waste in these hard times.
Chopped frozen whole okra.
Shriveled up sweet peppers.
Old celery.
Frozen cilantro.
White onion chopped.
Fennel seeds.
Italian seasoning.
Cumin.
Black pepper.
Knorr shrimp bullion powder for salt.
Sweet vermouth.
Water.
More V8 style juice.
Garlic powder.
Ginger garlic paste.
Fiesta brand chili powder.
Smoked hot Spanish paprika for a little heat.
Probably forgot to mention something but y'all know how I cook.
Cut up shrimp and pork tenderloin and waiting for gumbo to cook off before putting it in.

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[pepperhead212]

You can't get any cheaper than this...unless you leave out the salt and pepper! A friend gave me close to 11 lbs of venison a couple of days ago, so I diced it up, and salted it, and put it back in the fridge for 2 days, in a bag of 6 lbs, and a bag of just under 80 oz. The larger one I seasoned with some Italian herbs and spices - some rosemary, sage, marjoram, fennel, and a generous amount of coarsely ground black pepper, ground up with 2 very large cloves of garlic in the food processor. The smaller batch I seasoned with what I call "fake" andouille, to use in gumbos and the like - almost the same spices as the chorizo I make, with some mild chile pepper powder, cumin, coriander, clove, and garlic, with thyme, bay leaf, and some liquid smoke, added to approximate the andouille flavor, though it's not put in casings, or smoked, just used loose. The salt, pepper, and a few of the spices are all that were paid for here, a long with the vacuum seal bags.

This isn't really sausage, since it has almost no fat in it at all, but it does well in dishes which similar flavored sausage is normally used in.
four 19.6 oz packs of venison sausage. 9-20. Four more 24 oz packs with Italian seasonings, already in the freezer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

The skillet gourmet.

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[worth1]

I had some ground chuck that needed attention so what to do.
Got some onions.
Fresh garlic.
Spices.
Whole cumin seeds.
Sweet and hot paprika.
Beef bullion powder.
Squash.
Yukon Gold potatoes.
Sweet peppers.
Did the normal thing.
Cooked onions and garlic down a little.
Added paprika and cumin.
Added Yukon Gold potatoes.
Let cook awhile with cover.
Added the pound of ground chuck and let cook with cover on.
Added the peppers and let cook a wee bit until the meat was done.
Added squash put lid back on and turned burner off.
Let squash take up the residual heat to warm up but not over cook.
All this done in the Lodge cast iron deep frying skillet.
Ready to eat.

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[bower]

IDKY but potatoes are giving me the most satisfaction as a carb these days.
Got tired of noodles.
I switched to whole grain rice for awhile. PIA to wait 25 minutes to cook it, and I had to rinse it really well because it wasn't a bit fresh, nothing nice about the dust on it. Then it's so wet, very difficult to measure your water. It was still great tasting compared to white rice but enough of a hassle I didn't eat it often. When I got to the bottom of that small bag I broke down and bought a couple kilos of basmati. The jasmine rice is cheaper in the 8 kilo bags but I found it too soft. When you freeze some rice portion with a stew, the jasmine rice would not reheat so well, wanting to get overly soft and pasty wrecking your meal. Whereas the basmati seems to be a firmer grain and more tolerant of my bulk cooking-freezing-reheating regime. If the whole grain rice had been fresher, I would've stuck with that, but I really don't want any rancid hull material in my diet, I'm better off with the white that keeps perfectly, IMO.
Potatoes OTOH, there's nothing I don't like about em. Tasty all over. I love the skins and the interiors too. More to it.

[worth1]

@bower
Basmati rice is more healthy than regular long grain rice.
I'm sitting on 40 pounds of it and it doesn't go bad.
No desire for whole grain brown rice at all.
Can't stand the taste of it.

Basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than regular white rice.
Basmati at 50.
White Long grain at around 79.
Right now 20 pounds cost about 27 dollars for aged basmati rice.