The poor cookbook: beef stroganoff

Today’s meal is beef stroganoff. I have adapted it from an old family recipe and cheapened it in doing so. It’s a good one dish meal, easy to make, but does take some time and preparation.

Needed:
1-2 lbs beef ( of some kind. The recipe origionally calls for cubed steak. I used the stew cut from the local kingsoopers. Cost about 3.50 a pound)
1 tbs garlic
1 onion
1 lbs mushrooms
1 can tomatoe soup
Worshtishire sauce

First thing is to marinade the beef. This isn’t entirely necessary but will definately pay off in the end. I used janes crazy salt, garlic pepper rub with Sierra Nevada double IPA. Marinade for as long as you want, I did about 4 hours.
Next oil the LAN and begin brazing the meat. Do this for 10-15 minutes or until all the meat is well browned.
Next throw in the garlic, onion, mushroom, and tomatoe soup. Let this simmer for 45 min or until the meat is tender. Add worshtisher sauce to taste, usually about 1-2 tbs. Thus can be served alone of on rice/egg noodles/mashed potatoes etc.
The cost for this meal was $7 for two pounds of meat, the onion was $.50, the soup $.80, mushrooms were $2.50. This yielded about four servings. So per serving we have $2.75, not bad for such a classy entree.

The poor cookbook: egg drop soup

So today we will try a soup, cookin poor Asian style. I found this recipe online oddly enough and spiced it up Jew style. It was an inexpensive hit at my place, let’s hope it works for you:

4 cups chicken broth
4 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup of fresh chipped chives (green onions)
Ginger spice to taste
1-8 tsp salt
1 small can of sweet corn

Now prep is simple. Bring broth to a rolling boil, cut off the heat and very slowly pour in the eggs from at least a few inches above the lip of the pot. Make sure as you’re doing this that the soup has some swirl going, otherwise the eggs will clump into an unattractive mess.
Once all the eggs are added, throw in your chives, corn and spices. Let it all simmer a bit and you’re ready to go.
At this point you can also add some corn starch, this will thicken the soup considerably, making a great consistency.

So our ingredients were chicken stock $2.50, eggs $.17 each, chives $.50, and canned corn $.50. This will make 2 servings, so per serving our cost is $2 per meal. Not bad at all, and rather tasty.

The poor cookbook: johnny casserol

Today’s recipe is a cheap southern classic my ma used to make all the time when I was a kid. That being said I now know how poor we really were…
But I digress, let’s begin:

Need:
1lb ground beef
1lb elbows (macaroni, pasta, etc)
1 can tomatoe soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Yep that’s it. Making it is equally simple.
Brown the meat in a large skillet, cook the noodles to al dente. Combine in skillet and add soup mixes, also any other spices you may want. I hit it with some janes crazy salt, and garlic pepper.
At this point I suggest christening it with some Parmesan and serving in bowls.

Obviously this one has some room for improvement. You can sub the tomato soup for some classic red sauce, and/or the burger meat for italian sausage or whatnot. I could even see swapping out the elbows for egg noodles, now that sounds tasty

As far as cost this is about as cheap as it gets. Soups are $.79 a piece, noodles were about $1.50, and the meat was $2. So a total of $5 for four servings is $1.25 per serving. Can you dig it?

The Poor CookBook: Fettuccine

So today we will tackle something a bit more challenging. This is a quick and easy fettuccnie a la carbonara. for those not literate in cooking or italian its a pasta dish with white sauce and bacon. very straight forward, sure to impress the ladies (given you can pronounce the name).
::Note before you start on this journey, you will want a large pot to cook this in. probably in the area of 16 cups volume

Needed:

4 eggs

1 lb Fettuccine (or similar pasta)

1 lb of bacon

1/4 cup of whipping cream

1/4 cup butter (or olive oil or magarine)

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan (to taste)

Set the eggs in a bowl with warm water for later use. Start cooking your noodles to package specs. Chop up the bacon as best you can and start it frying as well.
Once the bacon is done drain and set aside. The noodles likewise drain dump them back into the cooking pot- make sure you add the butter/oil as soon as they are back in the pot otherwise they will stick to the pot and that is no bueno.
Beat together the eggs and cream and pour it over the pasta, mix until evenly coated. Add parmesan in the like manner, then toss in your bacon and parsley. You can also salt and pepper it at this point as well.
during these combinations steps make sure you have your heat on low to make sure everything stays hot. Also this helps the cheese mix together with the eggs to make sexiness.

Costs:
this is a more expensive dish no doubt, but still affordable. We have pasta ($2) cheese ($3) bacon ($3) whipping cream ($2) and eggs ($.15 per). im leaving out some of the base ingredients like parsley and butter because im hoping at this point you have some laying around. And anyway a bunch of parsley is like $1.50 and your only using a small portion of it.
Be that as it may or not be it, this will make 3 large servings so our cost per serving is around $3.50. Now you may be able to bring this down by getting half and half instead of heavy cream, or getting less expensive cheese. Either way this is a tasty value, and the best hangover food ever.

The Poor CookBook: Quick Bagel Sammich

Another good anytime food is bagel sammiches. Cheap, fast, and easy like a good girlfriend should be. One of these is both satsfying and delicous, plus there are millions of possible variations. So let’s get to it:

Needed:
Bagels
Lunch meat
Cheese
Condiments (mustard and mayo etc)

First order of business is to half your bagel. Toast and spread your spread. Now you’ll want to apply your lunch meat evenly to each half and top it with desired cheese. Toss your halves into the oven and broil til the cheese is sufficiently bubbly. Remove from broiler, combine, and consume.
My favorite variation on this is roast beef with Swiss/havarti. Mustard on both sides, and maybe a dash of franks for a little kick. Now you could go deli style and hit it with ham and turkey, sharp cheddar, maybe even thousand island for a sweet creation.

As cost goes you’ll have the expense of lunch meat ($5) per package say, cheese ($5) for two packs, and bagels are usually around ($3) for a package of 6. If we were to use all of these ingredients between 6 sammiches (which is unlikely) you would still only come in at about $2 per sammich. Now that’s a tasty value

Happy cooking

The Poor Cookbook: Beef and Buiscuits

So the traditional recipe is creamed hamburg and drop biscuits. Its basically beef gravy and biscuits. I made this dish for the first time completely wasted and still made it out right. So here it goes:

Creamed hamburg:

1 onion
6 Tbsp Flour
2 Dashes Worcestershire
4 knorr beef boullion cubes in 1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cup of milk
1.25-2 lbs ground beef

Chop onion and fry until soft then set aside. Brown beef and add onion. add flour, and bullion. Add milk and simmer until thick. You can add some salt and pepper to taste, i used garlic pepper and sea salt. turned out rather well.

Biscuits:
2 C flour
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup Crisco or butter
4 t baking powder
2/3 c milk
1/2 t cream of tartar

Mix them by hand in a large bowl, dollop onto a cooking pan and throw it into a 425 degree oven until golden brownish. you are good to go.

To serve crumble up 2-3 biscuits into a bowl and add the gravy beef to taste. This should serve 3-5 people. In the beef mix you can add extra milk and flour til you get the desired consistency. The concoction will taste a bit overpowering but mixes well with the biscuits. For a little kick add some hot sauce and cheddar when you serve and MM MMMM is it tasty.

Cost analysis:
2 lbs of beef at a local king sooper comes out to $6, assorted ingredients should total less than $.50 per serving making your cost per serving $2.00 or less per serving and youll have leftovers. Its rather delicous

happy cooking

The Poor Cookbook: Breakfast Wraps

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That being said i usually skip it due to time constraints. But if i end up with a spare 5-10 minutes i can make a cheap easy meal to go that we all know and love, breakfast wraps.

Needed:

Eggs (2-3)

Cheese (shredded or whatever)

Bacon (2 slices)

extras (veggies like diced onion, potato, etc)

First step is scramblin our eggs. If you dont know how to do this you probably shouldnt be near a stove top. But for sake of being thorough; crack your eggs into a bowl, take a fork and whip that sh*t til its a uniform color/consistency. At this point you can beat in some milk (i like whole) to taste, and i usually add my salt here (Janes Crazy salt is a must).
Heat your pan til about medium/medium high, butter evenly, and add eggs. You can swish your eggs around til they are all cooked or for the more advanced cooks try to keep the eggs combined by cooking one side completely then flipping to the other. This will make plating them and eating them easier. During the final stages of cooking add your cheese on top of the eggs giving it some time to melt.
Its a good idea to have the bacon frying on the side so this all finishes at the same time, but if you dont have a spare pan to do so just pop the eggs in the oven til your bacon is done.
Now arrange in a tortilla, fold and go. If you decided to fry up some veggies in the interim now would be a good time to add them.

Cost analysis: Tortillas (16 pack) ~$3, eggs $1.75 (12), bacon ~$2, and cheese ~$5 (2-3 packs). Now again we are not using the entirety of any of our ingredients, and through proper application of mathematics we can conclude each wrap will cost about $1.15 per 3 egg wrap.

The Poor Cookbook: Quesadillas

Lets take a look at another college food staple, quesadillas. Its cheap, easy, and rather fulfilling to make these at home with the right tools and foresight when purchasing ingredients.

Needed:

Tortillas (bigger the better)

Cheese (shredded works best but deli but will work)

Meat (i usually use diced ham, lunch meat works as well)

Pan

Butter

So making these is pretty straight forward. Heat your skillet to medium or just above, throw some butter on and follow it with a tortilla. Now you have to make a decision; you can either A) make a half size by folding this one tortilla in half, or B) make a full size by topping this tortilla with another and flipping the whole thing over which takes some skillz.
Depending on your size decision lay down your first dusting of shredded/sliced cheese. For half size sprinkle cheese over approx half the tortilla (duh) or for full size go crazy with it. After your first layer of cheese is down apply the meat to your liking (thats what she said), and then top it off with some more cheese. Having cheese top and bottom will keep our ingredients in the quesadila whilst turning it.
Now comes the fun part, brown the tortilla on the first side. If your making a halfy you will want to fold the tortilla as soon as all your ingredients are down, for a full size obviously there is no folding. On the half size once your first side is brown flip her over and repeat this process (you may want to add somemore butter to keep the shell from burning). The full size is a bit more challenging. Toss on the second tortilla and prepare to flip. My method here is to take a plate, set it carefully onto the quesadilla (fingers + hot skillet = pain) then pick up the skillet by the handle and flip it over so the quesadilla is plated. It is now rather simple to re-butter the pan and transfer the quesadilla from the plate back to the skillet to brown the other side.
Whatever path youve chosen we should now be looking at a delicious meal, hot and ready to be consumed. Now for our cost analysis:

Package of 12 burrito size tortillas ($3)
Diced Ham ($3)
Cheese ($2-5)

Now we are only using a max of 2 tortillas per meal, which is 6 meals from one package making our tortilla cost $.50 per meal. If we assume our ingredients will be used evenly then the meat and cheese will follow suit, leaving us at approximately $1.50-$1.75 per full size quesadilla. Thats a tasty value.
Of course this recipe has alot of room for experiment. Personally i like to throw in some pepper jack cheese, and all color of lunch meat can be substituted for variety. If you want to dice up some union or tomato into the mix that is always welcome, and of course when this meal is plated i suggest a good spoonful of sour cream and salsa to match. These extras are also extra $$ but well worth the investment.

Happy cooking

The Poor Cookbook: Hot&Sour Ramen

Ah ramen, the staple of college diets nationwide. coming in at a steady 12 cents per package or $3 for 12 packs at most local convenience stores, this dirt cheap stomach filler will be keeping students alive for years to come. Acknowledging this fact Ive decided to offer some easy home recipes to spice up your ramen experience.

Hot & Sour

1-2 packages of ramen
1-2 tsp of cholula (or similar hot sauce)
1-2 tsp of Ketchup (to taste)
1-2 tsp Franks Red Hot

Prep here is pretty straight forward. Cook as directed on the package. Pour out as much of the cooking water as necessary to give a full flavor from the flavoring included with the ramen. I used the chicken flavor, its my favorite.
Add your flavoring and various spices. Ive tried variations with Crushed Red Chili and dashes of garlic pepper/salt. All provide plenty of warmth to the soup. The Ketchup is a good counter for the heat, and adds a distinct tang to the broth (hence sour).
Of course you can experiment with this recipe by combining different spices in the broth to create new variations (soy sauce or teriyaki for an asian kick, seaweed, deli ham, etc). You also have the option of any ramen flavor and combination there of.
For instance, one could mix a chicken package and a beef package, then hit it with some garlic pepper and enchilada sauce for a kind of mexican concoction. Let your imagionation go.

Happy cooking

The Poor CookBook: Pan Fried Chimis

Ah, college living.  As a true middle class American and now flat broke college student I am having to make creative meals out of the bare minimums, then on a budget. Needless to say the ramen and beer diet is in full swing.  So here are recipes impromptu using the cheapest food out there. Enjoy, if you can…..

Needed:

Pan (duh)

cooking oil (preferably extra virgin olive oil, butter will also due)

2 chimis/burritos/

Cheese (I had pepperjack, munster, and swiss deli slices)

Cholula  (or similar hot sauce)

Cooking:

So as cheap goes we have have ElMonterey frozen burritos (chicken rice and beans) at ~$4 for a pack of 12 at your local kingsoopers, the cheeses which were 3/$5 on sale, and the cholula which is in the $3 area or easily lifted from a local Chipotle for the more desperate and less moral.

Now, the cooking instructions for the burritos dont give pan fry instructions… thus i thawed the burritos first which you can do a few hours before by putting them in the fridge or microwaving them for about 2 min (1 on each side).

Next heat your skillet to medium. We have the typical wire range which seemed to work ok on medium. It was hot enough to allow the burritos to cook a few minutes on each side without burning the wrap.

Add your olive oil (approx 1Tbsp)

Pan fry on each side for 2-3 minutes or until browned (avoid blackening the wrap)

Transfer to a plate, apply gratuitous amounts of cheese

Throw into the oven on broil until cheese is sufficiently bubbly

Here you can splash on some hot sauce and dig in. Beware the plate if you will be eating off it as it will be unforgivably hot by this time. A trifolded kitchen towel can easily double for an oven mit, adding to the long list of things they do for you.

Now you can always toss some sour cream and salsa on the side if you have the option, and of course if you want to go whole hog you could spring for some green chili and smother it post pan fry before the oven.  Be creative, make every night you have to eat this meal a little more bearable.

So the ingredients come to $12 divided by 6 meals (at two burritos per meal) leaving us at $2 per serving. Less actually considering the hot sauce will continue to haunt the fridge, and you probably wont use the cheese up.