Go-to recipes

Basically, I always buy the same staple ingredients and throw a spin on them to create "new" dishes. These are all thing I usually pick up at Trader Joe's:

• Pre-cooked chicken sausage
• (Red) Onion
• (Crimini) Mushrooms
• Bell Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Cheese

Cook it all up with a jar of decent marinara and you have an impressive spaghetti.

Scramble it up with eggs for a nice hearty breakfast.

Mix it with a package of risotto.

Combine everything but the peppers with a box of rice pilaf or spanish rice and use it to stuff the bell peppers.

Pan grill it all up and serve it with Saur Kraut and fancy mustard for some good brats.

I'm also fond of getting a box of Roasted Red Pepper and tomato soup. It helps round out a meal.

Dr.Hess' Super Rye Bread Recipe

Here is one of my favorite bread machine recipies for "Super Rye Bread". Buy the yeast for about $4 for two pounds at Sam's or another restaurant supply store. Don't buy those rip-off packets at the grocery store.

3 cups white flour

1 cup stone ground rye flour

1-3/4 cups water

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon dry onion (flakes, etc.)

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

1 tablespoon oil of your choice (olive, whatever)

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon glutten (optional, don't worry about it if you don't have it)

Dump all the stuff in the bread maker, push "go". Make sure that the mixer blade will mix it all with the extra water. If it won't, help it along some by mixing it a little first with a spoon before you press "go".

World's Greatest Hashbrowns

We learned this one on a road trip at a cafe in Idaho at that big lake.

Take your potatos and cook them about half way in the microwave. Like, if you use 3-4 small potatos, put them in the microwave for about 4 minutes or so after poking holes in them with a fork. They should be hot, but not soft. Then shred them with a salad shooter, food processor or cheese grater if that's all you have, add some salt and fry in some oil.

Optional: Brown some chopped onions before adding the potatos. Add some garlic powder, peper, chili powder, (ZOMG) Cayenne powder, chopped tomato, celantro, a slice of cheese, etc. One of our favorite options is to add all that, some sour cream, ranch type dressing and wrap in a large tortilla that you warmed up with some butter in the pan. We call them "Potato Thingies."

S.O.S

3-4 packages of Buddig beef, 4 tbsp butter, 4tbsp flour, milk

Put the butter and flour in a pan over med-low heat. Cut the beef into pieces that are just smaller that bite sized (or throw in the food processor for a few seconds). Stir butter and flour and add milk. Stir until the gravy is a consistency you like, add beef and season to taste. Toast some bread and put the gravy over the top. 10-15 minutes start to finish

Sweet and Sour Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts (use leftovers if you have it), 1 bottle sweet and sour sauce, rice

Cook and dice chicken. Cook rice. Mix sweet and sour sauce into rice and top each portion with some chicken.

Quick spaghetti

Pasta of choice, 1 jar of Ragu traditional sauce, honey, balsamic vinegar, Italian sausage

Remove sausage casings and brown. Cook and drain pasta. Pour sauce into a pan, add a squeeze of honey and a few tbsps of balsamic vinegar. mix sausage and sauce, pour over pasta.

Beef stew

1 box beef stock, 1lb ground beef, 1 can each; green beans, corn, new potatoes 1 envelope beef stew seasoning, 1 envelope brown gravy mix

Brown ground beef in a large pot. Add in stock, gravy mix and seasoning. Drain each can of veggies and add to stew. Let simmer 10-15 minutes.

Crock pot Ravioli

1 bag frozen ravioli, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 1 8oz can tomato sauce, 1 C water, 1.5 C shredded mozzarella cheese,

Pour half of the sauce into the bottom of the crockpot, add rav. Pour in the rest of the sauce, water and tomato sauce. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. If you are short on time or forget to put everything in the slow cooker, the same exact recipe can be achieved on the stovetop. Prepare the pasta as directed on the package; drain. Pour warmed sauce on top of the pasta and then sprinkle with cheese. Cover the pan with the lid for a couple of minutes to allow the cheese to melt on top.

Here is a good resource for easy, cheap meals. http://momadvice.com/food/aldi_meal_plan_fall3.aspx

HTH!

Oven Fried Chicken

Season some chicken legs(thighs and drumsticks) with cayenne, black pepper, seasoning salt, granulated garlic, paprika, chili powder, oregano, etc whatever you want, adjust recipe to your taste. After seasoning chicken dredge in flour and if you want dip in milk or egg and dip again in flour.

Heat oven to around 450F and put a casserole dish in with a 1/2 stick of butter. Once melted put the chicken in skin side down and cook for awhile(20-30min). The best way to tell is by sound and smell though. After one side is done turn them over and cook until done and crispy.

I used to fry my chicken in oil on the stove but this really makes better and less greasy fried chicken and it doesn't stink up the house to cook. Takes about 45min to cook.

Also super easy:
Basic Risotto:
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat some butter and olive oil. Saute one onion until soft, add garlic, saute 30 sec.
- Add a few cups of arborio rice, saute until aromatic.
- In a second small pan, have chicken stock/broth heating to just under a boil. Add heated stock by the ladle-full to the rice mixture, and stir until the stock is absorbed. Repeat until the rice is cooked. The near-constant stirring serves to agitate the starches in the rice, and imparts the creamy texture.
- When everything's about cooked, add your stuff, whatever it might be. Fresh veggies are usually a safe bet, but you can do just about anything with risotto that you'd do with pasta.
- Finish with a healthy splash of white wine or vermouth, fresh herbs finely chopped, a good fistful of parmigiano reggiano, and salt and pepper, of course.

Marjorie Suddard wrote: I have a niece who believes she doesn't have time to cook after work and doesn't think anything easy and quick can be tasty, and I promised to send her some of my regular recipes, but I bet you all have more. . So... please share. Margie

Maybe she just lacks organization. We cook large quanitities on weekends and do "leftovers" a few days during the week. Cold BBQ chicken sliced on a salad with a little garlic bread on the side is a meal for me.

Quesadia (sp?)

BBQ boneless chicken, you could do this days ahead. Take a tortilla laid flat, spread shredded cheese on 1/2, lay on chopped BBQ chicken and then more cheese. Fold it over and then paint it with olive oil and put it on the grill. When it's brown and the cheese is melted, you almost done. While this is on the grill, saute some frozen corn with a sliced red pepper and whatever fancies you as Mexican spices. Chili powder etc. Open a can of black beans (fijole negro) and nuke that for one minute.

Plate the Casadia, spoon on the pepper/corn stuff, a tablespoon or two of black beans and a dollop of sour cream.

Done! Every bit as good as anything downtown.

Does she eat fish?

This happens real fast, so if you're having something with it, do that first. I usually make this with white rice.

1 Tblsp oil in a pan; saute 1.5 - 2lb. Perch fillets. Squeeze on the juice of one lemon

Sprinkle on black pepper and some Thyme.

One sliced red pepper.
Four scallions.
2 medium tomatoes cut into chunks.
3 - 4 sprits of Tobasco.
3 glugs of Rum.

Put a lid on it, jack the heat up to Dragon's Breath and let it steam for one minute.

Done.

The whole thing takes four minutes.

Waterzooi 1/4 cup butter.
1 cup sliced onions.
1 cup sliced celery.
1 carrot peeled, then cut into strips with the peeler.
1/2 Bay Leaf, crumbled.
1/8 tsp Thyme.
Saute' for 15 minutes.

1/4 cup flour.
1/2 tsp salt.
1 cup heavy cream.
2 lb. Sea Bass (any whit fish will do).
2 cups fish or clam broth.

In a large skllet melt butter, add onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf and thyme.

Stir to mix well, saute for 10 - 15 minutes untiltender but not brown. Blend in flour and salt.

Add cream, cook until thick and smooth. Drop in fish and cook 10 minutes.

Serve with heavy brown bread, it's a meal.

Tips: Don't use canned vegetables. They're loaded with salt, go with frozen or fresh.

Plan ahead, especially if you're working. If a kid doesn't like what you're making, maybe he'll have better luck with breakfast, this isn't a restaraunt..

Make a menu for three or four days of the week and stick to it. Crock pot things while you're at work. Get the family to help even if it's only with the clean up. If your neice is doing it all it's easy to be over whelmed.

Good luck,

Dan

Dinner in a Dish - Casserole

We usually make a large casserole which makes two meals and some left over for lunch one day.

2-3 slices of bread

2lb ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

6 medium tomatoes, sliced 1/4" thick

3 14oz cans whole kernel corn, drained or 2lb frozen corn

Salt and pepper to suit

Turn on oven to 350

While oven is preheating put in bread slices to brown

Put beef, onion, and celery in skillet and brown

When beef mixture is browned put 1/3rd of it in casserole

Cover beef layer with 1 can of corn

Cover corn with layer of tomato slices

Salt and pepper

Repeat the layers two more times

Then crumble up bread on the top

Cover casserole put in oven for 45 min, uncover for another 15min or so.

brown 1-1.5 lbs ground turkey in frying pan - about 15 minutes max. season the crap out of it. i like lowry's seasoned salt.

dump a quart jar of favorite spaghetti sauce into frying pan with meat. stir. set burner on low, let it all get happy for about 10 minutes.

refill the spaghetti sauce jar with the concoction and stick it in the fridge. whatever doesn't fit in the jar is tonight's dinner.

i eat it over nuked mixed veggies (corn peas beans) or over fresh raw spinach, or sometimes just eat it right out of the jar.

I don't really have one (grill burgers, brats... not much of a recipe), but I want to find a good Burgoo Recipe. If anybody even knows what burgoo is, I'll be impressed.

mtn wrote: If anybody even knows what burgoo is, I'll be impressed.

I know, but I'm ignoring you.

Here are two of my favorites; I think I mentioned both in the last thread.

Split pea soup:

1 lb bag split peas, green or yellow. If you don't like the "pea" smell so much, try yellow. 2 tablespoons butter 1-2 onions, peeled and diced 1 medium yellow onion, diced 2 cloves minced garlic; more if you love it, less if you're just alright with it 10 cups water 2 smoked ham hocks or about 1/2-1 lb of smoked meat (turkey necks, jowls, neck bones, whatever) Salt and pepper to taste

First, sautee the onion and carrots. While this is cooking, I take a minute to sort and rinse the peas. Once the veggies look good, throw the minced garlic in. Once you can really smell the garlic, pour in the water and the meat. Let this come to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes. Dump in the peas, and cook until they're tender, about 30-45 minutes. Remove the hocks. If you have a blender or food processor, puree about 1/3 of the peas/liquid. This gives the base a lot more body. Cut the meat off the bone, dice it up, and throw it back in the pot. Add your salt and pepper.

This may sound a bit involved, but assuming you already have your butter and a bag of carrots (they're staples in my fridge), it's a meal for about $4 with lots of leftovers.

NYG95GA wrote:

mtn wrote: If anybody even knows what burgoo is, I'll be impressed.

I know, but I'm ignoring you.

Wrong thread

MitchellC wrote: Here are two of my favorites; I think I mentioned both in the last thread. Split pea soup: s.

Try the same thing but use black beans soaked overnight, and add some kielbasa to the mix.

And oh yeah, leave a window open.

College student best cheap/filling/almost quality meal:

coat chicken breast in BBQ sauce, heat oven to like 375 (my oven dial only has the number 400 on it, so I put just before that...)

Cook covered in tin foil for 20 minutes, flip, another 20, flip, brush on more BBQ and cook for another 10 uncovered, flip, brush other side and cook another 10.

Add to white rice. Easy, only have to wash the rice pan since I cook in tinfoil bowl, and probably costs some where under a buck.

My brother was an insurance adjuster sent to Holmstead, Fla after hurricane -- -- -- --- -- . He and four other adjustors rented an apartment and hired a woman to cook. Every morning she made breakfast, the coffee was on and you got a bag lunch to go.

His favorite chicken of all time:

Dip chicked in ranch dressing. Roll said chicken in munched up Corn Flakes.

Bake 375'.

Sweet, crunch, excellent!

RedS13Coupe wrote: College student best cheap/filling/almost quality meal:

Back when I was living with my Kappa Sig brothers in college, we saved our money for beer. One night we went to the kitchen to find something to eat; all we had was a loaf of bread and a can of soup. We attempted to put them together. To say it didn't work would be charitable.

To this day, one of my favorite phrases is "berkeleyed up as a soup sandwich."

Bacon & noodles; what more can you ask for? Cook half a dozen strips of bacon in a big skillet. When the bacon's done break it up into little bits set it & the grease aside, keep warm. Boil a lb of spaghetti noodles. While that's cooking warm a big bowl & crack 3 eggs into it. Add 3/4 or cup shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese. Not the cardboard in a box, buy the real stuff & grate it yourself. Beat the cheese & the eggs together with salt & pepper to taste. Drain noodles,saving 1/2 cup of the water. Put skillet with bacon & grease in it back on low fire, add noodles & egg mixture. Stir well add some of the water if you think it needs it. Done. Now if you want to be fancy add a green salad and/or some crusty Italian bread but that's optional.

This thread has had its time, but I just had to resurrect it for one last recipe

Ok, this is easy. Get a smallish cabbage, chop and boil for 20-30 minutes in salted water, then put aside.

Take four bone in or boneless pork chops, and you're going to sear/fry them in 4-6 pads worth of butter. If you use salted butter, it will season the meat quite a bit, but I still like to add a bit of oregano, basil, garlic powder to taste.

Now that the chops are cooked, there is this nice thick sauce of butter, seasoning, and pork fat in the pan. You're going to finish cooking the cabbage in this.

Trust me, it's not hard and sinfully delicious.

Bacon & noodles; what more can you ask for?

We make that, but a little differently. Cut the bacon up into little pcs, and chop an onion. Cook the onion with the bacon (NOTHING in the world smells better than this). When the bacon is ready, and the onions clear, add cooked broad noodles, and stir.

Green salad, or a cucumber, or radish salad goes very well with it. If we have had Spatzle (home made egg noodles) the day before, we'll use that instead of regular noodles, and substitute speck instead of bacon.

I would never even consider eating cream of anything soup, but both of these recipes are awesome.

Cook enough broad noodles for 4 people. Cut up 6 or more hotdogs into small, bite size pieces. Add the hotdogs to the noodles, with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Heat, and serve. It sounds gross, but you won't believe how good it is.

Brown 4 pork chops(I use an electric frying pan). Drain the fat, add a can of cream of mushroom soup, a bit of water, and some Worcestershire sauce. Simmer, covered, 20-30 minutes or until the chops are done, Serve with rice, putting the mushroom gravy on the rice.

I eat this everyday for breakfast.

Cut a good calabrese bun, or small french stick in half, and toast it under the broiler. Pour about a tablespoon or more of olive oil on the toasted bun. Cut up enough tomato to cover each piece, and cut 1 medium to large clove of garlic on each bun half. Salt, and pepper to taste. Eat it with marinated olives. This combination of stuff is magic.

Quick and easy. White rice, cooked. In a pan place pork chops and cover with Cambels Chicken Gumbo Soup concentrate. Cook at 350 until done, about 45 minutes. Remove pork chops and dump rice in pan the chops were cooked in. Mix thoroughly. Serve with your favorite veggy or a salad. The whole thing takes less than an hour to fix and costs less than $10.

I felt like we had a newer recipe thread, but couldn't find it. I'm bumping this one because I have a new go-to recipe: Ciabatta bread found on LifeHack.org.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/kitchen-hack-one-minute-ciabatta-bread.html

They call it one-minute bread. It really takes about 5 minutes total, but hey, it is really easy and really good.

• 4 cups of all-purpose flour (do NOT pack the flour into the measuring cup) (I used bread flour)
• 2 cups of warm water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of granulated yeast (or equivalent)

Mix the warm water and yeast together. Add in the flour and salt, stir until it is somewhere between the consistency of pancake batter and play dough. Cover in a bowl and let sit for 8-12 hours. Preheat oven to 400*, put dough on a floured cookie sheet or baking stone. They said to leave it in for about 25 minutes, I baked mine for 30 after reading people complain about the middle being doughy.

Really awesome recipe for a college student especially. I think I'm going to try to halve it, and see if I can't make it every morning.

New favorite "go to:"

We recently discovered "Claxton" brand Chicken from Claxton, GA. They sell whole cut-up chickens for 99 cents a pound at the grocery store. That's REGULAR price. They go on sale pretty often too.

Cut up potatoes, carrots, white/yellow onions, LOTS of green onion - rough chopped. Mix in a big bowl with some olive oil - start in large baking pan in 375 degree oven while you prepare the chicken. I like my veggies a little softer than the wife does: Season chicken with salt, pepper, chopped garlic (under the skin - yum,) sage. Toss on top of vegetables. Cook for around 35 -45 minutes, cranking up the heat at the end (broil) to get a little crispy on the skin if necessary.

2 nights worth of dinner for around $5/nt. Tough to beat.

GOOOD stuff, and super easy to make. The sage does it.

I liked this recipe thread:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/what-is-the-ultimate-bachelor-food/6072/page1/

If we're reviving this thread, I'm surprised nobody has posted a chili recipe.

Chili

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 can red beans
• 2 cans pinto beans
• 1 or 2 cans tomatoes
• 1 onion, chopped
• Your choice of hot peppers, chopped
• Cumin and oregano to taste

Brown the hamburger in a pot and pour off some of the grease.

Throw everything in the pot and let simmer for at least half an hour.

Serve with cornbread or tortilla chips.

Other Mexican dishes can make for cheap and filling food. This one's a favorite low budget dinner or lunch.

Bean quesadillas

• Flour tortillas
• Shredded Cheddar or Mexican cheese blend
• Can of refried beans
• Vegetable oil

Put a bit of oil in a skillet and turn to medium heat.

Fill half the tortilla with a couple spoonfuls of beans and sprinkle well with cheese. Fold the tortilla in half and place it in the pan.

Fry it until it's brown and crispy on one side and the cheese is melted, then flip it over and fry the other side until it's crispy too.

Serve with salsa.