learn me: cheap food!

So in an attempt to keep money in my pocket, we've been cooking at home more. Spaghetti, tacos, and pork chops are getting a little old. So, being that GRM is the holy grail of all things cheap, what kinda things can we cook up here at home, on the cheap, that's just darn delicious.

Gooooooo!!!

1-Buy chicken.

Put somewhere hot until the inside of the chicken is hot.

Eat.

2-Buy a chunk of cow.

Put it somewhere hot until the inside is warm.

Eat.

3 Buy a potato.

Put it somewhere hot, until it is soft.

Eat.

This cooking thing is easy. The hot place can be many different spots, but an oven at about 350* is a safe bet.

in school I made a lot of soup. It is pretty cheap to make a large pot of tomato soup, and the stuff is versatile....make enough to last a few days, and each night have a bowl. One night season it TexMex. Another night, add pizza seasonings. You can make variations by adding black beans, rice, pasta, frozen corn, ground beef...

Beef Brisket, slow cooker. About a million ways to do it. I simply put the brisket in the slow cooker, dump in a bottle of BBQ sauce and a ton of crushed red pepper. Leave it in there all day, come back from school and take it out. Pull it apart with two forks, put it on bread, and you have a sandwich.
~$12.00 usually feeds 4 college students for about 1 meal and then 2 people get lunch the next day.
Too rich for your blood? Same thing, but with frozen chicken breast and salsa.

Pancakes are my go to since I'm a poor college student. Make a giant batch of batter, store it in the fridge all week. Pancakes every day.

Grilled cheese!

Mac and cheese: Make a pound of pasta, pour it in a rectangle casserole pan. That is the easy part. While you're doing that, start a roux. Just flour and butter in a pot on the stove, keep stirring it. After it is real smooth, pour in some milk. Don't know how much, I eyeball it. Stir. Add in 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and onion powder, a bunch of black pepper, and some red pepper if you like it. When it is up to a simmer, stir in about 2 cups of your favorite shredded cheese--I get the 8 cup bags from Meijer. A little bit of Velveeta helps as well. Keep stirring!
In another pan, I'm cooking peppers and either bacon or Italian Sausage or Bratwurst. Cut up the sausage/bacon and stir it in the macaroni noodles in the pan. Pour the cheese sauce over it, stir it all up. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on the top, stick it in the oven at 450* for about 10-25 minutes (check it til it looks done).
Vary it by trying shells instead of mac.
I buy the cheese and whatnot in bulk, usually $25 worth of supplies will make it 3-6 times and feeds about 6-8 college meals. I don't have a set recipe, just eyeball it every time.

That is all I've got here this time.

Sweet potatoes! 79 cents a pound, taste great, loaded with stuff that's good for you. Just roast for half an hour, grill, or cut up and fry.

Stir fry one green pepper, a big ol' chopped up onion, a whole bag of frozen corn, and a big ol' chopped up apple together, serve with whatever meat or starch you want. For added awesomeness, cook sausage in the pan first; do not drain, cook the mixture in the sausage fat.

$2 bottle of pasta sauce with meat, $2.50 pound frozen tortellini, $4.50 dinner for 2.

you can spice up porkchops easily.

This sounds nasty.. but is actually tasty. If you have a crockpot/slowcooker, take either porkchops or chicken and submerge into a 50/50 mixture of jellied cranberry sauce and ketsup and let slow cook for 5 hours..

it's very tasty, very cheap, and very easy

Microwave safe container.
Egg whites.
Microwave 2 minutes, stop, nuke them another 2 minutes.
Salt, pepper, salsa, deli meat, etc.

Bonus: if you do this every morning you'll lose weight, too.

Cup-O-Noodles! Haha

I found a cheap(ish) way to make salads. Stay away from any pre-mix. Go get a head and chop it up. That is the big savings and you get more. I usually skip the cheese or go light with it. Then, add on some cheap crutons and some chopped veggies. I was able to eat lunch for over a week on less than $8 worth of groceries. Seeing how most fast food will run you $5 plus for a meal, I was able to save enough to help fund another vacation over the course of a year.

For a simple, tasty snack: Cook some rice, then add to it honey, almonds and currants. Mix together.

Quesadillas are also delicious and quick to prepare, plus you can experiment with fillings.

Look at the possible variations with Pasta sauce and types of pasta - there are tons of varieties on both and that should stop it from getting repetitive.

+1 on the slow cooker, we recently got one and it's working out pretty well for us.

Also, one thing I learned - especially if you're just cooking for yourself - is to make larger portions and freeze some of them. That way you can take advantage of bulk discounts and you can also save on cooking time.

Pulled pork--pork shoulder (specifically pork shoulder picnic [the name of that cut]) is pretty cheap and you can eat it for a week.

Apply spice rub of choice, place in 250 degree oven for 2 hours per pound (until it is at 180 internal temp--the longer it's at 180, the more it falls apart)

Mop with an apple cider/vinegar/oil mop every few hours after the first 3 hours.

Remove from oven, pull apart with forks, eat on hamburger buns with bbq sauce, dill pickles and white onion.

Boneless chicken breasts are usually on sale here for $1.99/lb at least once a month. Buy a bunch, clean/trim, individually wrap and freeze in a big freezer bag. There are billions of things you can do with these--and they're healthy.

Chili--cheap and eat it all week

Whenever you cook meat, make about double what you need. Meat is really versatile for future meals.

Example: You grilled some chicken breasts last night. For tonight, slice the chicken breast into strips. Cook some angel hair pasta, and toss with a squeeze of lemon juice, fresh grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, minced garlic, fresh basil if you're fancy, dried herbs if you're not, and aforementioned sliced chicken breast.

Really, the trick to cooking good food fast is keeping up your pantry and learning simple cooking techniques. I always have on hand lots of dried and canned beans, a ton of canned tomatoes, olive oil, flour, different kinds of pasta, honey, balsamic vinegar, dried herbs and spiced that were purchased this year (buy from a place that sells bulk and buy a few months supply at a time).

Here's something I made a few weeks back that turned out really well: I seasoned a really cheap cut of steak, I think it was a chuck under blade whatever, with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and oregano. I heated some oil in a pan over medium high heat, and threw that steak in there. While the first side was cooking, I sliced a half pound of mushrooms. Flip the steak after 3 minutes, and cook 3 minutes more the second time around. Set the steak on a plate, and cover with foil.

Stop! Leave those bits in the pan. Add a little more oil, and sautee the mushrooms. When they're slightly brown, add a few pinches of flour to the pan, and whisk the flour vigorously until it's one with the oil. Add the juice that settled out of the steak, and let it thicken up. Voila, cheap steak and mushrooms with a nice sauce.

I can never eat a whole jar of salad dressing before it goes bad. I prefer to just make however much vinaigrette I need. In a steel bowl, I whisk together olive oil and balsamic vinegar at a 2:1 ratio, and add a little dijon mustard and honey until the acidity balance is right. Salt and pepper for good measure. Toss the greens and such in the same bowl, so that there's one less dish to clean.

--

Last night I made spaghetti and meatballs. I had some anchovies that I wanted to use since I have never cooked with them before, so they made an appearance in both. Spaghetti sauce was 2 large cans of whole tomatoes, simmered for about an hour with two onions (peeled and cut in half--you'll take them out) and 3/4 tin of anchovies, which was way too much. When the meatballs were done, I took the onions out, and blended the rest until it was smooth.

In the meantime, I mixed together ground sirloin, ground pork, an egg, the other 1/4 tin of anchovies minced up, salt, pepper, and parmesan, and crushed Ritz crackers, because I was out of breadcrumbs. If I had fresh garlic, which I usually do, I would have added a few cloves of that. I did have a small onion, so I minced it up, and in it went. I formed them at about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and put them on a cookie sheet at 375 for about 25 minutes. By the time everything was cooked, all of the dishes were washed.

Extra meatballs? There should be, so that you can make meatball subs.

Do you have an ALDI near by?

I use a rice cooker to great effect. Cheap and fast, makes good meals.

Dice up a chicken breast, add a few cups of rice with the proper amount of water. Add garlic, bullion, ad assorted herb and spices. When finished top with mozzarella cheese.

Rice with black beans, mushrooms, and A-1 steak sauce (add steak seasoning, YUM)

Try rice with pasta sauce.

There are a million and one variations on a theme with one of those. For the most part the rules are, dont overfill, dont make the liquid too thick (adding sauces after cooking works better), and play with water amounts till the rice is done right.

Before we moved we had found a dirt cheap place for produce (think laundry basket full for $10-20) and did A LOT of steaming. We found a place after the move that is a good deal (not the insanely good deal we had), an international grocery that has a selection that is opening our eyes. Research on uses for some of it is pending. Also, good seafood (and prices) there... Dinner the other night was steamed shrimp with old bay.. a full pound for each of us. (for less the eating a burger at the local diner)

I found that the biggest savings most people can make is in beverages. Powdered Gatorade by the pitcher (buy the big sports team size tub) is much cheaper then pop and probably better for you. Also drinking lots of tea. (mmm, home made sweet tea with home grown fresh mint)

Explore different places to shop. We do Aldi's for a lot of our basic groceries. Milk for $2.88/gal compared to $3.60 at wally world in the same shopping center. Do a LOT of looking for produce deals, its worth it and fresh fruit and veggies improves your health and your food just tastes a world better.

Buy meat in bulk, individually bag and freeze. Big savings here...

Garden, forage and road kill.

In the past year I have discovered Aldi. They moved to a newer store and I checked it out. Glad I did. It is owned by the same people as Trader Joe's which is there more upscale version. Like TJ's it is all private labels but I find for the basics they are just as good if not better.

The two things I like the most are size and speed.
Size: It is just my wife and I. At most stores I have to buy a months/years supply to get the best price. At Aldi, the package sizes are normal but the price is still really good.
Speed: My store does a great job of getting me through the register quickly. It is the only place where I do not hate getting behind a lady with a full cart. They fly these people through.

A few items that they are great for:
Basics: sugar, flour, cooking oil, oatmeal, etc.
Bottled water case for $2.49 every day not $3.99
Cheeses
Frozen Broccoli for $1.09 and it is just the good stuff, not the trunks and stems.
I avoid Aldi's meats
I am typically not impressed with their produce. They do not refrigerate it on the sales floor and it typically looks bad. I do get my yellow onions there and they are typically less than $1. Last week I picked up a bag of oranges. There is about 10 small oranges in there for $1.29, good too.

This week the menu included Corned Beef since it is on sale at Meijer's for $2.49/lb headed into St.Patricks day. I picked up a lower sodium version, 3 pounder. One hour in boiling water then toss that water (which reduces the sodium again) then another two hours of boiling in two bottles of dark beer. Rye bread and stone ground mustard = nirvana.
I think I will pick up another before the sale ends.

almost any food can be cheap if you cook at home.

whole fresh chickens were on sale for $2-3 each depending on weight the other day so i bought a bunch of them.

$2 chicken in stainless frying pan, brown outside then pop in oven.

4 potatoes - under a quarter when you buy a 10# bag for 2 bux. bag of baby carrots .99 couple stalks celery about .25 one zucchini .30

little bit of chicken broth in the pan with the veggies, pop in oven before chicken. cook chicken to 160, pull and let rest covered. take all broth/veggie juice, toss in pan with chicken drippings, add a little milk and corn starch to make gravy. eat, and enjoy your dinner for 3-4 for under $5

I are hungry now

Brown some pork, beef or chicken. Add potatoes, green and or red peppers and of course onions and garlic. Then add your favorite pasta sauce and simmer. Serve with pasta or steam rice...enjoy!

We have Aldi and Bottom Dollar Foods here in Pitts. Cans of condensed soup for 25 cents, cake mixes for $1, state minimum prices on milk, eggs, etc.

I'm big on buying bulk meat. Buy a brisket when its $1/lb, cut it into 3 lb chunks, trim the fat, freeze. If you buy those big 3-lb bag of pre-frozen "ice-glazed" chicken breasts, they're just about as cheap as buying a whole chicken, but so much easier to cook with. Just know that they are "enhanced with up to 20% of a saline solution" so you're paying for 20% water.

When I'm scrimping, I usually go buy some cheap malt-o-meal cereal, cheap bulk meat, cheap canned meat, pancake mix (its a cheap breakfast and makes a dandy fish breading), and a bunch of frozen veggies. Then I round it out with some milk, eggs, and cheese. If I'm feeling saucy, I'll get bread and lunchmeat.

Leftovers become soup. Even bread. Put some leftover chicken in a pot with some frozen veggies, some V8, and a few stale heels of bread and you'd be surprised how it pumps it up just a bit.

For nutrition's sake, you might want to get a multi-vite or keep a jug of V8 around.

Casseroles.

They're cheap, they make enough food for either leftovers or for a big family.

My wife has 4 good casserole recipes.

I make a $10-$15 pan of lasagna that feeds the two of us at least 3x.

Chili can be very VERY cost effective.

I've found that the biggest thing to make meals expensive for me are spices.

But once i have them, pretty cheap from there.

I make a Chinese garlic ginger chicken noodle dish that now that i have the spices, costs maybe $3 for two people.

Having a family of 6, this is routine for us. One catch is that the ultra cheap food can also be really unhealthy. So buy in bulk. Freeze/store what you don't need right now. Find a local produce stand for fresh fruits/veggies. The one near me sells grapes for $.85/lb instead of the $3.00/lb at the grocery store. Cucumers are 4 for $1 instead of $1 each. We save $30/week just on that alone.

Strange, no one mentioned fish/sea food.