inexpensive recipes

[astrayacorazon]

I'm curious to hear whether anyone out there wants to share certain recipes that are unfailingly good but which don't cost too much to make. I'm always looking for such recipes, because while food should always be tasty, it's always fun to find a bargain, too. (All these savings can add up to an extra trip to a nice restaurant!) Old, discounted or marked-down meats not allowed. Not trying to poison ourselves here to save a buck, just trying to beat the system!

I'm currently relishing a recipe I modified that made a hearty 4 servings for less than $5 in ingredients. It turns out FreshDirect doesn't charge too much for turkey drumsticks, which worked out well for me! I made a nice turkey osso buco with a recipe I found on epicurious. Only needed about 6 ingredients. The meat just fell off the bone, which contributed its own broth to the dish. I used no spices yet it was incredibly flavorful. I was very pleased with the results, and temporarily forgot the whole thing cost only $5 to make.

Anyone have their own gourmet bargains?

[snowangel]

Anything with chicken legs and/or thighs. They have been cheap forever. I think I am reaping the rewards of the current trend to boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

[fifi]

And a hearty second for snowangel's use of thighs. (They have to do somethng with the rest of the chicken.) Check out this thread where we got obsessive with paprika. Try the paprika chicken. Insanely simple, easy and delicious. It is basically thighs rubbed with an insane amount of paprika and slow cooked on a thick bed of onion slices. There are several methods and variations on that thread.

[chromedome]

Potato soup.

There's a thread around here, someplace...

[snowangel]

A couple from our "brokest" past: Carbonara and Amaatrciana. Pasta plus. I took to getting bacon ends, at that time, from our local butcher. Not panchetta, but beguiling in it's own way. Pasta, eggs, onions, canned tomatoes, and those bacon ends were all inexpensive. I did splurge on parm because a little goes a long way. It's all about figuring what is worth paying a lot for and what isn't.

[EdS]

Some ideas:

Reduce portion sizes and/or reduce proportion of meat.

Eat more flavorful chicken thighs and legs rather than the more expensive boneless/skinless/tasteless/pointless chicken breasts.

Buy whole chickens and piece them out yourself.

Make sauces from scratch rather than using prepackaged canned and bottled sauces.

Eliminate junk food.

Drink water, tea, or coffee instead of soda and alcohol.

Buy vegetables and fruits in season when they are more tasty and less expensive.

Ignore Atkins and instead eat more like people do in the rest of the world.

Soup is good. Make broth from chicken backs (and breasts, heh) from whole chickens above.

Find a Mexican grocery store and cook Mexican. Those stores are cheap here.

Pasta is your friend.

Potatoes can be friendly too.

Eggs are friendly by the dozen.

Make a meal of Costco food samplings.

Talk to college students and do as they do.

Eh, Top Ramen?!?

Recipes? Search Google for Medievel peasant recipes using bread as a thickener.

Say no to sushi.

If all else fails, go on a David Blaine hunger strike.

Edited December 8, 2004 by esvoboda (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

Anything with chicken legs and/or thighs.  They have been cheap forever.  I think I am reaping the rewards of the current trend to boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

←

The absolutely easisest and cheapest recipe is this:

Package of chicken drumsticks

26 oz. Bottle of spaghetti sauce

Put in a saucepan, pour the sauce over the chicken, cover

Bake 1 hour.

Voilá!

Rice on the side.

Edited December 8, 2004 by Mark Sommelier (log)

[Jensen]

Some recent cheap meals here at Chez Jensen:

* braised beef shank ($2.99/lb...almost as cheap as hamburger!)

* chuck roast in any number of incarnations...Carbonnade Flamande, porkölt (recipe is here in the WW topic), Provencal beef stew

* soup! cauliflower, potatoes, squash...the world is your soup tureen

* beans! my favourite right now is navy beans seasoned with herbes de Provence and garlic. Yum!

Edited to add this:

My food costs started going down when I started planning the meals around the vegetables, instead of the protein. I go to the farmer's market every Saturday morning and buy vegetables for the week then use those as the central item around which the meal is planned. For example, the braised beef shanks above were planned to accompany a fresh onion tart (photo of said tart available here).

Edited December 8, 2004 by Jensen (log)

[jrt]

This is a great topic... I'd also say it's a question of which meals I can make from the cabinet versus what I can make if I stroll down to the butcher and market.

I'd have to say evenings with cheeses, olives, and associated spreads tends to work well. Though they may seem budget-busting at first, they last long enough to pay off better in the long run than, say, canned or (especially) jarred items. And they're usually more exciting, too :)

One of my favorite low-cost, easy to stock dishes is a cannelini/great white northern bean and tuna salad. Canned/pouched tuna with aforementioned bean, a glurg or two of EVOO, some ripped up flat leaf pars, and (if it's on hand -- like I said, it pays off) some grated parmesan, you've got a good meal of which a bowl will last a whole movie.

And let's not forget some dried sausage and hard cheese. Five to six bucks to get ya through three or four days? Not so bad. True, Top Ramen is cheaper. (I eat those raw, maybe I'm alone in that one.)

Edited December 8, 2004 by jrt (log)

[petite tête de chou]

Make a large batch of smoked ham shank stock- Brown shanks, add carrots, celery, onions, parsley, garlic, bay leaf. I reduce mine from 16 cups to about 8 cups. Strain, chill and defat. Strip meat from shanks and reserve to add back to soup. An extremely versatile stock that can be used for...

Black-eyed pea with greens soup. I use either, collard, kale, spinach or mustard.

A splash of Franks hot sauce peps it up. Remember to add the reserved meat.

Split pea soup/stew. Pretty self-explanatory.

White beans with thyme, rosemary and quite a bit of garlic.

Red beans and rice. Or black beans and rice.

You probably get the idea. Smoked ham shanks have been a god-send in lean times.

[Carlovski]

Pulses and beans are your friend when on a budget.

Pasta too. Pasta, tinned tomatoes, garlic, oil - costs pence.

A big batch of chilli s fairly inexpensive - Make it extra hot so you have to bulk up on rice/bread etc!

A good butcher will usually have some cheap cuts on hand - My local one usually has bargain 'stewing lamb' - rather 'knuckly' pieces, but great for long braises - joyfully messy to eat (Or you can pick off the bone, but where's the fun). I made a morrocanish lamb and chickpea casserole with couscous - A big pot of the stuff, for less than £3 last week.

[melonpan]

some nights i eat naked matzoh balls. just the matzoh balls with a little salt and some pepper. no soup. sometimes without my clothes too, just to keep with the theme.

thats really cheap. youre out two eggs and 1/2 a cup of matzoh meal. that cant be more than 50 cents worth of material.

practically no other work involved, esp if you dont shape the balls and just scrape them off the spoon directly into the water.

<center>gadzooks, what are those? scones? underfried fried chicken?<br><i>no! these are the result when good matzoh meal meet bad gentiles.<br></i>

<img src="http://www.rawbw.com/~coconut/eg/04/041208matzoh.jpg"></center>

this is not a responsible meal, not for anyone under 18. but this is for two adults who live dangerously and take risks on a regular basis. we live on the edge and can eat the balls without the soup. there are certainly worse things than homemade naked matzoh balls, no?

some days when i come home at 10 pm, its what i can muster up at the last minute.

it is warm, moist, simple. satisfying.

<b>manischewitz box matzo balls</b>

<i>makes about 8 balls</i>

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/2 cup matzoh meal

1/4 tsp salt

some finely, freshly ground pepper

2 tablepoons water

<ol><li>mix everything in a medium sized bowl with chopsticks until blended. cover with some saran wrap and stick it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes (i think its the chilling that keeps them from falling apart...).

<li>bring a large pot of water to a boil.

<li>shape the chilled mixture into balls if you want to be proper. or not. they can be any size that you like, but be aware that these things expand. the box says about "1 inch in diameter". thats a good sensible size, but then the matzoh balls wont be grapefruit sized like some people prefer. you will need to make them larger in that case.

<li>drop balls in and reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30-45 minutes.

<li>meanwhile, heat some chicken soup. in a perfect world mama will have lovingly made this from scratch before you make the balls. come to think of it, she makes the balls too. i have been known to use campbells chicken noodle soup (that sounds so sad, doesnt it). anyway, if desperate, heat up chicken or veggie bouillon cubes in coffee mugs (that sounds sadder). or not.

<li>serve in the hot, very hot! soup. or not.</ol>

[FL Heat]

Roast chicken. Whole chickens vary from 59 cents/lb to 79 cents/lb. Looks beautiful. Tastes wonderful. Goes perfectly with anything from the farmer's market.

Chili. Tortilla soup. Chicken fried steak (cube steak is ALWAYS cheap, if you live in a part of the country that carries it). Fajitas (skirt steak is cheap). Pork satay skewers (we use country ribs for that, since you have to cube the meat anyway). Frittatas.

This is hard to answer! I cook on a pretty tight budget, but we eat like kings. I shop at the farmer's market, too, and base the meals around that, the grocery store sales, and the meat market specials. If something we like is on sale, we get extra and freeze it.

Diana

[Mabelline]

Almost any other culture's food ... little meat, lots of vegetables,pasta,beans, rice, etc. Stir fry; you can get by with 1/2 pound of excellent meat and build from that. I agree with shanks of any kind. Slow cooked and melting tender. Real tacos,enchiladas,and so on. I'm on a serious Indian binge right now--and loving it.

[NulloModo]

First of all, I would recommend not being afraid of the discounted/marked down meat. The grocery is most likely not going to sell you anything that has any risk of really being dangerous.

Cans of tuna are always cheap, and can be turned into interesting salads/sandwiches/casseroles. Shop for veggies at farmers markets whenever you can, you get things tons cheaper that way, and for less than $5 can make up:

A bit pot of Gumbo Z'Herbe (or even regular gumbo if you stumble on some cheap meat)

Collard Greens with Ham Hocks

Stir-fried curried Okra

Hot and Sour Soup (tofu is a great bulker in this, lots of protein, and cheap too)

etc, etc.

[jackal10]

The trick is to get many meals out of one dish

Chicken->salad->sandwich->soup->risotto->fried cakes

Home made bread is cheap, and transforms many things...

[hwilson41]

Chicken livers! Still one of the great bargains around. We make chicken livers fried in a bit of butter and EVOO. When just done, remove to a side dish, add 1/2 C or so of decent red wine and 1 Tbsp Tarragon or Oregano, reduce by half, add a pat of butter and you've got a simple but very good wine sauce. Serve with a simple rice pilaf made with homemade chicken stock (also cheap if you shop for the chicken parts). You can feed two for less than two bucks. Hard to beat, and the taste is excellent (assuming you like chicken livers ).

THW

[marie-louise]

Roast chicken.  Whole chickens vary from 59 cents/lb to 79 cents/lb.  Looks beautiful.  Tastes wonderful.  Goes perfectly with anything from the farmer's market.

←

Wow-that's cheap! I think that large producer whole chickens are closer to $2/pound here. The organic ones I buy are $4/ pound, but [compared to other cuts of meat] I still consider that a bargain-you can get 4-6 servings from a nice 4 lb. roast chicken. A good roast chicken makes a bargain meal for company, along w/ lamb shanks & white beans or braised chicken thighs w/ legs attached.

[Mabelline]

Chicken livers! I love them! My sprouts loved them! They were REAL thrifty back in the day....

FL Heat, that is an outstanding chicken price! I'll check ours out today. I don't get mine from the grocery, I go to the Meat Palace, a small family butcher.

[FL Heat]

The 59 or 69 cents/lb whole chickens are at our meat market (a 40 minute drive, but worth it for the quality & prices), the 79 cents/lb are at the grocery store right now (a 5 minute drive). At the grocery store, they were frozen and varied from miniscule to are-you-sure-that-isn't-a-turkey size.

A tool I recently found that's helped a lot is that Publix has their weekly circulars online. . .you plug in your zip code and see the flyer for your store. Short ribs are $2.19/lb this week; since I'd never tried making them before (but wanted to after reading the "Braisin' Hussy" thread), it seemed like a good time to buy them. So I'll probably go tomorrow and buy a couple more packages for the freezer, since last night's were wonderful--and required the purchase of ONLY the ribs, as I had everything else I needed already in the pantry.

And that's where the thriftiness lies. . .if it's a genuinely good deal and you'll really use the product, stocking up on it (if it can be stored long-term) when it's on sale and knowing who charges what (89 cents/lb for oranges at the grocery store or 10 for $1 at the farmer's market; while asparagus costs $2.99/lb both places) saves more money in the long run. I really think we could eat for 2 weeks just off what's in the freezer--when I bake bread, I make 1 extra loaf and put it in the freezer for the weeks I don't have time, for example. When the brand of organic vegetable stock I like is on sale, I don't hesistate to grab 3 or 4 boxes, since I know it'll get used.

Why, no, I don't obsess about shopping and prices, why do you ask?

Diana

[DRColby]

Cathy and I volunteer at the local food bank. Most days a home economist from the Washington State Extension is there. She is demoing how to make cheep, quick, and nutritous meals for the food bank clients.

Of course we get to sample and they are quite good, quck to prepare and pretty healthy. You could probably get all of these you want by going to the Extension web site.

Dave

[hazardnc]

I have to second the suggestion re: pulses.

I make a wonderful Lebanese dish, Mjderah, made with lentils and rice, cooked together and topped with onions which have been browned in olive oil. Top this with yogurt and/or a salad made with tomatoes and onions dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Yummy, nutricious and cheap.

I also have a fabulous recipe for a Tuscan chickpea soup that is nothing more than chickpeas, garlic, onions, a bit of vermicelli and rosemary cooked with veggie stock and then pureed slightly.

Black bean soup - Cuban style

Lastly, one of my favorite dishes is limas cooked in a bit of bacon fat with onions (we also add some pickled jalapenos) and mixed with rice. I absolutely hated limas as a kid, but I have since grown to love them cooked this way.

[johnnyd]

Cathy and I volunteer at the local food bank.  Most days a home economist from the Washington State Extension is there.    She  is demoing how to make cheep, quick,  and nutritous meals for the food bank clients.

    Of course we get to sample and they are quite good, quck to prepare and pretty healthy.    You could probably get all of these you want by going to the Extension web site.

Dave

←

I can't say how happy I am to hear of this practice. The lack of nutritional knowledge in lower income demographics, thus resulting in unhealthy conditions, has been the subject of many threads here on eG. This clearly shows an effort to fix this. Sadly, there are no recipes on the WSU site, just books or info for sale.

When I lived in Portugal, the simple dishes of the community around us made a big impression. My all time favorite is still the cheapest to make: Caldo Verde, basically a potato, onion and kale (or collard) soup made with chicken stock I make at home. Bits of chorizo and lots of EVOO at serving make it come together. Barely fifty cents a bowl, maybe a buck with the chorizo added.

[Mistinguett]

Cabbage with smoked shanks ($0.99/lb at many supermarkets. I use them for flavor, not so much for the meat - although, if I buy them from my butcher they're meaty and delicious, but $4.99/lb).

Cabbage with tagliatelli (I think it's a hungarian recipe).

Chicken and pea stew. If interested, I'd be happy to write the recipe.

[phifly04]

the downfall of western civilization..........the bargain muffin