December 14, 2005
From the desk of Jane Galt:Ten incredibly cheap, healthy and easy things you can cook for yourself
So what sort of things are cheap, easy, and delicious? Very few, I'm afraid. But here are some I've found:
1) Fruit compote (delicious, healthy, and filling as a dessert or breakfast with lowfat yogurt and granola)
1 bag frozen raspberries
3 bags mixed berries (or 3 bags of whatever berries you like)
Put frozen raspberries in small saucepan on stove with 3 tablespoons apple juice or water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for one minute, then add 1/3 cup of Splenda. Stir to combine.
Empty other three bags of berries into a large bowl. Pour raspberry mixture over them, and allow to cool. (Heat from raspberry sauce will thaw them) Put a couple large spoonfuls over yogurt (I make my own for a fraction of the cost of storebought) and sprinkle with 1/4 cup granola.
2) Almost-homemade chicken soup
Super-thrifty way: Take picked-over carcass of roasted chicken. Place it in a stock pot and cover with 2/3 fat-free chicken broth, 1/3 water. Toss in a bay leaf, chopped onion and celery, 1/4 tsp sage or poultry seasoning, and a cup of wine. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. Strain.
Less thrifty way: Just use chicken broth from a can/box. Pour it into the stock pot to give 3-5 inches cover of the chicken breasts.
Take two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (bought on special,naturally) and cook in the chicken broth over medium heat until chicken breasts are white all the way through, 15-30 minutes depending on your stove. Remove breasts from chicken broth and strain broth again to get rid of scum.
Add two or three stalks of celery, minced, a bag of baby carrots cut in half, a box of mushrooms cut into quarters, and any other vegetables you fancy, except peas (they'll get soggy). Cook until the carrots are tender. Now toss in half a box of frozen baby peas and noodles or alphabets, if you like. Cook for five minutes, until pasta is barely tender. Cut up the chicken and add it back in. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve. Not as good as recipes that start with a whole chicken, but much better than canned, and it only takes half an hour.
This basic principle can be extended to all sorts of soup; if you like Chicken Tortilla soup, add some tomatoes and hot peppers and bake some cut up tortillas at 400 degrees until they're crispy. If you like creamy soup, add cream. If you're on a diet, and want creamy soup, take out the chicken and the vegetables and throw a cup of rice in the soup. Simmer for 45 minutes, then puree the resulting mixture. Looks just like cream of chicken soup.
3) Scrambled tofu stir fry
Non vegetarians groan at this. Tofu? Gross. It's not the flavour, they explain; it's the consistency.
Okay, so here's how you get around that and eat your cheap, healthful tofu.
First, cook some rice, of course.
For two people, take 1/3-1/2 container of firm tofu and mince it into little pieces. I recommend using one of these hand choppers, which are really cheap and useful enough to make them a must-have for any cook.
Now take a bag of mixed vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Add some chopped onions and mushrooms, and if you can get them, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and/or water chestnuts. (one of the things I miss about London is that they sell stir-fry vegetables in handy pre-packed bags in many supermakets there).
Use a bottle of your favourite stir-fry sauce from the supermarket, or make your own; I like to use a mixture of dry sherry, garlic, minced ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and a tablespoon or so of peanut oil. You can mix up a bunch in advance, and use it several days running, but it's probably best to start with the store-bought stuff.
Take one or two tablespoons of peanut oil and heat it on the stove over high heat for several minutes. (A wok is great, but I stirfry in a regular frying pan. Just make sure it has decently high sides). When the oil is really hot, throw your vegetables into the pan and stir them around for three minutes while they cook. At the three minute mark, throw in all that chopped tofu. At the five minute mark, throw on your stir-fry sauce until you have the level of sauciness you like; I tend to err on the dry side, since sauce adds fat and calories (and I like the flavour of broccoli) but it's your call.
Cook for a minute, and then take off the heat and serve with rice.
I wouldn't serve this at a dinner party--it doesnt really look that appetizing--but then, neither does tuna noodle casserole, and we all like that. It's very healthy, it's cheap, it takes under ten minutes to prepare (twenty, including making the rice and your own stir-fry sauce) and you'll never know the tofu is there.
4) Scrambled eggs.
Everyone thinks they know how to make scrambled eggs. But to make really good, creamy scrambled eggs, you need two things: lot's of milk, and very low heat. I mean, put the burner on simmer.
For one averagely hungry person, use two eggs and 1/4 cup of milk. (If you use lowfat or nonfat milk, add a tablespoon or so of lowfat milk powder to the milk to beef it up. Don't worry-I guarantee that you won't taste it.) Beat that up well in a bowl, and put a frying pan over the lowest heat your burner will do. Spray the pan well with cooking spray, and pour the eggs in. Then let it sit. It will probably be about five minutes before the eggs even look like they're cooking. That's okay. Patience, grasshopper. Just stir it around every few minutes to scrape up the cooked bits and let the raw egg run into their place. Towards the end, you'll have to stir more frequently, but don't manhandle the eggs--only move them when the bit touching the pan is clearly cooked.
This is not super-quick; it probably takes twenty minutes to cook a pan full of eggs. But it's pretty low-work, and they're really lovely, creamy, fluffy and moist. And it really doesn't get much cheaper than $3.00 for six people.
5) Fish in foil
Expensive restaurants do it in parchment paper, but foil works nearly as well, and it's cheaper.
Take a cut of white fish, such as Orange Roughy, Sole, Flounder, or whatever you find on special this week. Divide into portions. Don't ask me "how big"?--don't you know how much you eat? But generally, about 6-8 ounces.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
For each portion, make a piece of foil big enough to completely cover the fish, with room to spare, when folded in half. Brush the inside of the foil well with olive oil. (If you like garlic, I recommend crushing a clove of garlic into the oil before you do so). Place the fish onto the foil with a slice of lemon and a sprig of whatever fresh herb you fancy; tarragon, thyme, and rosemary are all especially nice. Then fold the foil over the fish, and fold the edges over each other until the packet is sealed shut. Cook on a cookie sheet for about ten minutes. You'll get delicate, herb-infused fish steamed gently in their own juices. They're very nice on their own, or with a quick sauce, such as one made by melting a tablespoon of flour and a tablespoon of butter together then adding a cup of white wine and the juice of one lemon and cooking until slightly thickened.
6) Easy lentil rice
Take one box of Near East Lentil Pilaf mix. Cook according to the directions, except that when you add the rice, you also add a half a box of mushrooms, sliced or cut in quarters, 1/4 cup chopped onions, one extra tablespoon of butter, and A LOT of fresh ground black pepper. It's a lovely side dish, but it also makes a healthful, vegetarian main dish, at only about $2.00 a servince. Lovely with a big salad and some hummus and pita.
7) Really good vegetarian lentil soup
Most lentil soup tastes like dirt, especially if it's made without meat. The secret, I've found, is to add half a small jar of those roasted red Italian peppers.
So melt 3-4 tablespoons of butter in a soup pot and saute 1 chopped small onion, 1/2 a jar of roasted italian peppers (chopped), 2/3 cup of chopped carrot and 3 minced stalks of celery until the onion is translucent. Add a bag of lentils, a bay leaf, and some fresh ground black pepper, and cover with water or vegetable broth--or, if you like it tomato-ey, with water mixed with one can of chopped plum tomatoes (unseasoned). Cook over medium heat until the lentils are tender, about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8) Turkey sloppy joes
Take one can of Manwich sauce and cook according to the directions, except use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
You can also make turkey soft tacos this way, using El Paso or McCormick taco seasoning (no, really, it's actually pretty good), but if you do, I recommend using two packets; ground turkey has no flavour of its own, so it really needs a lot of seasoning.
9) Pea soup
Not split pea soup; regular pea soup. It's very springy.
Saute 3/4 cup of chopped onion in a tablespoon of butter for five minutes. Add a large bag of frozen peas, and 2 1/2 c chicken broth, and simmer for five minutes, or until peas are tender. Puree in a blender, then add 1/3 cup buttermilk (contrary to the name it's low fat) and salt and pepper to taste. Heat and serve, swirling a little more buttermilk in.
10) Barbecue chicken
Okay, this isn't quick. But it's cheap and good.
Take a cut up whole chicken, or just breasts, or just legs, depending on how much you want to spend. Soak in 5 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt overnight in the fridge. The next day, preheat the oven to 300 degrees and put the chicken parts on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Brush with barbecue sauce on both sides then bake, skin side up, brushing with barbecue sauce and the pan juices every twenty minutes. It'll take a little over two hours, but the skin will be richly infused with barbecue flavour, and there's very little actual work involved.
Posted by Jane Galt at December 14, 2005 5:26 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksJane, just so you know, I have a bit of a girl crush on you that gets worse every time you post about cheap home cooking.
Jane...
Please tell me I didn't read 'lot's'.
"Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"...
BTW, sour cream instead of milk in the scrambled eggs, but otherwise yes, take your time.
Cheers,
RGT
And for those of us who don't really want to make our own yogurt:
One incredibly expensive, healthy and easy thing you don't have to cook for yourself
Inagiku
111 E. 49th St.
(in Waldorf Astoria, Park & Lexington Aves.)
Seriously though, those are some good cooking tips and I will try several of them.
The thing that sort of irks me about people like Jane, in a minor way, is that despite her protestations to the contrary you pretty much know that her, um, lack of discretionary income is to a large degree self-imposed. I mean, I know a lot of people in New York, Boston, Toronto and other cities and few of them are as obviously intelligent and articulate as Jane. However most of them are able to do very well for themselvs. Jane could too, I'm sure. There's something about an Ivy League business degree and making your own yogurt (which my near penniless, illiterate grandmother used to do) which doesn't jibe.
There are millions--tens of millions--of people whose station in life truly is dramatically constrained by their lack of God-given brains and/or talent. All these penny-stretching tips sound a lot more genuine when they come from people who really are doing as well as they possibly can yet still come up short.
Just my two cents.
On the other hand, milk is absolutely wrong if making an omelet, which is my preferred way of cooking eggs.
The chicken soup: dump the celery, mushrooms and carrots - use leeks and prunes, and you get a decent approximation to the Scots delicacy Cock-a-leekie soup. Seriously delish: with good bread, a meal in itself.
Inagiku is great. Try the multi-course chef's tasting menu with the wine pairings. It will only set you back about $250. Of course, given the choice, I think I'd go with the home-made dinner with Megan. But why should one have to choose? Why not both?
MB
You missed this one:
1) Insert frozen dinner into microwave.
2) key in time
3) press start
Enjoy! Seriously, there are low-cost, low-calorie frozen dinners out there better than anything your cooking-impaired single guy is likely to make on his own. And they don't take any time at all. I'd rather be reading or watching TV than messing with all these cooking preparations. My rule: it shouldn't take longer to make than it takes to eat!
middlebrowser:
But why should one have to choose? Why not both?
Why indeed? I'll bet Jane/Megan would enjoy an invitation, should you choose to extend one.
:-)
Here's a quick and easy way to use up some leftover marinara sauce...
2 cups of brown rice (quick cooking - not instant)
2 cups of water/stock
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon butter
Cook up the rice with the above.
Before the rice is done add in a can of rinsed beans of your favorite type - (navy, black, pinto whatever) and some of your leftover marinara.
I also do the rice and beans w/o marinara and use creole seasoning...Really good...really cheap.
How many raspberries are in a bag of raspberries? Some bags are bigger than others.
If you have a family, ham is the thriftiest meat. It's salty and flavorful, so it's satisfying but you don't eat a lot of it at once. Usually, we would eat a ham once for straight for dinner, then the next day cubed up mixed with potatoes in white sauce, snack, make omelettes, sandwiches with the rest of the meat, then use the bone to make macaroni soup.
I used to make tacos all the time with the kits you can buy. With shells; I prefer crunchy to soft. I found myself using ground turkey because it kept better than ground beef from the local supermarket, and I actually preferred it to beef. I didn't find it underseasoned, either, at least not to the extent of needing a second packet of seasoning. However, I was in the habit of adding a dash of chili powder already, so that may have made the difference.
One time when I had no meat, I made surprisingly good taco filling from a mix of rice, refried beans, salsa, and the normal seasoning.
Jane,
Don't forget your frozen pea/instant rice combination from an earlier cheap meal post. I tried it once at your suggestion. Now, I can't get enough of it.
RE Tofu: Tastes like dirt, no matter what is done to it, has the consistency of loose Jell-o, no matter what. It is "teh suck" as they say.
Battle: And don't forget split pea soup, with delicious hammy goodness.
To echo Jay, one of my standard meals is the burritos. (Yes, the burritos. Makes two smaller-than-a-tacqueria-burrito ones, the way I do it.)
Two skillets, medium-low heat (3.5-4), ideally cast-iron. While they heat, chop up the vegeetables (green onion, red onion, garlic, cilantro, sometimes a bell pepper, often a serrano pepper) however finely and in whatever quantity you prefer.
Grate cheese of your choice (cheddar!) to taste.
1/3 pound 80% ground beef, on skillet. Spread it out, hit it with some chili powder. Flip and chop up as you brown it and cook it through.
While that's going on, heat 1/3 to 1/2 can refried beans in a small pot (or the other half of your meat skillet).
Turn the heat off when you're done, warm the tortillas on the second skillet, and roll up some burrito lovin'. Takes half an hour; less if you use a food processor for the chopping.
Smoothies - better and healthier than at Jamba Juice:
Ingredients:
One banana
Frozen berries, pref from Trader Joe's
Orange Juice, pref with pulp
Into a blender, place one peeled whole banana, standing vertically.
Add frozen berries to a little past half-way up the banana.
Add orange juice to just cover the berries.
Put lid on blender, blend until smoothish.
Serves 2.
Vegetable Fried Rice (aka, Bachelor Cooking: The Chinese Way)
Cook 2 cups of rice (all Chinese people have rice cookers, and we really don't understand how anybody could live without one). Heat 1-2 TBSP of oil in a wide, deep pan on high heat. (Woks don't work at home unless you have a $10,000 Viking range, thereby nullifying the whole point of cheap eats). Stir in 1/2 cup of mixed frozen veggies. Add 1-2 tpsp of soy sauce and black pepper to taste. After the temperature stablizes, add 1/2 of the rice, and start stirring. Once the pan's temperature has stabilized, clear a hole in the middle and add 2 beaten eggs. Once the eggs start to solidify, start stirring again, and add the rest of the rice. Makes 4 servings.
Total preparation/cooking time: 12 minutes.
The best part is once you master this recipe, you can then graduate to every other fried rice variant in the universe just by adding more ingredients/spices to this base.
Independent George,
Looks tasty and unbelievably simple. I do one frequently that I got out of an Indian cookbook by Julie Sahni -- same rough idea, except no eggs, and fried onions and cauliflower (I found frozen is fine), and cumin and coriander rather than pepper. Delicious and very quick.
Don't forget to add a bit of kosher salt to the eggs before scrambling.
From years of backpacking, I've experimented with various ways to cook Ramen noodles:
In the same aisle as the tuna fish, get a foil bag of shrimp. Boil a pack of ramen, drain, add the shrimp (rinse 'em first,) and dump in a splash of cream and some parmesan cheese. With a bit of imagination, enjoy your Shrimp-pasta alfredo that you made for about $2.50.
-- JRB
Smoov,
How to get rich:
1. Have a good income.
2. Live frugally.
3. Invest in index funds.
4. Retire early, as a rich person.
Not sure why this plan is irksome.
Yours,
Wince
Cheapo easy vegetable soup:
1. Get one of those 46 ounce cans of tomato juice, about a dollar from Aldi or similar place.
2. Put in crock pot. Toss in bag of mixed frozen veggies. Add a little salt/pepper (you can put in more later).
3. Add cut-up pieces of raw beef/chicken if you like. Maybe a bay leaf, some onions, bit of garlic, whatever you think would be good.
4. Turn on crock pot low, go to work.
5. Come home and it's done.
6. For less than $3 you get about 10 big bowls of good soup.
After some experience, you can play around with ingredients to make it more to your taste.
I lived on this when I was starting my business and had no cash on hand.
Super fast, cheap, and easy BBQ chicken. Go to Sam's Club and buy a couple of their rotisserie chickens, which are huge, already cooked, and cost less than 5 bucks apiece. Cut them up, put the pieces on a baking sheet, slather them very generously with BBQ sauce, cover loosely with tinfoil. Put in oven at very low heat (about 190 degrees) for an hour or so, then a few minutes uncovered under the broiler for crisp. Perfecto!
Butter or butter-flavored non-stick spray w/the scrambled eggs and don't forget the pepper. I saute onions 1st then add the eggs.
Wow, someone makes eggs like I do. There is a difference using milk, gets them higher.
---
Now use cream in your mashed spuds w/chive and onion cream cheese, butter and seasoned pepper - and some sea salt.................
The best non-grilled chicken you will ever taste:
- slice chicken breast into smallish pieces
- dip in all-purpose flour with a few pinches of paprika or chili powder
- fry in decent amount of olive oil until dark golden brown
- add splash of balsamic vinegar, stirring to candy glaze each individual chicken piece
You can eat these on their own, or add them to a salad or a rough pasta sauce like a pesto (don't add to a wet pasta sauce like a marinara as the vinegar glaze will be lost ...
Comments are Closed.