Your Best: Cheap and Easy Recipes

[dirtybryan]

So first year I'm shopping for myself and cooking for myself 24/7. Advice for cheap, easy, and good meals? I'm pretty good as far as breakfast goes since I worked as as short order breakfast cook this summer, but I'm getting tired of the same old PB&J, spaghetti & sauce, mac&cheese, etc... meals for lunch. I've got new appreciation for my mothers cooking. Just looking to eat a little better, but also don't want to spend too much since if I can budget the food well, I might be able to swing an AT rig this winter.

[deliberate]

curry is as expensive as you want it to be

[MrZach]

When I lived alone, cooking almost any full-on dinner was impractical since I inevitabley made too much for myself. If I wasn't cooking for friends, etc. I'd usually stick to things that would make great leftovers for lunches and following dinners. You mentioned you missed mom's cooking: dishes like mac & cheese (the real shit you bake, not that crap in a box), meatloaf, lasagna, roasts, etc. are generally easy to make and provide awesome makings for lunches etc. (roast beef and potroast sammwiches are teh yum). I'd recommend for sure picking up any sort of decent "cooking for dummies" book if not something along the lines of the "Betty Crocker" cookbook - either of these would be great references that you'll refer too for years while answering questions that come up in the meatime.

[Daywalker]

Rice and (black) beans-good & cheap. Upgrade with either Frank's Red Hot or Lizano Sauce

Quinoa, your choice of a bottle of salsa, and chicken chunks-semicheap but fantastic. Changing it up is as easy as swapping salsas.

Baked sweet potatos + your choice of meat-as cheap as the meat is, nice balanced meal. BSP's are great cold the second or third day.

I cook meals for myself 90% of the time. The key is making enough for a few nights so that you're not doing it every night. I'm big on fruits and vegetables in addition to meals like the basics above.

[Spats]

Chili mac.

Cook and drain macaroni. Add can of chili to pot. Stir. Continue heating until mixture reaches desired temperature. Makes several meals.

[Steepdeepnlong]

For a cookbook, get The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It's what Betty Crocker uses at home, and it will tell you how to do everything. Everything.

[ICEHOCEY77]

Insalata Caprese

1/2 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4-inch thick
2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 cup fresh basil leaves
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons drained capers (optional)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

[MrsTromano]

Quesadillas:

Place one tortilla in a pan, throw some shredded cheese on the tortilla (add some of that pre-cooked chicken strips too, if you want), place second tortilla on top. Heat and serve.

[FJ62]

I'm on a bok choy kick, as it's easy and healthier than any crap I'd buy at a restaurant.

Get a can of veggie/chicken broth and simmer it in a large pot. Throw some garlic in there, if you like, or don't. Drop about 2 lbs of baby bok choy (cheap and healthy) into the pot. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Use a fork to take out the bok choy and boil the remaining liquid. Add some soy sauce, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes or anything else you want to the pot (even rice noodles will cook fast in there). Let it reduce uncovered to about a half a cup-ish. Pour it over the bok choy and it'll be great.

You can also put some cooked meat on top (or tofu) and pour that last bit of liquid on top of the whole shebang. Tastes great. Takes about 7 minutes.

x2 on beans & rice. Sometimes you can order beans and rice as side orders at a Mexican joint, get free chips and salsa and have a great meal out on the town for about 3 bucks (plus drink).

Quesadillas are easy to make at home, too. If you're cooking solo you'll find a lot of recipes are impractical, but some stuff will keep in the fridge and fill you up.

[FreakofSnow]

Get yourself a crockpot. You'll be able to cook up cheap meals and have a bunch of leftovers for the week OR to freeze.

For instance the other day i threw a can of mushroom soup on the crock, added a 5lb Elk roast, then dumped a thing of dry onion soup in. BAM!

[Jax]

Get yourself a crockpot.

Seconded

The possibilities are endless.

Prep when you go to bed. Turn on when you leave for school/work. Come home and dinner is magically ready!

Buy one used at thrift or garage sale for $5..

[SLSki]

I'm a fan of hamburger helper and a helping of veggies. HH is idiot proof and you can re-heat it for lunch and dinner.

[RootSkier]

Get crockpot. Buy 8 pound (approx) pork shoulder. Cook on low for eight hours with some beer, onion, and whatever spices you have around. Drain, shred, mix with any barbecue sauce that has vinegar as the first ingredient, and eat on bun or plain.

Good for a week's worth of lunch AND dinner.

[doughboyshredder]

Get crockpot. Buy 8 pound (approx) pork shoulder. Cook on low for eight hours with some beer, onion, and whatever spices you have around. Drain, shred, mix with any barbecue sauce that has vinegar as the first ingredient, and eat on bun or plain.

Good for a week's worth of lunch AND dinner.

You just convinced me to go buy a new crockpot. That sounds really good.

[hemas]

"meaty" salad, shop some lettuce, red onions, tomato and mozzarella cheese, make some rice/pasta and chop some chorizo/salami, plus add some feta cheese. Either mix 'em all up or just pile in layers, add some seasoning and eat. Quick, not a lot of dishes and pretty good.

Rise/Pasta and pesto.

Make some Rösti with fried egg and bacon/thin fried pork. Peel a suitable amount of potatoes, grind 'em with a cheese-grinder (use the biggest slots), chop an onion or two and mix with the potatoes. Warm a fryingpan, add some oliveoil and pile a nice even layer of potato-onion "mash" on the pan. Try to make it cover the whole flat part of the pan... Fry for some time, then either flip it by throwing (like pancakes) or use a dish to help. After you've fried all the "mash", fry an egg per rösti and a few slices of bacon (or thing pork) plus add some tasty cheese. Enjoy.

Oh, and if making a sauce, make enough for 2-3 days and chuck a part of 'em in the freezer. That way, you don't have to eat the same grub a few days in the row, and you also have to option of not really cookin' anything (just make some rice/pasta and warm a chunk of the sauce).

[Tye 1on]

Stir fry. Cut up chicken, fry in oil, go big with adding some sesame oil. Cut up vegies. Saute in less oil. Toss chicken back in. Add stir fry sauce. Make rice. Add soy suce. Eat.

Chicken. Buy chicken. Clean inside and out. Put some spices on it, like salt and pepper. Toss in oven. Eat.

Bacon cheddar vegie burger. Buy vegie burger. Cook bacon. Heat vegie burger. Add cheese and bacon. Eat.

[wootskier-great version of the classic mexican carnitas!]

[Tippster]

If you have a grill then cooking for one is easy. I still go to the old standbys when the wife & kids are visiting the inlaws - usually a steak, pork chop, or chicken leg quarter seasoned then grilled. Side dishes can be anything:

Ramen noodles cooked without the flavor pouch in the water - adding 1/2 of it to the drained noodles just before serving

1/2 cup white (or better wild) rice cooked in 1 cup of chicken bouillon (can is OK) and a pat of butter - bring all to a boil, lower the heat to simmer, then put aluminum foil over the pot before placing the lid - makes a better seal. Simmer for recommended time (usually ~50 minutes for wild rice, ~20 for white) and DON'T PEEK UNDER THE LID.

Grilled zucchini is always an easy dish for single portions. Tomato salads are really easy too - cut up one large tomato and toss with salt & pepper - maybe add a dash of olive oil and some freshly chopped basil if you have it. The longer you let the tomato marinate in the S&P the "fresher" it will taste.

[Brock Landers]

Tuna noodle casserole. Egg noodles. Can or 2 of tuna. Can of mushroom soup. Cook noodles. Drain. Add mushroom soup. Add tuna. Heat. Stir. Eat. Itll last you a couple meals. And its cheap.

Potato chips on top if you want.

[lemon boy]

Want to really save money cooking?

You'll need to discard your modern North American eating ethos with it's outsized meat/veg portions and allow yourself to move toward a style of eating that revolves around adding flavor (and protein/vitamins) to some basic building block foodstuffs (eg: rice, potato, pasta, beans). It's really easy once you get the hang of it.

For example, when you go to a chinese restaurant, the entrée you order is not really for one person but probably 3 and at the very least two.

Some bugs for your ear:
The point of a pot roast is to flavor potatoes and carrots
The point of stir fry is to flavor rice, as is the point of curry and fried rice
The point of corned beef is to flavor potatoes and cabbage

Buy some reusable containers and get good at eating out of the freezer.

[pechelman]

buy a box of those lipton or rice a roni pastas. cream sauced ones were always the best I thought and the most filling.
1 can of tuna
and
1 jar of artichoke hearts
1 bag of sun dried tomatoes
or
1 bag of frozen broccoli


basically make the pasta
add either half of the jar of artichokes and like 4-6 whole SDT's sliced up toward the end along with the tuna, or if you go the frozen veggie route, add them half way through to thaw them.
just make sure to add the tuna toward the end so it doesnt break down too much from cooking\stirring a lot.
this is also an awesome meal cause you can cook and eat it directly from one pot.
1 meal if youre starving or working out a lot or 2 if you're normal.


also

matzo ball soup
buy the soup mix, add chicken and veggies and noodles or whatever you want
depending on how much stuff you add, food for 6.

edit: soups or stews in general, specially with a crockpot. think chili, pot roast, etc. get a crock pot book. (and obviously crock pot)

and

1 box of zatarans jambalaya
1 sausage of your choice (i did turkey cause it was the least bad for us)
add veggies such as bell pepper, corn, onion, garlic etc
start by cooking the veggies and sausage, add the rice, and follow the directions. Food for 4 big meals, especially if you buy some bread.

[AsheanMT]

At least you are cooking for yourself!! Back in my bachelor days I was the only one out of all my roomates that could cook. Nowadays, the kitchen is MINE. The wife knows better than to try and do anything in my kitchen!

Things to always keep on hand so that you can make ANYTHING:

Onions: Red, White, and Sweet
Garlic and Shallots
Rice: Wild blend and some jasmine
Potatoes: Keep em in a cool dark place
Flour
Breadcrumbs
Parsley.....get the flat leaf italian parsley cause curly parsley has no flavor
Carrots
Celery
When buying meat look for the deals and build your recipes around it. Many times there will be great deals on chicken that can be frozen. Learn to make chicken fried steak cause its wicked cheap.
Keep some stock on hand!
I'd invest in a good baking book and learn how to make bread! Bread is the staple of all human life!

As far as recipes....infinite!

I recommend going to www.foodnetwork.com at try at least one new recipe every week. After months of doing that you be able to make anything. Just look over the simple recipes there otherwise you can easily get carried away and end up spending more money on a single dinner than you would have had you just gone out to eat. Mexican and Italian are your best friends as they tend to use fresh and inexpensive ingredients that if prepared correctly are damn tastey!

Tonight's family dinner at the AsheanMT house:

Oven fried pork chops:

4 Chops about 3/4 in thick
couple tbls of melted butter
1 egg beaten w/ a little milk in it in a deep plate or pie plate for dipping
about a cup or more of breadcrumbs seasoned to your liking (mine will have red pepper flakes, salt, rosemary, and thyme.

Pre-heat oven to 425
get a 13x9in pan and put your melted butter in the bottom
Dip a chops into the egg and then into the bread crumbs place into your pan
Bake for ten minutes then turn each chop over and bake for another ten minutes or so.

Wild Rice alla Ashean:

Finely dice some carrots, celery, and onion (mirepoix) and sautee in a little butter or olive oil salt and pepper in a 2qt pot with a nice fitting lid. Once softened add two cups of chicken broth and one cup of rice. Bring to a boil then set to simmer (just above "Low") put the lid on it and DON'T TOUCH IT FOR 22min. After 22min just take it off the heat and don't remove the lid for ten min. Fluff with fork and serve.

Steamed veggies of whatever you got. Tonight: carrots and broccoli.

[flatNshallow]

HUNTERS DINNER

This ones from my dear old Grandma, may she RIP...

Spahghetti O's
Hot Dogs - cut into bite sized morsels
Assorted Canned Veggies (one of which must be lima beans for proper effect)
Heat it
Eat it

for best results you should eat this after freezing your ass off sitting in a deer blind for 10 hours... otherwise is sucks.









Ok, it's like a bolgna and ketchup sandwich... tasted great as a kid but now...

[adrenalated]

I usually buy a few base ingredients and mix and match to make different meals. The biggest problem with cooking for one is that ingredients tend to come in too-large portions for one, so you have to be able to reuse before stuff goes bad.

Bases: pasta, rice, tortillas
Meats/protein: chicken, shrimp, black beans, italian sausage
Veggies: onion, green pepper, tomato, artichokes, green onion
Cheeses: cheddar, jack, feta, mozzarella
Sauces: salsa (can be used in pasta and rice as well as burritos), pesto, premade pasta sauce, green chile
Flavoring: lime juice (preferably from fresh limes, bonus use is making margs), jalepenos, various spices

You can make a decent variety of tasty dishes in under a half hour with just a few ingredients like these. Substitute things to suit your own your tastes...

[DJSapp]

You just convinced me to go buy a new crockpot. That sounds really good.

Crockpot = Bachelor pad gold.

Mexican shredded beef, chicken or Carnitas

1 3 lb. tritip roast (beef or pork) or a lot of chicken
1 Big ass jar of CHEAP salsa (going expensive here doesn't help at all.

Optional, add to taste:
Ground cumin
Garlic
Hot Sauce
Jalapenos

Dump meat into crock pot, cover with salsa, cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for ~4 hrs. It is done when you poke it with a fork and it shreds without any effort. Easy filler for quesadilla's, burritos, tacos, etc.

For the extra mile:

Heat & oil a cast iron skillet. Drop shredded pork into skillet and lightly fry. Homemade Carnitas. $$$$.

[bsideindy]

1 lb chicken
1 chopped onion
1 bottle bbq sauce
rolls or sliced bread

In crockpot, add chicken and onion. after a couple hours, pull chicken apart with forks. At some point later dump in the bbq sauce.

serve on rolls or bread