Cheesey Eggplant Pie!

Otherwise know as eggplant parmesan.  This version is pasta-less, but feel free to add your own.  My husband and I prefer garlic bread as the carb in this one :)  It's a fast dish to prep so you can get back to the party, of 1, 2 or more!

Indigents: 

1 large eggplants, cut crosswise into rounds

2c pasta sauce

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

3tbs basil

1/4tsp black pepper

1/4tsp red pepper

2 eggs, beaten in a large bowl

1 1/2c breadcrumbs, fine, and seasoned to taste

1c flaked cheese (harder is better)

Serves: 4-6 people

Time: 20 min. pre

          40 min bake

             1 hour total

This recipe requires a slightly longer cook time due to the "skipped" step of dehydrating the eggplant with salt.  If you choose to do this step: Toss all the eggplant rounds with 2 teaspoons salt in a large bowl... then rinse and let drain for 30 minutes. This step does leave a fair amount of salt in the dish, so health conscious cook beware!  

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375°F.

2) Set up your dinner prep area as the eggplant does oxidize.  Make sure you are ready with your washed eggplant and cutting board, your beaten egg, your seasoned bread crumb mixture, and your baking dish!

3)Add 2 tbs of pasta sauce to the dish you will be baking in.  Swril teh dish or spread teh sauce with a spoon to coat the bottom of the dish.

4) Slice the eggplant in to 1/4 to 1/3 inch rounds.  This is a cross section cut.

5) Coat both sides of the round with the egg mixture.  (If you choose not to dehydrate the eggplant, not much egg will stick.  If you did dehydrate the eggplant, you will probably need a third egg.)

6) Place your egg coated round in the bread crumb mixture.  Flip the round to cover both sides. PRO TIP: Add some cheese to the bread crumb mixture as well ;)  

7) Transfer eggplant to your backing dish.  If you want your egg plant extra crispy you will need to precook the eggplant in a pan after you coat it in bread crumbs.  Otherwise, you can arrange it to go straight in the oven.

8) Work with one piece at a time until you have arranged the first layer of eggplant. 

9) Add 1c of sauce, a layer of cheese, and 1/2 your basil, minced garlic and pepper seasonings.

10) Create another layer of eggplant rounds.  Fill in as necessary to make for a "full pie."

11) Add  the rest of the sauce, cheese, seasonings and garlic.

12) Bake covered for 35 min. The sauce should be bubbling and the cheese melted and golden!

13) Uncover for the last 5 to 10 minutes to give it a crisper top.  Serve hot!

Cost:

eggplants              $1.50

pasta sauce           $1.50

seasonings            $0.30

eggs                      $0.27

bread crumbs        $1.00

Cheese                  $5.00               

Total                     $9.57

Per serving           $1.59

Almond Stirr Fry

So the beauty of stir fry is its versatility.  Hence the million and one recipes on the internet... This is the ONLY recipe I know of that includes whole almonds as the major source or protein.  

(Broccoli is also a source of protein as well, and I did add one small chicken tender to make my husband happy :) )

Ingredients:

1/2c   chopped broccoli

1/4c   chopped carrots

1/2c   chopped celery 

3/4c   whole roasted almonds

2 tbs  sesame seeds

1 tbs  Sriracha

1 tsp  garlic powder

4tbs   oil

3-4c  cooked white rice

1/4c  flour (OR "flat" Bisquick! See prior post)

Serves: 3-4 people

Time: 15 min

Directions:

1) Add 2 tbs of the oil, (vegetable oil works best for most Asian food, at least in my opinion), to a large skillet and heat until the oil just starts to crackle. This should take about 2 min.

2) Add your chopped veggies and seasoning to hot pan.  Cover to let the veggies steam a little-- Like 5 min.

3) Add the almonds and keep the skillet uncovered from here forward to keep the almonds from getting too soft.

4) Turn over the ingredients on medium heat for another 5 minutes or so.

5) Make a roux, pronounce "rue," from the flour and about 1/2c of warm water.  You do this by mixing the flour with the warm water vigorously, so that when you add the flour to the dish it doesn't clump. (You could also do this with old Bisquick, as mentioned earlier... although add less rather than more, as you don't want to undercut the Asian flavors.)

6) Add this roux to the veggie mix to thicken the stir fry texture.

7) Once the veggies look just under cooked, (so the carrots can have a fork almost stuck in them with ease), add the rice and the rest of the oil.

8) Work the rice into the dish until each gain of rice looks like it has delicious flavors on it!  You definitely don't want any clumps of rice.

 9) Serve HOT!



Cost:
Veggies         $0.75
Almonds       $1.00
Rice              $0.30
Oil                $0.50
Seasonings    $0.30      
Total             $2.85
Per serving   $0.72

Quick, easy, cheap and beautiful: Roasted Cauliflower!!

Looking for an easy, cheap, and spectacular side dish: Roasted Cauliflower!!! 

No joke, this was the first time I made this, and it turned out fantastic!

Ingredients:

1      head of cauliflower

2tbs olive oil

That's it!!

Time: 45 min total

Serves: 2 as dinner, 6 for a side only

Directions:

1) Wash the head of cauliflower and remove excess steam so that the head will sit up on the baking sheet.

2) Place the head on the backing sheet and lightly coat the top with the olive oil.

3) Place in the oven at 425 degrees!  It's really this easy! Note: do not adjust the temperature for altitude.  

4) Place roasted head on a pretty plate and serve hot!  That's all there is to it!

Cost:

cauliflower     $1

olive oil          $.030           

Total               $1.30

Served as a side: 21 cents!

Shown here served with grilled Tri-Tip and oven roasted potatoes!

Channa Masala

With no gluten, MSG, and is GMO free-- Although the whole GMO thing is a bone you don't want me on, as ALL OUR FOOD IS AND HAS BEEN "GMO" since the time civilization arose.

This is going to be a different kind of post because it's kit-based. 

Gourmatra is a good way to introduce yourself to Indain cooking, but is kind of expensive.  The kit here is usually 5.69, although I got it for 2.35.  Kits are great to introduce yourself to something new, but treat them like a crutch you want to be away from as soon as you can :)

Other ingredients:
1 onion
2 small lemons
2 cans of 16 oz Garbonzos beans.
For those who are not familiar with Pulp Fiction, Garbanzos beans are the same thing as Chick Peas...
The box mix
extra rice OR other carb.  I picked tortilla.  Naan will have to be another day.

Traditionally you slice your onions (as pictured on the right) for Indian food, but this is region dependent.  The left is a picture of "chopped" onions.

Pretty much everything but the chick peas goes in the pan along with 3 tbs or more of vegetable oil and you turn the sauce over until "the oil beings to separate." At this point you add the chick peas.  Once the chick peas are warm, you are done!  The directions on the back of the box are somewhat optional but are definitely sufficient!

Time: 30 min to serve

Serves: 3-4 people

Cost: about $3 a person... So not great, but definitely a different experience!

Warning-- The kit says it serves 4 but has enough rice for 1 maybe 2 people...  Definitely be prepared for that! Also, medium heat is pretty hot.  You may want to have milk on hand, or ice cream for desert!

Pumpkin Ravioli in Home-Made Cheese-Potato Sauce with Broccoli Florets

 Just in time for fall! This is a quick and colorful meal that also happens to be well balanced :)

Ingredients:
1  package pumpkin ravioli (available at Costco)
1/2 bag frozen broccoli
1 cup hard white cheese of choice ( recommend: Jarlsberg) grated
3 red potatoes
2 tbs oil ( or bacon grease if so inclined)
1/4 cup milk (reduced milk works better than non-fat milk)

Estimated time: 30 min
Serves 4

So I'm going to make an effort to talk more about the food as there is clearly more to it than throwing some stuff you bought in a pot.  This meal is actually one of my favorite quick-and-easy dishes because 1) It's quick and easy, 2) It's reasonably healthy, 3) It's vegetarian friendly, 4) It stores super well!, and 5) It's easy to adjust to whatever you currently have in your fridge.

Also, my husband has recently quite smoking (YAY!) and broccoli is not only a great source of protein, calcium, and fiber-- Broccoli is also partially good at cleansing you of toxins, specifically including those from cigarette.

Directions:

1) Cook the potatoes.  I prefer boiling them in a pot of water, but that takes longer than microwaving them so it's up to your time schedule.  You will know when the potatoes are done because you will be able to easily stick a fork into them. At that point, let the potatoes cool to the point you can slice them up comfortably.

2) Boil water for the pasta.  Add at pinch of salt (to increase the temperature at which the water boils) and a dash of oil, any kind of oil but I use olive oil, (to help the pasta not stick to itself while it's cooking).

3) Place cooked and sliced potatoes into a bowl and pour the milk over the potatoes. This will keep the potatoes from browning AND will give the potatoes a creamy taste that is oh-so-good!  Let soak at least 7 minutes.

4) To a sauce pan, add the bacon grease to liberally coat the bottom of the pan.Then add the grated cheese. The harder the cheese the more time you will need to give the cheese alone to get "sweated."  Basically, you are just softening up the cheese, which you will know you have done by the limping texture of the cheese, or on thicker pieces, but the droplets of oil that are escaping from the cheese.

5) Add the butter soaked potatoes slices and broccoli to the sauce pan and stir well.  Keep an eye on your sauce pan and stir as needed, which will be often.

Note: If you are using fresh broccoli you may want to pre-steam if for 5-10 minutes.  You can do this in a third pan with some water and and a lid, already brought to boil before the broccoli is added OR in a bowl in the microwave with a WET paper towel placed on top.  Just remember, broccoli is one of those foods that looses it's victims when cooked throughly.

6) Add the pasta to the boiling water.  Let cook 10 min. With the Costco brand, I find the ravioli falls apart if you cook it longer than this...

7) Drain the pasta. Add your broccoli and cheesy potatoes to the pasta.  Mix well. Serve hot!

Definitely feel free to season to taste!  I usually ad basil (because it's my husband favorite), pepper, and cayenne pepper (because tis' mild for a pepper but makes everything look so tasty!).  An easy way to increase the serving size is to add more potatoes and broccoli.

Cost:

Package pumpkin ravioli   $4 (for one of the two jointed packages from Costco)

1/2 bag frozen broccoli      $1.50

hard white cheese              $1

3 red potatoes                    $0.50

oil                                      $0.10

milk                                   $0.15                                              

Total                                 $7.25

Per Serving                      $1.81

Adventures in Quinoa: Mushroom Caps!!

~~The vegetarian addition~~

Ingredients:
3 cups chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped bell peppers
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
1/4 vegetable oil
1 cup quinoa
Seasonings to taste... For those truly on the "student budget" I recommend half a package of Raman flavoring ;)

Directions:
Add celery, bell peppers and the carrots to a pan with the hot vegetable oil.  Let these veggies cook most of the way with the lid on to steam them.  Once these veggies are mostly done, add the sliced mushrooms and leave the lid off, (as mushrooms release a lot of water). Meanwhile, boil 2 cups of water.  to the boiling water add the 1 cup a quinoa.  As more water if needed.  Combine all cooked ingredients, plus the sweet chili sauce and seasonings, together.  Back mushroom caps for 30 min at 350 degrees. Garnish with parsley or Sriracha if available.  Serve hot!

You already know this is going to be a healthy dish!

Cook the veggies most of the way before stirring in the fully cooked Quinoa.

Assemble on a backing sheet--This can be done ahead of time if getting ready for a party!!

Serves an easy 6 as a full meal, or it makes great party appetizers :D

Cost:
mushrooms     $5.99
celery              $1.00
onion              $0.50
bell peppers    $1.50
Quinoa           $0.50
oil/etc.             $0.25     
Total cost:      $9.75

So about $1.60 a person for this meal.. and it's actually really filling AND healthy!

Time to prepare is a good hour, but as mentioned above, assembly can be done ahead of time :)

Pinterst: Inspiring (cheap) ways to keep life exciting!

$5 Party Winner:

So it's pot luck time but pre-pay check time...  I saw an image on Pinterst for what I have started calling "Muffin-Tacos."  And that is exactly what they are: Filling finger food with endless possibilities.  They are easy to make, easy to transport, easy to serve, and cheap.  This is otherwise known as PERFECT.  From several sample points I can also say with high confidence they are very popular.

Directions:
As evident by the backing sheet, the recipe makes 12.  This fills a large plate nicely, considering presentation matters.  Oven is set to 350 degrees and the whole process takes about 20 minutes!

1) Soak beans of choice over night (about 3/4 cup).  Or purchase a can of beans--Depending on how health conscious you are
2) Start by cutting a large tortillas into four smaller circles  (The top of a large yoga container works well as a 'cookie-cutter.' See the blog on Inventive Cooking Techniques for more details.)
3) Tuck the cut tortillas into the muffin tin to create a pocket
4) Spoon large dollop of beans into the bottom of the pocket
5) Add a couple slices of avocado (At this point it should look similar to the picture on the right.)
6) Immediate spoon large dollop of salsa on the avocado (If for some reason you are delayed/life happens-- make sure to squeeze some lemon on the avocado so it doesn't brown.)
7) Add cheese layer--- And back until the cheese is melted!

Sever hot, and toast to re-heat.  That's all there is to it!

As it turns out:

$0.75 one avocado

$0.50 less than half a bag of Pinto beans, etc.

$0.50 slices of hard cheese (preferably white)

$1.50 half a jar of spicy salsa (red or green)

$1.00 three large tortillas (soft)                                                        

$4.25 TOTAL 

~And let the party begin~

Costco Cooking: The Sour Cream

Buying in bulk saves you money... But only if it doesn't spoil before you eat it...

So how to keep life interested, and buy at discount while only feeding two people at a time?  Point and case, the sour cream container from Costco is THREE pounds.  Additionally, keeping life interesting means not having tacos every night.  As we are currently in the Olympics--I thought a sampling of cuisine was in order. And once the container is open, the clock is ticking, so:

1) White Beef Stroganoff  (Russian)

2) Fajitas!  (Mexican-ish... apparently it's more Tex-Mex)

3) Pumpkin Bolani (Afghan)

Image complements of Google

4) Panini with dipping sauce (Italian, mostly)

5) Red Beef Stroganoff!

...And with that, the THREE pounds of sour cream were actually gone... Incase you prefer a different variety of cultures, below are the remainder of the list as was planned:

6) Meatballs in Sour Cream Sauce (Swedish)

7) Corn Chowder (US, and because I love corn chowder)

Got guests? Got budget? $2.00 per person for dinner

So the only thing I seem to have less of than money is time.
The challenge:  Cook dinner for four people,  for three days, under $25 TOTAL, and in less than 2 hours TOTAL. Oh, and the food has to be pretty.

Challenge accepted!

Saturday:
Turkey stuffed bell peppers with a side of roasted asparagus

Serves: Easily 4 people. 

Prep time: 
20 min to pan fry all 'inner' ingredients
40 min to bake                                       
1hr TOTAL

Shopping list:
1 package ground turkey
1 package mushrooms, whatever one's are you favorite/on sale
1 1/2 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen corn
3-4 bell peppers, pick your favorite colors
1 small bundle asparagus
Monterey cheese, or a somewhat hard white cheese of your choice
1 egg
1 slice of toast

In case you can't tell, I believe in opportunistic cooking!

Things I'm assuming you have on hand:
olive oil
pepper
basil, oregano, or really whatever you like here
red pepper
salt, always to taste
a bottle of chilled white wine, always to taste

Instructions:
1) Open the bottle of wine and pour a glass
2) Pan fry the ground turkey, pulling apart in to mouth-size-bits. in other words, you want a chunk on the end of the fork.  Butter would also work here, but I tend to use olive oil, (or bacon grease).
3) Season to taste, preferably heavy on the pepper, and just a dash of red pepper for kick!
4) Add the slivered mushroom and 1/4 cup of white wine if desired. Allow to steam for 5 minutes with the lid on.
5) Then add the broccoli and corn and cook another 5 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid off.
6) Meanwhile, prepare the washed bell peppers.  I put them long ways so to be able to uses both halves without having to include the steam of the bell pepper--although this does make them more difficult to stuff.
**) Put half of the pan ingredients into a left-over container-- It's for Monday night!
7) Turn off the the stove and let sit (3 min) so as not to cook the egg.
8) Add one egg and one slice of toast, chopped up, directly to the pan.  No extra dishes!
9) Stir everything together.  You now have you 'inner' ingredients.
10) Stuff the bell peppers.  The mushrooms may not be cooked all the way-- that's fine.
11) Top with cheese and place on a baking sheet.
12) Lay the washed and snapped asparagus on the other half of the same baking sheet and drizzle olive oil and salt/pepper to taste.  It's okay for everything to get cozy.
13) Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 325. Serve hot.
14) Get back to that wine-- It's a Saturday night!

Cost:

$2.50          ground turkey

$2.00          mushrooms

$0.75          broccoli 

$0.75          corn

$3.00          bell peppers

$1.50          asparagus 

$0.75          cheese

$0.20          egg

$0.60          slice of toast

$12.05

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday:

Lemon-Mustard Steel Head

Serves: Easily 4 people. 

Prep time: 

7 min to prep

20 min to bake                                       

27 min TOTAL

Shopping list:

1 package of steel head fish (or salmon but steel head is cheaper.)

white rice

1/2 package of peas

1 lemon

Things I'm assuming you have on hand:

butter

pepper

basil, oregano, or really whatever you like here

red pepper

salt, always to taste

mustard

Instructions:

1) Start the rice. As you will only be using half of it tonight, I'm recommending three cups or rice with double that in water. 

2) On a sheet of aluminum foil, lay out slices of lemon.

3) Lay the fish on top of the lemon and season to taste.  Rosemary is amazing on this one!

4) Drible mustard on top of the fish and baste the fish with a back of the spoon.  A sweet mustard works best, such as apple honey mustard or champagne mustard.

5) Fold foil over the fish and roll to seal. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

6) Meanwhile, melt 1/8 cup of butter in sauce pan.

7) Add peas and seasonings to taste.  Cook until just warm, with constant stirring.  You want the peas to maintain their firmness to counter the softer textures of the rest of the dish.

8) When the rice is done, you are done-- Serve hot!

Cost:

$8.00          fish

$1.00          rice

$0.50          lemon

$1.00          peas            

$10.50        TOTAL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday:

Turkey Stir-Fry!

Serves: 4 people.  (Adjust rice proportion if necessary.)

Prep time: 

20 min stir fry time

20 min TOTAL

Shopping list:

NOTHING-- It's a Monday, who want's to go to the store ;P

Things I'm assuming you have on hand:

oil

pepper

soy sauce

sesame seed oil (optional but amazing!)

red pepper

Sriracha or other hot sauce 

salt, always to taste

Instructions:

1) Add yesterday's rice to a hot pan with about 1/4 cup of oil in it.  Canola oil is recommend.

2) Go heavy handed on the seasons, but light on the soy sauce-- it's salt heavy.  

3) Drizzle the sesame seed oil on top of the rice and turn over the rice continuously.

4) Add in the 'inner' ingredients of turkey and continue to season to taste.

5) Serve up and dash of Sriracha on top, to complete the look.  Serve with chop sticks.

Cost:

At this point you have spent a couple dollars in seasonings and oil over three days.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Total time: 1 hour and 47min

Total cost: $22.55, plus seasonings