Not sure what to call it but we stumbled on this one day:

• Thai rice pasta (can substitute with regular pasta)
  
• Sliced andouille sausage (can substitute with diced chicken & cajun seasoning)
  
• Broccoli florets 
• Sliced kalamata olives
• Olive oil
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 Egg per serving
• Cheddar Cheese

Cook pasta according to instructions.  Rinse & drain.
Steam broccoli until about 75% cooked
Toss kalamata and andouille into large frying pan with a little oil until the andouille is hot through
Toss pasta and broccoli into pan with kalamatas and andoouille
Mix it all together adding small amounts of oil as needed
Add pepper flakes and keep mixing until you get a fairly homogeneous mix
Fry eggs as needed
Serve into bowls
Shred some white cheddar over as desired and add the fried egg

Bump

do this with the above rotisserie chicken

I love experimenting with making fried rice from leftovers. My favorite that I made was saffron rice with some leftover canned tomatoes, some diced onion and a variety of diced pablanos, jalapenos and habaneros.

This is something I like to make. Simple ingredients, throw in the oven and let it roll for the most part.

Preheat oven to 375

Throw in a glass baking dish

Season chops with salt and pepper

Add cream of mushroom soup

Bake for 30-45 minutes depending on cut thickness.

Serve over rice.

Tonight I marinated them in Publix version of Dale's and mixed cream of chicken in with the cream of mushroom.

Brats or favorite hotdogs.

Corn tortillas

Arnold's so hot califlower.

Mustard.

Wrap brat in corn tortilla, deep fry till tortilla is crunchy.
Serve. Dip in mustard and eat, supplement with the pickled cauliflower.

Simple tasty and crunchy.

Anything new?

1 package hot Italian sausage
1 sub roll
1 jar spaghetti sauce
pinch red pepper flakes
grated parm. cheese
splash red wine or balsamic vinegat


cook a sausage link ... I like to grill them
toast a roll
heat up the sauce, add the wine or vinegar

split the roll
add the sausage and a lot of auce
sprinkle the cheese and pepper flakes on top

enjoy!

Instant Pot Recipe.  Easiest one we use, super cheap, tastes great.  Just toss in the ingredients and cook for 1/2 hour on high pressure.  Serve over rice.  Actually comes out a little spicy even with the mild salsa.  go with medium if you like more heat.  make a larger batch and use the leftovers for enchiladas or tacos or as a side with eggs for breakfast.

6 - 8 Skinless boneless chicken thighs.

1 16oz jar of mild green salsa verde (we use Herdez brand)

we like to add frozen okra or a package of mushrooms

That sounds pretty damn good.

It really is and it’s super fast for a weekday meal. My wife found it on a website somewhere. I was skeptical but it’s one of my go-to meals these days.  You can fancy it up too - Brown the chicken, add other stuff or whatever but we keep it simple for this one. We’ve used breast also but thighs are best imo.

Crock pot meal. My gf's favorite thing that I cook. Long ingredient list but it comes out to 4-6 meals and costs like $10
Probably around 5-10 minute prep time.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 pound chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce (get the hot one unless you're a bitch)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
1 (15 ounce) can black beans (drained and rinsed)

Throw everything except black beans into crock pot for 8 hours on low. Shred chicken and toss back in at the end. Drain and rinse black beans and toss them in about half hour before serving. Cover in cheese and sour cream or tortilla chips and enjoy.

I usually do a little bit more corn and a little less water because I like it thicker.

We do this every once in a while, always hits the spot.

Hamburger casserole

1lb ground beef of your choice
16oz tomato sauce
16oz cream of mushroom
1 cup white Minute rice
8oz or more shredded cheddar

Preheat oven to 375

Brown meat and season with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder and strain. Sometimes we’ll season with Montreal Steak seasoning (my favorite)

Mix with tomato sauce, cream of mushroom, and Minute white rice.

Put mixture into 8x8 pan and completely cover top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Cook until cheese is bubbly, approximately 30 minutes.

Once cheese is bubbly, let cool for 5 minutes so it isn’t runny.

Other than browning  the chops in cast iron first and then throwing  it into the oven I'm on the same right now.

Other than browning  the chops in cast iron first and then throwing  it into the oven I'm on the same right now.

bump

1 pack of lil smokies
1 can of beans
1 can of hominy

Brown the sausages on high heat until all the moisture evaporates and the pan is about to catch fire.  Frantically find the can opener and get the hominy open, dump it in juice and all to deglaze the pan (or put out the flames if you couldn't find the can opener fast enough).  Open the beans with a sense of relief that you haven't burned the kitchen down, dump them in.  Stir, bring to a simmer, cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Check it in about 10 minutes, when the hominy is softened up you're good to go.

We call it sausage stew.  Needs no seasoning, lots of flavor, hot, filling, and cheap.

I did pretty much the same thing last night, except I sauteed off some chunked up boston butt, onions, and sliced jalapenos and put it on top of some baked potatoes.

1LB ground beef
1 can of French Onion Soup
Flour
Salt/pepper/garlic or whatever spices you want.

Brown the beef, add a couple tablespoons of flour and mix, cook a minute and then dump in the soup and let it get hot and thicken. I serve it on hamburger buns usually, you can leave it slightly runnier and put it over noodles. You can also use the soup powder vs the canned but I think the canned soup makes it better.

I nab a Costco rotiss chicken once a week every week

meal 1 is just got home with it and hack off 1 breast and eat it with a side veggie

meal 2 is sometimes snacking on the cold 2nd breast with crackers or something the next day or sliced up into a salad

meal 3 is pulling off the 2 drum sticks and having a lunch snack on the 3rd day

meal 4 is yanking off both thighs and making a large burrito in the toaster over with cheese etc ..

meal 5 is tossing the 2 wings in the skillet while I fry up bacon or sausage for breakfast

meal 6 is occasionally toss the carcass in a pot and make some chicken soup with the stock

Are you like... 90lbs? Or are their chickens huge? I can barely get 2 meals out of a rotisserie chicken

It's one of my favorite meals though and about the only time I go to WalMart.1 chicken and a pack of corn tortillas... No other seasonings, no sauces, nothing. Tastes awesome

Trust me if its a boxing match or a UFC fight ... I am tipping the scales at heavyweight without a doubt

I eat multiple smaller meals a day vs 2-3 large normal types. So its very common for me to slice off 4-5 ozs of chicken breast onto a plate and add a few raw almonds and a fistfull of raw baby spinach and call that a mini meal.

Now i could without a doubt gorge myself and eat the entire rotiss chicken in 1 sitting if I so desired. But its much better used as a ready grab source of instant protein as it sits in the fridge for 4-5 days until I have consumed it all in various type meals

eta

And a Costco rotiss chicken is near double the size of the game hens Walmart pawns off to its customers by the way

That makes more sense. I haven't found any store that has tastier chicken than WalMart though, it's the one thing they do right.

If Costco is significantly better it might be worth a membership just for that.

They are $4.99 EVERYWHERE - the price has never gone up since day 1 20 yrs ago at Costco.

My only complaint is about once every couple months they get a batch of smaller sized birds in and the difference is VERY noticeable. Only for that days batch as they sell likely around couple thousand birds a day each store.

I see the rotiss chickens at my local grocer at $8 a bird and they are 1/2 the size of Costcos practically. rarely am I in a Walmart, but I have seen there rotiss birds also ( small )

When I lived in Missouri, locals called them Burrito Skins!

Quarter up a bunch of boneless/skinless chicken thighs, give them a quick sear in a pan with some olive or avocado oil, cover them with red sauce (I love Newman's Own Marinara for this), simmer until they're starting to fall apart.

Pour it all in an aluminum baking pan for easy cleanup, cover with mozzarella cheese, toss in the oven until the cheese is just starting to brown.

Serve over pasta, or as-is in a bowl with some good crusty garlic bread you can pile it on.  It's like the love child of pulled chicken and chicken parmesan.  Cheap, super easy and delicious.

I nab a Costco rotiss chicken about once a week also

Make multiple things with it.

Mostly after day 1 its either: a chicken breast / bagel sandwich for brunch or cold chicken added to a Caesar / spinach salad or I make a quickie chicken - cheese burrito in the microwave

We went to an Aldi last weekend, and the prices were great.

Over a pound of zucchini for $1.50, a dozen eggs for $0.68, and gallons of milk were $0.98.

Yea, we saved $5 on two gallons of milk versus going to Publix/Walmart/Piggly Wiggly.

It's yankee speak for tortilla.

Frozen Corn and cream cheese makes an awesome side. Can be served hot or cold and goes with almost anything. Works for peas too.

agree..then make a soup out of the carcass

Bump... this cannot archive.

I did some steakxperiments yesterday, and I think I discovered cheap "ribeyes".

I had read before about cooking Chuck Blade Steaks using Sous Vide.  I'm talking about the chuck steaks consisting of a Denver cut and a Chuck-Eye or Del-Eye, not a Flatiron.  Those are good too, but are getting more expensive.



Got these locally for about $5.99 a pound, but since I did this steak, I bought the chuck roast for about $3.99 a pound. I was able to make four decent sized steaks from it, each with a section of Denver and a section of Eye, and my total price was around $9 or so. They're in the fridge and ready to go for later in the week.

I first bought it on a whim, thinking that if this works, it would be cheap enough to have steak several nights per week.

Since my sous vide cooker is still touring the Southwest, I did this one on my stovetop, which is really remarkably precise.

I decided to keep the temp at 135 instead of 130 because I wanted it just a touch more pink than red.

The steak was nice and fatty. Looked like it would have good flavor, and I hoped that it wouldn't get too tough to eat. I wish I'd have taken a pic of it before I started, but it was frozen and looked terrible anyway.

So, I put salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder on it in the bag. Into the water bath at 135 for two hours.  As it was cooking, I started reading about chuck underblade steaks cooked using Sous Vide. Some actual quotes:

"It turns chuck into ribeye!"

"Great steak for the price of hamburger!"

"You won't believe you're eating chuck. It really does seem like ribeye. "

Crack is a helluva drug. But, I figured if it was half as good as they say, then it would still be pretty darn good.

Eventually, the two hours was up.



Didn't look that impressive. I was starting to worry at this point. But, that bottom piece had completely detached itself from the rest of the steak and was flopping in the breeze, which I thought was a good sign.

Pulled it out and cooled it off by running the bag under cool water (that keeps it from cooking more when you sear it), then on the searing hot grill.  25 seconds, turn 90 degrees, 25 seconds, flip, 25 seconds, turn 90 degrees, 25 seconds, remove.



Now we're getting somewhere.



Looks a little like ribeye.  Tasted like it, too.  I wouldn't be ashamed to serve this to guests.  It really was good.  As you can see by the plate, it was very juicy and had a lot of fat in it, just like a good ribeye.



And you could pull it apart, just like a good ribeye. Impressive.

If I had to rate it overall, I'd say It wasn't as good as the best ribeye I've ever had, but it's on par with some very good ribeyes that I've enjoyed. Pretty amazing.

This was just an experiment, so I didn't make any sides. And I gobbled it down like it had the antidote in it.

Often, when you see this stuff at the store, it is poorly labeled. It will be marked as a blade steak, a shoulder steak, an underblade steak, or whatever. See the label above for an example of the marking.

The easy way to tell is to look for the "J" or "L" shape and the smaller piece inside. The large is the Denver cut, and the small is the Chuck Eye.





Sometimes that small piece is sold alone and called a mock tender, or Del-Eye. Worth buying if you have a SV setup and can get it for a cheap price.

As I said, you can buy them in roasts the same way and often get them even cheaper.

Pretty cool that you can take a cheap cut and make it taste very, very good.

1 can chili
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes

drain the veggies, cook it all together, and put it over brown rice.

Cheap cuts is where sous vide really shines.  And no steak looks good coming out of the bag, lol.

Only suggestion I have for you is to brush the steak with avocado oil (any oil will do, really, but avocado is best) before you sear it.  Don't be shy about it.  It will help any seasoning stick and makes it sear much, much better.

That's probably a good idea. I will do that next time. Thanks!

Chicken leg quarters.  I grill them on Sunday evening and eat the for lunch all week. I got 4 nice leg quarters for about 3.25 at Aldis last weekend. It's healthy, dirt cheap protein.

YES.

Boneless skinless thighs are way cheaper than breasts, but if you marinate them in Italian or Greek dressing then grill them, they cook up almost like breasts, except way juicier. And the flavor is pretty amazing.

We've been doing them a lot since summer started.  Like you said, cheap protein.

The bone-in are cheaper still, but more challenging to grill.  Even after sous vide for 2 hours, ours were still bleeding. Had to briefly run up to 165 on the grill in order to get the bones cooked through.

Bone-in with the skin are even cheaper, and here's a killer way to cook them:  marinade in salt, pepper, and avocado oil, then bake them skin-side up (stretch the skin out as much as possible) at 400 for about 45 minutes.  The skin will be crisp as a fresh potato chip, and the chicken will be tender and juicy.

Been experimenting with avocado oil a lot lately, so sorry for the recurring theme, but I love the stuff.

I need to get some avocado oil. I heard it is great for high temps.

My wife does something very similar she calls "Greek Chicken".

1/4" of water in a glass baking dish, lay in your chicken thights.  Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano and a drizzle of olive oil on the chicken. Disperse pats of butter throughout the pan in the water.  Bake at 425 for 1/2 hour uncovered.

Pretty simple, but always turns out incredibly moist and flavorful and tastes like you put a lot of effort into it.

Any suggestions for super-simple sides?

Generally I cook asparagus or pick up frozen broccoli or cauliflower that I can microwave in the bag, then add some parmesan, salt and pepper. I'd like to branch out a little though.

I'm usually okay on mains, I just do something like cheap steak or roast, or pork chops on sale, chicken breasts, etc.

A Caprese Salad is simple and is great this time of year, especially if you can get garden tomatoes.

There are all kinds of recipes, and you can get as fancy as you want with it, but basically,  it's just tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil with a Greek or Italian dressing.  Sometimes, we add cucumber, so it isn't a true Caprese salad, but it's still very good.

Sams Club Greek is actually very good, and super cheap. A little goes a long way.

Fresh mozarella is best, of course, but you can use blocks sliced thin or shredded as well.  If you use blocks, it's best to make it up a little ahead so the dressing has time to soften the mozarella.

For basil, keep this on hand so you don't have to use the dried out kind:

Gourmet Garden Semi Dried Herbs

They stay fresh a LONG time in the fridge and are quite pungent.  There's a variety of them, too.

Pair that with the Greek chicken above, and maybe a side of pasta with basil, olive oil, and garlic, and you have a cheap, easy to make, and impressive dinner for not a lot of money.

Here's one.

Dollar General has these in their frozen section. I was skeptical, but they are actually very good when prepared correctly:



They're well under $2 for one. IIRC, you come out just over $3 for 2.

Or, if you prefer "real" pork chops, my local Kroger has them for $1.99/lb, which is probably a better buy, but your up front costs will be more.

If you have a sous vide machine, sous vide them in their packaging at 160-180 for 2 hours. If you buy supermarket chops, put them in a Ziploc bag and clip the top to the edge of your large pot so the top doesn't submerge, and sous vide as normal. If you don't have an SV machine, set your stove burner so that your water stays between 160-180 (or just below boiling) for about two hours (doesn't have to be super precise).

When you bring the pork chop(s) out after two hours, drain the juices from the bag/packaging into a small saucepan. Bring to medium heat, and as it is warming up, mix 1 tsp flour or cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water, stirring to remove all lumps.

As soon as the drippings/juices begin to steam a bit, slowly stir in the flour/water mixture and turn the heat off. Keep stirring for a bit until gravy forms. Once it thickens, remove from heat.

As you do this, sear off your pork chop(s) in a cast iron skillet with oil.

Add a baked potato, or new potatoes, boiled for 40-50 minutes until tender, then rolled in a skillet of butter on medium heat to get the outsides crispy. Adding a canned vegetable would be cheapest, but you could splurge on frozen/fresh depending on what you liked or had time/money for.

Perusing a recipe in a magazine this evening, couldn't help but think of this thread when I noticed the recipe referenced "fajita shells"...

Not sure if anyone has mentioned red beans and rice yet. My mom always made this recipe with a pan of cornbread to eat with.

Add cooking oil to large pan over medium high heat, enough to cover the bottom.
Add diced green bell pepper and onion, saute for 6-8 mins.
Add a pack of bacon pieces to the pepper and onions and cook for another 4 mins.
Add garlic powder, salt and pepper, enough to your liking and stir.
I use blue runner creole cream style red beans, one of the 27 oz cans. Add the can of beans, fill the can up with water and add that as well. Basically 1 can of water per can of beans.
Reduce heat to medium low and cover.
Simmer and stir occasionally for 45 mins.
Serve with rice and with a bit of cornbread.

It'll feed ya for a couple of days.

You can add diced celery, different sausages and what not too.