Apartment Chefs

Cooking on a budget Montco Pa

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Fresh Christmas cookies crafted with Grandma’s family recipe.

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Pre-prepared meat and vegetable pies make for a great lunch. 

Simply throw together a few chopped and cooked vegetables, add chicken or a meat and cover with pie crust. Bake until crust is golden brown. 

After baking, if you keep the pie covered and refrigerated, the pie will be perfect for a lunchtime-reheat the next day. 

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Here’s a meal that’s as fun to make as it is easy: eggs in purgatory. It’s pretty much just eggs cooked in a mess of tomato, olive oil, garlic, and basil.

But don’t let the simplicity of the dish fool you. As its epically awesome name suggests, eggs in purgatory is epically delicious....

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If your kids won’t eat green beans, try adding Bacon. But if you’re looking for a slightly healthier alternative, try chopping a hot dog into very small pieces, cook the pieces in a skillet, and then, add to your vegetable. You might forget that you didn’t use bacon.

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Oh My! Beer and Veggies Meat Pie

My, my! It takes some time to make our Oh My! Beer and Veggie Meat Pie. But with dark, rich Guinness, fresh potatoes, carrots, ground beef, and sharp cheddar cheese,  this delicious pastry-topped pie might have you say, "Oh my!"

1. Cook ground beef with salt and pepper.

2. Drain grease from meat.

3. Cook onions and carrots and add cooked ground beef.

4. Add 1 bottle Guinness or another dark beer. Simmer and let beer reduce.

5. Add 8 oz of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

6. Place meat mixture onto bottom pie crust and place a pie crust on top of meat mixture. Bake 375 until pie crusts golden brown.

Easy!

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Real Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly Pie

Shoofly pie. Queue Homer Simpson.

Growing up in a family of Pennsylvania Dutch cooks and bakers, we could say that having Shoofly Pie for dessert during any holiday dinner was just as important as the bacon dressing at Thanksgiving.

(Check back for update with full recipe)

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This can pass for breakfast.

mostlysavory:

Sour Dough Breakfast Pizza

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Cook-while-I'm-at-work Beef Roast

We work long, and sometimes late hours. Preparing a home-cooked, hot meal can be a challenge after 11 hours at the office.

But for those of you who have a crock pot or an oven with a cooking timer, here's an easy way to have a hot meal when you get home from the cold, windy weather.

In terms of keeping this meal cheap, we recommend getting your beef roast and veggies at Lancaster County Farmers Market (Will update with prices) at Lancaster Avenue and Eagle Road in Radnor, Pa. 

Timer to cook!

Step 1. To get the best flavor out of your (partially) frozen beef roast, find a nice rub or create your own. McCormick's Roasted Garlic & Herb is a good, low-hassle rub.

Step 2. Throw whole or sliced potatoes, baby carrots, sliced onions and the roast into your crock pot or dutch oven.

Step 3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Set your timer to meet your preferred scheduled time of dining. 

Easy!

Gravy from beef stock

We mixed the liquid from the finished beef with cold water and flour to make a nice gravy.  Tip: The water has to be very cold and the beef stock has to be at least 212 Fahrenheit or the flour will clump. 

Quick Tip

1. The beef roast doesn't necessarily have to be completely thawed. Throwing a frozen roast into the crock pot set to be finish over 8 hours later can help the roast stay fresh.

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The Easiest Beer-Battered Coconut Shrimp

Here's a recipe that you most likely won't need to shop for because most of the ingredients are already in your cabinet...except for the sweetened flaked coconut and probably the shrimp.

Take 2!

We found two great recipes when we Googled for a "beer batter recipe." Follow the best of both the Paula Deen beer-batter shrimp recipe and an easy coconut shrimp recipes from AllRecipes.com and BAM!!!

 You just cooked an impressive fried shrimp basket.

Here's the gist of the two recipes.

Step 1: In a bowl, combine beer, flour and an egg. Then have one bowl of flour and one bowl of coconut.

Step 2: Dip the shrimp in the flour, then the batter and then the coconut as Quick Tip #1 describes below.

Step 3: Put battered shrimp into fridge and let sit for about 20 minutes or until coating has solidified.

Step 4: Cook in a pan with butter or oil.

Easy!

Quick tips

 1. This is the hard part but as long as you remember the order: Flour, batter, coconut. First, dip the shrimp in the flour, then in the batter and finally in the coconut. 

2. When dipping in the batter, hold shrimp by the tail and allow excess batter to drip off before placing on fridge pan.

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$5.99 lobster tails at Whole Foods Plymouth Meeting

We were glad to find lobster tails at Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting for only $5.99. 

To prep, simply cut a straight line down the back of the lobster tail and pull the meat from the shell as explained in this how to butterfly a lobster tail video.

We gently added a seafood rub to the meat and basted throughout the broiling process  using an herb and garlic butter.