I have decided to cook and prep a bunch of food tomorrow. Why? Frugality and a small burst of executive function. Also, idk, I am slowly moving towards eating food that makes me feel better. I miss the burst of creativity that getting a CSA box ignited in me a few years ago. That said I do not have the energy for that.
Instead, I went and bought the components for mushroom tacos (tho, I need to go buy tortillas tomorrow), freezer burritos, peanut lime tofu bowls, banana blueberry baked oatmeal, radish greens pesto, and pineapple lime cabbage slaw. I am also gonna attempt refried black beans in an attempt to use up the dried beans I’ve had in the pantry for entirely too long, and Mexican rice because TACOS. Also, freezer burrito ingredients!
Basically, I need to pull the food processor and veggie chopper out tomorrow and roast a bunch of veggies. Tho, I should also clean out the chest freezer too. I have no clue why it is so full other than the food scrap bin and entirely too much coffee.
These delicious sour cream and cream cheese mashed potatoes are the best potatoes you will ever make! Rich & delicious!
This is close to what I made last night. Due to ~reasons~, I was craving a steak last night. Like super duper craving a steak. Unfortunately, my ass can not pay $80 for dinner, so I drove my happy little ass to the Magic Grocery (you can get a Del Monaco cut - which is steak on Easy Mode - for $16.99/lb) and acquired said steak along with microwave corn and broccoli w/cheese sauce. I had potatoes, cream cheese, and sour cream at home (Magic Grocery strikes gain, I got 5 potatoes for $.89), so I had everything I wanted for a Steak Dinner that was mildly passable.
Dinner ended up being a steak (I got 2), mashed potatoes (ended up w/4 servings), buttered corn (2 servings), and steamed broccoli with cheese sauce (2 servings). Sadly, Magic Grocery did not have creamed spinach, though I was craving that too. I got two full meals and two extra servings of potatoes. The final price for all of it was $30.92 or $14.56/meal, which is high, but 100% EXACTLY what I wanted. And I absolutely could have steamed the broccoli, made the bechamel, used canned corn that I had in the cupboard, and cut down the size of the steak. But I did not. And some days you just want a fucking steak dinner with sides and some goddamn Rocky Road ice cream that was on sale for $5.
Upside, is that it made two meals, so I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!
One of the biggest (and proudest) accomplishments of my life is realizing that I have all of the spices, ingredients, and sauces necessary to make huge swaths of cuisines that are non-native to my own. (My own: white USA Midwesterner.)
I looked at three recipes, one Thai, one Sichuan, and one Chilean, and the only things I need to buy are the fresh ingredients. Two of which I usually grow in pots out back.
I have loved food my entire life. It has been one of my biggest interests and passions. I regularly read cook books and histories of food. I love food. And I am so happy to be reasonably confident in my ingredients, access, and ability to make stuff. I still have a whole lot to learn (especially about vegetables native to different areas of the world and how they're prepped/used) but I love where I am and can't wait to learn more!
Parsley Pesto Pasta with Peas has super bright and fresh flavors perfect for spring and summer. Serve as a main dish or a side with your grilled food.
Ok, this is the most basic, most satisfying meal that I’ve made in years. It’s fresh, it’s light, and depending on what you regularly keep in your pantry, it’s a pantry-staple side or main dish.
Now, I have a giant basil plant that I’ve been hacking away at for pesto for the last couple months. For some reason, it grows gangbusters in my garden container. That means I made basil pesto. I also bought some pine nuts specifically for this, and so the base sauce is a bit spendy. However, you can use cashews or sunflower seeds to bring down the price. That said, I got a giant jar of pesto from Costco for, like, $13, and I think that would also work pretty well for this. Especially in winter or when you don’t have a basil plant to cannibalize.
Realistically, this recipe is basically five ingredients, including the pesto, pasta, frozen peas, water for boiling the pasta (and steaming the peas), and the salt needed to salt the pasta water. You can add a smidge more Parmesan if you want, but given how I made the pesto, I didn’t feel like it needed it.
With making my own pesto, the price for four (solid) servings was $6.95 or $1.74/serving. A SMIDGE spendy for a lighter meal, but it was SO. Good.
The BEST crock pot pinto beans! No soaking, perfectly seasoned, and healthy. Use this recipe anytime your need canned beans or mash them for refried beans.
Ok, so I really don’t like beans. Or lentils. Or anything with the lentil/bean texture, especially when whole. That said, I am a cheap bitch who has found exactly two bean recipes that I can tolerate. (Not including tostadas. Those are their own brand of angelic reality, so exempt from normal bean-distaste. Oh, and lentils not made by white people, including myself.) Both of those recipes call for canned pinto beans, and as the price/can has gone up from $.98 to $1.49/can, I decided to save myself $2 and just make them from scratch.
I’ve done black beans in the slow cooker before, and my mom made beans in the crockpot for the entirety of my childhood, so it was more about finding a recipe with a flavor profile I liked. This hit all the correct check marks for stuff I liked, plus I had an extra jalepeno that had basically turned completely red.
I did end up soaking the beans for nearly a full day (ADHD symptoms are a dick), and as such, I ended up reducing the cooking liquid. NGL, I mostly forgot I needed to add a couple extra cups of water, but meeeeh. That’s what you get for winging a recipe than reading it carefully at 11pm when you’re rushing to throw everything in the slow cooker because you should have been in bed 30 minutes ago. I also forgot the orgegano (I had even had the thought “...this should have oregano if we have cumin...”) and the cayenne. The last one I didn’t bother with because my eyes were still stinging from the evil jalepeno a good 40 minutes later.
Everything looked/felt fine this morning! I haven’t tasted them as I mostly portioned them out to cool before speed-running my morning routine, but they looked like cooked beans and felt like cooked beans when I scooped them out, so they are probably fine. I plan to blend them to paste and put cheese in/on them, so as long as they’re cooked, I’m fine. The full ingredients shook out to $2.98 for the whole recipe, or the equivalent to about $.75/can. Half are absolutely going in the freezer, and the rest I’m likely going to prep/eat this weekend and for lunch next week with garlic rice. *confetti emoji*
Our rhubarb cobbler with mint is one of the easiest desserts you can pull together—perfect for those first-of-the-season backyard barbecues and early summer shindigs.
Let’s talk about strawberry season. Here in the midwest, we’re smack in the middle of our strawberry’s production season. I mentioned I went to the farmer’s market, and I ended up finding a grower selling lots of tiny strawberries. Why is this relevant? Tiny strawberries are delicious. But why is that relevant when I’m sharing a link to rhubarb cobbler with mint? WELL.
So mom gave me a stack of rhubarb from the first cutting before I went on vacation. It was getting to the point where I needed to do something with it, or toss it (horror), so I dug out this recipe and figured I have a whole stack of strawberries and Not Enough rhubarb, and why not?
I have made this before and with excellent results. This time tho? Meeeh, yeah, I let the fruit masticate too long. Cobbler ended up super soupy, but I drained a lot of the juice off and am keeping it for an ingredient for my morning smoothie. Waste not, want not, etc.
The one thing I will mention is that I absolutely halved the biscuit topping recipe. Like I said, I’ve made this before, and if you make the full amount, the ‘biscuits’ congeal during baking into one big crust. Which, if you like that, do you, but for me the star of cobblers should always be the fruit. Also, be judicious with the cream when adding it to the food processor. I’d actually say err on the side of the dry because the flour hydrates a lot after being mushed together. It gives a more defined ‘biscuit’ on top, which I prefer. I’ll also say, do yourself the favor of using all the requested mint. It really makes a difference and softens the sharpness of the rhubarb.
This was pricey, but that was mostly due to the $8/pint price for the fruit. However, one of the things I try and live by is buy the best you are able to, especially when stuff is in-season. And this was absolutely a little treat for me. AND I knew that I had a bunch of ingredients for free/on the shelf.
So, given the fresh strawberries, the price for the whole recipe was $9.51. Yeah, it’s the most expensive thing I made! But at $1.56/serving, it’s still cheaper than the $5 scone I got at the farmer’s market. That was a good scone tho.
With step pictures, full video tutorial, and plenty of helpful tips, learn how to make the best white sandwich bread using 7 easy ingredients.
I did say I made all the things yesterday. And yes, that included making bread. Now, I’ve made this recipe a few times by now. Mostly as it makes a single loaf and I don’t have to figure out why someone made a recipe calling for six cups of flour, etc. This is a surprisingly forgiving recipe and generates a really soft, chewy texture that I do enjoy. I made this because I found a good package of cold cut ends while shopping and wanted a delivery method for it. Also, I want to make stuffed zucchini next week, so having some stale bread on hand for breadcrumbs is always useful.
Hilariously, I ended up making a kind of double small loaf? Basically I cut it in half, then rolled each one separately and baked them in the same tin. That way I could rip them in half easily and pass the other half on to my neighbor. I’ve only been really poking my toe into the terrifying waters of baking with yeast, I have a TON on hand, and the rest of the ingredients are basically shelf staples for me. The whole thing cost $1.35, and that’s pretty reasonable for bread. ($.68 for my mini loaf. I GUESS.)
Nandos' Macho Peas. I don't think I have ever met anybody who doesn't like them and to be quite honest, I don't plan to.
So, I needed something green to go with the chicken and biscuits and I really, really love Nando’s Macho Peas. Or peas in general. This was pretty quick, and turned out pretty well! I think I need to get lower quality frozen peas tho. When I went to mash them, they held their structure too well and didn’t go mushy, which is a big textural aspect to the recipe. Still, these remain delicious, especially when I add extra butter because why not? Treat myself!
Plus, my mint came in, and it will be a long term adventure for the next few months to figure out what to shove mint into. This is a really nice and easy way to cope with that asshole plant.
Price is fairly high, but that was more because I didn’t feel like going to three separate coolers to find the best price on frozen peas. No, I’m not kidding. (My international market has them in the Indian section, the Latine section, and the frozen veggie section. Not mad about that.) The whole recipe was $2.96 or $.99/serving because I like a whole lot of peas, ok? ;)
