Food Heaven

[Uncle Du 22]

Ohhhh yea, I like this thread already.

I love me some boneless chicken breast, whether it be slathered in BBQ sauce or diced up for stir fry. Problem is, it's kind of expensive, if you buy the pre-packaged stuff at the store. What I've found to be really cost-effective is buying those bags of frozen chicken breasts. If you thaw them over night in the fridge, they taste just as good as buying them fresh, you really can't tell the difference.

For doing some BBQ chicken, I like to take the frozen breasts, put them in a bowl that has a lid, pour your choice of BBQ sauce in, put the lid on, shake, then pop it in the fridge. Keep it there for about 24 hours, and then all you have to do is toss it on the grill. The chicken will be thawed all the way through at that point, so you won't have to worry about cooking longer for frozen. You can do this also with any other chicken too, just remember, when cooking anything with a bone in it, you have to cook it a little longer.

If you've never heard of Dinosaur BBQ, I would really recommend their Sensuous Slathering Sauce. Online store here. A lot of people find it hard to believe that a BBQ joint in Upstate NY can be really good, but this is really some of the best stuff that I have EVER had. You can use that sauce for anything, trust me. It's the best with pulled pork though.

Edited July 18, 2009 by Du

[Link 3]

One of the favorites in our house is my spicy cranberry chili pork roast. Get a can of whole berry cranberry sauce (usually in the baking aisle), some frozen mixed veggies, the asian chili sauce (I'll get a pic of it up later) and a small pork roast. Toss the roast in a crockpot, pour the veggies around it. Grab a small bowl and depending on how spicy you like things, mix 1/4 on up to 1 cup of that asian chili sauce and the cranberry sauce. Pour it over the pork and veggies, cook on high for 4 hours and there you go.

Chili Sauce

Edited July 20, 2009 by Link

[Uncle Du 22]

I take it the roast is thawed when you put it in the crock pot?

[Link 3]

Doesn't have to be.

[Uncle Du 22]

Sometimes I have a hard time re-calculating cook times for frozen vs. thawed.

[Andy 60]

I like how in a thread about inexpensive food, the first recipe that was mentioned was salmon. :p

[Drake 53]

Followed closely by, "You can get salmon relatively inexpensively..."

:p

[TheUnknown 39]

I go to a website called All Recipe (allrecipes.com). Don't know about the inexpensive part, but it has some good ones on there.

I anticipate the extra problem in the near future (within a year) of cooking for one.

[Link 3]

Beef and noodles, super easy. Beef tips, 1 packet onion soup mix, 1 can cream of mushroom. Heat your oven to 350, mix 1 cup of water, the onion soup and one can of cream of mushroom in a pan (9x13 works best), Once those are mixed, add the beef tips, stir til they're coated, pop it in the oven for an hour, serve with egg noodles.

For those of us that like health food:

1 Avocado

4 small tomatoes

salt and pepper

oil of some kind

2 cloves garlic

Angel hair pasta

Heat 2 tbsp of oil, then toss in the cloves of garlic. You can use the jar garlic. I like the roasted garlic. Dice your tomatoes and avocado. Let the oil and garlic cook together for 5 minutes, add the avocado and tomatoes. Add 1/4 tsp pepper and 1/4 on up to 1 tsp salt over the top of the mix and serve it over the pasta. Found this one on dlife.com.

Edited July 19, 2009 by Link

[Ender 8]

I like how in a thread about inexpensive food, the first recipe that was mentioned was salmon.

Followed closely by, "You can get salmon relatively inexpensively..."

Hey, I pay absolutely absurd rent in New York, and yet I still afford it. So :p

[Link 3]

:offtopic: Come on guys, I don't want this thing spammed up.

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

A friend of mine has turned me onto fried zuccini. Slice the zuccini into thin slices, dip into an egg/milk mixture (2 eggs and a splash or two of milk, beat well), dip into bread crumbs (Italian style tastes best), and fry in olive oil. Place fried zuccini onto a paper towel when finished to soak up extra oil. Last night she added some grated parmasean cheese to the bread crumbs and it was delicious. They also taste better if you let them fry until they are almost burnt. It makes them crispier. If desired, dip in spaghetti sauce. Mmmmmm....

[Uncle Du 22]

I think we need a "like" button for this topic. ;)

[Link 3]

1 Pot Roast

1 bag of baby carrots (I use the small bags)

1 small bag of baby potatoes

1 onion

1-2 cans cream of mushroom depending on how much you want

Cut potatoes and onions, toss them in the crockpot with the roast and carrots, pour the cream of mushroom over the top, high for 4-6 hours.

Edited July 20, 2009 by Link

[Mara 29]

Oooh... I have one I came up with, if you don't mind, er... food that isn't low-fat.

Copied/pasted from a food forum I posted it on earlier (Seppy Food):

This is something I sort of came up with on my own, while modifying my mom's ziti recipe (which was really like mostacolli because there's no olives...)

Anyway... it's like a pizza pasta. Or perhaps Heart attack pasta, depending on it.

It's rather plain for now; I haven't gotten a chance to experiment further with spices/herbs, etc.

Ingredients:

1 pound of Italian sausage

1/2 - 1 pound of rigatoni (or any short pasta you like, like penne)

I jar of spaghetti sauce (whichever you prefer; I generally use the plain original because I don't like chunky tomatoes or veggies in my sauce)

1 8-oz bag of mozzarella, shredded

1 bag of pepperoni

1 9x9 pan or casserole dish

Directions (just approximations, since I generally don't measure, haha):

Boil the pasta as indicated but keep shy of al dente, as it'll keep cooking in the oven. Do as much as you would like. My suggestion would be to fill the dish with the raw pasta, and see how much you want. Depends on if you want more meat or more pasta. So at least half a box.

Brown the sausage in a pan. Remove the grease if you would like.

In the pan, pour about 1/4 to 1/3 of the jar of sauce on the bottom of it. I don't bother spraying; I find that the sauce helps keep things from sticking. But if you're afraid of it, go ahead.

Add on top of it, a few handfuls of cheese.

Then add in about half of the cooked sausage and as many slices of pepperoni as you would like. I wouldn't recommend too many, so please don't use up the whole package, unless it's small.

On top add in about half of the half-cooked pasta.

Then some more handfuls of the cheese.

Repeat the last five steps: more sauce, more cheese, more meat, more pasta. Now you should have used up all the pasta and meat and most, if not all, of the sauce (all--especially if you don't want a partial jar).

Then finish on top with lots of cheese. Only use the whole bag if you want to.

After you preheat your oven to 350, bake it for about 15 minutes. Everything should be cooked through. You just want to heat up everything together and melt the cheese.

(I'm not sure on this, though...I need to double check the cooking time and temp.)

Then eat. :p

Edited July 20, 2009 by Mara

[James the Defender 7]

Tonight I made dinner. (Actually, Caity made the rice, so I can't take full credit, lol )

I saut?ed beef tenderloin in beer, some honey, Italian seasoning, fresh garlic, crushed red pepper, and afterward added a dash of Old Bay Seasoning. I saut?ed shrimp in dry red wine, some beer, fresh garlic, a dash of powdered garlic, and afterward a dash of Old Bay. On the side we had fried rice and sweet white corn.

I paired with dry red wine, which wasn't best. Probably more of a semi-dry red or even a nice lager would have been better. Of course, one cannot go wrong with good old-fashioned bottled or filtered water.

[Uncle Du 22]

What kind of beer did you use to saut??

And Mara, I'm totally going to be trying that out.

[James the Defender 7]

For the beef it was Miller Genuine Draft. For the shrimp it was Honey Brown. I just try stuff, so I'm not even sure of the proportions, or type of alcohol I use. If you try it, I'm sure you can use any beer or any wine.

Edited July 20, 2009 by James the Defender

[Princess 35]

Hawaiian Chicken

1 bag frozen skinless boneless chicken thighs (we use 2 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts instead)

1 large can crushed pineapple, undrained

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

Place the chicken in crock pot or slow cooker, cover with undrained pineapple, broth, brown sugar and honey.

Cover and cook 4 1/2 hours on high or 8 hours on low

This just falls apart. We also make rice and then dad adds cornstarch to the leftover sauce to make it thicker.

[Uncle Du 22]

For the beef it was Miller Genuine Draft. For the shrimp it was Honey Brown. I just try stuff, so I'm not even sure of the proportions, or type of alcohol I use. If you try it, I'm sure you can use any beer or any wine.

I was just curious. It's funny that you used MGD, cause that's what I use to soak braughts in. I think it's one of the best beers to cook with.

[Ender 8]

Well, I mean, it IS the Champagne of Beers. /sarcasm.

[James the Defender 7]

That's Miller High Life :p

[Mara 29]

And Mara, I'm totally going to be trying that out.

Let me know how it works out.... I sort of freehand it, mostly.

I also sometimes do my own version of chicken alfredo. Pretty simple.

1 jar of alfredo sauce (I generally use Ragu, but I'm sure your favorite sauce would work)

2-4 cups of chicken, depending on how much you want to make, and how you want your ratio of sauce : pasta/chicken to be.

About a half box of penne pasta... can't remember how many ounces that would be. Like I said in the other recipe, I don't really measure.

Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, various spices.

Basically, heat up the chicken so it's all cooked. I find pieces/cubes are better instead of strips, because it's more bite-sized. And I season it with salt and pepper, Italian seasoning. When it's cooked, I add the jar of sauce, again, seasoning it to taste, mostly with the Italian seasoning.

At the same time, boil up the pasta to al dente--it'll cook the rest of the way later.

Add the pasta into the chicken and sauce. Again, season if necessary. Sometimes I add a few red pepper flakes for a little spice. And some parsley. Also, if we have some shredded Parmesan, I'll add that to the sauce as well.

And, yeah... there you go.

Hope I didn't miss anything, just thinking off the top of my head.

[Ender 8]

Here's a quick one I do...

Chicken with noodles: Grill two free-range chicken breasts and, once they are done, slice them thinly and toss the slices with two cloves of chopped garlic, a small bunch of chopped coriander, the juice and zest of a small lime and two teaspoons of sesame oil. Season with salt and a pinch of crushed dried chillies. Boil a pack of noodles and toss with the chicken.

[Uncle Du 22]

Oooh... I have one I came up with, if you don't mind, er... food that isn't low-fat.

Copied/pasted from a food forum I posted it on earlier (Seppy Food):

This is something I sort of came up with on my own, while modifying my mom's ziti recipe (which was really like mostacolli because there's no olives...)

Anyway... it's like a pizza pasta. Or perhaps Heart attack pasta, depending on it.

It's rather plain for now; I haven't gotten a chance to experiment further with spices/herbs, etc.

Ingredients:

1 pound of Italian sausage

1/2 - 1 pound of rigatoni (or any short pasta you like, like penne)

I jar of spaghetti sauce (whichever you prefer; I generally use the plain original because I don't like chunky tomatoes or veggies in my sauce)

1 8-oz bag of mozzarella, shredded

1 bag of pepperoni

1 9x9 pan or casserole dish

Directions (just approximations, since I generally don't measure, haha):

Boil the pasta as indicated but keep shy of al dente, as it'll keep cooking in the oven. Do as much as you would like. My suggestion would be to fill the dish with the raw pasta, and see how much you want. Depends on if you want more meat or more pasta. So at least half a box.

Brown the sausage in a pan. Remove the grease if you would like.

In the pan, pour about 1/4 to 1/3 of the jar of sauce on the bottom of it. I don't bother spraying; I find that the sauce helps keep things from sticking. But if you're afraid of it, go ahead.

Add on top of it, a few handfuls of cheese.

Then add in about half of the cooked sausage and as many slices of pepperoni as you would like. I wouldn't recommend too many, so please don't use up the whole package, unless it's small.

On top add in about half of the half-cooked pasta.

Then some more handfuls of the cheese.

Repeat the last five steps: more sauce, more cheese, more meat, more pasta. Now you should have used up all the pasta and meat and most, if not all, of the sauce (all--especially if you don't want a partial jar).

Then finish on top with lots of cheese. Only use the whole bag if you want to.

After you preheat your oven to 350, bake it for about 15 minutes. Everything should be cooked through. You just want to heat up everything together and melt the cheese.

(I'm not sure on this, though...I need to double check the cooking time and temp.)

Then eat.

Did this tonight, sans the sausage, since the resident Pregnant Lady doesn't like it.

It turned out great! Only thing I did different was a lower cooking temp in the oven, so I cooked it for 30 minutes. I have leftovers, and you can bet your ass it's gonna be a midnight snack for me. :D