GOOD CHEAP NUTRITIOUS EATS

[East Coast Hustle]

OK, so alot of us aren't feeling so financially secure these days and probably aren't splurging as much at the grocery store as we used to. Some of us may have resorted to cheap fast food for price and convenience, some of us may be buying cases of whatever brand of canned chili is on sale, some of us might just be going hungry.

But (and I realize that's no way to start a sentence), there's no reason that being poor has to mean eating crappy food. From now on, any time I find a good sale on a commonly available protein or base vegetable at the supermarket, I'm going to post a recipe so that next time it's on sale in YOUR supermarket, you can replicate it if you want to. I'm going to try to focus on things that will give you a meal or two of leftovers as well, because this IS about being economical.

I'm not going to post pics because I'm lazy and I don't know where the digital camera is, but most of these ingredients will be familiar to you.

I bought a 6+ lb turkey breast at Safeway for 99 cents a pound. ECHGF is allergic to wheat gluten, so I didn't make stuffing, you are free to and follow this recipe as stated without the part about what I stuffed the breast cavity with. Also, add another 20 minutes or so of cooking time.

rinse the turkey breast and pat it dry inside and out.

to one stick of softened (but not melted) butter, add: pinch of sage, pinch of thyme, 1/2 tsp black pepper, pinch of paprika, 1/2 tsp granulated garlic (better than powdered because it doesn't clump), juice from 1/2 a fresh lemon.

coat the inside of the turkey with kosher salt (even if you're going to put stuffing in there). put the remaining half of the lemon that you squeezed into the butter inside the breast cavity. Dice a carrot and a stick or two of celery to a medium dice and pack it into the breast cavity with the lemon. If you have some wooden skewers, soak them in hot water for a few minutes then put a couple of them crosswise across the opening of the breast cavity to keep the veggies and lemon from falling out. Stand the turkey breast up on a roasting pan, using a few more wooden skewers for stability if needed.

grab a brush and brush about a third of your herbed butter onto the outside of the turkey breast. get it on there good. That's going to help the fat in the skin render and brown up nicely, and it's also going to give us some really good flavor for out pan drippings.

having preheated your oven to 450F, you should now put the turkey in.

after about 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 350F. Set a timer for one hour.

For sides, I did baked potatoes (10 lbs for $1 at safeway), steamed broccoli crowns ($1.49/lb at safeway), and baked caramelized onions ($2.99/5 lb bag of yellow onions at safeway). Wash the potatoes REALLY well, cut out any bad spots, and make sure to poke them once or twice to let the heated gasses escape from inside the potato as it's cooking. Cut the ends off the onions and peel off the tough outer layer. try not to cut any deeper into the onion than the layer you intend to peel. daub a lit of the herbed butter onto the cut ends of each onion and wrap them tightly in foil, making sure the foil is sealed all around. easiest way is to wrap a square of foil around them from the bottom up and twist and pinch the excess foil at the top. Most thrifty way to do it is to cut that square of foil in half on the diagonal and use the resulting triangles to wrap two onions with the same square. this may take some practice to figure out how to do it and get a tight sealed foil globe around the onion.

once that 60 minute timer has gone off, pull the turkey out and brush some more of the herbed butter all over the outside of it. If you've got a big enough roasting pan you can put the potatoes and onions right on the same pan as the turkey, otherwise put them somewhere else in the oven now and put the turkey back in. be sure not to put the onions too close to either the top or bottom heating element if you have an electric oven.

put another 75 minutes on the timer.

I'm going to assume that everyone knows how to steam broccoli. If you don't, PM me. or ask your mom. time this so that the broccoli will be done when the turkey is.

*DING*  there's your timer!

potatoes and onions will be done, unless you have HUGE versions of either, in which case they made need a little longer.

check the internal temperature of the turkey breast with your penis a meat thermometer. You want to pull it out of the oven when it's somewhere between 170F and 175F. It will come up to or a little over 180F after resting for a few minutes. Put a foil tent over it to keep it warm while allowing steam to escape.

now the pan gravy.

in the bottom of the roasting pan, there will be some liquids and some solids. Other people will tell you to make the gravy in the same pan you roasted the bird in. those people like burnt-tasting gravy. get a clean aluminum (NOT non-stick because we're going to be using a wire whisk) saute pan and warm it up on low. take your roasting pan and hold it by the corner with one hand (and a potholder, dummy), tilted down so you can use the other hand and a wooden or rubber scraper to scrape the oils and liquids and loose solids out of the roasting pan and into a fat separator. make sure to leave anything that's blackened and burned to the roasting pan IN the roasting pan. Dark brown and viscous is good here, charred carbon is not.

let it sit a minute in the fat trap (or any wide-mouthed measuring cup), then pour non-fatty liquids and solids into a separate cup (if you have a fat trap) or use a baster with a bulb (or a spoon if you're really ghetto) to suck the fat off of the top into a separate cup.

I like to make alot of gravy, so I just use all the fat. measure it, add it to the warm aluminum pan, and add an equal amount of flour (if anyone else here is allergic to gluten or has celiac's disease, garbanzo bean flour is the best alternative to wheat flour for this application). Whisk the flour and fat together and turn the heat for the pan up to medium. allow the flour and fat to cook together until they just begin to bubble and brown just a bit. Have some chicken stock on hand, at least 2 cups. Pour the reserved pan liquids and solids into the flour/fat mixture and whisk it in briskly. It should absorb into the mixture without thinning it out any. now start pouring the stock into the mixture, a little at a time, and whisking it in. go slowly at first then you can pour a little faster, but don't dump it all in at once or the gravy won't be smooth. Keep adding stock a little at a time and whisking until you get the consistency you want and the gravy is smooth.

Everything is ready now, plate the sides, carve the turkey, and dig in!

I made sides for 4 when I made this. It fed me, ECHGF, and our two roommates and we have enough turkey left for probably 4 more hearty servings. shared between two people you'll have enough turkey for 3 or 4 meals, or 2 meals and a big pot of stew/soup.

total cost for everything used was +/- $11.

It does take a little more work than going to Taco Bell, but if you're poor you need to consume worthwhile calories, not empty ones. And an hour total prep time (give or take depending on your kitchen skills) really isn't much of a sacrifice for a few days' worth of nutritious and tasty food.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa am I crazy or did there used to be a lot more of this thread???

[LMNO]

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=19912.0

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

 

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa am I crazy or did there used to be a lot more of this thread???

Those are mutually exclusive?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa am I crazy or did there used to be a lot more of this thread???

Those are mutually exclusive?

Apparently not.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa am I crazy or did there used to be a lot more of this thread???

Those are mutually exclusive?

Apparently not.

[East Coast Hustle]

I shouldn't even bother trying to keep a thread on topic, should I?

Maybe I should just make every other forum here a sub-forum of Apple Talk.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I shouldn't even bother trying to keep a thread on topic, should I?

Maybe I should just make every other forum here a sub-forum of Apple Talk.

The other thread was pretty good, I thought. Most (almost all) of the posts were actually about eating well inexpensively... recipes, ways to score groceries on the cheap, making your own whatever instead of buying premade.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Learn to bake your own bread--flour and yeast and salt are much cheaper to buy in bulk and won't go bad.  This recipe is very simple and easy.

[LMNO]

From http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=18015.300

Chicken = $1.29
Bread for crumbs: $2.99, only need ¼ of it = .75
Lemon = $0.69
Oregano:  $2.50 for a bottle, so... let's say .10
Salt and pepper... steal free packets from McDonalds
Egg: $2.29/doz = .19
Cauliflower = $2.29
Olive oil: $0.24/oz = .50
Onion: $0.89 each = .20
Garlic: $0.49/head = .10
Anchovies: $2.00/can = .25
Red Pepper flakes: $2.69/bottle = .05
Parsley: $0.79 bunch = .02


Total: $6.43, serves 2, so... $3.22 per person

All prices from Stop and Shop/Peapod, which means you can probably find it even cheaper.

[Jasper]

Today changed the way I will do pasta for the rest of my life.

I'm going to post a recipe.  This recipe assumes you have a clay garlic baker and regular kitchen stuff.

4 Hot italian sausages - $4 at some cheap supermarket.
2 lbs of pearl onions - $2 at a mexican grocer
4 heads of garlic - maybe $1 at a mexican grocer
2 large tomatoes - $1.25 @ mexican grocer 
1 TB paprika
Olive oil
Salt

So maybe eight bucks.  Ten if you just can't find cheap produce.

Start early, because this takes a long time.  chop the top off the garlic heads and give them some salt and olive oil, then bung 'em in the oven at 300 F in your clay garlic roaster.  Cut the ends off the onions, oil them, and put them in the oven on a baking pan.  These stay put until they're brown and translucent.

While that's cooking, dice the tomatoes. 

When the onions and garlic are done, remove them from their papery shells (it should be easy after they're cooked.  For the garlic, use a small knife to get the garlic out.) 

Put it all in a large pan.  Take the casings off the sausage and add them.  Cook all this together until the sausage is cooked, then go to very low heat.  Add the tomatoes and a touch of salt.  Only a pinch, not so much you can taste it.  Cover this with a lid that is too small for the pan, so there's very little air between the lid and the food.  Let this sit and congeal at low heat for a long time, stirring maybe once a half hour. 

The tomatoes will melt and become tomato sauce.  That was an epiphany to me, because I always felt canned tomatoes were the weak link in my sauces.

The End.  I hope this works for you and wasn't just another fluke of mine.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

As soon as I can I'm going to plant as much stuff as I can.  I seriously need to plant like fifteen bell peppers to support my addiction.  Now, to keep it cheap, I also need to keep it all alive...but that shouldn't be so hard, I like to garden.

[Bruno]

This is my recipe for wheat-free (mostly) organic gruel.

1Tbsp organic hulled millet $0.018
1Tbsp rye berries $0.023
1Tbsp organic oat groats $0.028
1Tbsp jasmine rice  $0.02 (approximately)
1Tbsp organic soybeans $0.021
1 quart water

Grind the dry ingredients in a coffee grinder. Bring the water to a boil, and stir in the powdered mixture.

Boil for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

After cooking, I added powdered milk, sugar, vanilla flavoring, Smart Balance margarine, and salt.

Estimated cost before adding all this stuff is about $0.11.

Cost with additives is probably closer to $0.50.

Prices were estimated by dividing the cost of 1lb by 56, the number of tablespoons in 3.5 cups, which is about what 1lb of each ingredient comes out to be.

It's actually pretty tasty. I like it better than cream of wheat.

[East Coast Hustle]

So for easter dinner, I found a bone-in whole pork shoulder.

8.2 lbs. for $6.69.

I poked a few holes in the flesh and quartered a couple cloves of garlic (the long way) and stuffed the pieces of garlic in the holes. Then I took a couple tablespoons of butter and rubbed the pork with them until it was coated.

Put the pork in a greased shallow baking pan (NOT on a rack. Put it right in the pan.) and put it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Pull it out and allow it to become cool enough to handle. Turn the oven down to 275 degrees.

Rubbed the pork all over with a dry rub consisting of 3 parts salt, 2 parts brown sugar, 1 part black pepper, 1 part allspice, and 1/2 part cardamom.

so now we're probably up to about $7.50

Put it back in the oven (now at 275 degrees, remember? we don't want to burn the sugar in that dry rub) for about 5 hours.

Pour some water into the pan occasionally. This keeps the pork moist, helps the fatty and connective tissues break down quicker, and will turn into the base for some amazing pan gravy.

after 5 hours, pull the pork back out of the oven. transfer it to a plate. Pour the liquid out of the roasting pan into a bowl or dish and set it aside for your gravy. Turn the oven up to 350. Now is the time to put the rack in the baking pan. Put the pork on the rack and put it back in the oven for an hour.

Take it out and let it cool. The skin should be crispy and crackly but not burnt. Break off a piece of the skin and eat it. It should be like pork candy. I got about 5 pounds of cooked pork out of this roast, and the liquid ended up making about a quart of pan gravy.

For a little under $8, it served three ravenously hungry people (all of whom had thirds) and there was 2 large meals worth of leftovers.

And after all the meat was gone, I used the bone and the tendons and stuff and made a half-gallon of strong stock, which is a key ingredient in the recipe I'm gonna post tomorrow.