My Recession Meal

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Too rich for my blood. The ultimate recession meal = wodzionka. Boil some water, add a bit of fat like bacon grease or so, add cubed stale bread. Spices are for pansies. It tastes like what it is, but surprisingly it's not bad.
 
phissionkorps said:
Too rich for my blood. The ultimate recession meal = wodzionka. Boil some water, add a bit of fat like bacon grease or so, add cubed stale bread. Spices are for pansies. It tastes like what it is, but surprisingly it's not bad.
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Wait why don't you just put the fat on the bread and eat it like ... bread? I guess because its stale?
 
Had my recesion meal the last 5 meals. Less then $6 for the whole deal, just about 1.10$ per meal. 1# ground beef with minced onions and allspice. 2 eggplants halved and pealed. Layer alternately beef and eggplant and bake for 1.5hours. So good.!!! That or rice. When I was really really poor I once only ate rice and peas for 2 weeks straight, then I got smart and started stealing lamb shanks from the greek restaurant I was working at. This was a matter of feeding myself, and I absolutely hate stealing and people that steal. Now I am in better times. I eat ramen noodle with chunks of really bad cuts of chicken on top. lo
 
Arneba28 said:
Had my recesion meal the last 5 meals. Less then $6 for the whole deal, just about 1.10$ per meal. 1# ground beef with minced onions and allspice. 2 eggplants halved and pealed. Layer alternately beef and eggplant and bake for 1.5hours. So good.!!! That or rice. When I was really really poor I once only ate rice and peas for 2 weeks straight, then I got smart and started stealing lamb shanks from the greek restaurant I was working at. This was a matter of feeding myself, and I absolutely hate stealing and people that steal. Now I am in better times. I eat ramen noodle with chunks of really bad cuts of chicken on top. lo
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I went to UB and that was my diet... minus the lamb shanks..
 
Dr Vorlauf said:
I went to UB and that was my diet... minus the lamb shanks..
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I was in the grocery store thats right next to UB South and there were 2 asian kids and all they had in there cart were 5 12packs of Ramen and 2 5#bags of white rice.
 
Wait why don't you just put the fat on the bread and eat it like ... bread? I guess because its stale?
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Yeah, it's "supposed" to be made out of stale rye or other hard bread. I make it with stale hotdog buns or whatever is around really.
 
when I was living in my truck a bag of rice and a bag of beans would feed me for a week.

$3 for a weeks worth of food. blech. I would dream of some meat to eat one day a week.
 
Yeah Rice -n- Beans are your friend. One thing the American palate wants is meat and lots of it. The trick is to use small amounts of meat and lots of veggies in a stew, etc. Meat was once used more as a flavoring than the actual main part of the dish. For me, a good deal of stuff is very cheap because I grow or raise a good portion of our diet.
 
The ultimate recession meal = wodzionka. Boil some water, add a bit of fat like bacon grease or so, add cubed stale bread.
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Classic farmer's food- I ate it a lot when I would spend summers in Poland as a kid with family. Properly seasoned, it's quite tasty and a simple comfort food.
 
Problem with being a frugal person....I eat lots of beans and rice anyway....is there isn't much cutting back you can do. Now if I lived on Truffles and Goose pate, I'd be able to cut back....I live in a shack...I poop in a hole...I brew the beer I drink and shoot the food I eat....I guess I'm too Simple for the Recession.
 
phissionkorps said:
Too rich for my blood. The ultimate recession meal = wodzionka. Boil some water, add a bit of fat like bacon grease or so, add cubed stale bread. Spices are for pansies. It tastes like what it is, but surprisingly it's not bad.
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That's almost close to a Spanish Dish, that my Parents and a lot of spaniards live on during the depression....Called Migas.

Have you got any bread left over from yesterday that you don't know what to do with? Here's a great idea: you can prepare a typical country dish, made of breadcrumbs. It's a traditional recipe found in practically all of Spain, although the recipe varies depending on the region. Perhaps it won't appeal to you... but it's truly delicious and also has a great many... calories! To help you digest it, what could go down better than a bottle of red wine?

INGREDIENTS: (for 4 people)

* 1 loaf of stale (one-day-old) bread, with a lot of substance.
* 3/4 pound of ham Diced
* 3/4 ( Spanish) chorizo removed from casing and diced.
* 2 dry red peppers
* Paprika
* 2 cloves of garlic
* olive oil
* salt
* 2 eggs

PREPARATION:

1. Cut the bread into tiny pieces and dampen in a little water, salt and paprika. Cover the breadcrumbs with a cloth and leave to stand for 12 hours.
2. Fry the crushed garlic and sliced peppers in 4 tablespoonfuls of oil and then drain.
3. Fry the diced bacon in the same oil. Then lightly fry the chorizo or ham, and drain off the fat.
4. Leave 1 tablespoonful of oil in the pan and fry the bread for about 2 minutes.
5. Add the bacon and chorizo and fry lightly until the bread is golden, stirring constantly.
6. Garnish with the fried garlic and peppers and serve.
7. Eat together with fried eggs.
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This isn't quite my recipe, but I can't find an online version any more...Here's how mine differs....

The only difference is that you don't crush the garlic, nor do you peal it, and you use 6-12 cloves. You put them in the hot oil with the skins on...they don't burn and they sweeten the oil with more of a roasted garlic flavor, after a few minutes when the skin darkens (not burns but get golden, you take them out)...then you let them cool and they come out of the skins...You add these cloves back in to the pan at serving time. They are sweet & delicious and not pungent at all. (if you've ever roasted garlic you know what I mean.)


You can do this with mexican Chorizo as well, but that is a spicy sausage as opposed to the Spanish Style which is mellower, and more of a garlic/paprika based product.
 
TexLaw said:
When you get down here, you make migas with corn tortillas. :)


TL
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Yeah I heard, but I never tried it...How different is it from my recipe, do you still soak the tortillas?

By the way, in mine when I'm soaking the bread over night I add some garlick, some paprika (both smoked and mild hungarian), and a little chicken stock to it...it gives it some depth of flavor.
 
When I wrote this, I never expected any real responses. I'll be moving this to the cooking area.
It has got me thinking on how to scale back, if even for one day a week.

Thanks for taking the time.
 
olllllo said:
When I wrote this, I never expected any real responses. I'll be moving this to the cooking area.
It has got me thinking on how to scale back, if even for one day a week.

Thanks for taking the time.
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Well, my friend, a wise guy once reminded me that "there ain't nobody here but us chickens." We all gotta stick together...and coming up with some cheap-ass food in these uncertain times is a good thing...

I think we all have a few dirt cheap recipes....this thread over in food, might be a good central place to post them

:mug:
 
While I was in college two guys in the Ag school decided dog kibble was a great base for cheap eats. They actually published a recipe book. Also had great recipes like:

Break Lasagna noodles into pieces.
Boil until until tender with a little oil.
Add frozen peas & boil another 4 minutes.
 
Revvy said:
Well, my friend, a wise guy once reminded me that "there ain't nobody here but us chickens." We all gotta stick together...and coming up with some cheap-ass food in these uncertain times is a good thing...

I think we all have a few dirt cheap recipes....this thread over in food, might be a good central place to post them

:mug:
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Speaking of chickens....out of a whole chicken you can get quite a few meals if you debone it, make stock, render the skins. You then have the meat for a few meals, stock for soup or sauce, fat for cooking, and crispy fried skins which you can sprinkle with salt and eat. The bones can go into the compost.
 
We eat well, but very frugally so there isn't a lot of cutting back to do. We hunt and fish, and HWMO grows an awesome garden. Last night, we had a little venison with homegrown shallots, splashed with some homemade wine and served with garden potatoes and garden brussel sprouts.

I eat very little meat, but I like chicken so we buy chicken from a friend who has a farm.

I remember the college days, when a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread fed me for nearly two weeks. Now, I really dislike peanut butter.
 
I'm Thinking Home Brewers Challenge:

Feed your Family, for $??.00 Per Day Per Person. Now I'm thinking we'd need rules. Gotta be healthy enough for children. Can't be all home grown food.
Cost should be per person per day or per meal...as my fam only eats one meal a day at home.
You'll have to post recipies and prices at YOUR store.
Anyone interrested?
 
Has to be at least semi-healthy though. Donuts and stuff are cheap, but that's not really "food". And no vegan diets. You can't get B12 from plants.

Almost forgot....my meal has its own song :)
 
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SWMBO and I have been trying to scale back a bit, with.. well.. you know.

We had a nasty habit of taking fast food 3 or 4 weeknights... and on the weekends too....

Now, we're doing a lot of Hamburger Helper ($2-beef, $1-kit, feeds 3 plus one lunch in the fridge for take-along) and Tuna Helper ($.89-tuna, $1.50-kit, again, feeds 3 comfortably).... For lunches, I've been taking Hot Pockets, as they were on sale again... $2 for 2 hot pockets (e.g. a day's lunch) is better than a $4.75 sub sandwich from the high-priced campus quick shop.
 
I'd try to cut down on those meals and replace with something like tuna or chicken + beans, rice, veggies, bread, etc. You're probably getting close to or surpassing your daily value of sodium before dinner. I just read an article the other day about how the FDA is supposed to remove sodium from its "safe" list, and amend the RDA since it's too high right now. It also mentioned something like 300,000 lives per year could be saved by cutting sodium. Personally, I don't really like how it tastes, so I try to avoid it anyway.
 
I remember watching VH1 Behind The Music : Metallica. Scott Ian of Anthrax talked about the band being so poor that they ate "balogna on hand sandwiches". Just a slice of bologna in the palm of your hand.....no bread.
 
Our cheap meal is pasta with red sauce or pasta with an olive oil garlic sauce. We can get feed two for dinner and have a lunch left over for around $1.25.
 
In college I worked at a pizza place just to have at least one meal a day. I also ate ramen so much that I hate ramen and I came close with black beans and yellow rice.
 
Chriso said:
SWMBO and I have been trying to scale back a bit, with.. well.. you know.

We had a nasty habit of taking fast food 3 or 4 weeknights... and on the weekends too....

Now, we're doing a lot of Hamburger Helper ($2-beef, $1-kit, feeds 3 plus one lunch in the fridge for take-along) and Tuna Helper ($.89-tuna, $1.50-kit, again, feeds 3 comfortably).... For lunches, I've been taking Hot Pockets, as they were on sale again... $2 for 2 hot pockets (e.g. a day's lunch) is better than a $4.75 sub sandwich from the high-priced campus quick shop.
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Dude, the problem is that those products are the budweiser of food...they are so laden with multi syllabic adjuncts that they are not healthy, and eating those are pretty much as unhealthy as the fast food you are replacing them with.

For about the same price point as the single box of that stuff you can make up your own versions of all that stuff in large enough batches to take for lunch the next. The only difference is that your versions wont have a ton of chemicals and preservatives in it...


If you buy your spices/dry goods at a bulk foods store the price for all that stuff drop significantly.

Here's a bunch of "Not Quite Hamburger Helper" recipes, that also has a scalable batch calculator built in.

Almost Hamburger Helper Recipe @ CDKitchen.com :: it's what's cooking online!

I try to avoind buying/eating pre-made processed food like tv-dinners, pocket foods, or ingredient kits" in and making things up myself.

The only things "pre-made" that I buy are frozen raviolis, and spagetti sauce, everything else tends to be "ingredients" and staples instead...

Usually I cook up a bunch of food on saturday and sunday that becomes my dinners and lunches for the week...A crock pot is awesome for that.

I also try to limit what I cook on weeknights to what I can do in under 30 minutes ...And while cooking them I imagining banging Rachel Ray on the kitchen counter. :D
 
Melana said:
Good website Revvy. I'm with you on buying the ingredients and making up my own meals.
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Yeah, I agree too, Revvy. But not about banging Rachel Ray. I'm more of a Giada Delaurentis fan. :D

I don't buy much out of a box any more. It's all high fructose corn syrup, and sodium. (To scare yourself, read "The Omnivore's Dilemma"). I do buy whole wheat pasta on sale (watching the ingredients) and sometimes canned tomatoes. No convenience foods at all- they might be ok once in a while, but we've made them part of the US diet and they are very unhealthy.

For lunch, you can buy some whole wheat tortillas, and add some inexpensive cheese, fresh greens, and leftover chicken and make a great wrap that is better for you than a hot pocket, and tastes great. One package of tortillas and a package of salad greens can feed you lunch for a whole week. That's way cheaper than hot pockets, too.

There are many things we can do to cut back on expensive take out food- it's just a matter of rethinking our habits. Most meals take less than 30 minutes to make, so being prepared with the right ingredients is key.
 
YooperBrew said:
Yeah, I agree too, Revvy. But not about banging Rachel Ray. I'm more of a Giada Delaurentis fan. :D
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Hmmm...the thoughts whipping around my head right now :D (Even though Giada is a little too skinny and vegetarian for my tastes...)

I heard a 3 part series on Canadian Public Radio about the Omnivore's Dilemma...I have to dig it up.

I posted this info on another forum about quick and easy and not too expensive meals...

I can whip up a pretty decent full dinner in a half hour or so, but that usually means there's a mess to clean up after, and it also has to mean I have everything at home or know what I need and can run into the store quickly.

But I guess the closest thing that comes to mind is sort of s "pseudo sushi." It's like shushi, except the fish is cooked and it's not rolled. The longest part is cooking the rice. But you can walk in the door, put that on the stove, then go change or shower and come back in 20 minutes.

Basically you cook up some sticky rice, and while the rice is cooking take a piece of frozen salmon and place it in a bowl, pour over some soysauce, garlic and white wine, and if you have some, some garlic black been paste. (Or you can skip the marinade and just use the salmon as is, or get some smoked salmon.)

When the rice is done, pull it off the stove and set it in the sink with some cold water in it to cool it off a bit.

Stick the salmon in the microwave for about 2 to 3 minutes 'til it looks cooked through.

Then I take a couple of Nori sheets and cut them in quarters, and make a little stack.

I then take and put the rice in a small bowl, put some soysauce in another and flake the cooked salmon into somewhat large chunks. I grab some pickled ginger and a little squeeze tube of wasabi, and make little seaweed "tacos" with the wasabi, rice, ginger and salmon.

The longest part of the process is cooking the rice. You can be eating this in 30 minutes.
But if you have some already cooked, and in the fridge, then all you need is to cook the salmon.

I like to have a few ingredients like the stuff for the fake sushi, that can be done simply and quickly, and still be healthier than pre-packaged stuff. Having frozen salmon, and boneless skinless chicken breasts in the freezer are a couple staples. Plus having various condiments and salsa's, that can be used to whip up some sort of marinate or sauces. Things like jamaican or New Orleans, or mexican sauces, and that Asian Garlic Black bean dip I mentioned. (If you take a couple teaspoons of that and dilute it with some soy sauce, and either lemon juice, white wine, or chicken broth or all three, it makes for a great marinade.)

(You can "quick marinate" any frozen protein at the same time you thaw it in the mocrowave, btw. Just put the meat, chicken, or fish in a container and pour the marinade on it...as you use the thaw setting, it will draw some of the liquid into it. It's not as good as a real, long, marinade, but it works in a pinch.)

One of the things that I have gotten into lately is making mexican/asian fusion springrolls. I picked up some of those springroll wafers, that are the size of burrito wraps, and you soak them in warm water and they turn trasparent.

You put a couple thawed chicken breasts in your food processor, then add whatever spices turn you on...I like corn and black been salsa. You pulse the chicken breasts for a couple seconds to grind them, the add half a jar of salsa and a fistfull of shreaded cheese, and fold it once or twice to mix (if it seems to wet, add more cheese, or even an egg. Then soak a couple of those wraps in warm water. Lay one out and drop a few spoonfuls of the chicken goop in the center, and roll it like a burrito, but sealed on all sides.

Then steam them for 20 minutes, and they are tasty,filling, and healthy. (you can also do it with those little wonton squares, but for quick and big, using the large communion wafer sheets works best.

Again, all that entails in dumping and pulsing and rolling, and can be done in 1/2 hour.
(The TV show 30 minute meals is a must see, for inspiration.

Other good things to have are frozen stir fry veggie, and any kind of mixed frozen veggies, they can be used in so many ways...as a side, or in a main dish like a stir fry.
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It's getting hard to cut back on food to save money but still get ingredients that are not loaded in salt, fat, or chemicals.

Next spring the back yard is turning into a garden and the mason jars are coming out come harvest.
 
mmb said:
It's getting hard to cut back on food to save money but still get ingredients that are not loaded in salt, fat, or chemicals.

Next spring the back yard is turning into a garden and the mason jars are coming out come harvest.
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That's the one really bad thing about 'coupon shopping'. Most of the time, sure people can 'eat' a lot on the cheap after using coupons that cuts the grocery bill way down, but oftentimes those foods are terribly unhealthy. I prefer a bag of dried beans, rice, root veggies, etc.

Speaking of legumes. Split Pea Soup. 1 ham bone, 1 bag of split green peas, water, onion (optional) and salt to taste. Cook until the peas mush and the remnants of meat fall off the bone. It has to be one of the easiest recipes that is so tasty and cheap. Carrots are another good addition, but I like to keep it really simple.
 
when i was in college my buddy who did all of our cooking used to get bones from the butcher that were intended for dogs and make stews and soups out of them.
 

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