Author Archive
Unstuffed Bell Peppers
I love Stuffed Bell Peppers, and not only does this recipe sounds like a very good alternative, it is delicious as well. I made this on 1 July 2018, very well liked by the family. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- olive oil, as needed
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bell peppers, any color, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 500 grams ground beef, or ground pork, (1 lb)
- 1 can diced tomatoes, or whole, chopped, with juice, 565 g can
- 1¾ cups chicken stock, fresh or from powder
- 1 cup tomato sauce, Shortcut
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 cup uncooked rice
- 1 cup cheese, Cheddar, Edam, or Jack, shredded
- salt and pepper, to taste
- spring onions, chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Garlic, peppers, and onion prepped. Reserve some of the diced bell peppers to sprinkle on top for garnish if desired.
- Saute peppers, onions, and garlic in a splash of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet.
- Once the peppers and onions have started to soften, increase heat to medium high and add the ground beef to the pan, season with salt and pepper.
- Once the ground beef is cooked through, drain off excess fat.
- Then add the chicken broth, can of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and soy sauce. Stir together.
- Bring the tomato mixture up to a simmer, then stir in one cup of uncooked rice. Cover the pan with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Let mixture cook 20-30 minutes, or until rice is tender.
- At the 20 minute mark, start stirring the pan occasionally so the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan. One rice is tender, sprinkle the cheese on top.
- Cover the pan with the lid to let the cheese melt.
- Spoon onto plates, garnish with fresh diced bell peppers and green onions if desired, serve.
Notes
The beef would cost about 100 Baht/500 grams. For 4 servings, this is about 75 cents per serving.
Shortcut: Tomato Sauce.
Lumpia aka Spring Rolls
Many Asian countries have their versions of Lumpia or Spring Rolls, these are great appetizers.
Ingredients
- 500 grams ground pork
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1/2 cup carrot, shredded
- 1/4 cup spring onion, chopped
- 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
- lumpia or spring roll, wrappers, as needed
- 3 cups cooking oil
Instructions
- Add together pork, onion, and carrots in a large bowl and mix well. Add green onions, parsley, salt, pepper, egg, and soy sauce and mix.
- Place 1 1/2 tablespoons of lumpia mixture in the wrapper about two inches from the top of the roll. Fold the top of the roll once to the mixture. Fold in both sides to the center. Continue rolling tightly until you reach the end of the wrapper.
- Heat the oil in a large pan, cast iron would be perfect, on medium heat. Fry the lumpia, flipping regularly until lumpia is golden brown. Place finished lumpia on paper towels to drain excess oil. Serve hot.
Notes
The ground pork will cost about 60 Baht/500 grams. For 4 servings, this is about 37 cents per serving.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Garland Davis, US Navy Cook (Ret).
United States.
United States.
Hawaiian-style Smoked Sausage
Smoked sausage is a favorite of mine, getting it here where I live, that can be hit or miss. Cooked with pineapple, this sounds like a winner. Some of the measurements until I make this, then I will adjust the recipe.
Ingredients
- 750 grams smoked sausage, sliced into 1/2 pieces
- 2 stalks celery, import, sliced
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 can whole tomatoes, chopped, with juice
- 1 can pineapple, chunks, reserve juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- cooked rice, for serving
Instructions
- Stir fry farmer sausage for several minutes. Then add the celery, onions, and peppers, and cook until tender crisp. Add tomatoes, pineapple, seasonings, sugar and soy sauce. Simmer 5 minutes.
- Blend cornstarch with reserved pineapple juice. Add to simmering sausage dish and cook for 2 minutes.
- Serve with rice.
Notes
I will have to price this once I get smoked sausage again, certainly not higher than Fair Value for this.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Teriyaki Chicken II
Sounds good, I will have to try this.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup soy sauce, low sodium
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 tablespoons corn starch, plus 2 tablespoons water
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 2 1/4 cups stir fry veggies, like bell pepper, carrot, broccoli
- 3 cups cooked rice
- olive oil spray, as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with olive oil.
- Combine soy sauce, the 1/2 cup water, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic in a small saucepan and cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove lid and cook for one minute once boiling.
- Meanwhile, stir together the corn starch and 2 tablespoons of water in a separate dish until smooth. Once sauce is boiling, add mixture to the saucepan and stir to combine. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken then remove from heat.
- Place the chicken breasts in the prepared pan. Pour 1 cup of the sauce over top of chicken. Place chicken in oven and bake 35 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and shred chicken in the dish using two forks.
- While the chicken is baking, steam or boil the vegetables until just tender and crisp.
- When the chicken is cooked, and the vegetables and rice to the casserole dish with the chicken. Add most of the remaining sauce, reserving a bit to drizzle over the top when serving. Gently toss everything together in the casserole dish until combined. Return to oven and cook 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Drizzle each serving with remaining sauce.
Notes
The chicken breasts might cost 50 Baht for 2 breast. For 4 servings, this is about 37 cents per serving.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Amish Church Soup
This is a one pot dish and only 6 ingredients. The original recipe called for a quart of beef, I take that, thinking of the name Amish, as this is a quart jar of canned beef, which would be good. If you can your own beef, perfect, or do what I will do and just use ground beef.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo ground beef, OR 1 quart canned beef
- 4 potaotes, diced, or more
- 500 grams dry spaghetti
- 1 onion, chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot, add the pasta, potatoes, and onion. add water to cover by 2-3 inches and cook until the potatoes are tender. Do not drain.
- Add the ground beef or canned beef to the pot and cook until the ground beef is cooked through or warmed through if using canned beef. Skim off most of the fat.
- Serve as is or with sandwiches.
Notes
Figure about 200 Baht/1 kilo of beef. For 6 servings, this is about 98 cents per serving.
If you are cutting back on beef, you can used beef soup base in place of the beef.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Bacon Wrapped... BBQ
My wife and I have been doing this about once a month. Easy, great when family visits and you need to prepare a lot, and is a great way to get the little ones helping out as well. Thais like a good BBQ, and they love bacon, so what started out with just chicken livers and hearts has turned into a using mushrooms, baby corn, small sausages, shrimp, etc. No number of servings is stated, this is a make as much or as little as you like. The ingredients are suggested items but you can certainly use what you like or have on have on hand.
Equipment
- Skewers
- Grill, Charcoal or Gas
Ingredients
- sliced bacon, as needed, smoked would be great
What to Wrap...
- chicken livers
- chicken hearts
- Straw mushrooms, whole
- Shimeji mushrooms, white and brown
- sausage links
- baby corn
- shrimp, peeled, deviened, tail removed
- Brussels sprouts, whole
Instructions
- First thing is fire up your grill is using charcoal, if using gas, you can turn that on after everything is prepped.
- Open up the bag of skewers, bacon, and get out the veggies and or chicken livers, hearts, sausages, etc. Chicken livers cut in half, Straw mushrooms leave whole, and for the Shimeji mushrooms you will need to trim off the root ends.
- On a plate or cutting board, lay down a strip of bacon so one end is facing away from you, place an item on the end closest to you, and simply roll it up in the bacon, run a skewer this. you can place 3-4 items on each skewer. Place the full skewers on a plate. Continue until everything is wrapped. Cover with foil.
- Place the skewers over hot coals on your grill. The cooking time is basically to crisp up the bacon, even for the chicken livers, when the bacon is crispy, the liver will be done as well.
- Place cooked skewers on a plate and and watch them disappear while cooking another batch, let people help themselves to the skewers of their choice and serve potato or pasta salad, and corn on the cob on the side.
Notes
Over all this would be low cost and is a great way to feed a crowd. Get the kids involved, show them once and they will remember, try to keep up with them.
Mushroom Soup I
This is based on the canned condensed cream of mushroom soup, do yourself a favor and make this from scratch, then follow this recipe. This comes from a good friend. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, OR make from a shortcut
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 cup canned mushrooms, sliced, plus liquid
Instructions
- Put everything in a saucepan and mix, heat, and serve.
Notes
Low cost.
This would pair perfectly with a grilled cheese sandwich to make a light meal.
Shortcut: Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Hans Schmidt.
United States.
United States.
Tomato Bacon Grilled Cheese
In the old time diners in the US and some even to this day are known for three main items ordered, breakfasts, burgers, and soup and a sandwich. And that soup would be tomato soup and the sandwich would be a grilled cheese. Not sure how I came across this recipe, maybe doing a search for bacon. This sounds very good and will be made very soon.
Ingredients
- 4 slices bread
- 6 slices bacon
- Cheddar cheese, sliced as needed
- fresh tomatoes, sliced, as needed
- butter, as needed
Instructions
- Fry the bacon until crispy, then place on a paper towel to drain. A cast iron pan would be perfect for bacon.
- While the bacon is frying, slice the tomato(s) as needed, all I get here is plum or Roma tomatoes, so for those I would figure about 3-4 slices for each sandwich. Then thinly slice your cheese, I use Mainland brand and it takes 3 slices to cover the bread, if using the same, you will need 12 slices. Feel free to use processed slices if you wish, then will need 4 slices.
- When the bacon is cooked and drained and the tomato(s) and cheese sliced, time to assemble.
- Heat another large pan on medium heat, I always use a non-stick for grilled cheese sandwiches. You want a pan large enough to place 2 slices of bread in the bottom.
- While the pan is heating, spread butter on one side of all 4 slices of bread, lay them butter side up on the counter near your stove, and position the cheese slices, bacon, and tomato slices near the stove as well.
- When the pan is hot, lay down 2 slices of bread, butter side down in the pan, top each slice top each with a cheese slice or if using cheese from a block, slices to cover the bread, then add 2-4 tomato slices, then add 3 strips of bacon, another slice of cheese, and finally the bread slice butter side up.
- When the sandwiches are golden brown on the bottom, carefully flip and cook the other side until golden brown, this takes just a minute or two for each side. Remove from pan, plate and cut in half diagonally, serve.
Notes
Low cost overall, but I will verify this when I make these.
An ideal soup to serve with this would be tomato or mushroom soup for a light dinner.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Grilled Cabbage
Sounds like a great side for when I fire up my grill for chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 head cabbage
- 4 slices bacon
- butter, as needed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Cut cabbage into four wedges. Place each wedge on a piece of doubled heavy duty foil. Spread butter on the cut sides of each wedge.
- In a small bowl, mix together the salt, garlic powder, pepper, and cheese. Sprinkle all of this evenly over the wedges. Wrap a slice of bacon around each wedge.
- Fold the foil around each wedge, sealing tightly. Grill over medium heat for 40 minutes, covered or until the cabbage is tender, turning twice, serve. Or you can bake this in a 180 C for 30 minutes.
Notes
Low cost.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Easy Peasy Crock Pot Chicken & Noodles
This sounds absolutely wonderful! Use the shortcut for the soup and you will have real condensed soup and not oil and water flavored chicken soup. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 4-5 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup, OR make from a shortcut
- 3 1/2 cups chicken broth, fresh or from powder
- 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 standard block of butter
- 500 grams dry egg noodles, I will use Fettuccine
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Place everything except the noodles in a slow cooker, cook on Low setting for 5-6 hours.
- Remove chicken, it may fall apart, shred with forks and return to the slow cooker. Add the egg noodles and mix in, cook for 2 more hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
Notes
The chicken breasts would be 80-100 Baht for 4-5. Going with 100, and 4 servings, this is about 74 cents per serving.
Shortcut: Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.