Archive for the ‘#1 Go-To Recipes’ Category
Tuna Casserole I
This is an easy to assemble casserole, simple but but nice quality flavor. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Notes section.
Equipment
- Baking Pan (9x13 inch)
- Oven
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry elbow macaroni, (1 lb)
- 3 cans tuna, in water, drained, or 1½ cups fresh cooked, (about 185 g / 7 oz cans), Shortcut
- 1 can corn, drained, or 2 cups frozen or fresh, (425 g / 15 oz)
- 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup, (10½ oz / 298 g), Shortcut
- 225 grams Cheddar cheese, shredded, (8 oz)
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, then add the macaroni and cook until just tender, drain. Once the macaroni is added to the boiling water, go ahead and preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F) and get out a 9x13 baking dish.
- While the macaroni is cooking, and add the drained corn, tuna, and soup to the baking dish.
- Mix together.
- Drain the macaroni when done and pour into the baking dish. Using a large spoon, mix everything together thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste, spreading the mixture out evenly.
- Sprinkle the cheese over the top.
- Place in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcuts: Fresh Tuna, Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup.
Variants: 1. Use chicken or chicken mushroom soup in place of mushroom soup. 2. Use peas or peas and carrots in place of corn.
Updated on 9 June 2023.
Chicken Lazone
In addition to chicken, this would be excellent with meatballs or veal medallions. I made this on 20 June 2017 and it is outstanding, the spices and the cream, perfect. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo chicken tenders/fillets, OR chicken breasts cut into strips
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups heavy cream, OR make from a shortcut on this site
Instructions
- Combine salt, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. Sprinkle over both sides of chicken tenders.
- In large saute pan, melt half of the butter over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken tenders until done, about 8 minutes.
- Pour the cream and add remaining butter into the skillet. Lower heat and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5-7 minutes.
- Serve chicken and sauce over pasta of your choice or mashed potatoes, if desired.
Notes
Chicken fillets run about 66 Baht/kilo, boneless and skinless breasts run about 87 Baht/kilo, bone in and skin on breasts run about 58 Baht/kilo, so for this to serve 6 meals, you are looking at about 15 Baht per meal per person, that is less than 50 cents, add in pasta or potatoes, and heavy cream, still well under $1 per meal.
Shortcut: Heavy Cream.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Garland Davis, US Navy Cook (Ret).
United States.
United States.
Hot German Potato Salad
Excellent tasting side dish, liked by the whole family. Highly recommended.
Ingredients
- 750 grams potatoes, cut into cubes, (1½ lb)
- 3 slices bacon
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon celery salt
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup vinegar
Instructions
- Boil potatoes until tender, drain.
- Cook bacon in skillet until crisp. Remove and chop. Add the onion to the bacon fat and cook until tender. Stir in flour, sugar, salt, celery seed, and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is bubbly. Slowly add water and vinegar and heat to boiling stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and combine with drained potatoes and bacon until potatoes are completely coated. Serve as a side dish, enjoy.
Slow Cooker Duck Legs
I found this great recipe for cooking duck legs (leg and thigh) for tender and juicy duck legs on the internet. A number of months ago I picked up a package of 2 duck legs at the store in town, cost was actually comparable to chicken. Got home and put them in the freezer. Found this recipe so I decided to try it out. The meat nearly falls off the bone and is tender and juicy. My wife loved this, she even stated, most tender duck she ever had cooked in a house. This recipe is a keeper.
Ingredients
- 2 duck legs with thighs, skin on
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup red vermouth, OR use an additional cup of chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 onion, chopped
Instructions
- I added 2 cups of hot water to my slow cooker pot and used powdered stock to make the 2 cups of chicken stock. Turn on slow cooker to Low setting.
- In a low heat, dry, no oil added, non-stick pan, add the duck legs/thighs, skin side down until the fat runs out and the skin is golden brown. Remove the legs/thighs and add to the slow cooker skin side up.
- Add the chopped onion to the duck fat in the pan and cook until clear and softened, add the onions to the slow cooker.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on Low for 5-6 hours.
- Serve with some buttered pasta and a green vegetable.
Notes
Two duck legs cost me 90 baht in Tesco. That is 45 Baht per person, or about $1.35 per person, add pasta, still reasonable. I served this with pasta and fresh, local grown, corn on the cob, puts the cost to about $1.50 per person. This is a great treat for family members or visiting friends.
Tomato Salad I
I learned this from a good friend of mine, who is Italian. A tomato salad in an Italian restaurant in Thailand can run 60 to 150 Baht per person, this is so easy, and certainly much less!
Ingredients
- 2-3 plum tomatoes, chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- olive oil, to taste
- pinch fresh basil
- ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Combine the tomatoes, garlic, and basil in a bowl, splash with olive oil and a pinch of black pepper. Done.
- This makes 1 serving, great for a light lunch or appetizer before dinner.
Notes
Well less than $1 per serving.
Variant: 1. Add a few pieces of homemade sardines into it with a spoon of the olive oil. Great lunch and nutritious.
Adapted from a friend's recipe.
Sardines in Olive Oil (Slow Cooker)
Sardines are any type of small oily fish like sardines, mackerel, herring, or even milkfish, that have been preserved in oil or packed in sauce. I like sardines, I love sardines in olive oil, but I could only find one store that carried them in olive oil (Thai made as well) and was pricey to say the least. So I set out on an internet search and found this recipe, I have made it twice with excellent results.
Ingredients
- brine, ¼ cup salt in each 2 cups of water
- 3-4 mackeral, cleaned with heads and tail removed
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ¾ cup water
- ¾ cup pickle juice
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons black peppercorns
Instructions
- Clean your fish, for both times I made these I used 4 mackerel, remove the head, tail, insides, and clean well on the inside along the backbone. Leave skin on and bones in.
- I took each fish and cut into 3 pieces, place all in a bowl with a lid.
- Prepare your brine with ¼ cup salt for 2 cups of water. I do this separate so I don't make more brine than what is needed. Make a batch and pour over the fish pieces, make more as needed to cover the fish.
- Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, I normally refrigerate overnight.
- Remove the fish from the brine and rinse, place fish pieces in a slow cooker, add the olive oil, water, pickle juice, bay leaves, and peppercorns.
- Put the slow cooker on Low setting for 3-6 hours, depending on size of fish, 3 hours for small fish, like milkfish, and 6 hours for mackerel. Check the fish about an hour before the time, you are looking for soft fish and soft bones, if the bones are not soft, go another hour and check again, repeat until the bones are soft.
- When done and the fish and bones are soft, allow to cool and store in the fridge in olive oil.
- Serve as is with or on a lettuce salad with tomatoes and garlic, or as a sandwich with bread spread with mustard.
Notes
Mackerel will run about 25 baht per fish, if using as a light meal, well under $1 per person. If I use in a sandwich, I use 3 fish pieces, split each in half, lunch for under $1. If I use in a tomato salad, I use 3 pieces and just kind of chop them up, salad for under $1.
Used in Recipes Listed on this Site:
- Sardine & Tomato Sandwich.
- Sardine & Sliced Egg Sandwich, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Pasta with Sardines II.
- Sardine & Cheese Wontons.
- Tempura Sardines.
- Ginger Steamed Sardines.
- Sardine Salad Sandwich, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Sardine Dip, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Crispy Sardines & Garlic Mayo, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Fisherman's Eggs, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Pasta with Sardines.
- Sardine Sandwich I, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Sardine Sandwich II, made it.
- Sardine Club Sandwich.
Macaroni Salad I
Easy recipe that I learned from my parents, I have been making this now for years. I often make this to provide several days of lunches and even an evening meal or two. This can be a side dish or a light main dish. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams elbow macaroni, (8 oz)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2-3 cans tuna, packed in oil or brine, drained, Shortcut
- 3-4 hard boiled eggs, peeled, chopped, Shortcut
- mayo, as needed
- ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, add the macaroni, cook until tender, drain well. Return the macaroni to the same pot, we are going to use the cooking pot as the mixing bowl now.
- To the macaroni, add the onion, tuna, and eggs. If using the Shortcut to prepare the tuna, use ½ cup cooked tuna for each can.
- Gently mix together to minimize tearing apart the eggs.
- Add the mayo, several spoons first and gently mix together. Keep adding mayo a spoon at a time until you get your desired consistency. Add some black pepper and give the salad another mix or two.
- Transfer salad to a serving bowl, cover, and place in the fridge to chill until serving. s a great side dish, lunch, or even as a light main meal.
Notes
Low cost per serving as this makes a lot of salad.
Shortcut: Tuna.
Mom's Potato Salad
This is a very easy recipe, one my Mom has been making for years, and I remember this since I was a child and asked her for the recipe probably 15 years ago. I made one addition to the recipe (bell peppers) thanks to a good friend in the US. This is what I say is a user friendly recipe, amounts are guessed, and you can add or remove items to your liking or what you have on hand.
Ingredients
- 6 potatoes, medium or large is ok
- 6 hard boiled eggs, chicken or duck, peeled
- 3-4 stalks imported celery, diced, or several bunches of Thai celery, chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 jar green olives with pimento, drained and sliced, (354 g / 13 oz)
- 3-4 red radish, optional, sliced thin
- mayo
- prepared yellow mustard
- cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Peel and cube the potatoes, add to a large saucepan and cover with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, cook until the potatoes are just fork tender. Drain and allow to cool.
- While the potatoes are cooking, dice the veggies and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Peel the eggs and chop into large pieces. Add to the bowl and mix everything.
- Potatoes should be done now, remove them from the water and allow to cool. Once the potatoes are cooled, add to the bowl and mix again.
- Now add about 3 good sized spoons of mayo and start to mix, add mayo to completely coat everything but not dripping with mayo either, once that is done, add a few tablespoons of mustard and mix that in, color should be a pale yellow, taste, and add more mustard if needed. Once the taste is good, sprinkle in cracked black pepper and mix again, check the taste. If the taste is good, put the salad in 1-2 containers, put on lids, and refrigerate for several hours before serving. This photo shows perfect consistency, after this, it is packed in a large plastic bowl to be refrigerated.
- I normally serve this as a side with Italian sausage or hamburgers.
Notes
Variant: 1. Inspired by my good friend, Stephen Connell, United States. An old Southern US trick is you fry up some bacon crisp, take out the bacon, then the bacon fat, while it is still hot, is drizzled over the boiled cubed potato's then add everything else including the bacon that you have crushed into bits. You do not want the potatoes swimming in the bacon fat, but enough to coat them and soak in.
Beer Braised Pork Knuckles
To start off, this is not a $1 meal by any means. Simple recipe however. The crackling (skin) was perfect, the internal temperature was spot on for pork, bone pulled right out (great treat for our dog), and the meat was fork tender with a delicious flavor.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Pan (7x11 inch)
Ingredients
- 2 pork knuckles, these were 800 grams each
- salt and pepper, to taste
- garlic powder, to taste
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 cans beer, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220° C (425° F). Get out a 7x11 inch baking dish.
- Score the skin of the knuckles.
- Slice an onion and place that on the bottom of the baking dish, place knuckles on top, extra onion, just put that around the knuckles.
- Pour a can of beer over the knuckles then generously add garlic powder and ground black pepper to the knuckles, add salt to your liking.
- Put in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, remove and pour another can of beer over the knuckles. Reduce heat on the oven to 180° C (350° F) and put the baking dish back in the oven for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, increase heat back to 220° C (425° F), remove the pan and baste the knuckles with the liquid in the pan, put back in the oven for another 30 minutes.
- You can either carve these or leave whole, in Germany, I guess it is tradition that one knuckle is one serving to a person and plated like that.
- Sides would be mashed potatoes, potato salad, buttered egg noodles, or sauerkraut, and as green vegetable.
Notes
I found these in Makro, frozen. Each is 800 grams and cost is 200 baht each. If serving one knuckle for 2 people (easily done), the cost would be about $2.95 per person. A bit more expensive than other meals listed here but is a great treat for yourself.
Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
Probably the most widely used condensed soup for casseroles and even just for a bowl of soup, is Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup. Using only a whisk and a microwave, you can make your own version of this soup. Easy to customize to your needs and tastes.
Equipment
- Microwave
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ⅛ teaspoon white pepper powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- sugar, just a pinch, optional
- 1 can evaporated milk, 368 gram can, Falcon brand is what I use
- handful fresh mushrooms, chopped or sliced, your preference
Instructions
- Chop or slice your mushrooms, mushrooms of choice for me is Shimeji but you can use any mushrooms you like. I chopped about ⅓ of a 150 gram package.
- On 4 April 2019, I used 100 grams of fresh Shiitake mushrooms, chopped, perfect! (I like a lot of mushrooms in the soup.)
- Put everything except mushrooms in a microwave safe bowl, Pyrex or ceramic would be perfect, not a plastic bowl, and whisk together, then mix in the mushrooms.
- Microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes, whisking well after 2 minutes and again at the end of cooking time. If not thick enough, add 30 seconds and whisk again. If needed, continue for 30 seconds at a time and whisking after each 30 seconds.
- This makes just a bit more than a standard can of condensed soup.
Notes
Most recipes will just call for a can of condensed soup, some recipes (or if you just want to make the soup by itself) call for 1 can of water, 1¼ cups is a standard soup can. But as a healthier alternative to using water, try using whey if you recently made cottage cheese, or water used to boil potatoes. Milk can also be used in place of water to make a creamier soup.
Used in Recipes Listed on this Site:
- Ham & Potato Scallop, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Crab Bisque.
- Crab Meat Bisque.
- Sipo Egg II, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Buffet Layered Salad.
- Best-ever Meat Loaf.
- Veal Ham Foldovers.
- Chopstick Veal & Rice.
- Lobster Supreme.
- Drunk Monkey Garlic & Mushroom Pork Chops, made it.
- Slow Cooker Angel Chicken & Pasta.
- Hamburger Potato Casserole.
- Hash Brown & Pork Chop Casserole.
- King Ranch Chicken Casserole.
- Roast Beef & Gravy.
- Chicken Casserole (Slow Cooker).
- Hamburger Casserole II.
- Mushroom Soup, made it.
- Easy Ground Beef Casserole with Potatoes.
- Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff, made it.
- Creamy Beef Stroganoff.
- Mushroom Chicken Thigh Soup, made it.
- Cream of Mushroom Chicken.
- Creamy Burrito Casserole.
- Creamy Chicken with Spring Vegetables, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Baked Mushroom Thighs, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Pork Chop Supreme.
- No Peek Chicken, made it.
- Cheesy Brat Stew.
- Tuna Casserole II.
- Tomato Beef Country Casserole.
- Slow Cooker Beef and Gravy III.
- Slow Cooker Beef and Gravy II.
- Kielbasa and Potato Bake.
- Swiss & Ham Casserole.
- Slow Cooker Sausage & Potatoes, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Slow Cooker Chicken with Dijon Mustard.
- Slow Cooker Beef and Gravy I.
- Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings I.
- Chicken Broccoli Divan.
- Ranch Potatoes.
- Sausage & Green Bean Casserole.
- Tuna Casserole I, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Easy Beef Pot Roast, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Chicken & Broccoli.
- Gypsy Stew II, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Gypsy Stew I, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- 3 Ingredient Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops II, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Chicken & Rice Casserole.
- Chicken Pot Pie, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Slow Cooker Tuna Mornay, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Tuna & Noodles, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Meatballs & Gravy III, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Easy Ham Soup.
- Creamy Beef Gravy, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Baked Pork Chops.
- Beef & Noodles IV, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Super Supper.
- Tater Tot Casserole, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Chicken Noodle Casserole II, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Pork & Noodles, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Chicken Ritz Casserole, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Creamy Mushroom & Egg Toast.
- Pasta with Shrimp Sauce.
- Baked Corned Beef Burgers.
- Chipped Beef Chow Mein.
- Vegetable Stuffed Fish Rolls.