Archive for the ‘* Best Value $1 or Less per Serving’ Category
Egg Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich (ELT)
A straightforward sandwich with many variants. This recipe assumes you have hard boiled eggs already on hand.
Ingredients
- 2 hard boiled eggs, chicken or duck, sliced
- lettuce leaves, as desired
- fresh tomato, sliced, as desired
- 4 slices bread, toasted
- mayo, or mayo of your choice, as desired
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Prep the lettuce and tomato. slice the hard boiled egg.
- Toast the bread then spread some mayo on each slice, to two slices, add a layer of tomato slices and season with salt and pepper as desired. I used Tor tomatoes.
- Top with lettuce leaves.
- Top the lettuce with egg slices.
- Top with the other slice of bread, mayo side down, slice in half, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcuts: Perfect Hard Boiled Chicken Eggs, Steamed Eggs (Rice Cooker), Perfect Hard Boiled Duck Eggs.
Variants: 1. Use plain bread instead of toasted. 2. Use a fried egg instead of hard boiled. 3. Add a slice of cheese, your choice. 4. Add two layers of tomato slices. 5. Use a croissant in place of toast. 6. Use a bagel in place of bread. 7. Use a hamburger bun in place of bread. 8. Add a slice or two of thin sliced smoked ham.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Kwek Kwek
This is a popular street food sold in the Philippines, and essentially is battered quail eggs that are fried and served with a dipping sauce. Sounds good to me, on my make and taste list. This recipe assumes you already have hard boiled quail eggs, peeled, available to use. There is a Shortcut in the Notes section on how to hard boil quail eggs if you are not familiar with that. You can also use canned quail eggs that are drained.
Ingredients
- 12 hard boiled quail eggs, peeled, Shortcut
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- cooking oil, your choice, as needed, for frying
For the Batter
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¾ cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon annatto powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
For the Dipping Sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup tomato ketchup
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
First, the Dipping Sauce
- In a small saucepan, add all the Dipping Sauce ingredients and set on medium heat, stirring the sauce until the sugar completely dissolves. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
Next, the Batter
- In a mixing bowl, add the warm water and annatto powder and whisk until the powder is dissolved. Now if you do not have annatto powder, a few drops of orange food coloring will work just as good, although annatto will add a slight hint of flavor to the batter. The annatto or orange food coloring is basically a visual thing to make the batter orange, it can be left out if you prefer.
- Mix in the 1 cup of flour and baking powder into the warm annatto water, whisk until there is no lumps. Set the batter aside.
Next, Frying the Quail Eggs
- Heat about 1 inch of cooking oil in a pan to about 180° C (350° F) but not smoking, if no thermometer, just drop a small amount of batter into the oil when you think it is hot, the batter will sizzle and fry up nicely when the oil is hot.
- Take the peeled hard boiled quail eggs, or canned eggs, and drain well. To a shallow dish, add the 1/4 of flour, roll the eggs in the flour to completely coat the eggs.
- Now take the eggs and coat them with batter, ensuring the batter covers each egg completely.
- Add to the hot oil, 4 to 6 eggs at a time, turn them if needed and fry to golden brown (orange really) and crispy, remove to paper towels to drain, and repeat with the rest of the eggs.
- The sauce should be cooled a bit but still warm, pour that in a small dish, add the eggs to a serving plate and place the sauce bowl on the plate. Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Perfect Hard Boiled Quail Eggs.
Variants. 1. Add ½ teaspoon of chicken stock powder to the batter. 2. Add ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder to the batter. 3. Add 1 chicken egg, beaten, to the batter. 4. Use chicken eggs, then the name becomes tokneneng.
Sirloin & Provolone Surprise aka Ham & Cheese Pizza Lasagna
This recipe is an original from a good friend, and Chef, and it is tasty! This can be tailored many ways to make it your own. The recipe as stated is for using one 5 inch ramekin. For the photos, I doubled the ingredients and used three 5 x 7 inch baking dishes (Tesco).
Ingredients
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup carrot, diced small
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
- 250 grams ground sirloin, (1/2 lb)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3-5 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 3 slices Provolone cheese
Instructions
- You are going to need a small baking dish, the dish used by the Chef was a ramekin measuring 5 inches across and 2 1/2 inches deep with a volume of 10 ounces.
- Prep the tomatoes and carrots. Measure out all the spices. I also added some fresh Shiitake mushrooms sliced on an angle.
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F).
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and when hot add the sirloin, breaking up the meat as it cooks until just a little pink remains visible, about 3-5 minutes. I used minced pork, so you have to drain the fat from that once it is cooked through.
- Add the garlic, cumin, basil, oregano, parsley, black pepper, and salt and give the meat a stir and cook for about 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, carrot, and tomato sauce, and stir together. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust salt and pepper or spices, as needed. If using mushrooms, add them now as well.
- Coat the inside of your ramekin or other suitable oven safe dish with some olive oil. Add a slice of Provolone to the bottom of the dish. I used 5 x 7 inch baking dishes, I added two slices of smoked ham to the bottom of each dish, then topped that with cheese. Cheese I used was Gouda, which is square so went with 1 1/2 slices for each layer.
- Add half the meat sauce and spread evenly.
- Top the sauce with another slice of Provolone, then add the rest of the meat sauce and top that with the last slice of Provolone. I also added two slices of smoked ham in the middle layer followed by the cheese.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Increase the heat to 190 C (375 F) and let the the cheese brown a little, about 3-4 minutes. If using a counter top oven (like me) switch to the top coil for the last 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve with bread or sides of your choice and enjoy. The 5 x 7 inch dishes were perfect for 2 servings.
Notes
Low cost per serving as written, when using larger baking dishes, more cheese is needed taking this up to fair value per serving. Some of the variants will also increase the per serving cost as well.
Variants: 1. Replace the sirloin with regular ground beef or pork but drain the fat before adding the spices and tomatoes and such. 2. In place of Provolone, use Gouda, Emmental (Swiss), Cheddar, or cheese of your choice. 3. Add some cayenne pepper to the sauce. 4. Add a handful of al dente pasta to the sauce at the last 3 minutes of cooking. 5. Add 1-2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce. 6. Add sauteed mushrooms to the sauce. 7. Add a layer of pepperoni on each layer of cheese. 8. Add a layer of thin sliced smoked ham to each layer.
Provided by Chef Andy Anderson of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Asian Goulash
The inspiration for this dish, as well as the name comes from a person who posted a similar photo of this dish, I took that as a challenge to make that dish, here is my results. Basically this is a minced pork and rice noodle dish, and it is delicious! Read the Variants in the Recipe Notes section, many ways to tailor this to your liking.
Ingredients
- 220 grams dry rice noodles, (7.7 oz)
- 500 grams ground pork, (1 lb)
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 spring onions, sliced, white and green parts, reserve some green for garnish
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil, plus extra for the noodles
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- salt and white pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Everything prepped and ready to start. Reserve some of the spring onion greens for garnish if desired.
- Heat a pot of water to a boil, then add the rice noodles, stir often and cook until tender, drain. Add a teaspoon or so of sesame oil to the drained noodles to keep them from sticking together.
- While the water is heating for the noodles, heat a non stick pan or a wok, on medium heat, add the ground pork and garlic. Break up the pork with your spatula as it cooks. Stir fry to cook the pork through, drain the fat. Add the spring onion and cilantro and stir fry to wilt the cilantro.
- When the noodles are cooked and drained, add the noodles to the pan and toss with the pork. Now add the fish sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and toss to mix.
- Divide into bowls, garnish with some spring onion greens, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Add sliced and sauteed Shiitake mushrooms. 2. Add some diced carrots or mixed vegetables. 3. Add sugar peas.
Inspired by wynnskitchen.
Chicken & Egg Curry
Sounds like an excellent dish, and easy to make. Common ingredients are used, this recipe assumes you have hard boiled already. On my to make and taste list.
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, diced
- 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- 2 medium onions, grated
- 2 tablespoons ghee, or cooking oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon chili powder, if using Thai, use ¼ teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- In a large non stick pan on medium heat, add the ghee or oil, when hot, add the diced chicken, cook, stirring often, until no longer pink. Use a slotted spoon and remove the chicken to a bowl.
- To the pan, add the cumin and onion, stir fry until the onion is golden colored and soft, about 5 minutes or so.
- Add the garlic, chili powder, coriander, turmeric, and salt, stir fry for 30 seconds.
- Stir in the tomatoes, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes.
- To the pan, add the water, eggs, and chicken, cover again and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
- Serve with rice, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Pasta with Herb Sauce
Basic recipe for an inexpensive meal, sounds like a winner. On my to make and taste list.
Ingredients
- 180 grams dry spaghetti, (6 oz)
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, then add the spaghetti and cook until tender.
- While the pasta is cooking, in a small bowl, mix together remaining ingredients.
- When the pasta is tender, drain, and return the pasta to the warm pot, add the sauce mixture from the small bowl and toss together.
- Divide between two plates, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Pasta with Tuna Sauce
Sounds like an easy and quick dish to put together. On my to make and taste list.
Ingredients
- 1 can tuna in brine, drained, (185 g / 6.5 oz)
- 1 can diced tomatoes, (~400 grams or ~14 oz can)
- 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2-3 tablespoons capers, drained
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper, as desired, to taste
- dry pasta, of your choice, for serving
- Parmesan cheese, grated, for serving
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the garlic, stir for 30 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant.
- Pour in the chopped tomatoes and stir together. Stir in the oregano and season to taste with salt and pepper as desired. Reduce heat to low.
- Add the drained tuna, break that up a bit and stir into the tomatoes, let simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- While the sauce is simmering, heat a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta of your choice, spaghetti or fettuccine would be perfect. Cool until tender, drain. For the pasta, figure about 160-180 grams (6-7 ounces) for 2 servings.
- After 15 minutes of simmering the sauce, stir in the drained capers and simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Divide the pasta between two plates, spoon on the sauce, top with grated Parmesan, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Used canned whole tomatoes, chopped, plus juice. 2. Use fresh tomatoes, chopped, about 1 3/4 to 2 cups. 3. Add sliced black olives in place of the capers or in addition to the capers. 4. Add sautéed mushrooms.
Classic Tuna Salad Sandwiches
I have been making these for well over 30 years, about time I got around to actually writing this down, but I am going to post a friend's recipe here as a great guide. This recipe is wide open to changes to suit your taste. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 3 cans tuna in oil, drained well
- 1 stalk celery, finely diced, Thai celery 2-3 stalk
- 2 dill pickles, diced, Shortcut
- 1 spring onion, sliced, white and green parts
- ½ cup mayo, of your choice, and as needed
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
- salt and pepper, as desired
- lettuce leaves, as desired, 2-3 per sandwich
- 8 slices bread, of your choice, rye would be perfect
Instructions
- To drain the tuna, you can simply crack open the lid and drain the oil, but I prefer to use a strainer, and in this photo, a rice strainer, this ensures the best drained tuna. Once it is good and drained, add the tuna to a mixing bowl.
- Slice and dice the celery, slice the spring onion, and dice the pickles. Add these to a mixing bowl. (I did not have my homemade pickles made so I added a tablespoon of chopped capers.)
- To the mixing bowl add the mayo, mustard, and juice. Mix well, and season with salt and pepper as desired to taste. Start with the stated ½ cup mayo and mix, add mayo as needed to get the consistency you desire. I added about a tablespoon more.
- Once you have the salad to your desired consistency, cover and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours to chill. This will store safely in the fridge about 2 days.
- When you are ready for a sandwich, or two, lay out the bread of your choice, add some mayo to each slice (I used Japanese Kewpie Mayo, it is in a squeeze bottle), add 2-3 lettuce leaves to a slice of bread.
- Top with ¼ of the tuna salad, top with another slice of bread, repeat for remaining sandwiches.
- Cut each sandwich in half, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Fridge Pickles.
Variants: 1. Serve as a salad on a bed of lettuce, serve in half an avocado, serve on a croissant. 2. Add a slice of Swiss cheese. 3. Add a chopped hard boiled egg. 4. Add a slice of tomato. 5. No pickles on hand? Use a tablespoon or so chopped capers. 6. If you prefer to used canned tuna in water, you may need to increase the mayo to ¾ cup.
Whitefish Mornay
The mornay term with this recipe is the cheese sauce used, the fish and the sauce are not cooked together, however, this meal goes together quickly. The fish is quite delicious, I was pleasantly surprised.
Ingredients
For the Fish
- 2 fillets whitefish, pangasius or barramundi would be perfect
- 1 cup milk
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 black peppercorns
- chives, chopped, for garnish if desired
For the Mornay Sauce
- 3½ tablespoons butter, (50 grams)
- 50 grams all purpose flour, or 6½ tablespoons if no scale
- 120 grams Cheddar cheese, or Gouda, shredded, (4 oz)
- milk, as needed
- black pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Add the fish fillets to a nonstick pan, pour in the milk, add the bay leaf and the peppercorns. Heat on low heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes to poach the fish, the fish will flake easily when cooked through.
- Remove the pan from heat, remove the fish from the pan to a plate and cover to keep warm. Remove the bay leaf from the milk. Keep that pan with the milk handy, you will need it soon.
- In a saucepan on low heat, melt the butter then whisk in the flour, continuously whisk for 2 minutes.
- Using the milk in the pan you poached the fish in, add a small amount to the saucepan and whisk in, repeat until all the milk from the pan is used. Now whisk in small amounts of fresh milk until you get a nice creamy consistency.
- When the sauce is a nice creamy consistency, increase heat and bring to a boil, whisking continuously. Once at a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the cheese until smooth.
- Plate the fish, spoon sauce over the fish, garnish with chopped chives if desired (I just added a little ground black pepper), serve with sides of your choice. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Garlic Mushrooms
This sounds good and is on my list to make after I get some more button mushrooms.
Ingredients
- 250 grams fresh white button mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil
- 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
- salt and lemon pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Give the mushrooms a quick rinse under running water and shake off the excess. Cut the stems off even with the caps, keep those stems handy, they get cooked as well. For large mushrooms, cut the caps in half.
- Heat the oil in a non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds or so.
- Add the mushrooms, caps and stems, stir until the mushrooms have soaked up the oil. Turn the heat to low and saute the mushrooms until they release any any water.
- Add the lemon or lime juice and season as desired with salt and lemon pepper as desired. Increase the heat to medium and saute until nearly all the liquid is evaporated.
- Add the parsley and stir into the mushrooms, remove from heat.
- Serve as a side with any dish, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Adapted from an internet recipe.