So this was my first attempt at meatballs and I was VERY HAPPY with the outcome! I just picked a simple recipe for my first go at it. As usual, I didn't exactly follow it to a T, but they turned out excellent anyways.
This recipe also makes enough to freeze some for later which is always convenient for next time you want this dish.
Meatballs
Equal parts ground beef and ground pork (I used about a half kg of each)
1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
1/4 Cup Roughly Chopped Parsley
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (or more if you have it)
Salt
Pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Chinese 5 Spice (optional)
3/4 Cup Water
1 T Olive Oil
If you mix all of that together, you should end up with something that looks like this.
Then use your hands to make your meatballs. You can make them any size you want. My boyfriend likes them bigger than I made them, but I find them hard to cook if they get too big. So mine are about 1.5-2 inches across. With that kind of sizing, I got 18 meatballs, so I cooked half and froze the other half for another day.
Then it's just a matter of browning the outside of the meatballs that you plan to eat tonight. I like to put them into the sauce to finish cooking but if you prefer not to that is totally up to you.
Total cost for the 9 meatballs and spaghetti: $10
And that was enough for two peoples dinner and my lunch the next day!
For some reason, roast chicken always seems to impress people. I must say, the bird does look pretty good when it comes out of the oven, but the best part is that you don't have to do much to make it look that way! I like to roast my chickens with some veggies in the bottom of the pan. Nothing too crazy, just some carrots, celery, onion and some garlic. I personally can't be bothered to peel carrots. I think it is a waste of time and flavour. Just give the carrots a good scrub and then the carrots will have more integrity when you roast them (this means they won't turn into mush).
Chicken
1 - 1.5kg Chicken
1 Carrot
2 Celery Sticks
1 Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Mustard (preferably Dijon or Grainy)
1 Lemon
Stuffing
1 Cup Fresh/Stale Bread Cubes
1/2 Cup Mushrooms
Rosemary
Butter
Preheat the oven to 425 F
I give all the veggies a rough chop and throw them into a roasting pan with a good coating of olive oil and then some salt and pepper.
I give all the veggies a rough chop and throw them into a roasting pan with a good coating of olive oil and then some salt and pepper.
Then I started making my stuffing. I just ripped up a couple pieces of bread ad tossed them into a bowl with some salt, pepper, lemon juice and some sauted mushrooms. I deglazed my mushroom pan with some white wine to add some liquid to the stuffing, but you could use chicken stock or water or beer here too.
Then just stuff it in the bird. I like to season the indie of the cavity with a bit of salt and pepper before putting the stuffing in but you don't have to. I also save half of a lemon (the one that I used for the juice in the stuffing) to close off the cavity. I would have been smart of me to take a picture of that, but I didn't. You can just barely see the lemon in the picture below. I put it so the rind is on the outside of the bird. This is also not entirely necessary, but I think it adds good flavour and you would just throw that lemon out otherwise.
Then I season the outside of the bird with a bit of mustard, salt, pepper and tarragon. Then set it right on top of all the veggies.
Place in the oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes or about and hour per kg un-stuffed and a bit longer when the bird is stuffed.
Turn the heat down to 350 F as soon as the chicken goes in the oven. The high heat initially will help give your chicken that golden brown color and the lower temperature will finish the cooking.
After it's been in the oven for a while and you want to check to make sure it is done, pull it out of the oven and cut into the leg joint (it should just be a thin layer of skin you cut through, no meat). In the fist picture, the area that is not brown between the beast and leg is where you will cut. You will be able to tell that it's done if the juice that comes out of that joint is clear. If it's pink, your chicken isn't done. However, don't plan on checking it too many times - remember, you only have two legs on your chicken (I hope anyways).
So for the most part I ma completely against any kind of prepared food. So call me a hypocrite if you wish, but these lemon pepper cod fillets are SO TASTY.(http://janesfamilyfoods.com/micro-seafood/product_lemon-pepper-cod.html) My only grievance with them is that they are a bit expensive ($10 for 6 fillets), but that is a problem with many prepared foods. However, they are really easy if you don't really want to have to monitor the food while it cooks. That's why I usually make it with rice. I can set a timer and have food ready in a half hour. The only thing here that will require some monitoring is the swiss chard. However, you don't have to make it with this dish I just really like swiss chard, and I usually cook the chard in a bit of vinegar which goes well with the fish. Chard also doesn't take very long to cook, maybe like 5 or 6 minutes.
The first thing that goes in is the cod. So set a timer for 10 minutes after you put the fish in the oven, then start your rice. (Follow rice instructions on Orange Chicken post)
In the last 5 or so minutes start your swiss chard. You can make as much or as little as you want, just keep in mind it shrinks down A LOT. See the photos below
Once the chard reduces in size to a manageable amount, I like too add a bit of balsamic, red wine or apple cider vinegar. It just depends what I have kicking around on what I end up putting in.
Then throw everything on a plate and you're done!
Total cost for 1 plate (includes 2 cod fillets): $6
Alright, so this isn't really that exciting and most of you probably make something like this at school already, but someone actually made this for me for breakfast! It really is great when other people cook for you. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but boys seem to be substantially better at making breakfast than any other meal of the day... Anyone else think this may have to do with, well lets just not go there.
This is really just an egg, a few strips of bacon, some tomato and lettuce on a bagel with some ketchup, but it looks delightful, doesn't it??
The slow cooker was one of the best inventions for the student. Put stuff in, in the morning and come back to amazing smelling apartment and amazing tasting food. It baffles me why more students don't utilize slow cooker technology. You barely have to do anything and a marvelous dinner appears at the end of the day. What more could you ask of a machine?!
But seriously, this is so easy it's stupid.
Stew Beef
1 Cup Mushrooms (your choice of type)
1 Onion
Butter
Beef Stock
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Sour Cream
Broad Egg Noodles
Start by dredging the beef in seasoned flour (see Beef Pie recipe for further info on this if necessary) then browning the beef in a frying pan with a bit of oil in the bottom.
Once the meat is brown on all sides, add the roughly chopped onions and mushrooms along with some butter (maybe a few tablespoons)
Cook until the onions are translucent, then add a bit of beef stock to deglaze the pan (again see Beef Pie for more info on this)
Dump everything into a slow cooker set on low heat. Add enough more beef stock (or even water) to cover the beef
Come back in about 6-8 hours
Beef is cooked, sauce should have thickened up (if not, take the excess liquid and reduce in a frying pan)
Then add reduced sauce back to slow cooker.
Add a few teaspoons of thyme (to taste) and some sour cream. Probably about a cup, although I must admit, I don't measure. It really depend on how much I have at the time and how light I want the sauce. This means the amount of sour cream is cooks discretion.
Boil some noodles of your choice (I prefer egg noodles for this)
Butter the noodles
Pour beef mixture over noodles
Total Cost (about 4-5 portions): $15-20 (Depends on how much beef and how many noodles you make)
This dish is another one that I have been making for a while now. I'm pretty sure I went through a phase in high school when I cooked this like twice a week (sometimes for me, sometimes for my friends). It is fairly straight forward and doesn't really have too many stead fast rules to it. Of course you could add veggies to this dish, I was just too lazy this night.
2 Chicken Breasts (or other chicken bits if you prefer them)
Season Salt (or regular salt)
Pepper (or lemon pepper)
Tarragon
1/2 Cup Rice (I usually use Jasmine)
1 Cup Water or Chicken Stock
Orange Juice
Start by seasoning the chicken with salt, pepper, and tarragon on both sides.
Then you can turn on your rice. Rice is really easy, so that's probably why I despise instant rice so much. To make rice, combine liquid and rice in a 2:1 ratio. That is for every one cup of rice, add 2 cups of liquid.
Turn rice on high heat and wait for it to boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, turn the heat to low and cover.
Cook for 15 minutes and presto! you have rice. It's just that easy. You don't have to do anything but cover it and let it cook. And the best part, your chicken takes the exact same amount of time! Who knew things could be so easy!
Anyways, now that, that tangent is over, we can get back to making the chicken.
Heat some oil in a frying pan
When hot put chicken in the pan and allow to brown on each side (maybe 3-4 minutes per side)
After your chicken looks like the ones above start to slowly add your orange juice. To be completely honest I have no clue how much I add. Usually just enough to cover the bottom of the pan and keep the chicken from burning. This is an ongoing process as the chicken continues to cook (about another 15 minutes).
As the orange juice starts to thicken up I add a little bit more to the pan. There is a lot of sugar in orange juice, so make sure your burner isn't on high. You will be cooking the chicken on medium, flipping every 5 or so minutes and adding orange juice whenever you think your sauce is too thick.
The beauty of this is you can never really add too much juice, because you can always cook the excess liquid off at the end to make a nice glaze like you see in the picture.
Cost Per Plate: $5 (not including the Growers...)
Another rainy day, another time for comfort food. I went and bought a whole beef roast and cut half of it into cubes for this pie. You can buy pre cut stew beef at most grocery stores if you think that would be easier for you, I just saw a deal on a good cut of beef and decided to take advantage of it. have never made beef pie before so this is just as much of an adventure for me as it will be for you when you try it. It just seemed like such a good thing to make on a cold day. The only downside of this recipe is that it takes about three hours to make.... But if you're like me and have to wait 3 or more hours for someone to get home for dinner this may just be the recipe for you! But seriously, it has very little prep, maybe 20 minutes tops, so you can do other things while it cooks. Like do homework! Hurray for school! Or watch some Stanley Cup Finals, just saying. (it's still scoreless in game 4 in case you wanted to know)
Guinness Beef Pie
2 1/2 Cups Beef Cubes
1 Carrot
2 Potatoes
1 Onion
1 Cup Frozen Peas
1 Cup Frozen Peas
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Can Guinness
1 Sprig Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Flour
Mushrooms (any variety)
Beef Stock
Puff Pastry (I use premade frozen)
1 Egg
Start by preheating the oven to 375 F and taking the puff pastry out of the freezer to thaw.
Take the beef cubes and dredge (cover) in flour, and sprinkle some salt, pepper and garlic powder to season. This will help make a nice thick gravy later. (see below)
Take the beef cubes and dredge (cover) in flour, and sprinkle some salt, pepper and garlic powder to season. This will help make a nice thick gravy later. (see below)
Then place the meat into a hot frying pan with a few tablespoons of oil in the bottom. Brown until it is a nice dark brown color like the meat seen below. This will take about 10 minutes.
Once the meat is browned, add your onion and garlic that has been roughly chopped and cook until it becomes slightly translucent. If there isn't much oil left at the bottom of the pan then feel free to add some more oil or even better, add some butter!
Now add the carrot that has been cut into equal size chunks (I usually keep mine pretty big to make the pie look a bit more rustic) and your mushrooms (this time I used half a portobello and maybe 6-7 small brown mushrooms, but you can use any kind you have laying around)
Cook until the mushrooms start to brown and shrink a bit. Again if your pan is dry, throw in a bit more butter (mushrooms love butter).
Once everything has cooked together for a little bit, add a whole can (or bottle) of Guinness and cook for about a minute to deglaze the pan (get all of the tasty caramelized bits off the bottom)
By this point your oven should be preheated, so you can transfer your concoction to an oven safe dish. I put mine in an old cast iron pan just because I think it looks pretty.
Add your potatoes that have been cut into chunks. I just cut each potato into about 8 pieces. Make sure everything is covered by liquid. If it isn't add beef stock until covered.
Cover the whole pan with tin foil and put in the oven.
Then comes the waiting... put your timer on for 2 hours.
After 2 hours stir the meat around, if everything still looks pretty liquid take off the foil and bake for another half hour uncovered. If after that half hour i doesn't look thick enough just spoon some of the liquid into a pan and reduce it until it is the consistency that you want.
At this point add your frozen peas and the rosemary and stir to combine.
Roll out the puff pastry until it is large enough to cover your pie and just drape it overtop. Then take a knife and slash the top of the pastry just enough to cut all the way through in a few spots.
Once that is done paint the pastry with an egg wash (just an egg beaten and a thin layer put on the pastry) YOU DON'T use the whole egg, just enough for a thin coating on the pastry.
Put back in the oven for another 45 minutes and something like this should come out!
Total Cost for the whole pie: $18
To help keep the cost down, I buy all of my veggies in bulk, not pre cut or washed or any of that garbage, they double the price for something that only takes a few minutes to do.
The only things I bought that were pre done for this recipe is frozen peas (which are cheaper and easier to find than fresh ones anyways), beef stock (probably more cost effective to make your own but that takes time and ingredients too, so it is just WAY more convenient), and the frozen puff pastry (pastry can be finicky and time consuming. I think it's worth the $5 for two sheets to save myself the headache)
Other than how long it takes, this was really rewarding to eat. It was just so wholesome and hearty. If my boyfriend and I would have been a bit less glutenous, there was definitely enough to have leftovers, but we ate the whole thing in one sitting....
To help keep the cost down, I buy all of my veggies in bulk, not pre cut or washed or any of that garbage, they double the price for something that only takes a few minutes to do.
The only things I bought that were pre done for this recipe is frozen peas (which are cheaper and easier to find than fresh ones anyways), beef stock (probably more cost effective to make your own but that takes time and ingredients too, so it is just WAY more convenient), and the frozen puff pastry (pastry can be finicky and time consuming. I think it's worth the $5 for two sheets to save myself the headache)
Other than how long it takes, this was really rewarding to eat. It was just so wholesome and hearty. If my boyfriend and I would have been a bit less glutenous, there was definitely enough to have leftovers, but we ate the whole thing in one sitting....
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