OK, what about leftover mac-n-cheese?

 

 

 

 

So, you've got a few kids to feed and you generally make food by the batch.

 

 

After hooking the kids up with a hearty meal of macaroni and cheese, you pack up the leftovers and stick them in the fridge.

 

 

Fast forward a day or two. Certainly, you can use your imagination as well as I can regarding what to do with leftovers, but I offer the following:

 

 

Always keep some flour tortillas and extra cheese around if possible. Take your leftover mac-n-cheese and scoop a dollip or two onto a  flour tortilla. (Taco and tostada shells work too.) Add some shredded cheese and nuke it for 30/40 seconds or so and voila, mac-n-cheese burrito. You cam also add sour cream.

 

 

For more adult tastes, sliced tomato and/or avocado can be added. If you have some leftover meat such as ham, chicken or hamburger you can add that too.

 

 

It's inexpensive and tasty. Enjoy.



Kicked Up Mac-N-Cheese

 

 

 

 

One of the reasons this blog was started was that I have noticed an ever increasing number of men who have custody of their children. 1 Peter 3:7 mentions women as "the weaker vessel." While undefined in scripture, any man who has been married can state the reasons for this designation.

 

Women tend to function more on emotion rather than logic, have a natural enmity towards men and generally lack accountability and reason. Thus, it is not surprising that during possibly the worst economy in our history, (due to population differences, more people are suffering now than during the Great Depression) more women are losing their marbles. Couple this with the feminization of America where more women are doing things that only men used to and it's easy to see why more men are getting custody of/taking care of the kids.

 

In a way, I'm kind of surprised more men don't cook regularly since the operation is similar to assembling machine components, but, instead of ending up with a functioning machine, you end up with a functional meal, provided the ingredients have been properly put together. So, although women have traditionally been associated with cooking, I'd still rate cooking as a masculine thing.

 

Now, a lot of people today are selfish and consider their kids more of an inconvenience rather than the gift they are, but if you are a conscientious father and love your kids and want to take proper care of them, then hook them up with some good food.

 

Ideally, we should be feeding our children fresh non-genetically modified food but the reality is that you buy what you can afford. At a minimum, you can provide a tasty meal for your children dads.

 

Most kids love macaroni and cheese, but there are some things you can do to make a good thing better:

 

1) After following the box directions on how to make your mac and cheese, add a couple of tablespoons of sour cream and mix it in. My son and his friends love this.

 

2) You can make bacon mac and cheese. If you do not want to cook the bacon yourself, you can buy it pre-cooked or just get a jar of real bacon bits and stir in the bits. YUM!!

 

3) You can do seafood mac and cheese. An 8oz package of fake crab legs, cut up and stirred in is really tasty. You can use shrimp or whatever other similar seafood you want as well.

 

4) If you have leftover meat such as pork, steak or chicken then cut it up and add it to the mac and cheese. (Cut up hot dogs work well also.)

 

You can also buy shredded cheese and add extra cheese to the already cheesy goodness.

 

You don't have to get too fancy, just do something that is a bit extra that will further reinforce how much you love your kids. The memories of dad's semi home cooking will stay with them forever.

 





Mushroom Soup

Well, it may not be the most appetizing looking soup, but it is hearty and can be relatively inexpensive. The recipe below serves 4 and we made a double batch which serves 8, but feeds four. The double batch cost less than ten dollars because the mushrooms were on manager's special. So, you can feed four people a hearty meal of mushroom soup for about $2.50/person.

You Need:

1.5 to 2 lbs shrooms, sliced.

4 tbsp butter

one good sized onion, chopped

about 3 tbsp all purpose flour

2 tbsp vinegar or wine or lemon juice (do not overdo it on the vinegar)

about six cups chicken stock

two thirds cup of heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

garnish with sour cream if you wish

Prep: Melt about half the butter  in a skillet (medium heat) and add mushrooms and salt and pepper. Cook until done. Remove from heat.

                          

Melt rest of butter in a saucepan and add onion. Cook until sweated and then add flour and cook for a couple more minutes. Then add the stock and vinegar or juice/wine.

                         

                        

Add mushrooms, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Stirring now and again.

                    

                   

Allow the soup to cool a bit, then puree until smooth. (hand blender/blender/food processer--all work fine for the puree step)

Add cream and cook for a few minutes until the soup heats back up. (thicken with flour or corn starch, if you wish)

You can also garnish with some sliced shrooms and parsley or just eat it as is.

Again, a relatively cheap and hearty meal.

Home Made Beef Pot Pie

                              

When the wife mentioned she had a hankering for pot pie, I wondered why we did not make it more often. After seeing the wife's version of home made pot pie, I realized why; although delicious, it takes a good bit of time and effort to make. It is, however, worth the effort.

If you have young kids, get them to help you do some of the prep. It's one of those childhood memories they will always carry with them, as opposed to shoving a store bought frozen pot pie in the microwave.

Below is the wife's recipe with some additional comments by yours truly. As with any recipe, you can modify it to your specific taste.

Slow Roasted Beef Pot Pie 

 Stew Beef - however much you think you need to feed your family - I used 2.5 pounds of stew beef.

Olive Oil - 2 to 3 tablespoons.

Onion - I used 3 medium – if you like onion use more.

Garlic - I used 2 cloves – if you like garlic use more.

 

 

Mushrooms - 12-16 ounces.

 

 

Peas, frozen, one bag.

 

 

Corn, 2 ears.

 

 

Merlot, for the acid. (Red Wine)  - about 2 to 3 cups (again to your taste)

Beef Broth (I used the one in the box) 1-2 boxes depending on how many you feed.
  

Put olive oil in large skillet, heat until ripples start in oil, add beef to brown, (this may get a little watery, if it does remove the water and add more oil).

 

 

 

Slice onions thin.

 

 

 

Mince garlic.

 

 

              

 

Remove browned meat from skillet and add onions and garlic, (may need to add a little more oil here) cook until caramelized (limp and golden brown) add meat back to pan, poor in wine to deglaze the pan, add a little beef broth as well.

  

 

In a large crock pot add ingredients from skillet and rest of beef broth – here I added seasonings, some McCormick’s grill seasoning, some basil and some oregano, about 1 teaspoon each, but season to your taste. (We tossed in the sliced up broccoli stalk and it cooked down nicely. A hand blender was used to mix the gravy, when ready for that step)

 

 

                

 I let this cook on high for about 2 hours, then cooked on low about 3 hours, remove the meat, and by this time it is nice and easy to shred. (The stew meat was so tender by this point that you could push on it with the back of a teaspoon and it would crumble..mmmm) 

Thicken the gravy with either a flour rue or corn starch and blend. Return the meat to the crock pot.  The  broccoli, potatoes, peas, corn (The corn was roasted over a gas burner for extra flavor) and mushrooms were prepped/chopped– the broccoli and potatoes, and corn were a little precooked to my taste preference.

 (The taters were put in a skillet and browned, then the broccoli was added to the skillet, along with more oil and merlot and corn as well as more beef broth which was simmered for 15 minutes or so – you can add what ever vegetables that you like :o) The peas were added to the crock pot along with the mushrooms. The skillet contents were also put in the crock pot. This was stirred and allowed to sit for another 15 minutes or so.              

                 

I then put this mix mash into little ramekin bowls and toped with pie crust, you can either make the crust yourself or buy it premade at the store – top with egg wash and cut holes in the crust for air vents I cooked it at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes depending on how crunchy you like your crust. 

Pie Crust

 1 1/3 cups flour

¼ cup butter

¼ cup Crisco

Blend with pasty cutter or use two butter knives,then slowly add 3 tablespoons cold water – use fork to mix.

 This makes enough tops for 5 pot pies in soup bowl size ramekins  Enjoy p.s.  mine made a lot for us to have left over’s, I am not putting the crust on or cooking until we go to eat, saving the mix mash by itself and doing the crust later. 

It made 5 pot pies with probably enough for 5 more.

 

 

=========================================

 

This can be inexpensive if you buy the meat on sale and get some of the veggies on manager's special or you grow some of your own.   Enjoy this classic, hearty meal.

Ramen Noodles

                                   

When we talk about having to cut back on our spending, a good starting point is to look at our major expenses and see where we can trim some fat, so to speak.

For many people, the major areas of expense are the mortgage, our cars and the cost of groceries. While it may be possible to renegotiate a mortgage in an effort to lower your payments, that is a time consuming effort that you may not be able to accomplish if you develop some credit issues as a result of declining income. Car payments are almost never renegotiated, although you may be able to find a different lender who can offer a lower rate, but your savings may not be especially significant.

One of the easiest ways to quickly reduce some of your expenses, and is something that you have direct and immediate control over, is your food and grocery expenses. A quick and easy way to enjoy some immediate savings is to cut your meat portion size by 25%. You still feel satisfied after a meal and you see some immediate savings too. Another way to lower your food costs is to buy less expensive food than you normally might. In this regard, there isn't a much cheaper food than Ramen noodles or  an equivalent brand.

The genesis of the Japanese Ra-Men noodle is the Chinese Lo-Mein noodle. Ramen noodles originally found their popularity in Sapporo, Japan and spread out from there. Ramen noodles, as we know them, were invented by Taiwanese-Japanese inventor Momofuku Ando. The noodles have become so popular worldwide that there is a Ramen noodle museum located in Osaka, Japan. Ramen noodles were introduced to the American market in 1970 by Nissin Foods.

While Ramen noodles are pretty tasty, there is one potential health issue with them, which is that they contain MSG (Momosodium Glutamate). This chemical has been linked to damage of the pituitary gland. So, if this is an issue for you, just discard the little flavor packet you get with your noodles and add your own ingerdients to the plain noodles.

Ramen noodles ARE cheap. In bulk, you can buy them for around 20 cents a pack in most places. A single pack makes a typical serving and two packs makes a meal, so, you can feed an adult a meal of Ramen noodles for around 40 cents plus the cost of heating the water.

                       

You can enjoy Ramen noodles as is or add various ingredients to the base dish. For some extra protein you can scramble a couple of eggs and dump them into the pot just after you turn off the boiling noodles. If you are a scratch cook you can take some milk and some cheddar cheese, mix a sauce, and pour it over the plain Ramen noodles for a hearty mac and cheese. The possibilites are endless with this versatile noodle. Following is a link to Ramen noodle recipes, enjoy:

 http://www.ramenlicious.com/

Lasagna Noodle Spinach and Mushroom Roll Ups

This actually turned out pretty good.

Boil a box of lasagna noodles until soft.

You'll need about:

1/2-ish of a smaller bag of salad  spinach leaves.

Roughly 12-16 oz. of sliced mushrooms.

2 small containers of Ricotta cheese. (Around 24-32 ounces total)

1 large container of cottage cheese. (24 ounce-ish)

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese-grated.

1 pkg. of fresh Basil

1/3 pkg of fresh Oregano.

(1) 24 oz. jar of pasta sauce. Plus a 14-15 ounce can of diced tomatoes.

Chop the spinach, basil and oregano and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the Ricotta, cottage cheese and Parmesan cheese. Mix well by hand.

Lay out a lasagna noodle and smear with the cheese mixture. Add evenly spaced sliced mushrooms and roll up. Place in large casserole dish as illustrated in the above photo. Cover with pasta sauce and diced tomato mixture and bake at 325-350 degrees for around 40 minutes. Check to see how it's looking after a half hour.

Serve and enjoy. The Ricotta makes this a hearty and satisfying meal.

(This recipe has been corrected from 2 twenty four ounce jars of pasta sauce to 1 twenty four ounce jar.)

Home Made Corn Dogs

    

Here is a cheap dinner. Get yourself a pound package of mystery meat hot dogs. (Bar-S brand perhaps) and a package of corn meal muffin mix. Cut hot dogs into 48 pieces.  (To the muffin mix  add 1 cup flour, 3 eggs, 1/8 cup oil and half a cup of milk then mix) Add hot dog pieces to muffin mix and bake. You can get six 8 mini dog servings out of this. My total cost was $2.47. Use a mini muffin pan.



Since I was reared in the South, the wife, who is of German heritage, was a bit put off when I put syrup on my corn dog minis. Be a man and try it anyway. Your kids will love it

Turkey Stock and Noodle Soup

                                   

This is a two for one post. First we'll do the turkey stock, then we will do the turkey noodle soup.

For the stock you will need a big pot, leftover turkey bones (and leftover turkey, if any--or reserve a pound or two of turkey meat from the turkey dinner), some onions, celery and carrots ( known as a Mirepoix in French) and some spices. (U-pick, could be garlic, sage, cumin, basil, whatever you like in a stock/soup.)

                                     

                                    

Rough cut the carrots, celery and onions (Be sure to get all the skin off the onion and remove the core) and put in pot. Add turkey bones. Add water to pot until about 80% full. Cover and cook on low boil for about three hours. (Check and stir somewhat frequently) After about two hours add your spices. (Reminder: If you add your salt at the beginning of cooking the stock, the water evaporates, the salt does not, so do not add much salt since the saltiness will intensify as the stock cooks down.) I add the salt towards the end. If you are on a sodium restricted diet, skip the salt.

When time is up, remove the bones. I was able to pull about two pounds of meat off the bones. Reserve the meat. Strain the stock. At this point, your stock is finished. Use what you need and freeze the rest for later.

For soup, remove and reserve your cooked veggies. Get some fresh onions, celery and carrots and chop them into smaller pieces.

                                   

                                    

                                   

                                   

Puree your cooked veggies. Add them to your stock and add your fresh chopped veggies. Add water until the pot is about 75%+/- full. Cook for about an hour and a half. The pureed veggies will homogenize with the stock and the fresh veggies will be tender. I add a squirt of lime juice just before starting to cook the soup. Add the reserved turkey meat and cook for another half hour to an hour. Season to taste.

In a separate pot cook noodles of your choice. (Wide egg noodles work pretty good) In a bowl combine noodles and soup. Enjoy. ( I do not add noodles to the soup and cook them together as I make a big batch and can freeze the soup sans noodles as easily as I can freeze the stock. Cooked noodles do not seem to freeze well. Also, with your basic stock or soup base you can thaw it out later and add other things besides noodles---polish sausage, for example.

One thing though is that this recipe requires about a five hour  total cook time, including the soup, and depending on whether you use electric or gas your utilities cost for this dish will be in the $1.70-$3.00 range. Your vegetables could cost up to eight dollars or so, but you can get up to twenty bowls of soup, or more, out of the recipe, so your overall cost per serving is not that

Best Onion Soup Ever

 The wife was kind enough to make this for her undeserving husband.
                      
For the stock: (You will need 6 pounds of onions total, the sweeter, the better, but you will only use 3 medium onions for the stock.)

Medium Stock Pot:

2-3 pounds of beef bones w/some meat remaining on them.
One bag of carrots
One stalk (Bag) of celery
Three medium onions
One bulb of fennel
One bulb of garlic

Peel and quarter onions, quarter the fennel bulb-leave most of the greens on, rough cut the carrots and celery and remove and halve the garlic cloves. Put all ingredients into the pot, which you have filled 3/4 full with water,  and simmer for around three hours. Strain. For extra flavor, discard the beef bones, keep whatever meat is left,  and puree the vegetables and meat with a  strong blender and return them to the stock.( You could probably toss in a couple of beef bullion cubes if the urge hits you)

                            

Now for the caramelized onions:
6 pounds of onions, less the 3 medium onions used for the stock.
6 tablespoons of butter
2 teaspoons of coarse salt.
1 tablespoon of sugar

                            

In a heavy soup pot, melt butter over med. high heat.
Add onions and salt. Stir often until onions are softened, about 30 min., reduce heat to medium and add sugar. Lower heat if necessary to prevent bottom from scorching. Cook onions for another 40 minutes or so until they are a jam-like (I.E. caramelized) consistency and golden brown in color.

Combine onions with stock, simmer until hot. Owing to the wife's German background, she puts a few shots of worcestershire sauce in her bowl as well as some sour cream.

If you really want to get country with this recipe, thicken the soup with flour.

Ice Cream Tacos

Well, of course, there's the Choco Taco, but my son came up with this "recipe" and it is such a fun idea I thought I'd share it. This would be great, though messy, for kids parties.

It's an ice cream taco that we make with blina as the (soft) shell. You can also use thinned pancake batter. The chocolate sauce is home made and the recipe for that goes back probably 100 years--I think it is delicious and you can taste the love.
                      

First, you make the blina.   The wife's recipe is on the fly and does not include baking soda or yeast which basically makes it a crepe. Here is a basic crepe recipe:     

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Process the flour, butter, sugar, eggs and salt in a blender until the mixture is smooth. Add the milk 1/3 cup at a time, until the batter is a liquid consistency. Set batter aside for 20 minutes.
Melt a little butter in a crepe pan or large skillet over low-medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons of batter to the pan and swirl until the bottom of the pan is covered with batter. Cook the crepe for 1 minute, or until the crepe is slightly moist on top and golden underneath. Loosen the edges of the crepe, slide the spatula under it, and then gently flip it upside down into the pan. Cook for 1 minute and transfer the cooked crepe to a plate to keep warm.  Makes 8 servings

                        

For the fixins, we used home made chocolate sauce, mini M&M's, caramel, chopped up Pop Tarts and whipped cream.

                          

Fixins:

                        

And the final product:

                          

Put some vanilla ice cream on the "shell" and add the toppings. Pick up and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chocolate sauce recipe:
                                             1 cup sugar
                                             2 tblsp flour
                                             2 tblsp cocoa
                                             1 cup water
                                             2 tblsp margarine
Bring water and margarine to a boil then slowly add dry ingredients. Cook for about 2 minutes on low, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp of vanilla. Consistency will be thick.
Alternate Recipe:
                                               1 cup sugar
                                               2 1/2 tlbsp flour
                                               2 cups of milk (less for thicker sauce)
                                               1 stick of butter (not margarine)
                                                About 3 tblsp cocoa
                                               2/3 tblsp vanilla
Melt the butter, then add remaining ingredients and stir frequently over medium heat.
                              

Home Made Spaghetti O's

              

Quick, easy and inexpensive.

Go to the grocery store and grab a box or two of tubettini pasta, or similar variety and a few jars/cans of whatever spaghetti sauce is the cheapest. Cook the pasta, drain and add enough sauce to cover the pasta. Put into containers and freeze or refrigerate. This can be made for less than 50 cents per 15 ounces using store bought ingredients. If you "can" and make your own sauce, it's cheaper still.
Kids enjoy it. You can add sour cream or various cheeses to make a hearty meal out of it.
 

Walt's Sausage Gravy

                              

       

                       

Below is reprinted Walter Blevin's  May 26th post about  the recipe for sausage gravy and biscuits. It's in here mainly because it is economical, but I also want to share a story. The man in the above pictures is my grandfather Zeno. He was as tough a man as you will ever find; a WWI veteran, in an artillery unit no less, but he was also a kind and fair man from what my father told me of him. Dad was in Korea, but was a bit too young for WWII, while Zeno was a bit too old. Zeno worked for Waterfront Lumber, and, during WWII dad worked with him. Since it was a wartime environment, they often worked 16 hour days 6-7 days a week engaged in difficult physical labor. (No containerized cargo in those days. The cargo was chocked by large wooden beams.)

When Dad had first started working with Zeno he told me of one of the times they went and had lunch together. Zeno ordered a very hearty meal and Dad ordered a salad. ( Now, my father was a shorter man and was always referred to as "Dink" by his father.) Zeno is somewhat taken aback by what Dad ordered and looks at my father and belts out "That ain't gonna get it Dink. Order some more food." The moral of the story is that if you are going to engage in a full day's work of hard labor, you need a good, hearty, satisfying meal to keep you able to work through the day.

There are not too many heartier foods than sausage gravy and biscuits and Walt's recipe looks like a winner. 

 ===========================

Two Foodie Tuesdays ago I posted a piece (on Open Salon) on how I got my (self-proclaimed) nickname of “Mr. Gravy”.  This Foodie Tuesday I thought I’d share a recipe with you from “Dad’s Cookbook and Kitchen Survival Guide”.

 

This is a cookbook of my recipes which I wrote for my kids Christmas 2007.  They bugged me for a couple of years about recipes that I cooked for them while they were growing up so over a period of about 6 months, everytime I was on an airplane on a business trip I’d spend some time jotting down various simple and easy mostly half-hour recipes that I had cooked for them (some of them aren’t really “recipes” in the pure sense of the word but more like ideas for easy, inexpensive meals that are pretty good and reasonably nutritious).

                                                                   

                                                                          

  

And in the Comfort Food Chapter is the recipe for Sausage Gravy & biscuits.  Bear in mind that I suggested using a tube of refrigerated biscuits which will get it done but obviously isn’t as good as scratch or homemade biscuits.  But, they’re faster and less mess.  If I’m doing this on Sunday morning, for instance, I’d do it with scratch biscuits.

 

My Mom used to make SOS with ground beef before fishing trips or as a special occasion breakfast.  I’ve always loved it on Sunday morning or for “brinner” every once in a while.  By the way, the recipe calls for slices of tomatoes on top of the biscuits and under the gravy.  This is Southern Style (at least from my Mamaw’s kitchen in Kentucky) and adds a different taste and texture.  Plus, you can claim “health food” benefits from having a vegetable with this.

 Sausage Gravy and Biscuits (also known as SOS)(One of my all time favorites) 
1 lb breakfast sausage or ground beef (sausage is better!)
2 cups milk
1 medium tomato sliced
1 tube of biscuits baked to directions
1/3 cup flourWhisk Brown the meat over medium heat.

Remove browned meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl (leave the oil/grease in the pan). Put pan on medium heat.Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of flour into the oil and immediately start whisking—stirring it constantly. 

Add a 4^th tablespoon of flour if needed.  You’re making a roux!Slowly add the milk to your roux. Keep whisking. Don’t put all of it in yet—about ¾ of it. Let it come to a boil.  To quote Emeril “Always add cold to hot or hot to cold” and “You’ll never know how thick your gravy’s going to get until it boils”.
Add meat back into the mixture.  Keep whisking. As it starts to bubble it should be thickening. Add more milk to get the quantity and thickness of gravy you want.  (Or, if need be, make a flour/milk slurry with 1 tablespoon flour and 2 tablespoons milk to get it a bit thicker.)  Salt and pepper to taste (I like lots of black pepper!). Remove from heat. 
On a plate break 2 biscuits in half, put a couple of tomato slices down and then smother it all with your sausage gravy. (Note: I’m not a huge fan of refrigerated tubes of biscuits but I can be a bit lazy. If you prefer, make a batch of homemade biscuits.)  

A great brunch, Sunday breakfast or cold weather supper!  Well, there it is.  Enjoy and let me know how you like it. (And if you’d like the whole cookbook, just send me an e-mail and I’ll send you a copy via return e-mail.)

A Different Take on Fish Stick Tacos

OK, well, this one's a bit different take on fish stick tacos. 

Take a soft taco shell and flop it on a plate. Add sour cream, avocado slices or guacamole, couscous with canned diced tomatoes and however many fish sticks you want. 

It's tasty and relatively cheap if you buy right.