Quick Easy Cheap - Food
 

Anyone have little food items they love and are made at home that are quick and easy/cheap?

I'm in college so don't like to make large complex dinners, expensive ones, or waste time cooking stuff.... with that said, I'm getting a little burnt out from pizza, burritos, mac n cheese, etc etc etc....

lately i've been making these little calzone/buffalow chix pizza wrap thing.

Tortilla shell - half with cheese, spagetti sauce and buffalo wing sauce mixed, and cut up pieces of frozen spicey chicken patties... takes like 10 mins - making/cooking/etc and they're awesome.
Honeslty costs like $10 to buy everything at walmart and makes like 12 meals.

any other little quick and dirty meals?

You can make a couple good chicken fajitas in about 5 min out of a frozen pre-cooked chicken breast.

I've been making this thing for a few years, not really sure what to call it though it's kind of a breakfast pie I guess. Learned it from an old flatmate's Mum.

35 - 40 minutes in the oven @ 350 F (assuming you have access to one)

Bottom layer hash browns or cut par-boiled potatoes, eggs on top of that, then baked beans and cheese to top it off. Best thing about it is it's real easy to scale up or down and change to make it suit your tastes.

I like to cook good food but hate taking the time to do it. Over the past 3 years I've come up with some main meals to make besides the fast and easy canned foods and microwavables

fish tacos - using frozen fish filets
sloppy joes
ground beef / kidney bean tacos
spaghetti
fettucini with homemade alfredo sauce
chicken teriyaki rice bowl
beef stirfry
baked ziti

I make those as if im cooking for 5 or 6 people and have a good 2 or 3 meals out of it

i have the recipes to all the above if anyone is interested

I make up a big batch of turkey burgers and freeze them. This plus a gas grill makes for nice easy meals.

I add chopped cilantro and diced jalapenos plus garlic salt to the turkey.

for breakfast, I've been eating protien pancakes-----make them all diff flavors using SF jelly or cinnamon /rasin. Basically egg whites/cottage cheese/rolled oats. topped with all nat PB.

My local grocery store has pre-cooked grilled chk that is perfectly cooked. I will throw that in some pita bread with spicy hummus.

I also eat alot of raw vegatables dipped in spicy hummus.

I also do the fish taco thing, I'll use whatever white fish is on sale at the store.

something I used to eat alot of in college was the frozen chk you cna buy in a bag, cut up in little pieces cooked in some soy sauce, boil in bag brown rice and taco bell hot sauce:) lol.

Turkey burgers mixed with low-fat ranch dressing and bread crumbs. Freeze extra for later date. Top with either ranch, blue cheese dressing, or wing sauce to mix it up. pretty healthy

A frozen bag of cooked shrimp that you just thaw and eat, or warm up in some olive oil and add some cajun spices. Watch the sales to get em cheap.

ramen!

Bar we used to go to all the time served great Stromboli sandwiches. Simple to make: fry up some sausage with a little onion. Put it on top of a split 12" long bakery roll. Pour a generous amount of sauce over the sausage (spaghetti, pizza or my favorite barbeque sauce), put about 6 slices of mozarella on top, and bake it for about 10-15 minutes. Not really healthy. Is really good. Enough for a few days.

Bachelor Boil:
1 big pot boiling water
throw in everything / wait until it is cooked
chicken boils in 20 minutes and can then be shredded with a fork
pasta and veggies
various squash

Rub spices of your choice on a Boston Butt. Put in crock pot on high for an hour. Switch to low and let cook about 6 -8 more hours. Rotate once in the middle of cooking. The pork can be shredded easily and you just add your favorite BBQ sauce.

The grocery store by my house sells whole roasted chickens for $5 every day. I keep a supply of canned or frozen vegetables on hand at home, and then stop by the grocery store several times a week on the way home to grab a roasted chicken for dinner. So for under $7 I can make a fairly decent (and healthy) meal for my family of 4. Since the chicken is already cooked all you need is about 2-3 minutes to heat up the veggies and you're in business.

If it's just you, I'm sure you could stretch the left-overs into 3-4 meals.

Bagel Pizzas (similar to French bread Pizzas)

Chicken Parm .. use frozen chicken patties & shredded Mozz.

Pre-made ceaser salad, boneless skinless chicken fillets..... pan fry chicken with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Slice up and mix.... Voila: chicken caeser salad.

Sour dough rolls, chicken fillets or andoiulle sausages (preferably uncooked), bell pepper, onion and mozzerella.... Cook chicken or sausage (same for chicken as caeser salad above or split casing off sausage and break up). Pull meat out of pan. Cook onion and bell pepper together. Throw in some salt, pepper, and redpepper flakes. Mix up ingrediants, then put it on top of the sour dough rolls. Grate mozzerella on top and pop it in the oven or microwave long enough to melt the cheese. Makes for some good cheese steak-ish sando's.

Custom Mac-N-cheese.... box of mac, package of bacon, mozzerella maybe some parmesan, onion. Cook bacon until crispy, then let cool and chop up fine. Pour out bacon grease and cook chopped onion until clear or go further to carmalize. Grate 1 cup of mozzerella. Make the mac the standard way, but leave out some of the orange cheese mix. Add the mozzerella, bacon and onion in a oven save bowl and mix well. Grate some parm on the top and pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes on 400. Much better than regular mac. Add some salt/pepper to taste when you're mixing the ingrediants. You can sub chicken for the bacon, too.

These all work great because you can use almost all of the same ingrediants saving time/money at the store.

Let us know how it turns out. We used to also do uncle bens instant rice and a can of beef stew. Mix it all up and go to town. That was dinner for about $2/night. Ha, ha.

Tony Cachere's cajun seasoning will change your life. I like it best on eggs and mac & cheese, but it's good on everything.

We get a roasted whole chicken once or twice a month too, great option.

Brown rice, Trader Joe's frozen seafood mix, Trader Joe's curry simmer sauce and a bag of baby spinach. Make the rice, saute the spinach and seafood in the curry sauce and serve over rice.

Can of black beans, shredded cheese, container of pico de gallo and diced chicken makes a nice chicken bowl.

Trader Joes or Tyson makes a decent frozen orange chicken and Trader Joe's has frozen rice.

Tamale Pie:

Put a layer of fritos on the bottom of a casserole dish, then some chili you like, salsa, cheeze and then another layer of all that one or two more times. Top with cheese and bake at 350 or 400 or something until it's all nice and hot.

You can add whatever you want to make it healthier/better like some sort of canned beans, black olives, jalapenoes, etc. into the layers.


Then there's always this treat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xc5w...layer_embedded

A box of Zatarain's (brand name) Red Beans and Rice. Costs about 2.00 a box and I like to put it into tortillas with a bit of cheese and sour cream. Total cost about 5.00 and you can get several burritos from it. Or you can add some sausage to it or just eat it plain. I'm not a huge rice fan, but I think it is pretty tasty.

trader joes has dozens of great frozen items. I am not a huge advocate of eating pre-cooked frozen meals, but TJ's does it right.

also, like GD, I will make turkey burgers and freeze them for later. I have added the following: chopped carrots, chopped bell peppers, celery, onion, jalapeno, garlic and then use whatever seasoning I am in the mood for. make sure you add eggs and bread crumbs to help with the binding of the meat. throw a small dab of wasabi mayo and some turkey bacon and you are good to go.
the same recipe as above can make a nice easy turkey meatloaf as well. it takes about an hour and twenty minutes, but it tastes good re-heated later as well. do all this with a side of sauteed veggies and your golden.

Bud light: there's a sandwich in every can. Cereal grains, hops, and yeast, all of this combined goodness is oftentimes a meal in itself.

The definition of food doesn't say anything about "chewing." :p

Take chicken, throw it in a pan with some olive oil, and put in every spice/seasoning you have in your cabinet. It usually always ends up tasting good.

Pillsbury Big & Buttery Crescent rolls and fill then with anything from sweet ( instant hot chocolate croissants by using any bit sized chocolate candy) to savory .
Dinner to dessert in less than 15 mins.

Get a rice cooker! Put in the rice, put in the water, push the button and its done in 30 minutes.

Also, Costco has the big cheap bags of pre-cut frozen skinless chicken breasts. Put it in a folded foil "bowl", put in liquid of you choice (soy, wine, water etc) to the top of the chicken, add your spices and plop onna hot skillet . Done in about 10-15 minutes, and you just toss the foil leaving no pot to clean.

Or get a pizza

Taco Soup. Super cheap and easy, crowd pleaser as well.

Throw the following in a pot a bring to a boil
1 can of the following, kidney beans, pinto beans, tomato, rotel, corn or hominey, 1 can of water
1 pack of powder taco seasoning
1 pack of powder ranch mix

Cook 1lb of ground beef, add to pot after cooked. DONE

You can make it mild or spicy, which is dependent on the taco seasoning and Rotel. I add shredded cheese seperately.