Pasta alfredo w/frozen peas
1 stick butter (always always ALWAYS use unsalted butter for cooking. Always)
1/2 pint heavy cream
1 cup grated romano

Cook a pound noodles of your choice. While noodles are cooking, add in some frozen peas or broccoli florets (just eyeball the amount) or any other veggies you might want). When you drain the pasta in the colander, use the same pot you cooked the pasta in and melt the stick of butter over low heat. Add your pasta and toss with the butter. Then add the cream and continue tossing, then add the cheese. This is cheap. Not exactly the healthiest, but tasty and you'll have lots of leftovers.

Hummus
2 large garlic cloves
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (chick-peas), drained
1/3 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

With processor running, drop garlic through feed tube and mince. Scrape down sides of work bowl. Add chick-peas, tahini and lemon juice; process until mixture is smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer hummus to small bowl. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

You can add 1/2 jar roasted red peppers, or a handful of olives, or whatever you like! Serve w/sliced veggies & pita bread, OR fill a pita w/some hummus and add sliced veggies to make a sandwich.

Taco Salad
Brown some ground beef (or turkey) with some chopped onion, about a tablespoon of ground cumin, tsp of chili powder and a few good shakes of garlic powder, along with a few tablespoons of salsa.

When browned, stir in about a tablespoon of flour.

Arrange lettuce on your plate, then break up some tortilla chips on top. Add some chopped tomatoes, chopped black olives, and a little more salsa and/or some ranch dressing. Then put a few spoonfuls of the ground beef on, and top with grated cheddar cheese.

Sauteed Garlicky Cabbage & ham side of ham

One of my favorites that my mom makes:
one head of savoy cabbage
6-8 cloves whole garlic, peeled
1/2 c olive oil
one ham steak, chopped to bite size pieces

Boil pot of water. While water boils, peel leaves of cabbage. Immerse cabbage in boiling water until tender. Add the oil, garlic, cabbage and ham to large skillet and saute until ham is done.

mmmmmm

I'll post more later...

If you eat meat, buy whole chickens rather than the parts. You can usually find a 3-4 pound bird, called a "fryer", for under $5. Roast it one night with your choice of seasonings (garlic and rosemary is always good) and you should have enough meat for a few meals plus a carcass that will make a killer stock that you can freeze for later use. Possible leftover meals include chicken & rice, soup, etc.

Beans, cheese, salsa and tortillas...I think I lived on 5-minute burritos & quesadillas during exam weeks in grad school. I came up with more variations on the beans and rice theme than I care to remember.

Do you have a balcony or sunny window sill? Try you hand at growing fresh herbs. You can buy a plant for less than $2 that will flavor many meals.

Here's my favorite super quick, relatively cheap meals that covers most nutritional needs: mix 1 can garbanzo beans, 1 can artichoke hearts, 1 or 2 chopped tomatoes, 2 scallions, some chopped black olives, crumbled feta cheese, balsamic vinegar and olive oil for a tasty no-cook salad that is very satisfying. Total prep time: 10 minutes tops.

Quiche is also something super-easy, super-cheap, and reasonable healthy to make. It does require 30-45 minutes of cooking time, but the prep time is minimal. Just mix 4 eggs & 1/2 cup of milk together, pour into a frozen pie shell with your choice of fillings (leftover chicken is an option, as is any assortment of veggies & cheese), and bake at 375 until done (30-45 minutes). I always make 2 at a time since quiche freezes well and leftovers are always yummy.

Hmmm...can you tell I was a broke grad student who despised ramen?

Also, the Sunday newspaper has lots of coupons, and it's even cheaper if you get a subscription. You definitely get the cost of the subscription back.

I usually save 15-20% on my grocery bills this way.

Oh, and also, it's not cheaper if you're not going to eat the whole thing before it spoils! I buy the prebagged salads because I never finish a whole head of lettuce before it goes bad, and they often go on sale.

quote:

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Originally posted by EmmaNadine:
Yup, I have a rather large garden. One of my friends knows how to bottle produce to keep, so I'm planning on putting up a lot of salsa and other assorted veggies from the garden this year. I'm also branching out into trying herbs this year. We'll see how that goes.

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One lesson from my own canning is to not go crazy making specialty items. Like, I still have 4 jars of peach chutney from 2 summers ago. I'll never use that much chutney. I wish I had just canned more straight peach.

I had a brief flirt with canning, until I realized that it wasn't worth the trouble for less than a dozen jars. (And then, I don't have pots large enough to cook twelve portions of anything)

I'm going to invest in just a few more herb plants, cilantro especially since I use it all the time and it's pricey when fresh. Maybe some peppers. Too bad it's probably already too late for maters.

T and I cut about 100.00 a month out of our dining budget just by eliminating all "non-neccessary" pre-made suff like pasta & rice packets, frozen meals and the like. Especailly frozen pizza...we were apparently frozen pizza whores.