Frazzled grad student seeks fast, easy, cheap recipes

savethedaleks wrote: »

I have a crock pot, as well, that I would love to use more. Thank you!

soups. all about soups - and the great thing about freezing batches is, you can usually transport them without having to deal with the leakage factor.

imo, almost every soup in the world starts with onion, celery, garlic, carrots, and some kind of liquid. the rest is just detail and improvisation.

Have a look here. This is a site by a British writer about eating well on social benefits so all the food is designed to be cheap and also practical to do with little equipment. It is pretty good stuff.

https://cookingonabootstrap.com

Buy a bag of potatoes.
They're good boiled, baked or cut like wedges n fried.
Put chicken, veggies n pasta w water and spices in the crockpot and let it cook overnight.
Pasta is good too, you could eat it w tomatoe sauce for dinner and eat it cold w Italian dressing for lunch.

George Foreman Grill changed my life. I bought one at a thrift store for under $10. It cooked everything so fast that I feel less inclined to just live on junk food. Junk food is convenient but George Foreman grill is also convenient. Plus if you use foil then there's no clean up! I'm obsessed.

These recipes could be made on any grill or even a skillet.

Indian Cauliflower "Rice"
https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/vegan-indian-cauliflower-rice-paleo-george-foreman-grill-recipe/


Easy Veggie Lo Mein
https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/vegan-lo-mein-george-foreman-grill-recipe/


This Italian veggie dish could be made with pasta. This is a total comfort food dish for me.
https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/vegan-italian-stew-vegetable-george-foreman-grill-recipe/

I would occasionally buy a rotisserie chicken (assuming you eat meat) at the supermarket and deal with the leftovers as such:

Day1. Roast chicken, jacket potatoes cooked in the microwave, simple microwaved veg or an easy salad such as tomato or cucumber with a commercial dressing. To microwave potatoes, prick them first with a fork so steam can escape so they don't explode. On high 5-10 minutes depending on size of potato and strength of microwave. Try 5 first and give them a squeeze. Firm veg such as beans and broccoli can be microwaved 2-3 minuts in the bags or trays they are sold in. If trays covered with cling film, prick some holes with a fork. If bags, cut off a corner. Rinse off the veg after cooking in the microwave. Again, give a squeeze or prick to decide if they are done to your liking. Eat wings, drumsticks, backbone on day one because thighs and breasts are easier to deal with as leftovers.

Day2. Lunchtime coronation chicken. Mix chopped chicken with a combination of yoghurt and mayo (mayo only is classic but calorific), some mango chutney, a few chopped raisins and some curry powder. Season to taste. Use as a sandwich spread. Some sliced cucumber or firm lettuce in the sandwich will lend crunch.

Day3. Chicken caesar. Some romaine or other firm lettuce (baby gem is good for a household of one), store bought croutons, store bought caesar dressing, a few shavings of parmesan, chopped up leftover chicken.

Day3. Lunchtime vaguely mexican chicken salad wraps. Chopped chicken, a chopped avocado, a jar of commercial salsa, a large handful of chopped fresh coriander. Have it in a wrap or soft taco shells.

Day4. Avgolemono soup. A handful of rice, some chopped chicken, a juice of a lemon in a pot of water with a chicken or vegetable stock cube. Boil 20 minutes until rice is tender. Should be texture of very thin oatmeal, so add extra water if needed. Beat an egg in a small bowl, ladle in some hot soup, beat again. Turn the soup down to very low and whisk in the egg mixture until soup thickens slightly. If you goof and curdle the egg it will still be tasty if not pretty. Have that with a greek salad. That is tomato, cucumber, onion, feta, olives and a commercial italian dressing.

DayInfinity. Remember to save all the bones of your chicken carcas, dumping them in plastic bag in the freezer with any accumulated clean vegetable scraps and peelings. On a day you will be in the house for a few hours simmer the contents of your bone bag with a halved onion, skin and all, for several hours. Strain and boil furiously to reduce. Keep in the freezer. An easy thing to do with chicken stock is hack's Soupe au Pistou. Boil some chicken stock with two handfuls mixed frozen vegetables. You can add a chopped tomato for freshness and/or a tin of white beans to make it filling enough to be a complete meal. After ladling vegetable soup into serving bowls, stir in a tablespoon or two of commercial pesto into each bowl. If you still have leftover chicken in the freezer you can add that too.

If you don't want to spend money on commercial salad dressings, 3 parts olive oil and 1 part vinegar seasoned with salt and pepper is essentially Italian dressing. Make a jar to keep in the fridge to last a few weeks. Caesar dressing is made by mashing up a few chopped anchovies into the Italian dressing and stirring in a separated egg yolk or some commercial mayo. A college girlfriend use to hack the anchovies by stirring in a few drops of SE Asian fish sauce instead, which is made with anchovies and keeps indefinitely.

This cycle was designed not to need a lot of perishable ingredients. You would need to stock perishable baby gem lettuce, tomato, cucumber. Less perishable are olives, anchovies, onion, potato, croutons, parmesan. The avocado and coriander would be bought specially for the vaguely mexican salad and used up in entirety. Non perishables are curry powder, raisins, mango chutney, fish sauce, frozen mixed veg, tinned beans and commercial pesto if remaining contents of the open jar are frozen in individual portions. Freeze the pesto in ice cube trays, then transfer to a ziplock bag.

acpgee....

Outstanding write-up!

"The title says it all. I'm in grad school"

I would google it.

For fast and easy- freezer burritos. I did my filling in a crockpot. 2 cans Black beans, 1 cup quinoa, some frozen corn, two cans chopped tomato with their juice, a cup of stock, can of enchilada sauce, 3 tbsp taco seasoning. You can add other veg if you want or shredded chicken if you want. Cook poon high until the quinoa is done. You load a few tbsp into a tortilla shell, top with some shredded cheese and cilantro if you want to be fancy, and then wrap them up in aluminium foil and pack into a freezer bag. You can microwave them (out of the foil obv), fry them, grill them w/e. Quick, easy, good protein, tasty and so much healthier than store bought. Best served with salsa and sour cream but not required. I just made this recipe this week for my vegetarian SIL who just had a baby and needed quick easy meals. This recipe made 40 burritos and probably cost like $10 - $12.

Back in my crazy busy no money days - i didn't want my fresh stuff going bad but with only me, I couldnt get through it fast. What worked for me: I would buy a selection of veggies. Like a package of mushrooms, carrots, celery, peppers, onion, zucchini, broccoli w/e. The key was to wash and cut everything up as soon as you get home and then layer a small amount of each veggie into a freezer bag, starting with the quickest cooking vegetable at the bottom of the bag. Like I would put mushroom, then pepper, then onion, then celery, then carrot at the top. Freeze them and then when I needed a quick meal I'd dump the bag into a frying pan with some oil and let it cook just as is. Then add protein if you want, and any kind of sauce or seasoning and add to rice, pasta w/e. Took like 10 min to cook up, stopped my produce from all going bad, let me buy stuff on sale, and can have so many flavor profiles.