Asian Beef Stew

For anyone following this.. I really need to get a digital camera to take some pics of this stuff. I plan on doing so pretty soon

Ingredients
1.5 pounds of thinly sliced beef in small bite size pieces
Can of condensed Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 can of water
1 Red Onion
1 Yellow Onion
2 Garlic cloves, smashed
1 jalapeno finely minced
1 teaspoon ginger grated
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons Cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
3 drops of hot sauce
Half a cup of vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix the cumin, paprika, hot sauce, salt, pepper and vinegar in a mixing bowl. This is your marinade. Marinate the beef in this mixture overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day finely dice your onions, jalapenos, smash the garlic and grate a little ginger. Heat up a skillet to medium high and add the onions with a table spoon of oil. Once the onions become translucent, add garlic, jalapenos, ginger and the second tablespoon of oil. Let this cook for 2 minutes then add the can of condsensed soup and half a can of water. Mix this well and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Now add the beef and allow it to cook for 10 minutes and reduce the heat now to reduce the amount of liquid.

Makes 4-5 large servings.

Baked Eggs with Bologna, Tomatoes & Jalapenos

Frugal version of Mark Bittman's Baked eggs

Ingredients
3 eggs
3 slices of deli meat (whatever you have is fine)
1 tomato sliced into thin slices or 3 tablespoons stewed tomatoes
2 green onions sliced thinly up to the root
1 jalapeno charred and then diced finely
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt, pepper spices

Directions
Take the deli meat (i used bologna since it was cheap and in my pantry) and coat in olive oil
Add to a medium high skillet one at a time and lightly brown both sides.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Chop the deli meat into half inch squares
Take a small caserole and add the deli meat, tomatoes, jalapenos and green onions in that order
Break 3 eggs on top so that the yolks don't break. Add salt, pepper and spices to taste
Add to the oven and cook for 8 minutes (adjust to more if you don't like your eggs runny)
Remove and serve warm with toast

This recipe can have numerous adjustments/variations based on your own tastes.

Be careful on the amount you salt, season the dish. Remember generally deli meat has alot of salt in it.

Thin Beef with Onions & Jalapenos

OK - so most of the recipes I post here are ultra cheap so I should caveat that this one is slightly more expensive.

I was at my local butcher shop and saw thinly sliced beef was selling for $2.99 a pound so I bought a couple of pounds..

This was really an experiment and turned out to have delightful results.

Ingredients
1 jalapeno
2 medium yellow onions
1 pound thinly sliced beef
Half a cup of vinegar
Salt, Pepper
teaspoon adobo
teaspoon cumin
One garlic clove finely diced (optional)
Half a cup of water (if needed)
One tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
Dice both onions and split them in 2 equal parts.
Take the beef and marinate with one one part of the onions, vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, adobo, garlic if you like. Add the water if it seems dry. Basically you want some liquid in the marinade once the beef is all coated. The beef should marinate for at least an hour.
Take the jalapeno and char it on an open flame or in a saucepan with no oil.
Once you have a good char (but not burnt fully), take the jalapeno off the flame and set aside to cool off.
Once you can handle the jalapeno, cut it in half and get rid of the seeds and rib and then dice the jalapeno finely and set aside.
Wash your hands well now so you don't burn yourself with the jalapeno juice.
Once the beef is marinated, put a skillet on medium high with a tablespoon of oil.
Add your finely diced onion that you had set aside in the beginning.
Once the onions turn translucent, add the jalapenos and let them cook for a minute more.
Now add the beef along with the juices from the marinade.
Cook on medium for about 8 minutes flipping the beef often so that it isn't overly well on any side.
The marinade should have reduced considerably and the beef should be medium well..

I serve this with toast and it yielded 4 servings for me.

Curried Potatos, Chicken & Jalapenos

This recipe takes advantage of the cheap potatos to make a really inexpensive meal.

Ingredients:
4 potatos (medium to large)
2 jalapenos
1 tablespoon paprika
1 yellow onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup beer
1 can of condensed chicken soup
1 can water
Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions:
Scrub the potatos
With the skins on, cut them into bite size wedges
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Add to a mixing bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt, pepper and the paprika
Mix everything together so that the potatoes are well coated
Put your mixture in a flat greased dish (pyrex) in the oven for 20 minutes
Finely dice the onion and set aside
De-rib the jalapenos (take the seeds and central rib out and get rid of it)
Wash your hands after this because the capsaesin in the jalapenos can burn you (yes this happened to me) depending on how hot the jalapenos are on the Scoville Scale (HT: Alton Brown)
Finely dice the jalapenos
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet and once the oil is shimmering add the onions and once they are translucent add the jalapenos.
By now your potatoes should be ready to take out of the oven.
They should done so you can taste one to make sure they are done or 90% done.
Add the potatos, beer, canned soup, salt, pepper and water to the mixture and let the liquid simmer down by 50% usually takes about 10 minutes.

Best enjoyed with toasted sourdough bread.

I generally toast the bread as follows:
Brush on olive oil on both sides..
Add coarse salt sprinkling and pepper.
Put on a baking sheet
Put in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes
The bread will have character and amazing flavor.

Fried Bread Salad

Super Easy Fried Bread Salad

Ingredients
8 oz pack of mushrooms
Salt, pepper, spices according to your taste (I like using Emeril's essence & cayenne pepper)
Half a yellow onion
A green onion (if available)
3 slices of bread
3 tablespoons of olive oil

Wash mushrooms
Cut mushrooms into slices (like the ones that would go on a pizza)
Dice the half onion into small pieces
Sautee diced onion with half a tablespoon of olive oil till translucent (2-3 minutes)
Once onions are translucent, add mushrooms, 1 and a half tablespoons of olive oil, salt pepper and spices.
Let this cook stirring often to make sure nothing burns..
Once the mushrooms are cooked, remove the contents of the sauteepan into a dish.
Cube the bread slices and dice the green onion.
Add half a tablespoon of olive oil to the saucepan and half the bread and half the greenonions.. Toast the bread lightly.. add to the mushrooms..
Do the same to the remaining bread, olive oil and green onions.
Mix everything together and serve warm

Welsh Rarebit or Welsh Rabbit

This is a bit of an extravagance but I think well worth it. As for the origins of the name, here is an article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_rabbit


Ingredients
1/2 a cup of beer - thick beer is best but I used Red Stripe
1/2 a cup of whole milk
1 cup of grated cheese
8 slices of rye bread (or any bread)
1 teaspoon of vegetable oil to grease cookie sheet
4 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon woostershire sauce
3 drops of hot sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 green onion - chopped thinly
2 bacon rashers

Directions

In a medium saucepan, melt butter on low or medium low heat.
Whisk in the flour slowly and be careful not to brown the flour..
Heat up oven to 350 degrees
Put bread on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Take out when bread is lightly toasted
Add the beer to the sauce pan
Whisk to combine
Add the milk to the sauce pan
Whisk to combine
Turn up the heat to medium
Add half of the cheese to the sauce pan
Whisk till the cheese is melted and mix is of even consistancy
Add a quarter of the remaining cheese and mix again to even consistancy. (reserve the last quarter)
Reduce heat to lowest setting
Chop a green onion into thin slices
Chop 2 pieces of bacon into small pieces and fry them
Lightly grease a glass baking dish.
Place your toasted bread in a glass baking dish.
Ideally just one layer
Pour the cheese mix on top of the bread distributing evenly. There should be more than enough and its OK if it drips off
Sprinkle the green onions, bacon and remaining cheese on the top
Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes - till the cheese mix is bubbling
Remove from oven, let it cool and enjoy!

Recipe: Easy Tortilla Soup

5 minute tortilla soup

Ingredients: Canned Stewed Tomatoes, Cheese, Tortilla Chips

Fill a bowl halfway with crushed tortilla chips
Add Stewed Tomatoes till the bowl is 75% full
Add Grated Chedder cheese to the top..
Pack the bowl down
Microwave for 1-2 minutes

Top 10 Frugal Dinners

Top 10 Frugal Dinners

Recipes to follow

1. Ramen Noodles
2. Pasta with butter sauce
3. Pasta with condensed tomato soup
4. Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Ham
5. Tomato Onion Cheese Soft Tacos
6. Tortilla Soup
7. Fried Rice
8. French bread Pizza
9. Onion, Tomato, Bacon Scrambled Eggs
10. Bread Salad

Recipe: BBQ Chicken

6) BBQ Chicken (relatively cheap).
Buy legs or thighs (basically cheapest available chicken).
Marinate in bbq sauce, olive oil, garlic salt,paprika a teaspoon of brown sugar (more if you like your BBQ chicken sweet) overnight.
Put in a glass baking pan or cookie sheet if former not available..
Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees

Recipe:Bread Salad

This is a great way to use bread thats about to go stale if you don't use it.

Take 8 slices of bread, cut into squares set aside..
Take 4 potatoes, boil, cool and cube.
Chop an onion.. Sautee it in oil or butter in a big pan (enough to hold all the above).. add potatoes and brown a little longer..
Add Salt & Pepper ( I like adding garlic salt)
Add bread and heat up for 2 more minutes..
Serve warm with a glass of milk

Recipe: Pasta, Stewed Tomatoes & Cheese

Pasta with Canned Stewed Tomatoes and parmesan cheese (grated dried).
Make pasta, drain & set aside
Put a teaspoon of butter or olive oil in a saucepan and add some pepper flakes and bacon bits or imitation bacon bits.. Brown for 1 minute.. take off heat
Add a can of stewed tomatoes to your pasta and return to heat with the bacon & pepper flakes. When it heats up remove and serve with grated cheese.

Recipe: Buttered Pasta

Buttered Pasta

Boil 4 cups of water.
Add salt and a teaspoon of olive oil.
Add pasta.. This is good for small pastas (rotelle, penne etc)
Make a butter sauce by melting butter, garlic salt and pepper over a low flame.
For the pepper, I highly recommend freshly ground coarse pepper.. You can take a handful of whole peppercorns and then put them on a cutting board, and use a heavy skillet to coarsely grind them.
Drain your pasta when al dente and add the butter sauce.
Mix and serve with grated cheese.

Welcome to How to Eat Frugally

Hi all,

If you are here, you are probably looking for cheap ways to eat. My goal is to provide cheap recipes that you can make easily no matter who or where you live.

About me: Single, 26 M, Somewhere in the US (I move alot for my job), Spent too much on something and have had to live frugally for sometime to pay off debts.

Eating Frugally is definitely an art and can save you a ton of money if you follow some of my advice. Also eating frugally will present cheap and healthy alternatives to eating out or having fast food.