Cheap Eats

[calzephyr]

Now that the weather is cooling down, I can cook again! I missed cooking, but with a too hot house and an unemployed spouse, any place with air conditioning was heavenly. My inner thrifty gal balked at eating out so much this summer, but staying at home all day was pretty understimulating for my husband. Even though Alberta doesn't have a sales tax, eating out is pretty expensive...cheapie places like Swiss Chalet and Denny's can easily rack up a $40 bill with tip. A&W or McDonald's can easily be $10 a person too. We always lose our minds when we go to the US because food is so mind blowingly cheap! The time we at ate Taco Bell in Sandpoint for $10 always comes to mind.

Anyway, I made a simple dinner tonight with enough left over for lunch. I like getting prepared meals from a local grocery chain called Sunterra because they are close to work and inexpensive. They have a "big pan" daily lunch feature with the leftovers becoming grab and go meals for $6.49 each. I thought, well gee, if Sunterra can make a big pan of something and sell it on a bed of rice, I'm sure I can too!

1 small onion
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
6 medium sized chopped carrots
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 cups or beef broth or 1 cube bouillon in 2 cups of hot water
20 frozen meatballs

Dice onion into large pieces and brown on medium heat in Dutch oven (I omitted using a fat).

Add carrots, garlic, soy sauce and broth to Dutch oven, stir and bring to boil.

When mixture is boiling, add frozen meatballs and broccoli.

Reduce heat and simmer until carrots and meatballs are cooked (it seemed like about 10-15 minutes). Serve over rice or noodles.

Although dinner was husband approved, I felt like something was missing from it to give it an extra flavour. Next time I would add celery or maybe hot sauce to zip it up.

Comments

Cheap

[ruwhei.livejournal.com]

McDonald's is running a special now on a Double Cheeseburger and fries for $2.50. I also remember how they were selling hamburgers for 25 cents (!!) and that was about 1999.

Taco Bell I go to sometime and I get their smothered burrito for $3.99, and usually add on an order of nachos for 99 cents.

Other times though I find some lunches can be pricey, lunches are getting above $10 now for decent places. I consider a $10 lunch to be about the 'sweet spot' for quality vs price.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

I know that "something missing" feeling in cooking and approve of your suggestions.

Thought this might give you a smile, a series of photos featuring birds cuddling for warmth (http://www.boredpanda.com/keep-warm-birds-cold-cuddling/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook)

Re: Cheap

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Other times though I find some lunches can be pricey, lunches are getting above $10 now for decent places. I consider a $10 lunch to be about the 'sweet spot' for quality vs price.

Fact. Even Walgreens, or drug store lunches, which mean you have to scrounge for a place to sit are becoming a problem. When burritos went to $10, they lost their appeal for me.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

$10 is my sweet spot too. I can't remember how much McD's was growing up, but a ten pack of McNuggets runs about $6.49 IIRC. I died when we went to Salt Lake City and there was a 50 for $10 special :)

Sunterra has a nice hotline lunch for $8.99 that includes meat, veg and potatoes or rice. I'll find a pic when I get home.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

We don't have those lunch counters here anymore, sadly. Woolco, Kresge's and K-Mart have all been gone for over 15 years in Canada. Zellers had cheap little cafeterias that were magnets for seniors, but they disappeared when Target bought them...now Target has disappeared as well :)

There was a divey little diner near downtown where you could get real diner food, but it was a victim of gentrification, sadly.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Awwwww! So adorable. How ever did we get our cute animal fixes before thr Internet?

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Cable television. Books. :P

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

I have a baby animal photo book from when I was a kid...it's still a treasure :)

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

Just checking out your journal - do you want a recipe for how to make meatballs?

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Hey there! Sure, I don't mind :)

Alright then!

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

first version - basic recipe:

— 500g mincemeat (usually half pork, half beef)
— 0,5 DL oats or breadcrumbs (I always do oats)
— 1 DL cream
— 1 or 1/2 onion chopped into small pieces
— 1 egg
— some black pepper.
— 1 teaspoon salt; OR 0,5 t salt and 0,5 t "grill seasoning"; OR 0,5 t salt and 2 t soy sauce; OR put in some bullion/soup stock.

(personally I just put in normal salt, my wife's dad puts in bullion but I can't tell any difference, and some people think putting in grill seasoning is crazy)

Normal Sauce:
— Milk, flour of some sort, soy sauce, potato flour if you want to thicken it more easily than with just plain flour.

1. Mix the oats or breadcrumbs and the cream. Let sit at room temperature for around 10-15 minutes (this softens them up and lets the cream soak in).

2. Mix in all the other stuff (someone claims mixing the meat in separately first is easier).

3. Wet your hands a little with water, form the meat-dough into small balls (you can just set them onto baking/wax paper to keep them out of the way when making a lot) and fry in butter on medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until brown.

4. Add milk to the same pan the meatballs are/were frying in, add soy sauce until it's a nice light-brown colour, mix in flour and keep cooking until it gets thick (or mix in potato flour/some other thickener with cold water and then mix that in to thicken it).

In order to make a sauce without lumps, remove the meatballs from the pan and when adding in the flour, use a tea-strainer or another sifter and sift it in a little at a time (very thin layer that gets mixed in often instead of thick layer/chunks = good).

I personally always want some kind of sauce with meatballs. The only time I don't mind them without is when my grandmother-in-law makes them, and unfortunately I don't know her secret. Some people pre-fry the onion before adding it to the dough but I think that's really unnecessary.

——————————

fancier recipe:

— 500g mincemeat
— 1 dl oats or breadcrumbs; same of milk
— 2 dl cream
— 1 yellow onion, grated or chopped into small pieces and lightly/quickly fried in butter
— 1 egg
— 1 teaspoon salt; black pepper; soy sauce
— 2 teaspoons mustard
— 1 tablespoon liquid bullion (recipe says of beef)
— 2-3 tablespoons potato flour or other thickener

Sauce:
More cream, soup stock/bullion, mustard, salt and pepper. Thickener if needed.

Serve with: boiled potatoes, lingonberries/cranberries, sliced cucumber

Method:

1. Soak and mix the stuff as per the simple recipe.

2. Form balls, fry them until golden, then move them to another place.

3. After all the meatballs have been fried add cream to the pan, bring it to a boil, add more soup stock/liquid bullion, mustard, salt and pepper. If you want a thicker sauce, mix a thickener (potato/cornflour) with cold water and add it in.

4. Put the meatballs back into the pan to warm them up if necessary. "Cook with lots of love for the best result" (the recipe's words, not mine).

Other options

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

— Generally the more onion the better, some people put 2 onions in their dough. The choice of mincemeat really doesn't matter much but it's pretty much always a mix of half something and half another thing (ex. half beef, half elk/lamb).

— To make fishballs instead of meatballs, just remove the oats/breadcrumbs and cream, add a second or even a third egg, add in a tablespoon of potato flour and a couple tablespoons or so of a normal flour (just enough to make the "dough" stick together).

– Many people put a couple garlic cloves into the meatball dough, I've never done it myself so I don't know how it is.

— A few people put honey and cheese into the dough when making the meatballs for pasta/tomato sauces. Upon further Googling, it seems this is "Italian style".

— Around Yule, someone puts grated orange peel and coriander into the dough. Apparently it smells like orange but doesn't taste like orange.

– One person puts in chopped, dried tomatoes into the dough when making them for a tomato sauce.

Other people's sauce ideas:

— Tomato + basil
— Tomato + squash + garlic
— Tomato + half a zuccini + paprika powder + 1 onion
— Tomato + leek + garlic + chili powder + basil + salt + pepper

— "Chili sauce" + garlic + crème fraiche + thyme

— Water + bullion + applesauce + thickener

(I suddenly remembered, my aunt would make "fruit sauce" for meat by simply boiling fruit juice down for a long time until it got thick. It tastes fine but I would only do this with fresh juice that didn't have added sugar etc. in it)

For potatoes, it's really great to just make mashed potatoes (boiled potatoes + smash them + butter so they're not so dry) and add in dill. I normally don't care for potatoes but I think it's good this way.

For french fries/pommes, I always dip them in peanut oil, strew garlic-salt over them and add chopped celery leaves or spinach then bake them in the oven.

RE: Other options

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for these recipes! My husband's aunt makes meatballs but I haven't been able to pry the recipe from her, and you have so many variations. I am going to put aside a day for making them to freeze after Thanksgiving. I would love to try adding garlic :) Frozen store meatballs are handy, but they are a little bland.

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I can translate recipes really fast so it's no trouble.

I tried making the "Italian style" two days ago, without sauce I felt like it needed more spices but with sauce it was fine. Then today I warmed up (fried in a pan) some leftovers without sauce and I think it tasted better than it did originally. I told it to my wife and she said "yes, it's very possible because things have had time to sink into the meat".