Announcing the BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE!!!

Happy New Year, sweet friends!!! 

I hope you've made your resolutions (or not, if one of your goals is to defy things like that).

Here at the Tasty Cheapskate, I've got a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!! (obviously, since I put it in caps with exclamation points).

Over the last few years, I've had less and less time for this lovely little food blog as my writing career has taken me in some other different directions. (For a taste of that, have a look HERE and HERE.)

Because of that, I've made a decision: Throughout the rest of the year, I will be posting the very best, very cheapest, very tastiest recipes each week on Monday. I'll use this year cataloging what I think are the BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE recipes. They'll be the things I make regularly, the things I think will save you some big bucks, and the things that just taste good. I'll be re-photographing ugly pictures as well as updating recipes with all the tweaks, simplifications, and perfectionisms that I've added to them. In addition to Monday recipes, I'll sometimes be posting on Thursday with special posts, articles, tips, book recommendations, and non-food recipes. I hope you enjoy those too.

Then when all the best recipes have been re-posted, The Tasty Cheapskate will offer a cookbook with all those recipes for your to keep and love and give to your friends. This will happen at the end of this year, or the end of next year, depending on how many "best of" recipes I find. And then The Tasty Cheapskate will close it's doors. Not completely, mind you. If I make a fantastic recipe, it will still get posted here. But I won't be promising any kind of regularity.

So, log on, folks (and tell all your friends). Because it's going to be a wonderful, beautiful, tasty, cheap, amazing year!!!

For now, let's get started. Today's recipe is traditional New Year's food called Polska Kielbasa. Why is it traditional? Or considered good luck? Well, a quick internet search revealed that... no one really has any idea at all. Most likely, when we're honest with ourselves, it's because cured, salted pork and pickled cabbage were available at one of the coldest points in the year (tradition). And people who had them felt fortunate (luck).

And you are lucky. Because this is one of the easiest recipes on the planet (seriously, it's right up there with "boiled water" in the difficulty department). It has two ingredients (one of them is even a vegetable). It takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. And the kielbasa has a salty, sweetness to it when cooked that combines with the punchy sauerkraut to hit all the right flavor points for driving away winter blues. So you're welcome.

Polska Kielbasa
Serves 4 (if you've got crusty bread on the side; otherwise it serves 2-3)
Prep time: 1 minute
Cook time: 7-10 minutes
Cost: $2.50 (about $.67 per serving)
kielbasa: 2.00, sauerkraut: .50

1 package Polska Kielbasa sausage, cut into "coins"
1 15-oz can sauerkraut, mostly drained

Cut the kielbasa and cook on a skillet at just over medium heat until it starts to brown and get some color and caramelization.

Add the sauerkraut and cook until it's hot.

Serve. It's not the prettiest thing on earth, but that sweet, sour, savory thing is really rocking in this food.

Asian Pork

Ah, winter. You are beloved to me in so many ways. I honestly love the cold weather (as long as I have my warm fireplace). I love the holidays, the comfort food, sweaters, boots, jeans, fuzzy socks. I love it all. Except for one tiny thing. I cannot for the life of me get a decent picture of any food I make any time surrounding the dinner hour. It's just too dark and my photography skills end when the light does. Thus. You will have to make due with this picture I snagged of this Asian Pork in its pot for now. By the time it was plated and pretty, the light was fading and everyone was ready to start eating off their own fingers, so dinner had to be served quickly. One day I will replace this picture with something staged and lovely. But for now it's all I have.

You may comfort yourself with this comfort food I made you and then took an un-staged picture of. You're welcome.

Not only is this fantastic, but it's also the perfect thing for feeding a crowd. This is how I was first introduced to it. We were at my sister's house for Christmas. All 700 gatrillion of us. And we all needed food (preferably food that wasn't just cookies). My sister made this Asian Pork (she actually made Asian beef, which you can do too; it's delicious with both types of meat). She said it is her go to big crowd pleaser. And it was. And it is.

It is also dead simple, so you can please your crowd and also spend most of your time hanging out with them instead of with your dishes in the kitchen.

The one caveat is that it takes forever to cook. It just simmers and simmers and simmers its little heart out. And every little simmer is worth it. But it takes four hours of simmering, so this needs to be made on a lazy afternoon, or a time when you're home with your family for the holidays or, in my case, on a day when you'll be sitting by your computer screen all afternoon anyway, so why not cook something amazing while you're at it.

Note: I suppose it could be made in the crock pot, but the sauce will suffer a lot--it just won't be right. Stove top simmering allows the sauce to reduce into an epic creation that you'll lick off your plate. Crockpotting will leave tender, but blander meat in a puddle of watered down sauce. So... my advice is to leave it stove top. But you don't have to take my advice now, do you?

Asian Pork
Serves 10-16
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 4 hours
Cost: $10.00
pork: 7.00, soy sauce: .30, mustard: .10sweet and sour sauce: 1.50, onion: .10, carrots: .50, peas: .50

2-3 pound pork (or beef) roast
2 C water
1/2 C soy sauce
bottle sweet and sour sauce (I used a 16 oz bottle, but it is a bit forgiving, so you could use smaller)
2-3 Tbsp spicy mustard
1 onion, diced small (or grated)
3-5 carrots, peeled and diced small (or grated)
1/2 lb peas (half a bag)

Sprinkle pork with salt and sear in heat resistant oil (I used a Dutch oven).

Add water, soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and spicy mustard.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered with a lid. Simmer for 3-4 hours. Check it every once in a while. If the liquid is getting low, add more water. If the pork looks a little dry on top, flip it over.

About 30-45 minutes before serving add the diced onions and carrots. Cover and simmer another 30-45 minutes.

At end, take out the pork and shred. Then return it to the pot, add the frozen peas, and heat through. (Add a bit of water if you need a little more sauce.)

Serve over rice

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Dumb Easy Dinner: Savory Crock Pot Pork Roast

It might be almost April (I may even have some spinach sprouting up in my garden), but I'm not ready to ditch the comfort foods quite yet. I mean, it might get cold at night. Are spinach smoothies going to help me with that? I think not. 

Which is why all of us still need a few good roast recipes in our back pockets. This is a very good recipe. Sometimes crock pot recipes come out a little more bland than their roasted counterparts, but this was packed with flavor and very tender. And I don't know about you, but I always appreciate a good dump-in-and-leave-it crock pot recipe. Five minute assembly, check.

Savory Crock Pot Pork Roast
adapted from Poor Amy
feeds 6-8 people unless you're big teenager man people, then maybe less
prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 6 hours in crock pot
Cost: $8.10 (this is $1-2/per meal for fantastic, top-notch food)
pork: $8, dry onion soup: .70, beef stock: .20, soy sauce: .10, other stuff: .10

Note: I did use the dry onion soup packet, which felt like cheating, but I tried not to feel too sorry since I did just make my family a fantabulous meal of meat and potatoes for freaking out's sake. However, if making food not from complete scratch is offensive to you, then use some good quality beef broth with an onion sliced into it instead of the dry onion soup/water in this recipe.

1 pork roast (mine was about 4 pounds)
1 (1-ounce) envelope dry onion soup
1 C water
3/4 C beef stock
3 Tbsp soy sauce
black pepper
1-2 Tbsp minced garlic

Dump that roast in the crock. Put the dry onion soup on top, then pour on water, beef stock, and soy sauce (pour this over the top so it mixes with the onion soup). Kind of mix everything together with a spoon. Top meat with black pepper and minced garlic.

Cook on high for 6-ish hours.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Pork Chop Potato Bake

Who's ready for some dumb easy comfort food (with the worst pictures I've taken in a long time--ugh--I'm blaming early darkness). The problem with comfort food, as we discussed in my last post, is that it sometimes takes forever to make and you feel like it's Thanksgiving when it's not Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving's great and all, but not on any old Monday.

I never ever made scalloped potatoes. I love them, but I seriously haven't made them in years. I just don't have the time for side dishes that take longer to prepare than anything else. This little beauty of a recipe brought them back into my life. It's still not a 15-minute throw together (well, it kind of is, but you're going to tack on a long cook time), but it's beauty is that you make the meat and potatoes together. You've only got 15-20 minutes hands on time, and then a low, slow bake. In fact, I'd wager this would work in the crock pot wonderfully.

Pork Chop Potato Bake
adapted from And a Sprinkle of Love
serves 4
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour (to 2 1/2 hours depending on the oven temp you go with)
Cost: $6.85
pork chops: 5.00, potatoes: 1.00, onion: .10, milk: .15, butter: .20, broth: .40

4 pork chops
1 onion (I subbed in onion powder since I knew my husband would hate the onion--about 1/2Tbsp)
6 medium potatoes
4 T butter
4 T flour
2 C chicken broth
1 C milk or half and half
cheese, optional
salt and pepper

First heat a bit of oil in a pan. Then salt and pepper your pork chops and brown them on each side.

While they're browning, slice your onion, then peel your potatoes and cut them into 1/4-inch slices.

When the chops are browned, but not cooked through, remove them from heat. Add the onions to the drippings. If there are no drippings add a bit more oil. Cook the onions and finish cutting your potatoes.

Remove the onions from the pan and put them with the pork chops.

Add the butter to the pan. Then whisk in the four. When it's nice and pasty, add the chicken broth and the milk and whisk, cooking until it's thickened. Add the onions back in and stir.

Here's the magical part: Lay your potatoes in a well-greased 9x13 inch pan. They can overlap and be wonky--that's fine. Just get them all in there in a mildly evenish manner. Than pour the sauce over the top. At this point you can add some grated cheese if you like, but you don't have to. Now put your pork chops on top.

Cover with foil and bake for 65-75 minutes at 350 degrees. OR for 2 1/2 hours at 300 degrees. I went for the low and slow option and this came out so flavorful and melt-in-your-mouthy, it was amazing.

Just sit there or play or read or sleep or whatever. And then at dinner time you eat.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Grilled Pork Chops with Sweet Balsamic Glaze

Someday I will learn to take a decent picture of meat. Someday.

Until recently, I've never been able to make a really great pork chop. I just didn't know how to cook it through without cooking it to death. Now I do. I also know something great to put on it. It's also easy--hurray--because I don't know about you, but today I don't want to do ANYTHING.

You can do this on the grill, but you can also do it on a skillet. That is what I did.

Grilled Pork Chops with Sweet Balsamic Glaze
adapted from Saveur
makes 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cost: $5.25
(chops: 5.00, butter: .15, other stuff: .10, rosemary: mine was free, but fresh herbs will be a few dollars; if you don't have them already, feel free to use 1/2 tsp dried)

Note on vinegar: There are all kinds of flavors of balsamic, so you can just go standard or you can go all crazy. I used a blackberry one once for this and it was incredible. If you don't have balsamic, you can probably sub a red wine vinegar, it'll lack a little of the sweetness balsamic gives this.

Note on honey: This could be subbed with maple syrup or even sugar if you don't have honey.

4 pork chops
salt and pepper
1/3 C balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
4 Tbsp butter
1-2 sprigs rosemary
oil for cooking

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a skillet. It doesn't have to get super hot (you don't want the oil smoking), but hot enough to sizzle when you put your chops on. Coat 4 pork chops with salt and pepper. Cook them in oil. Alternately, you can throw these babies on the grill.

In the meantime (or if you're grilling--do beforehand), combine balsamic vinegar and honey in a small pan. Cook until it's reduced (it'll boil, thicken, and reduce). When it's reduced, add butter and rosemary.

Use your balsamic mixture and baste it onto your cooking pork chops. Give it a little more every time you turn the pork chops.

They're done when they're at least 145 degrees at the center.

PRINTABLE RECIPE.

Fennel and Garlic Pork Roast

You know I didn't make this meal thinking, "This would be the perfect thing to blog about the week of Easter." But this would be the perfect thing to blog about the week of Easter.

It comes with a confession (don't half these posts come with a confession). I made it in the oven as a "real" roast, but next time I do it, it will be in the crock pot as an, um, "fake?" roast. It's not that it was that fussy or anything to do it in the oven. It's just that it had to be started 3 (plus a little) hours before dinner was to be served, and 2:00 in the afternoon is a really lousy time for me to be starting dinner (that last piece of quiet time before my school kids get home). And then you have to stay home in the hours in between. A crock pot meal could be done in the morning (when I have more time and energy), left to its own devices, and then ta-da there it is when 5:00 rolls around and everyone's starving and the kids are beginning to scour the cupboards (and/or floor) for junky foods because they are huuun-gry. Also, I think that crock pot and old school methods would yield a roast comparable (with this particular roast anyway) in taste and awesome-ly moist-ness.

And this was awesome-ly moist. Kip said so a couple of times and he is a not a super huge fan of pork roasts (though he won't turn one down). He also asked a couple of times what those weird seed things were on the outside. Fennel. They are fennel seeds. And while I like fennel and I really like the way fennel smells while things are cooking, I think you could skip the fennel seeds if you don't have them or don't like them.

You can serve this with gravy or with this really tasty mustard sauce.

Fennel and Garlic Pork Roast
adapted from Everyday Food
Serves 6-8
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 3 hours
Rest time: 15 minutes
For crock pot, cook time: 6-8 hours
Cost: $9-10
Roast: 9.00, seasonings: .10

1 boneless pork shoulder, 3-4 lb (ours had the bone, which did make cutting it tricky, but also left me with a bone for soup later)
2 Tbsp olive oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled
3 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves (or half that dry)
2 Tbsp fennel seed (you can skip if you'd like)
salt and pepper

For gravy:
drippings
1 Tbsp flour
1-2 C chicken stock

Preheat oven to 450. Lightly oil a heavy-bottomed roasting pan (I used a Dutch oven).

Combine olive oil fennel, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper. The original recipe said to put it in a food processor, but it's so very little that I couldn't get this to work.

I had mine in a small blender and the blades would just pass right over everything. So, instead I took out my most fearsome chopping knife (and I do have some fearsome knives), and chopped it into a fairly pulpy little pile of seasonings.

Score the pork with 1/2 inch cuts and then rub your pulpy seasonings all over that baby.

Put it in the pan and put the pan in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes at 450.

Then, without opening the oven, reduce heat to 300 and roast until it reaches about 170 degrees in the deepest point. (We got ours near 180 and it was still super moist.) This will take 2-2 1/2 hours.

Transfer to a plate, cover it with foil, and let it rest for 15 minutes.

To make gravy, drain off some of the fat (usually I don't insist on this, but our roast left a LOT of fat). Add the flour to your drippings and mix until pasty-ish. Then add 1 C of the chicken stock and whisk. Allow to thicken. Use more chicken stock to thin the gravy if it's not thin enough for your tastes.

Or make this mustard sauce. Yum. We did both (gravy the first night and mustard sauce for leftovers). Both were very very good.

Crock Pot Instructions: Follow seasoning directions above. Instead of the oven, put roast in crock pot on high. Cook for 6-8 hours or until internal temp is 170 degrees.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

How to Roast a Pork Tenderloin

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 tries to eat on $6/day.

I'm fairly new to the world of roast pork. I've done BBQ pork in the crock pot, which we love and I tried this recipe for pork adobo from Kalyn's Kitchen, which was wonderful. But the pot roasts I grew up on as a girl were of the beef variety. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have many happy memories of those pot roasts. However, beef is significantly more expensive than pork. And I believed that if made right, a pork roast could be just as satisfying as beef.

Fortunately for you and me and all the other non-vegetarian cheapskates out there, I was right. The even better news: it's ridiculously easy to do.

1. Prepare a rub of oil, garlic, and whatever seasonings you like. Rosemary was suggested (and would have been amazing), but my rosemary plant kicked the bucket early this spring, so I used sage on half and tarragon on half. Both were great.

2. Pan fry your meat in vegetable oil for a few minutes on each side in a fairly hot pan.

3. Throw some veggies around it if you wish (I got them coated in oil and seasonings also) and pop it in the oven at 425 for 20-25 minutes and then flip it for another 10 or so. 

4. Take it out when the internal temp is 160 and let it rest for about 10 minutes.

5. Cut and eat. Drizzle some drippings on when you think no one's looking. It's good.

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Garlic and Sage

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes

Cost: $8.85 for one from a more humanely raised pig

1 two to three lb pork tenderloin

3 Tbsp olive oil, divided (I'm sure canola would work too and it might smoke less when pan frying)

4 cloves garlic

2 rosettes fresh sage (by which I mean 2 clusters of leaves) or about 2 tsp dried sage

3/4 tsp coarse (mine was pretty chunky) salt (if using regular table salt, use 1/4-1/2 tsp)

1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 425.

Mince garlic and chop sage. Rub into oil and then rub the stuff all around your pork. It won't adhere perfectly or anything and that's okay.

Heat remaining oil in a cast iron skillet (or another skillet that can withstand some heat) on medium high. (If the oil is smoking like mad or your meat is burning, take it off the heat, turn the heat down, and then put the pan back on.) Cook on all sides until browned.

If using cast iron, put the whole thing in the oven. (Note: I first put 2 chopped red potatoes and 1 chopped onion in my hot pan with the hot oil and tried to get them nice and coated with oil and salt.)

Roast for 20-25 minutes on one side (I roasted mine for about 40 minutes on one side and when I took it out to flip it, it was done.) Flip it over and roast on other side for about 10-15 minutes or until internal temperature registers 160. I know I push this too hard, but buy yourself an instant read thermometer and save yourself some stress. 

Take out of the oven, cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Cut into rounds and eat. The potatoes and onions will be beautifully flavored and browned on the underside from the oil and seasonings. They were delicious too. I poured a little of the drippings onto my meat and thought it was just to die for. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Potato, Bacon, and Cheddar Egg Bake

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 eats on $6/day.

Man, talk about boring titles. But I was really struggling with this one. Oh, sure, I toyed with a few different things:

The Fat and Starch Egg Bake
The High Cholesterol Egg Bake
Artery Infusion

But for some reason, I just wasn't feeling it. So we're stuck with the bland, but accurate Potato, Bacon, and Cheddar Egg Bake.

And if any of my failed titles have discouraged you from making this, I assure you that they're just throw-backs from the 80's. These days eggs are hip, normal-fat cheese is cool (thank goodness) and bacon, well, bacon never really went away. It just had to hide in the closet for a few years until people couldn't hide the love any more.

Seriously, though (in case you don't think I've been serious enough to convince you to eat something I called "Artery Infusion"), this is very good and it is my opinion that it is also good for you. It is my opinion that eggs and potatoes are nothing short of virtuous (A, B, C-vitamins, fiber, etc.). And as for the outed bacon, I only used 2 slices and I let my daughter nibble on a bit of one of those slices, so you really need very very little to add some flavor and loveliness to this. Furthermore, it could totally support some carrots or some chopped spinach or kale if you wanted to make it even more nutrient dense. And now I realize that I could have used kale in mine and called it Colcannon Egg Bake, which would have been both a fabulous title and perfectly appropriate to today and healthier than what I made. (Excuse me while I bang my head on the desk a few times. And, hey, no stealing that idea and publishing it in your upcoming cookbook with cute, clever recipe titles, okay. The patent is pending and stuff.)

And now, the recipe.

Potato, Bacon, and Cheddar Egg Bake
adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook times: 30 minutes
Cost: $1.47
(bacon: .20, butter. 07, potato: .13, onion: .05, eggs: .50, milk: .02, cheese: .50)

2 slices bacon
1 Tbsp butter
1 C red potato, diced with skin on (1 medium potato)
1/4-1/2 onion, shredded (see note)
5 large eggs
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
a few scallions or chives, chopped
4 oz (1/2 C) cheddar cheese, diced (mine was scant and still worked great)

Note on onion: I shredded mine (in the little shredder holes), which makes it into a sort of pulp. Why would I do such a thing? Because Kip has a texture problem with onion. When you shred/pulpify it, there are no chunks of textured onion to get in the way, but you still get good onion flavor (which he can handle in non-overpowering doses).

Note on cheese: You can use shredded, but it will float to the top. The diced is nicer because it's heavier and will sink a bit. We used shredded and lived to tell the tale, but I like those chunks of cheese.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook bacon in cast-iron skillet or something else oven-proof. (If you don't have such a skillet, just cook the first part in a regular skillet and then pour it into an oven-proof pan--probably a 9-inch cake pan would work or a 9-inch square pan.)

Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Don't let your 3-year-old eat it all. Add butter to the pan (make sure your pan isn't too hot or the butter will burn instantly--with cast iron, you'll probably be set at medium low). Add potato and onion. Cook for about 10 minutes, tossing occasionally until the potato is tender but firm.

In the meantime, whisk eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Sitr in scallions and cheddar. When potato is ready, throw the bacon onto it and then pour the egg mixture over it all. Place the pan in the oven for about 15 minutes (at least 160 on an instant read thermometer) or until the center is done.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chicken Bacon Chili

Cheap Eat Challenge: Join or watch us as our family of 6 learns to eat on $6/day.

How do people take pictures of chili? I mean, it just doesn't pose well. So much easier to photograph cookies. But man cannot live on cookies alone, and despite it's homely-hood, this chili is my favorite in the world universe. At least so far.

It originally came about as all good and cheap soups/chili's do--that is by way of throwing random leftovers into a pot with a can of beans. I liked it so well that I re-created it and wrote down the recipe so that I could actually eat it again.

It uses chicken, bacon, and white beans, so it can be a good gateway chili if there is such a thing. (Kip does not believe there is such a thing, but he did have a small portion anyway to be a good example for the kids, and I appreciated it greatly.)

And like all soups/chili's it is infinitely adaptable. Tonight I added a couple tablespoons of corn that were hanging around in the fridge and 1 leaf of kale just to keep it real around here and to ensure that no kids in my family would touch it so there'd be more leftovers for me. (You'd add the chopped kale when the onion is almost ready and let it cook for about 2 minutes till it's wilty.)

I think it would do well with any number of herbs, but I love love love it with cilantro. I didn't use it tonight because the old herb garden is frozen, but it's really good. It'd also probably be good with a bit of salsa or bell pepper (warning: haven't tried it, but it sounds good to me) in with the tomato, but I'd already added kale, and--as chili--it contained beans, so I was already pushing my luck with Kip and just kept it simple.

We served it with cornbread on the side. The cornbread was really good sort of crumbled into the chili and it occurred to me that the chili would be so good with some sort of cornbread crouton--if, you know, you're the type that likes to make simple, down home meals difficult and/or gourmet (come on, you know who you are).

Chicken Bacon Chili
Serves 2 heartily, 4 side dishily
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $1.65
(chicken: .40, bacon: .30, beans: .20, tomatoes: .75)

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice (or about 2 C fresh diced tomatoes)
1 14 oz. can Great Northern white beans with a little juice (or 2 C white beans that you've rehydrated)
3 strips bacon
1/3-1/2 C shredded chicken (I used leftover from freezer--to make from scratch, you're looking at a just a bit of meat--like a leg or 1/4-1/2 of a breast, cubed)
2 dashes onion powder (or 1/4 C onion--Kip doesn't like onion and I was already so pushing my luck, so I stuck with powder)
dash chili powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
small handful fresh cilantro, parsley, chives or green onion, optional

Options to drive your family bonkers: 1 C chopped kale, 1/2 C chopped bell pepper, 1/4 C salsa, 1/2 C cooked macaroni--or use 1/4 C and be sure to let it simmer long enough to soften. You'd add the vegetables into the oil with or just after the onion, and the macaroni with the wet ingredients.

In sauce pan or Dutch oven, cook bacon. Remove from pan and drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Crumble when cool enough.

In bacon grease, cook chicken (if using already cooked chicken leftovers, throw them in anyway to flavor them) and add onion (if not using powder). Cook till chicken has no pink and onion is transluscent.

Add tomatoes with juice and beans. Stir and let simmer for a few minutes. Add bacon. (Alternately--if you like your bacon crispier, you can save it and garnish the chili with it--that might have improved my picture above--alas, didn't think of it in time.) Add herbs. Taste. Add salt and pepper if needed.

Garnish with cheese or sour cream if desired.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Linked up to Miz Helen's Chili Cookoff

Pigs in a Blanket and Homemade Potato Chips

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

(The thing about pigs in a blanket--they kind of look a little obscene. Please forgive.)

I'd never made pigs in a blanket before--even in the hot dogs rolled in tubed croissant kind of a way. I'm not a big hot dog fan. But Kip mentioned these to the kids the other day. And they wanted them. Desperately. All day yesterday, Elizabeth kept saying, "I can't wait to have pigs in a blanket." "I'm so excited you're making pigs in a blanket." That sort of thing. So, I bought us a $.75 package of Aldi hot dogs. (You could also use little sausages, which I think I would have preferred, but not the minions--also they wouldn't be as cheap.) And I had a look at the internet for an appropriate bready thing to wrap around them. And I found this awesome recipe. It had surprisingly good dough--not too flaky or too salty or difficult at all. I changed it not at all. (Correction--I did add the cheese at the end, so I could leave it out of half of the dough for the minions who don't like cheese. Yes, I am a hopeless pushover.) I liked it so much that, hot dogs be hanged, I think I enjoyed eating these even more than the kids. This recipe makes enough dough for 2 packages of normal sized hot dogs. If you just use one package, halve the recipe or roll the rest of the dough into little crescent shaped roll/biscuit things. I thought it made great roll/biscuit things. Also, the butter is less than I expected it to be from a biscuit-y type dough, which is great for both of your bottom lines.

If you make the dough in the food processor as I always do, it will be ready in about 3 minutes. T-h-r-e-e minutes. To roll it out and cut it is another 3. Yes, it's more time than it takes to pop open a can of crescent rolls from the store and separate the little wedges, but just barely.

Allow me a moment to sing the praises of the humble food processor. I don't have a fancy one. I don't make cookies, cakes, or smoothies in mine as some say you can do. But it makes making pastry dough, pie crusts, etc. a reality for me. I hate hate hate cutting butter into dry ingredients. But with a food processor, you just throw it in there and you're done. It makes a 15 or 20 minute job a 3 minute job. And with it, the dough I make is much better and much cheaper than the store-bought doughs/crusts.

I also shred stuff with it. It takes forever to shred carrots for carrot cake, potatoes for hashbrowns, or zucchini for zucchini bread. Ditto cheese. But with the food processor and three little minutes, you're done. If you rinse it fairly quickly, it only takes a couple minutes to clean as well (a little longer for the cheese).

Since I had the food processor out, I also used it to shred some potatoes for hashbrowns. I didn't clean it after the dough, just threw the potatoes down the hatch. That's the kind of perfection I'm sure you've come to expect from the tastycheapskate. Which is why it might not surprise you that I had the food processor disc on slice, not shred. So I ended up with these impossibly thin potato slices. I was going to throw them back in and shred them, or give them a good chopping, but there was my cast iron skillet with the hot oil shimmering, and I thought, "What the heck; I've never made homemade potato chips before." Incidentally, I believe that the creation of the original potato chip happened in a similar way. By accident.

Anyway, making potato chips seems a little looney. And it kind of was. But it was also kind of fun. (And it still took no more than 30 minutes--start to finish. Most of the frying time was while the pigs cooked.) My first couple batches turned out nicely. After that, the pigs were about cooked and I started tossing the slices in in clumps to get 'em done. These were also good, but more like hashbrowns than crispy potato chips.

Below is the, er, recipe.

Homemade Potato Chips

Serves 4-6

Prep time: 5 minutes with food processor

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Cost: $.40

(potatoes: .30, oil: .10)

3 medium russet potatoes

1/4 oil (um, to start with--you'll end up adding more--probably another 1/4 C--as the potatoes, uh, suck up the grease, not that any of it will go to your hips or anything; I'm sure it all gets absorbed into the paper towels at the end...)

Peel potatoes. Slice them extremely thin--either with a food processor or a mandolin. I am not sure you could get slices thin enough with a knife, but maybe if you and your knives are extremely good... 

Heat oil in cast iron skillet. (I suppose you could deep fry as well if you have such a device as a deep fryer. Also, I promise not to tell if you have such a device, but how did you ever make it through the '80s?) The oil should shimmer and not smoke. Throw one slice of potato in. (Don't really throw it in; the oil will splash and it is very hot.) The potato slice should sizzle, but not turn brown (or black) too quickly.

If the oil it the right temp, place the sliced potatoes in the oil in a single layer. Allow them to fry until golden. Then flip them. (Doesn't that part sound easy? I hate to break it to you, but it's the trickiest part. I used a fork and metal spatula to sort of corner one and then turn it over. Tongs would have worked nicely, but I only have super long BBQ tongs. Anyway, until I got the hang of my fork/spatula flipping, some of the other potato slices got a little too brown. We ate them anyway and they were pretty good. I think Elizabeth even preferred them that way. Also--like I said, near the end of my pile of sliced potatoes I got lazy and started flipping willy nilly in clumps--still good, but more like hashbrowns with soft centers.) Note: Please be careful in your flipping. The oil is really hot.

After flipping, allow the chips to brown on the other side, getting golden in the middle and a bit darker at the edges. They should be crispy, but not crisped, if you know what I mean. (I mean, don't burn the boogers.)

Take them out of the oil and allow them to drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Salt them lightly while the oil is still warm on them. My kids were just scarfing them off this plate at this point, not bothering to wait until dinner.

Repeat this process until you're done. Or get sick of it and throw them in in a clump and make blobs of fried potato.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

(Only fine dining in this establishment.)

The Cheap Eat Challenge Begins and Polska Kielbasa

6 people. 6 dollars. Every day.

This month (and maybe for the next many months that follow depending on how well we do) we're eating on about $200/month ($6/day plus the $20 vitamin credit I gave us).

Yes, I'm nervous. I'm confident we can do it for at least one month. But I'm curious to see how well we do it, how much we really feel the pinch.

Click away to find the rules for the challenge, our menu, and a rough shopping list. You'll also find an accounting of the money we've spent on food. And you'll find the stockings hung with care. Oh wait; that was last month. You'll find this beautiful picture of the things I already have marked with a line (at least those that would fit in the frame well).

At the end of the month, I'll mark them with another line and then scientifically determine about how much the used part was worth by the very scientific method of eyeballing it and then roughly estimating. And then we'll add that bit in to the costs too.

I've weighed myself and asked Kip to weigh himself. We're not huge people so we're not looking to lose weight. In fact, one of my goals is that we don't really lose weight (I might drop a pound or two as my baby keeps getting bigger and I keep getting gradually smaller), but Kip isn't interested or in need of weight loss and my kids sure as heck aren't. So if we drop a bunch of weight, I'll consider this a bust because we're probably not getting as much food as we need.

And so. It begins.

And what amazing recipe do I have to present to you on this first day. On this day of days. On this momentous occasion? Leftovers. You heard me. That's classic cheapskate after all. And we've got them. They're more expensive leftovers than I would have preferred since they're from New Year's Day, but we're not just going to let them sit there.

My favorite ones are the polska kielbasa leftovers. The meat is somewhat expensive (close to $3/lb at Walmart; was only $2.50 at Aldi, but I'd already bought from Walmart), but the sauerkraut is just $.64/can, so it's really a $3.00 meal. And if you stretch it out over a couple of days with some homemade bread, it's even cheaper. And it's easy. So easy. To fall in love. With polska kielbasa. Especially if you like pickled things. Once when I was pregnant I made this and it was so good to me, I just sucked on it. It makes my tongue pucker. If you like that it a food, then pucker up. It's the new year after all.

Here's the "recipe" should you wish to make this traditional New Year's fare.

Polska Kielbasa
Serves 6

1 lb polska kielbasa (it's a pre-cooked sausage thing if you've never made it before)
1 can sauerkraut

Heat skillet to medium. Cut kielbasa into thin rounds and toss on skillet. Heat for a couple minutes. Throw sauerkraut in and heat everything through.

Serve with a crusty bread.