Archive for category cheap recipes
Chicken and Potato Soup
Posted by Thomas in Potato soup, Soup, cheap recipes, chicken, college recipes, dorm recipe, easy soup on May 31, 2010
Note: I wrote this post a few months back while I was still in the dorm. I never posted it because I didn’t take any pictures when I made it, but I figure I may as well post it anyway.
Well, like I mentioned in my last update post, I’ve been cutting back on my spending which means I haven’t been buying a whole lot of groceries. I pretty much eat in the school’s cafeteria during the week and I only cook on weekends.
When I first started doing this a few weeks ago, I actually had some cans of food in my dorm that I hadn’t used, so I figured I might as well make something out of what I had before I went grocery shopping. That’s pretty much how I came up with this recipe.
Ingredients:
- One can of Tyson Premium White Chicken Breast ( $2.60)
- One can of diced potatoes ($0.60)
- One can of Cream of Chicken Soup ($0.90)
- 1 tsp of pepper
- 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp of hot sauce
- 1 tbsp of garlic powder
- 1 tbsp of garlic powder
- 1 tsp of Tony Chachores
Optional Ingredients / Substitutions
- Any type of “Cream of ___” soup could be used.
- Season it however you wish.
When I cook this, I usually eat the entire batch, but you could probably split it up into two servings. You may even be able to stretch it to 3 servings if you cook some kind of side dish.
Step 1: Start out by opening the can of chicken and empty out the water inside. Next, empty the can into your microwavable container. Usually the chicken comes in pretty hefty chunks and I try to either quarter them, or at the very least split each chunk in half.
Note: The first time I made this, I actually just shredded the chicken, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the consistency of the soup, but feel free to try it if you’d like.
Step 2: Open up the can of potatoes and drain out as much of the water inside as possible. Now just pour the potatoes into your container along with the chicken.
Step 3: Open up the Cream of Chicken soup can and dump that into the container. Now, fill the can up with water and empty that into the container as well.
Step 4: Throw all of the seasonings into the container and stir it all up.
Step 5: Put your bowl/container into the microwave and let it cook for 5 minutes. I would advise covering the container with a paper towel as soup can sometimes make a mess in the microwave.
Step 6: Enjoy!
I hope you all enjoy, this is probably my favorite recipe as of late. It’s super easy to prepare and cooks very quickly.
Next time I make it I’ll make sure to take pictures and upload them.
Baked Potato Soup with Andoullie Sausage
Posted by Thomas in Microwave, Potato soup, cheap recipes, college recipes, dorm recipes, healthy recipes, potatoes, sausage on May 14, 2009
Baked Potato Soup with Andoullie Sausage
Last week, my girlfriend and I went to an Italian restaurant to eat lunch. I won’t say what restaurant because I didn’t particularly like my meal and I don’t want to bash anyone, but I did have an amazing soup before my meal came out. It was a roasted garlic potato soup and it was undoubtedly the best part of the meal.
Now, I’ve always liked potato soup, something which I think started from eating chunky soup when I was younger. Obviously from there, the soups I’ve tried have only gotten better over time, but I had never made one before. The soup I had last week made all that change. I couldn’t resist the urge to my hand and give potato soup a go.
Also, if you like this, check out my other potato soup recipe.
Ingredients:
6-8 medium potatoes
16oz andoullie sausage
2 cups milk
2.5 cups chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of onion
1 cup of shredded cheese
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Optional Ingredients:
Any type of sausage
cream of whatever you’d like
Ingredients used in this recipe
Step 1) Peel the potatoes and cut them in 1/2 inch cubes and put them in a large pot and cover them with water. Turn the stove top on high and let water come to a boil. Add a little salt to the pot to give the potatoes some flavor. Let boil for about 20 minutes. You’ll know if they’re done if you can take a spoon and slice a potato in half with ease. When done, turn the stove top off.
Boiling Potatoes
Step 2) Chop up the sausage in small little pieces, similar in size to the potato. I cut the link in half, and then in half again, then cut the 4 slices of sausage into little cubes. Throw this all in a pan and brown the sausage. Shouldn’t take any longer than 10 minutes.
Cooking Andoullie Sausage
Step 3) Once your potatoes are done, drain all the water from the pot leaving just the potatoes. Take about 4 cups (half of the cooked potatoes) and put them in a bowl and mash them up. Leave the other potatoes in the pot you cooked them in.
Mashing the Potatoes
Step 4) Throw your milk, cream of onion, cream of chicken, and chicken broth back into the first pot with the rest of the potatoes. Stir a little bit just to mix everything up. You’re not trying to mash the rest of the potatoes you started with. Now throw in your mashed potato and your sausage and stir again. Now is when you can throw in all your seasonings. I put a lot of garlic in mine because I wanted it to taste garlicky. Turn the stove top back on to medium and continue stirring the mixture so all of the potato and sausage don’t stick to the bottom. I let it cook for about 30 minutes.
Everything together
Step 5) Turn the stove top off after 30 minutes and let the soup sit for about 10 minutes. I found it gets a little thicker after sitting for a while. Now serve in a bowl and pour about a tbsp or two of shredded cheese on top. Enjoy!
Grilled Brisket
Posted by Thomas in brisket recipes, brisket rub recipe, cheap recipes, dorm recipes, grilled brisket on April 19, 2009
The other day I was out shopping with some friends and I knew I was going to be heading home after we were done so I thought it would be a great opportunity to just go all out and spend the rest of the afternoon making a great meal. I thought for awhile about what I wanted and I finally decided I wanted a huge piece of meat, so that is just what I got!
I have never even made brisket before much less tried one on a George Foreman grill. I wasn’t too sure it would even cook since it was so thick, but I bought it and decided to try it out anyways. Once I got home I got online and looked at a few recipes to get an idea about what people used to season the meat with. In the process I quickly realized that most people slow cook a brisket over a long period of time, which had me a little worried. I decided to just go on and try it anyways.
It actually turned out pretty amazing. This was probably the best piece of meat I’ve cooked on the grill so far.
Ingredients
- beef brisket (~32 oz)
- 2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
Optional Ingredients
- any seasoning you want to use really
This dish will make about four – five servings, depending on how big the portion is. I also have recipes for the sweet potatoes and the rice that can be found on the site in previous posts.
Step 1: Cut your brisket into manageable sizes. I cut mine into about six different pieces so that they would grill up quicker.
Chopped up brisketStep 2: Throw your brisket into a bowl and throw in all the seasoning with it. Rub the seasoning on the meat and try to evenly coat all pieces of meat. Don’t be afraid to get a little messy! Wash your hands when done.
Seasoned pieces of brisketStep 3: Turn on your grill and wait about five minutes until it heats up. Throw a few pieces of meat onto the grill. I was only able to fit about two pieces at a time because of my grill size. My brisket was about an inch thick and it took about 25 minutes to cook completely through. I flipped it over every five minutes or so, which probably isn’t necessary in a George Foreman grill, but the bottom side of the grill always seems to cook faster than the top, so I flip it anyways.
Step 4: Take the brisket off of the grill and allow to cool for about five minutes before cutting it. This will keep the juices inside. Now serve with whatever sides you’d like and enjoy your meal!
Grilled brisket - don’t cut them like this, see the juices? You want that to stay inside the meat!
Note: As I was cooking the brisket I was cutting them in half so that I could check if it was done, but this allowed all of the juices to come out of the meat. I didn’t think much of this at the time because as soon as I put the meat in a tupperware container, all the juices were coming out and tasted amazing when you pour it back over the meat. But when I went to heat up the left overs later, the meat was pretty dry. So try to avoid cutting the cooked brisket until about five minutes after it’s done cooking.
Sorry, I know a lot of you wanted easier recipes to follow, but I just really wanted brisket. I have a lot of good stuff coming up. I’ve been trying to find interesting casserole dishes to try out and I also have a lot of ideas for yummy side dishes. I’ve also started trying to find recipes that don’t require any cooking at all. So hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll have some simpler stuff thrown in the mix.