Meatless Gravy (For Bisciuts)

Meat is expensive. This little invention is to have a cheap version of biscuits and gravy. It's not the same, but it's pretty good I think.


1/2 Cup self-rising flour (see substitutions in the back to use regular flour)
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 Cups Milk
1/4 tsp sage
1 Tbsp beef bullion

Heat up vegetable oil for about three minutes (on medium heat) in a non-stick saucepan. Add one tablespoon of flour at a time, browning each tablespoon before adding the next. Reduce heat to low, and add the sage and bullion. Add milk a half cup at a time. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until thickened. Serve over biscuits.

Pasta Salad

Okay, so this may not be the most exciting meal in life, but it's cheap, it makes a lot, and it doesn't go bad quickly. When I make pasta salad, I eat it all week long, but I only eat it every other meal. If I eat it too much, I get sick of it too quickly, but I've found that if I only eat it every other meal, I can finish it.

1 Bag of curly noodles
1 Bottle of Italian dressing
Cubed cheese
Cooked and cut chicken or ham
Sliced olives
Broccoli
Cucumber
Bell peppers
Any other vegetables you have on hand or feel like adding

Cook and drain the pasta. Cut up all the vegetables, meat, and cheese. Mix everything in a big bowl and toss with dressing. You can serve immediately or refrigerate before serving. I like it best served cold.

Enchiladas or Enchilada Casserole

Super easy and delicious. When I'm lazy, I just make this casserole style, and when I'm feeding other people, I actually make regular enchiladas.

Tortillas (corn or flour work)
Enchilada Sauce
Refried beans
Cooked chicken (Optional)
Cheese

For the casserole: spread half of the tortillas with beans and sprinkle cheese on top. Add some chicken to each tortilla, then top off with a second tortilla. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a glass pan, and then layer in the tortillas. Pour on the rest of the enchilada sauce, and top with cheese.
For regular Enchiladas: spread each tortilla with beans, and sprinkle with cheese. Add chicken. Roll up. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a glass pan, and lay in the tortilla wraps with the edges down so they don't unroll. Pour on the rest of the enchilada sauce, and top with cheese.
For both: Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve hot.

Corn Tortillas

These are deceptively tricky. I thought that since by now I'm pretty much pro at making flour tortillas that corn tortillas should be easy. I was wrong. They were fairly cheap and simple, and they had a really good flavor, but it is definitely something that takes practice.

Waxed paper (yes, it is necessary--I promise)

2 Cups masa harina (corn flour stuff)

1 1/2 cups water (I'm thinking adding more water would make it easier, but until I make them again, we'll stick with this.)

Mix the masa harina and the water until it forms a dough. Knead the dough a little. (You need to make sure to keep the dough moist, so I recommend having a towel on hand to cover the bowl when you're not using it.) Form a small ball of dough (1 1/2 inch diameter) and then start to flatten with the palms of your hands. Place the dough on a piece of waxed paper, and then place another piece of waxed paper on top of it. Squish it a little flatter. (This is where it gets tricky--the dough doesn't have gluten in it, so instead of stretching, it cracks if you're not careful.) Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out flat. Remove the top piece of waxed paper. Turn the bottom piece of waxed paper upside down, resting the tortilla on your hand, and slowly peel off. Cook on a griddle or in a greased frying pan about 1 minute on each side, or until the color has changed--it will look cooked, and air pockets may form. 

Enchilada Sauce

Okay, so I was craving something spicy, and this is what came into my mind. I found a few recipes on the internet and combined the ingredients that I liked, while keeping the basic proportions the same. This turned out really delicious, and it was super easy.

1/4 Cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp flour
3 Tbsp chili powder
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 1/4 Cups water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion salt
1 tsp garlic powder (I actually used 2 cloves of fresh garlic since I had some on hand)
salt to taste

Heat up the oil in a skillet (I just used a saucepan) over medium-high. Stir in flour and chili powder and reduce heat to medium. Stir constantly until flour is browned slightly. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and cook for approximately ten minutes, or until it thickens slightly.

Maple Syrup

This recipe is the greatest because it's just proportions. It only takes about ten minutes, and it's delicious. You can double, triple, or quadruple this recipe as many times as you want.

1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup water
1 cap-ful of mapeline flavoring

In a saucepan, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, and water. Bring to a rolling boil, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add mapeline flavoring. This is best served hot, but you can store it in the refrigerator for a long time. Sometimes it crystallizes, but heating it up will usually melt the crystals.

Black Beans at the Center

Okay, so over the last several days I've posted some related recipes. Here's how I used them over a week:

Day 1:

• Make cheddar'n'bacon muffins (the reason I chose this was so that I could split the bacon between the muffins and the beans)
• Make black beans
• Make tortillas and have a quesadilla for lunch
• Bean soup for dinner

Day 2:

• Breakfast for the next several days was cheddar'n'bacon muffins (I stored most in the fridge, but some in the freezer to see how they would turn out, and if you warm them in the microwave for 20 seconds, they are fantastic)
• Make Costa Vida-style crock pot chicken
• Black beans with rice for lunch (served with chips and veggies or fruit)
• Dinner is simplified Costa Vida--chicken on rice and beans with lettuce in a tortilla

Day 3:

• Lunch is a green salad with leftover chicken in it (I used Italian dressing to match the flavor of the chicken)
• For dinner, I fried the beans up and had fruit (and I ended up with lots of leftovers)

Day 4:

• Lunch for today was a black bean burrito
• For dinner I had nachos supreme (corn chips smothered with beans, sour cream, salsa, cheese, and misc. veggies (tomatoes, avocados, peppers, etc.))

Day 5:

• Today was leftover day. I still had some chicken left and some veggies, so I had an amazing quesadilla, and for dinner a burrito. 

Crock Pot Chicken-Costa Style

I wanted chicken in the crockpot, but I didn't have cream of [anything] soup, so my next solution was this. Delicious! (Also, I did a smaller version of the recipe--2-3 chicken breasts with half of everything else.)

2 lbs chicken breast
1 cup Zesty Italian Dressing
1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 packet Ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup water
1/2 Tbsp ground cumin
1/2 Tbsp chili powder

Place all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. Shred and serve however you'd like.

Black Beans

Okay, in the tradition of my father (who spent two years in Guatemala), I am attempting to make black beans. It's a several day process--you eat different meals over different days with the same beans. Deliciousness. Day 1, bean soup. Day 2, rice and beans. Day 3, refried beans. Trust me, it's good.

Bean Soup

Dry black beans
Cooking oil
Garlic
Onions
Water
Salt
Pork meat i.e. bacon, etc. (optional)

Soak the beans in water overnight (optional, but recommended*). Drain and rinse the next morning. Cut up the onions and garlic into chunky pieces and saute in cooking oil until tender. Add the beans and pork meat and cover with water. Salt to taste. Cook uncovered for several hours, stirring occasionally and watching to make sure that it is boiling and there is plenty of water (I had to add water several times). (Also, Beware, everything will turn the color of the beans.) When you're satisfied that your soup is done (the beans are soft, you can't find any chunks of onion or garlic), then serve hot. (If you don't soak the beans, you should probably expect to be cooking the soup all day, but if you do soak the beans, 5 hours is enough.)

*soaking the beans allows them to cook better, and, as my father so tactfully put it, soaking and rinsing them "reduces the flatulence-causing material" present in the beans.

Beans and Rice

Bean soup
Cooked rice

Scoop some beans out of the liquid and mix with the already cooked rice. Warm on the stove or in the microwave and serve hot. Serving suggestion: serve on or with tortillas. (To be traditional, you would serve with corn tortillas, but flour tortillas work as well.)

Refried Beans

Bean soup
Cooking oil

Heat the oil up in a large frying pan. While it's heating up, spoon the beans out of the soup into a blender. Add enough liquid to get a nice blend. Blend the beans until they are nice and smooth (or whatever consistency you prefer). Pour the beans into the pan and fry. You can fry them for a long or a short amount of time. The longer you fry, the thicker it gets. You can re-fry the beans a second day as well if you like. Serve hot, with tortillas or rice.

Cheddar'n'Bacon Muffins

Surprisingly delicious and nutritious. I'm a BIG fan of muffins because I can make them in bulk and then freeze them until I'm ready to use them.

2 cups Bisquick baking mix
2/3 cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

Mix all ingredients except cheese and bacon just until moistened. Fold in cheese and bacon. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Bisquick

This stuff is way cheaper than the store-bought stuff, and it is amazingly useful if you like biscuits or muffins, or pancakes or anything like that.

6 cups flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter or shortening

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter until thoroughly incorporated. Store refrigerated for up to 4 months.

To make biscuits, mix 2 1/4 cups of bisquick with 2/3 cup milk (or water...but milk definitely tastes much better) until you have a soft dough. Roll the dough out to about 1/2" thickness on a floured surface. Cut biscuits with a 2 1/2" cutter (you can use a cup), or cut into 2 1/2" squares. Place on an un-greased baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.

Homemade Tortillas

I have become a tortilla snob. It's kind of sad. I have always loved tortillas, but I've always thought that there must be something better than the pre-cooked tortillas, and I never really enjoyed the uncooked tortillas from the store. My solution:

3 cups of flour
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp salt

Combine the flour, water, oil, and salt until it forms a dough. Separate the dough into ten-eleven balls. Roll out each ball with a rolling pin into a circle (approximately 10"). Cook in a frying pan or on a cast iron griddle until there are light brown specks on both sides. Eat fresh or store in the refrigerator.

Quesadillas, Rosie Style

Okay, I know what you're thinking--you already know how to make quesadillas. However, I am about to introduce something to you that will change your quesadilla world forever. Obviously you need cheese and tortillas, but there's so much more you can do with quesadillas. I personally like to make my quesadillas on a cast iron griddle or frying pan, but microwaves work as well, although they aren't as delicious. I start off by covering a tortilla (already warming up on the pan) with cheese. The next thing I put on is some kind of mixture of spices. My recent favorite is a combination of taco seasoning and fajita seasoning. Other favorites include oregano, all purpose seasoning, season salt, onion and garlic salt, chili powder, cumin, or basically any other spice on hand. It really depends on your personal spice preference. If I don't feel like using any of the spices I have on hand, I use some sort of clear salad dressing, like italian dressing or greek dressing. I haven't ever used a creamy dressing, but that's only because I'm not generally a fan of creamy dressings, so if you feel so inclined, you should try it. After that, I often sprinkle on a little bit of shredded chicken (I use canned chicken, but if you have leftover chicken, that works well too). Other meats work too, but chicken is usually what I have. Hamburger, shredded beef, or  pork work great from my experience, and I know a lot of people who aren't me like fish, so if you want to try that, go right ahead. Next, if I have any in my fridge, I put on vegetables like bell peppers or tomatoes or onions. I know that there are lots more vegetables that I have used in the past, but basically anything you might consider putting in an omlette would work well in a quesadilla. After I finish putting things on, I put on a second tortilla. After the cheese is mostly melted, I flip it over, being careful not to spill any of the contents. The tortilla that has been on the bottom should be slightly browned and crispy. Just let that second side of the tortilla brown and then remove. If you want to, this is where you can put on any vegetables that you didn't want to cook (cucumbers or avocados or lettuce*), as well as sour cream, salsa, quacamole, or any other dressings you feel like. No two quesadillas I make taste even remotely the same. So good, so versatile, and so easy. Up next, learn how to make homemade tortillas.

*Something fun to do with iceberg lettuce is to slice it into thin strips and toss with apple cider vinegar and salt. This goes really well with quesadillas.

Super Easy Fudge

I came across this recipe on the internet over the holidays when looking for something to make in celebration of not only the holidays, but also the end of the semester. I was struggling because I wanted something chocolate, but I didn't have any chocolate chips, which almost all chocolate recipes called for. This asked for only ingredients that I had on hand already (except pecans...but I'm not much of a fan of nuts anyway), and took about 15 minutes to make. I put it in the fridge to speed up the cooling process. It came out super delicious. Great last minute dessert idea! Here's the recipe:

3 2/3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

Combine milk, butter, and cocoa in a microwavable bowl. Microwave until the butter is melted. Mix together. Mix in powdered sugar. Stir until smooth. Blend in vanilla and pecans.Spread into a buttered 8-inch square pan. Cool and cut into squares.