Healthly, Limited Budget Meal Ideas?

Non-Phish General
#3

I’m sure we have a thread about this somewhere, but I’m not about to go searching.

One thing I’ve been making a lot of lately is just Rice and Beans. Here’s how I do it:

2 Cups Clamato Juice (if you can find it, I know it’s not really available everywhere in the states, but you can use Tomato juice instead)
1 Cup white rice
1 16 oz can of Black Beans
1/2 small yellow onion
1 clove garlic
1 handful of cliantro
2 tsp Tabasco sauce (or to your liking)
1 tsp Worchestshire sauce
1 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Paprika
Salt and Pepper

Basically, cook the rice like you normally would, but with Clamato juice instead of water, also add some tobasco sauce and worchestseherire sauce before you start the rice.

While the rice is cooking put the olive oil in a pan, and the finely minced garlic and onion. Add the black beans once the garlic and onions are smelling good. Add some paprika, cumin and salt and pepper to taste.

When the rice is done add the beans in with the rice. Add a bit of cilantro and lime juice to garnish and voila. You’ve got a ton of really filling food that’s really good for you taboot. You will probably get 5 or 6 good servings out of this.

BTW if you can’t find clamato, you need to add a lot of salt to the dish to balance it out.

Oh and one more, my famous stuffed pork chops.

Get a couple of pork chops, and fillet them.

Cook up some Stovetop stuffing (approx $1 /box) and stuff that in the pork chops then bake at 425 for about 30 minutes. That with some of the rice and beans on the side shouldn’t cost more than a couple bucks per serving and it’s pretty healthy too.

#4

Instant oatmeal. A 1/2 cup dry oats has 150 calories, no fat and lots of fiber. It’s quick and easy.

#5

I’ve been eating alot of black bean hummus lately. This is a very tastey recipe. Pair it with any kind of cracker, pita/bagel chips, carrots, or just about anything else you can dip and you can eat for days. You probably have most of these ingredients in your kitchen already, so the cost shouldn’t be bad at all. Even if you don’t, if you buy them one time, you can make it many times before you’d need to buy anything but the black beans again.

1 clove of garlic (or garlic powder if that’s what you have on hand)
1 can (15 oz) black beans; drain but reserve 2 tablespoons of the liquid.
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 1/2 tablespoons Tahini (which is just Sesame Paste. I found it at Kroger in the organic food section about the size of a jar of peanut butter)
3/4 tablespoon ground cumin (spice aisle)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I leave this out cause mama doesn’t like spicy food and it’s still tastey!)
1/4 teaspoon paprika (this is just a garnish, so not necessary to waste money on it)
10 greek olives (again, a garnish completely unnecessary. I hate olives so I leave them off)

Basically you just mash up the black beans, add all the ingredients, and stir until it’s all combined. I use one of those heavy duty automatic mixers that has it’s own bowl. You can use a food processor, maybe even a blender, but if you don’t have anything like that, just mash the beans with a spoon or fork, dump the rest of the ingredients in and poof, hummus for you.

A few notes:

I’ve made it twice with the bag of dry beans from walmart that you have to cook yourself and once with canned black beans. The canned beans are obviously much easier and faster, but in my opinon, not quite as good. The consistency of the hummus with the can of cooked beans is, I dunno, slimier or something but still good, don’t get me wrong. Besides, all you do to cook the beans is boil them in water for like an hour and a half. You control exactly everything that goes into your food this way. It may seem like a long time, but if you get them going while you do some stuff around the house, it’d be no time at all. The bag is cheaper than the cans too, and you get 2 batches as opposed to one. Just cook half the beans according to the package making sure you half the amount of water it calls for. The tahini paste may or may not be hard to find. I went to a few places before I tried Kroger’s organic food section and there it was I think it was close to 5 bucks for the jar, but it’s a big jar and you only use 1.5 teaspoons of it at a time. If you splurge just once, you could make like 20 batches of hummus at least before needing to buy more. Just make sure you refrigerate it after you open it. I didn’t realize it said that on the label until after it sat in the cabinet for 2 weeks after being opened. I still used it anyway and nothing bad happened, lol. I know I rambled on a bit, but I dunno how fluent a cook you are and I was trying to be as helpful as possible. Hummus is a great, easy, healthy dish and this recipe is phenomenal. Once you have all the main ingredients, the only thing you’ll need to buy is a can or bag of black beans when you’re ready to make some. Anywho, hope you find something ya like!

#6

fuck cilantro in its mouth.

#7

Like lentils? Like indian food? You will LOVE dal! All jokes aside, this is such a good thing to cook and eat, nice and easy and it tastes fantastic.

http://foodgeeks.com/recipes/recipe/5081,moong_dal_cooked_with_red_split_lentils.phtml

#8

Dal is dal-iscious. Can’t go wrong with that, or any of the beans or beans and rice suggestions. Beans and legumes provide a wealth of nutrician and can be spiced with any number of great flavors, my favorites being garlic and onion.

And despite what neck says, cilantro gives most things that mexicali flavor, so don’t listen to him (unless he’s talking music and art).

#9

#10

Chef Boyardee. He’s a fine man.

#11

romaine, spinach, celery, carrots, crutons, cheddar cheese…chop and toss with annies goddess dressing.

pie pan…spread cream cheese…then a can of hormel chili…then some chopped onions and a small can of green chillis…top with monteray jack cheese…bake at 350 til edges start to bubble…eat with tortilla chips.

lentil soup…chop onions, carrots, celery and garlic…cook in pan in veg. oil on med. for abuout 5 - 10 mins…add 5 cups water or vegetable stock…stir in lentils…add a handful or more of rice…a potato or two…cook on low for an hour or until lentils are done.

edit: add lots of curry to the soup…and salt and pepper…and a bay leaf.

#12

Does anyone use mustard in chicken salad?

A friend did this past week, and I thought she was insane.

#13

^^ Pan pie looks amazing.

^ You’re insane.

< Put some lime and some tabasco on an avacado…boom!! That’s a fucking healthy snack.

#14

i meant to use a pie pan…we can call it “pan pie” if you want.

you can also add a layer of refried beans to that concoction.

#15

Once, Thom fed me like 32… maybe 45… deep fried tacos.

Dericious.

#16

Carl Weathers: Let me tell you a little story about acting. I was doing this Showtime movie, Hot Ice with Anne Archer, never once touched my per diem. I’d go to Craft Service, get some raw veggies, bacon, Cup-A-Soup… baby, I got a stew going.

#17

i made some of those the other night…i used too much cumin in the beans though. :’(

#18

I use a little bit. You know, that’s the secret ingredient to a good tuna stew.

Tuna
Mustard
Peppers to your liking (I use lot’s)
Onion (optional)
Curry
Relish
Oregano
Some sort of Cajun spice ‘er somethin’
Tobasco
Cheese
Toast
Tomato
Lettuce
mmmmmmm…

#19

I just want to see Thom chop some cheese.

#20
#21

how could you?

#22

Just do crystal meth. You never have to eat with that stuff. AND you’ll lose weight.