Ecomeals
 

Not only am I a mechanic, but I also enjoy to cook!
Lets all share some cheap dinner recipes with each other and post them here! I am not talking about the "Dollar Menu" at your local fast food joint, but a cheap homemade meal anyone can do at home.

Ecomeal Guidelines

The meal must cost around $10.00 US
The meal must feed 2 people minimum
Condiments, gas to purchase, fuel to prepare or cook are not to be figured into cost
Normal, store bought items only

I guess I shall start off....................

Beer Bird

One 3-4 pound chicken
Seasoned Salt
1 12-16oz can of beer
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup ground pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

Combine the 1/4 cup of salt with the black pepper and garlic powder and set aside. Wash the chicken inside and out and pat dry. Season the chicken inside and out with the combination mixture. Open the beer and drink or discard about 1/3 of the can. carefully place chicken standing up on the beer can and push it onto the beer so it will stand without falling and place in a casserole dish or baking pan. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Chicken is done when juices run clear after piercing with a fork. Remove from oven and season with seasoned salt.

Serve with a side of rice or noodles and veggie of your choice.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i3...f/beerbird.jpg

Gawd, that picture. It's like the Fugal Gormet meets Caligula!

I saw the thread title, I saw the posters name, and I immediately thought, "beer chicken".

damn I'm hungry.. thanks.. :)

My favorite and often times staple meal is my "scrambled sausage and pepper eggs"

Scrambled Sausage and Pepper eggs
4 eggs - ~$1.00
Milk - less then 1/4 cup needed
1/4 of a Green Bell Pepper - $1.00
1/4 of a Red/Yellow Bell Pepper - $1.00
1/2 of a Vidalia (or any sweet) Onion - $1.25
2 Spicy Italian Sausages - $3
Creol Spice
Italian Herbs (Oregano mainly)
Fresh Ground black pepper

Total cost - $7.00 - $10.00

Cooking Directions
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, make sure it's enough water to fully submerge the sausages.
2. Put between 3-4 table spoons of either canola oil or Olive Oil in a relatively large skillet (it needs to fit all of the ingredients above).
3. While water is beginning to boil (medium to max heat once boiling) and the oil heats up (a little more then medium heat), chop up the peppers and onions and set them aside.
4. When the water just starts to boil, put the sausages in the pot and let them simmer at a low boil for 5-8 minutes (you may need to adjust the heat to keep it boiling but not too violently).
5. Add peppers and onions to the hot oil and sauté them until they are as cooked as you like them to be. I generally like my onions to cook to where they are almost burned, but very very brown so they're extra sweet, but if you cook the peppers for that long they get too squishy so I usually get the onions most of the way there and then add the peppers separately, but it's up to you how you want to do it.
6. By keeping the pan heated in only medium heat it will cook the vegetables more slowly and give you time to cook the sausages and cut them up. After about 7 minutes or so of the sausages boiling, they should be most of the way cooked if not completely done. Take them out of the water and cut them up. I generally like to do slices and then quarter the round slices to make them more bite size, but you can do this really however you want.
7. Add the chopped sausage to the veggies and increase the heat a little bit so that they start to sizzle a little more violently (you may or may not need to add a little more oil to keep the sausages from sticking). This is where you also add the Creol Seasoning, Ground Pepper and Oregano, I'm not sure how much I use, I usually just shake enough on to lighly dust the top of all the stuff in the pan evenly
8. crack the 4 eggs into a bowl and add just a small dash of milk (probably around 1/8 of a cup if I had to guess). Scramble the eggs in with the milk and then add them to the veggies and sausages in your pan (check to see if there is a lot of excess oil first though, you might need to drain some if you put in too much).
9. Mix up the mixture in the pan until the eggs are fully cooked, you don't need to worry about burning the eggs as long as you keep them moving occasionally and don't let them sit on the bottom of the pan for too long, that's what the milk is for, it makes the egg more fluffy and also makes it harder to burn the egg.

Then just split the portions between you and whomever. I usually only cook for myself so I just serve it out to myself, but this is about double what I usually use so it should be plenty for 2 people.

One of my all time favorites:

Spaghetti Pie:

1 (6 ounce) package spaghetti
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook and drain spaghetti. Stir in margarine, parmesan cheese and eggs, while spaghetti is hot. Form spaghetti mixture into a crust in a buttered 10 inch pie plate.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a skillet cook the beef, onion, green pepper and garlic. Drain off the fat and stir in the undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and oregano. Heat through.
Spread cottage cheese over the spaghetti crust then pour in the beef and tomato mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top of the pie then bake for 5 minutes longer, until cheese melts.

Brown rice makes a great template for cheap, tasty meals. I cook it by the directions on the package, then mix in some steamed broccoli and some garlic sauce for an asian style dish. Or mix brown rice with Campbell's Chunky Savory Vegetable soup, they go great together.

mmmmm bucket food

http://content.costco.com/Images/Con...uct/104893.jpg

275 Servings
Weather Proof Bucket
$79.99

Interesting. I was looking at an exhibit the other day, they were comparing the size of monkeys to their diet. The little monkeys ate a higher percentage of high energy bugs, the medium monkeys ate more fruits, and the bigger monkeys ate more (mostly) leaves. The biggest monkeys diet looked a little confused with cheeseburgers and high fructose corn syrup and all manner of bizzare concoctions.

I would think the ultimate eco (no matter how you define eco) meal doesn't include meat. Not that I'm Vegan, just sayin.

is there where i can order my star-fleet issue food replicator? lol welcome sir ! gr8 pic btw

Damn... The bucket food looks sweeet....

I gotta agree with that. I am not a vegan, vegitarian, etc, but meat really does take a lot of resources to produce, even if we stay away from animal rights issues etc.

I think we could all try to eat a little less meat.

Just keep telling yourself "meat is a condiment...."

I am making the chicken right now.

Oh, darn, look at my last post. Er, um, disregard the last post....

Well, at least it's an actual local organic chicken. I even had to pick a few feathers off it!

Stuffed Pork Chops with rice.....................

You need...................
Approximately 1 LB of thick cut pork chops (2-4 chops)
1 box of generic or store brand stuffing
1 pouch of flavored rice (I prefer Spanish rice)

Prepare the stuffing according to the instructions and set aside.
Slice the chops if not sliced already and stuff with stuffing.
Place in pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.
Prepare rice as side dish.

Depending on the fluctuation of pork prices, you may even be able to add a can of corn or green beans for a veggie.

Not an eco meal, but an eco beverage perhaps. I'm replacing diet coke with unsweetened nestea (coke still gets their money though). It's not for everyone but I like the unsweetened taste and the convenience of a cold drink.

For the cost of two 2liters of caffienated beverage, you get 15, and a fraction of the waste packaging. eco squared :)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...A280_SH20_.jpg