Cheap Food Mods 2: Wrath of Pasta

In our last installment of Cheap Food Mods, I told you how to make ramen extra tasty. After a very successful, very cheap pasta dinner for six last night, I thought I would share with you some of the easy and cheap ways to make your pasta extra delicious. Pasta is one of the great three cheap college staples (pasta, ramen and rice) and is super cheap - even after the added cost of toying with it and adding stuff to it.

Sauce!
When shopping for sauce, if you can afford it it's always better to get one of the slightly more expensive and tastier brands rather than settling for the bargain brands. In fact, while we're on the subject of shopping, it's always a good idea to have plenty of pasta on hand, since it's a good "what-the-hell-else-is-in-the-kitchen?" meal. If you see pasta or pasta sauce on sale, stock up!

By the by, if you're not all that into your average pasta sauce and you're a bit sick of butter or olive oil, try Italian Dressing or a vinaigrette of some kind. It's yummy! You may also be into pesto. Yes, I know, it looks funky. It's basically just a bit of cheese, basil and olive oil, though, so it's really good!

Back on the topic of normal sauces, if you need to buy the bargain brand (or even if you buy the good brand), you can easily augment your sauces to make them your own and very tasty, to boot. Always taste your sauce warm before adding anything to it, as without knowing how it tastes you won't know what to add. Salt and pepper are often the first things that people think of adding, and you'll probably know when to add that. A touch of cayenne can add a nice little bite to your sauce. A little bit of sugar is a nice addition to some of the all-natural, super-healthy sauces but is probably not needed for most mass-manufactured sauces. Adding meat can also add some flavor to the sauce...

Protein!
One of the reasons why you feel so unfulfilled when eating nothing but ramen or pasta is the fact that you aren't getting any protein in your diet. Now, meat is usually a bit costly, but you can make a little bit go a long way with pasta. For example, take a half pound of cheap ground beef and cook it up with some diced onions, salt and pepper, drain the fat and add it to your sauce. Easy! For something a bit more flavorful, take a half pound of Italian sausage, cut open the casings and crumble off pieces of the meat into a hot pan, cook with onions, and add it to your sauce. By breaking apart the sausages, you stretch out the meat a bit farther. Chicken is delicious just by itself in pasta, but you can get a bit fancier...

Pan-fried Chicken for Pasta
Serves: 2-3
Active Cook time: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Super Easy

Hardware
-Medium-sized or smallish pan (I use a 10" diameter pan)
-Fork
-Small Mixing Bowl
-Plate with Paper Towels

Foodstuffs
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1/2 cup breadcrumbs, preferably Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-1 tsp Italian seasoning
-2tsp pepper
-1 tsp salt
-2 to 3 cups Olive Oil

Cut the chicken into small pieces, no bigger than one inch cubes. Mix the breadcrumbs, flour, and seasonings in the bowl until all the seasonings are evenly spread throughout the mixture. Bread each piece of chicken in the mixture. Meanwhile, place your pan over medium-high heat and put in enough oil to cover the bottom well. When the oil is hot, place some of the chicken pieces to the pan, leaving about 1/4 inch of space between each piece - you'll be cooking in batches, so don't worry when you can't fit everything in the pan.

Cook for 2-3 minutes, flipping over each piece of chicken when the bottom is golden brown and the edges have gotten a bit white. Cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side. Check for done-ness on the first piece you remove by breaking it in half with your fork. If the meat is white the whole way through, it's done. Remove from pan and put on a plate covered with one or two paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Start the next batch when there's room and cook as above. Serve with Pasta and enjoy!
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Teriyaki Burgers

When I was wee, there was a joint near my home called Ed's Gourmet. They had the most delicious Teriyaki burgers and even Teriyaki Cheesesteak sandwiches. Having not been a fan of cheese as a child (I still carry some cheese prejudice to this day), I never tried it myself, but I hear it's unlike anything you've ever tasted - in a very, very good way. I was delighted upon doing a search that yes, they still exist. There are so few delightful little greasetrap restaurants, and even fewer run by a small Japanese family. The man I remember manning the grill, Ed himself, had eyes like my father's and a goatee spiked with gray. In my dad's last few years he sported a similar goatee, and when I think of teriyaki burgers I think of him, and our trips to Ed's. We would munch on our burgers and play chess together using the weathered wooden set they had there, and one day, years from that moment, my father would be wearing the same gray goatee that the man in the apron behind the counter wore.

...

So anyway, I made some burgers. Here's a recipe!

Teriyaki Burgers

Serves: 4-5 people
Cook time: ~20-30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Hardware
-Large Non-Stick Pan
-Spatula
-Large Mixing Bowl
-Chef's Knife and Cutting Board
-Marinade or Basting Brush
-Cookie Sheet
-(optional) Powder-Free Latex Gloves
-(optional) Cook'd Right Hamburger Sensors

Ingredients
-1lb Ground Sirloin
-1 medium onion, diced into small pieces
-2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 1/2 cups teriyaki sauce (plus more for condiments, if you want)
-1 tsp dried ginger
-1 tsp salt
-2 tsp pepper
-Non-stick Cooking Spray
-Hamburger Buns
-Optional Garnishes: 1 can Sliced Pineapple, 1-2 Tomatoes (sliced), Green leaf Lettuce, Red Onion (sliced), Pickles (sandwich style)
-Optional Condiments: Mayonnaise, Ketchup, Mustard

Before You Cook: Notes on Shopping for Teriyaki Burgers
Ground Sirloin: You can get pre-ground sirloin in your grocer's meat department, but I strongly recommend picking out a nice sirloin steak and taking it to the butcher behind the meat counter to have it ground fresh. The difference in taste is definitely noticeable.
Teriyaki Sauce: You will either find this in the "Asian Foods" aisle or with the BBQ sauces and Marinades. A good teriyaki sauce is nice and thick, and coats the sides of the bottle like cough syrup. A common brand that I recommend is 'Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki Sauce' - and it's Kosher, too!
Pineapple: You don't need to get pineapple for your teriyaki burgers, but I highly recommend it. Go for the canned sliced pineapple for convenience, or if you have the time you can always break down a fresh pineapple.
Hamburger Buns: Onion Buns are a good commonly available bun for these, but if you have them available I strongly recommend using King's Hawaiian Sweet Snacker Rolls. They compliment the flavors wonderfully!
Powder-Free Latex Gloves: These make mixing up dishes by hand a snap, whether you're working on Meatloaf or Hamburgers, mixing the meat by hand is way easier than using a fork. You can find these in with first aid supplies at your local supermarket. Make sure to get powder-free so that you don't add any unwanted plasticky flavor to your burgers, because that would not be tasty.

Directions:
Combine ground sirloin, diced onion, minced garlic, 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce, ginger, salt and pepper into the large mixing bowl. Moosh together to combine until the onion and Teriyaki sauce seem evenly distributed. You can combine either using a fork or by using gloved hands. Once you've combined these ingredients, you can let them rest covered in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours to let the flavors soak in (meaning you can do this ahead of time - something I'm a huge fan of!) or form your burgers right away.

Grab a small handful of meat and form it into a ball, then flatten. You want the uncooked patty no thicker than 1/2 inch - it's going to bunch up a bit when it's cooking and you don't want too fat a burger. Make sure that it's either about the same size or a bit bigger than your hamburger buns, you can add or remove meat as needed to achieve the correct size. Put the patty on the cookie sheet and continue making patties of the same shape/size until you run out of meat - you will probably make around 4-6 burgers depending on size.

Give your non-stick pan a quick coat of non-stick spray and put over medium heat. Using the remaining cup of Teriyaki sauce and the marinade brush, give the top of each patty a coating of sauce. Once the pan is warm, place burgers in the pan sauce-side down leaving about an inch of space between each burger - you'll probably get 2-3 burgers in the pan. Give the burgers a coat of sauce on the side that's facing up. Cook for 4-5 minutes, patting down the burgers as needed to keep them from getting too thick, then flip using spatula. Give the burgers another coat of sauce. Let cook for another 4-5 minutes, you should notice that both sides are a nice dark brown because of the sauce. If you're nervous about doneness, use a Cook'd Right Hamburger Sensor on the first burger to see when it's safe to eat, then use that burger as the standard you judge doneness by.

If you're using pineapple, once the burgers are done I recommend cooking up the pineapple in the same pan as the burgers, brushing them with Teriyaki sauce on each side as well. Cook for about 2-3 minutes per side.

This recipe is easily doubled for large groups of people, and can also be grilled!

Optional Fun: Pineapple Teriyaki Sauce
If you're using canned pineapple, combine the juice from the can and about 1 cup of Teriyaki sauce in the pan you used to cook the hamburgers and pineapple, then let simmer down until it becomes a bit thicker. Remove from heat, then put the sauce in a container and let refrigerate until it cools and thickens up a bit more, then use on your burgers or as a very tasty chicken marinade.

Optional Fun: Teriyaki Sliders
You'll Need:
-Dinner Rolls (instead of Hamburger Buns - I recommend King's Hawaiian sweet Dinner Rolls!)
-Plastic Wrap
-Rolling Pin (or a clean dowel, or a clean bottle of wine)
-(optional) Pizza Cutter

Prepare the hamburger meat as above, but instead of forming patties lay out two sheets of plastic wrap about the size of your cutting board and sprinkle or spray with a bit of water to prevent some sticking to the wrap. Place half of the meat between the sheets, with the watered side facing the meat, then roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 4 inch squares using a knife or pizza cutter, then repeat this with the other half of the meat.

Give your non-stick pan a quick coat of non-stick spray and put over medium heat, brush down the patties with teriyaki sauce, and cook as above, but only cooking for 1-2 minutes per side - they cook very quickly. Serve like mini hamburgers using halved dinner rolls as buns. Great party food!
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Mom's Metloaf

I adore meatloaf. I think it's tasty, awesome and has great leftover potential - and leftovers are even easier than cooking! Man, there's nothing like a nice warm meatloaf sandwich when you're too lazy to cook. Mmmm. It's totally not vegetarian friendly, but that's why Astrani has her meatless recipe blog. This recipe comes from my mom's kitchen with some minor modifications by yours truly. Thanks for teaching me to make meatloaf, ma!

Meatloaf is good alongside a nice starchy side, like pasta, rice or potatoes. Hobo Potatoes and Mashed Potatoes go great with them. If you're watching your carb intake, greens are also awesome with meatloaf.

Mom's Meatloaf

Serves: 4-5 people, leftovers highly probable
Active Cook time: ~15-20 minutes
Inactive Cook time: ~1 1/2 hours
Difficulty: Super Easy

Hardware
-Loaf Pan (9"x5"x3" pan - I got mine in the kitchen gadget aisle of the grocery store)
-Large Mixing Bowl
-Knife/Cutting Board
-Powder-free latex gloves, a clean plastic bag, or a long-handled fork
-Oven
-Rubber Spatula
-Meat Thermometer, Instant-Read Thermometer, or Cook'd Right Sensors (see end of recipe)

Foodstuffs
-1 lb lean ground beef
-1/2 lb Italian sausage
-1/2 cup bread crumbs (Italian seasoned bread crumbs are best, but any will do)
-1 slice white, potato, or sourdough bread
-1 egg
-1 can petite diced tomatoes, mostly drained of juices
-1/2 large yellow or brown onion
-2 to 3 garlic cloves
-2 tsp Italian Seasoning
-2 tsp mustard
-salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Dice the onion into small pieces and mince the garlic as fine as possible. Cut open the Italian sausage's casing and empty the meat into mixing bowl with beef, bread crumbs, tomatoes, onions, garlic, egg, seasoning, mustard and salt/pepper. Crumble the piece of bread into the bowl. Mix using a fork, or gloved/covered hand. If you are especially brave, you can use your clean bare hands to mix everything together. Just make sure you don't get any under your nails, ick. Anyways, mix everything together until it's well combined, then use the rubber spatula to move the mix into your loaf pan.

Let cook for about an hour and a half to two hours, checking for done-ness at around an hour and 15 minutes. Use your thermometer to check the internal temperature of your meat in the middle. 160 Farenheit means it's done. Personally, I use Cook'd Right Hamburger Sensors to check if my meatloaf is done. It's a plastic stick you poke in the middle of the meatloaf with a tip that changes to bright red when the correct temperature is reached. I found a place to buy them online, but I just got mine in the grocery store.

The first time you check to see if it's done, you'll probably notice a lot of liquid in the pan. Feel free to drain this off if you don't want your meatloaf's structural integrity compromised. Leaving the liquid in will result in a moister but far less sturdy loaf.

Variations
If you want to cut back on the amount of red meat in your diet, you can use 1/2 lb ground beef and 1/2 lb ground turkey instead of a whole pound of beef. This will result in a drier loaf, so you may not want to drain the fat if you like it nice and moist. You can also substitute the Italian sausage with ground pork if you'd like, but you'll want to add more seasoning, salt and pepper to counter the loss of the sausage.

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Shepherd's Pie

You know, people make fun of English, Irish and Scottish food, but in all honesty it can be damn tasty. Take for instance, the Shepherd's Pie. A tasty mix of meats, veggies, and mashed potatoes, this dish is a rib-sticking easy meal that anyone can make and enjoy. Okay, maybe not vegetarians. Sorry, guys. This dish incorporates the Mashed Potatoes we discussed last week, so if you have any questions about your mash, check out that post.

Serves: 6-8 people, so you'll probably have lots of leftovers.
Active Cook time: ~15-20 minutes if you have potatoes already prepared.
Inactive Cook time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Hardware
-Cookie Sheet
-Large pan
-Spatula
-Can Opener
-Casserole Dish (If you don't have a fancy ceramic or Pyrex casserole dish, you can get disposable casserole dishes at your local grocery store. However, these are not as sturdy and you will want to put is on a cookie sheet and use the cookie sheet to take your casserole in and out of the oven to prevent spills)

Foodstuffs
-1 medium yellow or brown onion
-3 to 4 cloves Garlic
-1 lb ground beef
-2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
-1 lb mixed frozen vegetables (carrots, peas and corn work best)
-1 tablespoon butter
-One batch of Mashed Potatoes - you may not end up using all of them.
-Worcestershire Sauce
-Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread out your frozen veggies on your cookie sheet, and place in oven. Whey will be warmed through and ready to remove in 5-7 minutes, evacuate them to your casserole dish when you take them out. While your veggies are warming, chop up your onion and mince your garlic. Melt the butter in pan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, ground beef and a dash of Worcestershire sauce to the pan, brown up the beef making sure it breaks up into smallish pieces. Open up your cream of chicken soup, add to the beef and onions. Fill one of the cans with water and add water to the soup and beef. Stir and warm for about 3 minutes, then add mixture to vegetables in your casserole dish. Stir to combine. Using spatula, spread mashed potatoes over top. How thick you want your potatoes depends on how much you like mashed potatoes. Place casserole dish in oven for about 30 minutes, remove when the top is lightly browned and the beef and veggies beneath are nice and bubbly.

Optional: Some people like to put grated cheddar cheese on top of the mashed potatoes before putting in oven.
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Simple Chili

What better way to start off this recipe list than with one of my favorites? My mom's easy chili recipe is one of my top raiding foods, because the longer you just ignore it on the stove and play your game, the better it ends up tasting. It's basically fool-proof, and it's a good start if you're new to the whole cooking for yourself thing. Follow the original recipe for a savory chili that's great over rice, baked potatoes, macaroni noodles or cornbread. Add some of my optional spices for a nice spicy chili that's just as good, but with a bit more kick!

Servings: About 6 bowls of chili, more if you serve it over something.
Prep Time: Start this about 30 minutes before your raid.
Difficulty: Easy

Hardware
-A Large Pot with Lid
-Long-Handled Spoon
-Knife
-Colander (strainer)

Software
Foodstuffs
-One pound of ground beef (the leaner the beef, the better quality chili you'll have.)
-One large yellow or brown onion
-7 to 8 cloves of garlic
-2 cans dark red kidney beans
-1 can corn
-1 can diced tomatoes (If you're like me and don't dig big chunks of tomato, go for the petite diced tomatoes)
-1 standard size jar of salsa (choose your salsa based upon your taste and how hot you want your chili)
-Olive Oil
-delicious cheese of your choice to top your chili with, probably cheddar (optional)
Spices
-Cumin
-Chili Powder
-Salt
-Pepper
-Cayenne Pepper (optional)
-Red Pepper Flakes (optional - yes, the pepper flakes that the pizza guy delivers will work here, too.)

On a stovetop, heat a small amount of oil in the bottom of your pot, you won't need any more than about a tablespoon of oil or so. Dice your onion up - the pieces do not need to be too small, nor is it crucial that they be the same size. To prepare your garlic, lightly crush each clove with the flat of your knife. This'll make them easier to peel! Mince them up as fine as you can. Toss these in the now hot oil, and listen to the happy sizzle.

Get your ground beef out of the fridge, and sprinkle some of your cumin, salt, pepper and chili powder on the top of the little pile of meat you have. Cumin's going to be giving your chili a nice savory, full flavor with little spice, and the chili powder is what makes it taste like chili. Add some cayenne here if you're going down the spicy road. Put the meat in the pot with the side you've seasoned facing down, then season the other side and mix it around with your onions and garlic. Brown the meat, continuing to move it around the pot and spice to taste. You're going for small pieces of meat in your chili.

A word on spices, and why I'm not giving exact measurements: How much spice you put in your chili is a matter of preference, and you'll learn with time the balance you like to have. Personally, I use about 2 teaspoons of cumin, 1.5 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon cayenne per pot of chili, plus 3-4 packets of red pepper flakes. I'm totally estimating that, though, since I never measure.

As your meat is browning, take a moment to open up the cans of beans, corn and tomatoes. In your sink, put the beans and corn in your strainer and rinse well. See all that red grossness coming off the beans? Aren't you glad we're washing them? Yeah, me too.

Add the beans, corn, salsa and tomatoes to your beef once browned. Note that the beef does not need to be perfectly done before you add the rest of the ingredients, just a nice brown color on the outside instead of red all the way around. Stir to combine the ingredients, and if you're doing a spicier chili, add your red pepper flakes now. Bring this to a simmer (nice little bubbles coming out the top of the liquid), then reduce the heat to low, cover and let simmer.

Now go raid! Let your chili simmer for at least 30 minutes before serving, and stir it occasionally if your raid wipes, or you get a break. The longer you let it simmer, the better it'll taste - so if you can hold off hunger until your raid's over it'll be totally worthwhile. As a matter of fact, it's even more delicious as a leftover than it is the first serving! Serve it with some grated cheese on top, if that's your thing. This recipe can easily be doubled if you're hosting a LAN party.

Chili-Mac: For a yummy meal that will make your chili last even longer, boil some elbow macaroni and mix it in with your chili. Deliciously simple.
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