Garlic bread is a huge favorite to make. In the past, I’ve had some mixed results with different methods until I stumbled upon a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for garlic bread. That set me straight in several respects, and I can turn out some pretty good ones usually and fairly cheaply as well. The two most important things are oven heat and roasting the garlic first!

Garlic Bread

1/2 loaf french bread (1/2 of $1.19 large loaf) — $0.60
8 medium cloves garlic (about 1 head) — $0.33
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Butter (2 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.26
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Kosher Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $1.36

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Yes, that’s right 500 degrees. You need blastingly high heat to make it, otherwise the tops will be soggy.

Mince up parsley and set aside. Cut up the butter in small bowl and allow to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, separate head of garlic into cloves, no need to peel the papery skins off! Toast them in small skillet, shaking pan frequently about 8-10 minutes on low heat, or until small burnt marks appear on outside.

Allow to cool, then peel and mince finely. Add to butter, and add in Parmesan cheese, about 1/4 tsp of pepper and about 1/8 tsp (or less) of kosher salt. (You may not need the salt at all, because Parm cheese is salty). Mix well. You should have a paste, but the butter should still be semi-solid.

Cut bread in half (or, you can use the whole loaf, just double the rest of the ingredients). Now slice the bread down the center so you have a top and bottom half. Spread garlic butter mixture on top of both sides. Place on cookie sheet and bake in oven for 10-12 minutes. Cut the bread crosswise with a sharp knife into finger food sized pieces. Sprinkle parsley on top.

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I find there’s a lot of uses for canned cream of mushroom soup, the majority of which are casseroles. So I try to keep a few cans around all the time. Actually, the key is to buy ‘em in bulk (6 for $3?) at CostCo once again because as the bottom of this particular can I’m looking at says, it will last until MARCH 2007. That’s 2 years! Cheap Eats pantry heaven. Plus you can get your Andy Warhol fix having all those soup cans lined up…

Anyhow, I actually like cream of mushroom soup plain as it is, straight up, just add water. Seriously, I don’t even add milk sometimes. I can hear you cringe. But it’s actually really good and surprisingly filling. Here’s a sample:

A Mushroom Soup Lunch

Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (1 can) — $0.50
French Bread (1 small mini loaf) — $0.25

Salt / pepper / water — negligible

Total: $0.75

Put Campbell’s soup in pot. Add water. Bring to boil stirring often, or it will burn on the bottom like no tomorrow. Meanwhile put your bread in the toaster and toast it up. Put soup in a large, no, HUGE bowl. Help yourself to bread. Yum!

Duhrr.. I know, there’s more to it than that. And you don’t want to do that every day. But that’s 75 cents for a pretty good lunch. I actually use crackers (saltines are a favorite)

Mushroom soup gets really useful when you use it as a base for sauces. The stuff is condensed so it’s actually really tasty. (Health-concerned cheap eaters should be concerned that it has a bunch of MSG in it… but that’s another tale.) I’ll be posting some of those recipes later, but you can basically use it to make anything from Turkey A La King to Tuna Casserole to Smothered Chicken. What makes a difference is the amount of dilution and what you use to dilute it (water, milk, chicken stock). It also makes pretty durned fast gravy.

Actually, here’s a “Chicken Bake” right off the can:

Chicken Bake

Campbell’s Mushroom Soup (1 can) — $0.50
2 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast Halves – $2.00
pepper / water — negligible

Total: $2.50

I modified this to a half recipe, plus I like more gravy! Place chicken in 2 qt. baking dish, glass is good. Spread soup evenly over the chicken and cover it. You probably want to dilute the soup a bit w/ water and add some black pepper.

Bake the whole shebang for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Take it out. That’s it.

Continue reading “Campbells Mushroom Soup” …

There’s about a billion ways to make Pasta with Ham. Ham is a really resiliant form of Cheap Eats because it lasts so long in the fridge. This goes for both packaged ham steaks and for larger whole hams. My absolute favorite thing to do is to make this near the holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. Why? Because someone ALWAYS makes a whole ham and I’ve never been to a family gathering that didn’t have leftovers from it. Usually, the relatives have to cajole someone to take home some of the ham. I’m the first to signup, however. Leftover ham also makes great fried rice, sandwiches, etc. The below recipe assumes storebought ham, but subtract 75 cents from the final price if you can get it for free!

Pasta with Ham and Parmesan

Cubed Ham (1/4 of $3.00 hamsteak) — $0.75
Any Dry Pasta like Rotini (4 oz of $0.99 8 oz bag) — $0.50
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Olive oil (1 tbsp of $4.00 12 fl. oz bottle) — $0.17
Butter (1 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.13
Milk (1/2 cup from $4.19 1/2 gallon lactaid) — $0.26
Chicken Stock (1/2 a $.50 can) — $0.25
Brown Onion (1/8 a $.50 onion) — $0.06
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $2.29

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, mince the brown onion and parsely and cube the ham. In a large skillet heat olive oil and add ham. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until browned, then add brown onion. Cook for another 2 minutes. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. Watch out for the mixture foaming up too muich. If that happens, reduce the heat. When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parsley and parm cheese and cook for about 1 minute more. Off heat add butter, salt and pepper to taste. Mix and serve.

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I hesitate to call this a true Oyster Poorboy because the oysters aren’t deep fried or rolled in cornmeal or any of that other stuff. Plus I make it using oysters from a can. It’s more like an oyster sandwich. I find that it tastes really good though, and I can do with the flour-only coating. Depending on where you live, you are probably able to get oysters that are better tasting, fresher, and cheaper, but for me the can is the only easy way to go. I think they may come in jar too. By the way, oysters are a pretty much self-sustainable, non-polluting form of aqua-culture. I believe it’s one of the few like that. So you can eat your oyster sandwich and feel good about the environment… well, maybe.

Homemade Oyster Poorboy

Can of Oysters (1 small can) — $2.50
French Bread (1 small loaf) — $0.25
Mayo (1-2 tbsp of $2.00 jar) — $0.08
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Flour (1/4 cup from $1.50 bag) — $0.03
Corn Oil (2 tbsp from $2.00 bottle) — $0.05
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $2.97

Chop parsley fine. Mix in small bowl with mayonnaise, add a bit of salt if you like. Drain the oysters from the can (save the oyster liqueur if you want). In a ziploc bag put in the flour, salt, pepper. Dump the oysters in there, seal and shake a bit. Heat oil in a nonstick pan. In meantime, put cut a pocket in the french bread and toast it if you like. When oil is hot, fry oysters until golden brown. Dry them on paper towel lined plate. Spread some mayo mixture on bread and shove as many oysters as you can in there. Sandwich is done.

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I make this quite a bit, but don’t have a picture handy just right now to show. This is not only fast because it uses the microwave, but tastes halfway decent. You can, of course, simply buy a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or any number of other substitutes for around $1.50 to $2.50. I think that as far as Cheap Eats goes, this might beat them out if only slightly. It probably doesn’t beat out instant ramen recipes in price, but you can’t possibly eat that every day.

Macaroni Noodles w/ Parmesean Cheese

Macaroni (4 oz of $0.99 8 oz bag) — $0.50
Parmesan cheese (1/2 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.22
Olive oil (1 tbsp of $4.00 12 fl. oz bottle) — $0.17
Butter (1 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.13
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $1.02

Boil some water in a pot. Chuck in the macaroni with some salt and cook it until done. Drain it. Put it in a big microwave safe bowl, pour the olive oil and parmesan cheese over it and mix well. Throw in some black pepper. Put in the pat of butter and mix. Nuke the whole thing, but not too long. Maybe a minute, unless you’re starting with cold noodles. Mix again. Eat.

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