Cheap Eaten

[worth1]

@worth1, a chili cheese dog is gotta have it food every so often. Also, I admire your metabolism.

Well I'm not as shinny as a rail but I don't have fat lapping over my shirt collar from the back if my neck like a guy I see in town from time to time.

Tonight I'm having red beans and basmati rice with a little homemade bacon.

[worth1]

Toasting some basmati rice with bacon and homemade ghee.
Cooking down some canned red kidney beans with added black pepper, garlic powder, fresh chopped onion, salt and a healthy dose of sweet paprika.

Don't want to overpower any of the flavors.
The canned beans had water added for the dry ingredients to suck up.
This will cook down into a thin but not watery gravy with beans to put on top of the rice.
Lots of flavors in this dish without the expense.

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[worth1]

I cooked the red beans down with the paprika until a gravy was made.
Then made a well in the rice and put the beans in.
More rice on top.
Some of the best beans and rice I ever had.

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[worth1]

And last night's supper to this.
Leftovers consisting of a little water some thin slices of homemade bacon and cheese.
Additional paprika after baking on top.
Cooked at 400F.
Makes a robust and flavorful soup.

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[worth1]

Homemade beef sage and chilie arbol breakfast sausage gravy with country style drop biscuits and runny eggs on top.
The sausage is rather hot and spicy.

[karstopography]

Spaghetti with meat sauce. Aldi grass fed beef. Aldi Spaghetti, Garden tomatoes frozen, thawed, then skins removed, onion, garlic, garden basil, italian herbs.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... nner-table

People are scrimping on food as prices soar.

[worth1]

Mixed up on heck of a lot of Colby jack cheese.
Some flour and baking powder.
An egg.
Two cans cream style corn.
Skinned 5 Hatch hot chilies.
Mixed up everything except the chilies.
Put in about half the corn put in chilies put rest of corn on top.
Put in 375 F oven.
Probably a complete flop.

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[worth1]

I could have added this and that but I won't.
I will add toppings but not meat.
This is a meatless meal.
The cost is way under 5 dollars.

[worth1]

Made a spread of homemade fermented salted limes chopped very fine.
Mixed with San Antonio chili powder.
Gochujang.
Duke's mayonnaise.
Going for an Elote sort of thing.

[worth1]

This needs to set like pecan pie.

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[karstopography]

My youngest son who also living with us is working partime at a College Food Bank. They call it a Food scholarship and any student there can get X amount of food per month, including my son that is also a student. He unloaded a big pallet of some surplus ham in generic plastic packaging. He also said they sometimes beg the student employees to take stuff that is receiving very little interest and nearing an expiration date. He showed me a photo of the ham and said “who would want this gross stuff?” Me, that’s who! I see split pea soup or navy bean soup sometime in my future.

[worth1]

I just taste tested an edge piece.
The hot Hatch chilies made it incredibly hot.
Holy Moses.
I had a choice too hot or regular.
What was I thinking?

[worth1]

Slathered in the mayonnaise sauce and topped with cotija cheese and chili powder.
The taste is amazing.
Just the right amount of heat.

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[karstopography]

Hatch chiles are variable on the heat level in my experience. Some are mild, others hot. One reason I love New Mexico are the great chiles.

[worth1]

I just wish the skins weren't so thick.

[karstopography]

Yep, I just roast/blister those skins thick right off. I bought 4 really big ones the other day that had turned a little yellow and orange. Looked like these had been picked over in the very much depleted bin at HEB, maybe because they weren’t so green or that they were so big. Anyway, I put them on the medium grill right before putting on some sausage and hot dogs. Got a good blister on the peppers in a few minutes and then stuck those in a covered bowl. By the time the sausage was done, the pepper skins peeled off easily and the top along with the all the seeds and placenta pulls right out. Super quick to process as such. I like them roasted like that and then chopped up for a hot dog topping or sausage side. Even on a hamburger they are good. Just writing about them makes me hungry for more.

[worth1]

I blanched mine in hot boiling water and let them steam dry.
Then put them in a skillet with a little oil and the skins came off really easy.
Also removed seeds and placenta.

[worth1]

Got something going on that has.........
Ground chuck.
Homemade simi dried shelf stable bacon.
Ancho chilies dried but flexible like jerky.
Hatch chilies fresh.
Onion.
Garlic.
Rice basmati.
Frozen okra.
This is going to be interesting.

[worth1]

The onion and garlic were dried.
Added.
My homemade tomato paste.

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Salt.
Black pepper.
Cumin.
Water.
Letting it simmer until the meat is tender
About 2 hours or so.
Fresh ingredients later.
It doesn't taste hor or like chili.
It's sweet from natural sugars from the garlic onion tomato paste and Ancho chilies.
Aromatics like Mexican oregano later too.

[worth1]

The excess grease was removed.
Additional ingredients like
2 chopped fresh Hatch chilies.
Some ancho chilie powder
One whole strong yellow onion chopped.
The oregano
Homemade celery salt.
This is taking longer than expected but it's coming together.