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NPR is all about making cheap $10 meals for a family of four. They even have a ‘How Low Can You Go’ Family Supper Challenge.’ Given the prices of eggs and milk, it’s not a bad idea to try some of these heatly and frugal recipes. They’ve even got special guest chefs like The Neelys, Ming Tsai, and Jose Andres offering their expertise.
Filed under: Recipes
Ingredients:
- 1 loaf of bread cut into 1/2 to 1in slices (I prefer egg bread like challah or brioche)
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1/2 to 1 teapsoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Directions:
Combine beaten eggs and milk into a small mixing bowl and whisk together. Add dry ingredients and vanilla and whisk again. Place some of the mixture in a shallow soup dish and dip the bread in the mixture on both sides. Place slices on a non-stick skillet and grill until brown. Serve warm and top with warm maple syrup, butter, and powdered sugar.
Voilà! This is a guaranteed way to make any overnight guest feel loved and special.
Filed under: Recipes
We can’t take credit for this recipe. It comes from the wonderful website, Break Or Bake. My apologies for it being posted so late.
Ingredients:
- 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease or line 12 muffins cups.
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in melted butter, milk, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Serve warm.
Perfect Old Fashioned
- 3 tumblers bourbon
- A dash of bitters
- Dollop of simple sugar
- 1/2 tumbler maraschino cherry juice
- Cherry
- Ice
Fill mixing cup with ice. Add bourbon. Then add bitters, about a nickel to a quarters worth of simple sugar (simple sugar is a 1:1 part mix of boiling water and granulated sugar), and cherry juice. Mix and pour into old fashioned glass with a cherry. Top off with ice.
Fresh Whiskey Sour
- 2 tumblers bourbon
- Dollop simple sugar
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 lime
- Ice
Fill mixing cup with ice. Add bourbon. Then juice of ½ of a lemon and ½ of a lime. Add simple sugar. Mix and pour into an ice filled highball glass.
Aqua Velva
- 1 1/2 tumblers green vodka (1 part vodka: 1 part mint)
- 1/2 tumbler gin
- 1 dollop of simple sugar
- 1 tumbler Blue Curacao
- Ice
First make green vodka: Cut up mint and mix in a 1:1 ratio with Vodka and store for several hours/overnight in fridge, and remove the mint leaves through cheese cloth. (If no green vodka “muddle” mint with granulated sugar, which replaces simple sugar, at the bottom of the mixing cup) Fill mixing cup full of ice. Add vodka, gin and blue curacao. Add simple sugar. Mix and pour into a highball glass full of ice with a slice of orange.
Filed under: Recipes
This recipe is based on banana muffin recipes found on The Coveted and Simply Recipes.
Ingredients:
- 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour (or all purpose)
- 1/2 – 1 cup walnuts coarsely chopped
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mash bananas with a potato masher. Melt butter in microwave or over low heat. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in sugar, egg, vanilla, then add in baking soda and salt. Add flour and mix. Add walnuts if desired. (I’ll do half without nuts and half with) Grease muffin pan with oil or butter or line with cupcake liner paper. Fill with batter approximately 3/4 to the top. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before removing from muffin pan.
Ingredients:
- 2 chopped onions
- 1 bottle BBQ sauce
- 2 pounds pork ribs
Directions:
Combine all ingredients into slow cooker and set for about 6-8 hours.
As promised, Japanese animal crackers:
Ingredients:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (or a mixture of whole wheat flour and white all purpose flour)
- 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons dried currants or raisins (optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425º F and place rack in center of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add most of the buttermilk. Using one hand, or a wooden spoon, mix (adding more buttermilk if necessary) until you have a soft, moist dough. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough into a 7 – 8 inch round that is about 1 inch thick. Grab and roll dough into about 8 pieces. Place the scones on your prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with a little extra buttermilk and then dust with a little extra flour.
Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Test by tapping the bottom of a scone – it should sound hollow. Remove from oven. Serve warm.
Filed under: Recipes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, peanut butter and vanilla. Add flour, cornstarch, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into balls about 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls (or use cookie scoop) and place onto ungreased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Use a fork to put a criss-cross on the cookies. Bake for 10 minutes.
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Making homemade soup is easier and quicker than you think. The best part about it is that it’s all about improvisation with your ingredients. Have fun and play around to come up with something delicious and unique.
To start out, you’ll need some standard ingredients. I recommend broth or stock, vegetables, various spices, a bay leaf, and any meat (optional).
To make a thin and brothy soup, start to heat the broth or stock with equal parts water on the stove. Add garlic and the bay for a great flavor. Put in some chopped veggies that are hard or thick (celery, potatoes, carrots, etc.) and simmer on a medium low heat until these are tender. If you wish, toss in some raw meat. You can cut these into big chunks since it’ll be shredded easily in the pot. Simmer this on low heat for or least an hour. This insures all the flavors
Filed under: Recipes | Tags: mac and cheese, macaroni, macaroni and cheese
Ingredients:
- 1 stick butter
- 3-5 tablespoons flour
- 1-2 cups milk
- 2 1/2 cups sharp cheddar (shredded or cut into small cubes)
- 1 cup colby/jack (shredded or cut into small cubes)
- 1 pound macaroni noodles
Directions:
- Begin by preheating your oven at 350º.
- Boil about a pound of macaroni noodles (enough to fill an 8×8 pan) until al dente in salted water. Strain and pour into the 8×8 pan.
- Make a roux by whisking the flour and butter together on medium low heat. Make sure to constantly whisk as to not burn. When it turns thick and chowder-like, add a bit of milk and whisk again.
- Begin adding the cheese about a half a cup at a time. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon so the oil doesn’t separate from the cheese and the cheese doesn’t turn into a large blob. Alternate adding cheese a milk until it forms a delicious cheese sauce and a little thinner than nacho cheese.
- Pour the cheese sauce directly over the noodles in the pan, and mix a bit to ensure all the noodles get cover.
- Sprinkle the top with some more shredded cheese and place in the oven for about 15 minutes. This gets all the cheese to melt over the noodles.
- Put the pan under the broiler for about 10 minutes until the top gets nice and crispy. You’ll hear it crackling in the over, and this is the part that everyone loves the best.
- Cool for a bit and serve (preferably with ketchup on top!).
