Fast, cheap, and easy!
No, I’m not talking me – though I could easily wear those labels after Master zipped home just 2 hours after He left this morning, bent me over the end of the bed – pinning me there by my nipples – and fucked me silly. But this time I’m talking about fast, cheap, and easy food.
I don’t know if the rest of you are suffering from sticker shock at the grocery store but I sure am. (The increase in prices seemed to coincide with the move so I’m half blaming the economy in general and half blaming the U.P. itself for being expensive.) Anyway, I’m going to share the occasional recipe here, because it’s my blog and I can, and because I know lots of people working hard to cut costs.
Here’s my cheap and easy meal for today:
Au Gratin or Scalloped Potatoes with Smoked Sausage
I’ve never made au gratin or scalloped potatoes from scratch, mainly because the boxed mix is so darn easy, but possibly savings would increase if made from scratch? (not sure, what with the price of cheese!)
3 boxes, or less, of au gratin potato mix. (3 boxes feeds my family of 5 with enough leftover for Master’s lunch the next day)
One smoked ring sausage, sliced.
You can bake it in the oven per the boxes directions, or, if time allows, I prefer to make it in the crockpot. It comes out moister and the flavor is *much* better. Simply mix it according the directions on the package for the oven method, but throw it all in the crockpot. Stir in the sausage. Cook on low for a few hours or until potatoes are tender.
Price:
Box of generic au gratin potato mix $0.97 x 3 = $2.91
One ring sausage $3.38
Add in a can/bag of veggies for another $1.00
A meal for five people, plus next day lunch, for $7.29.
~cunt
Bragger’s note: Anyone whose mother ruled the kitchen at home will understand my glee over this. My mother has asked me for a copy of the recipe for every single dish I cooked while my parents were here. Do you know how huge that is!? It’s damn near unheard of! Squee!
Tags: recipes
Uncategorized | kaya | 
Monday September 15th, 2008 7:56am
Cheese has been so expensive lately, which is really unfortunate because I would totally live on nothing but cheese and potatoes if I could.
Thanks for the recipe! I’ll have to try it out. Crockpot recipes are a win, because I can make them the night before and then it’s going to be ready regardless of when M gets home from work.
We make something (sort of) similar. sliced potatoes, chopped onion, cut up smoked sausage ring, cooked in a crock pot or skillet. Sometimes we add a little cheese, hominy/corn. It comes out really good, is cheap and easy to make. Potatoes seem to be sneaking into alot of meals around here! Also, I’ve recently fallen in love with those birdseye veggie steamer bags. They have several different veggie mixes for a little over a dollar per bag, and all you have to do is toss it in the microwave for a few minutes. I’ll definitely try the au gratin potatoes in the crock pot, it sounds good that way!
I don’t think you could make it any cheaper using fresh potatoes with the price of cheese these days. It’s hard to beat $3 for potatoes and cheese. I saw a news program a couple of weeks ago and a reporter had $100 to feed a family of 4 for 7 days and couldn’t do it. She ended up going over her budget.
Your recipe got me thinking about this because I bet I could and I bet there are a lot of moms like you out there that could too. Six meals for $1.22 each goes a long way.
junebug
I understand entirely. I’ll never forget the day my dad (the cook when I was growing up) ate my turkey & dressing the first Thanksgiving I did the whole family thing, & he said, “I’m passing the spatula.” Obviously, since I still remember it, it was a huge deal.
my step mother was a horrible cook. I had to learn for myself. I like this because it would be very easy for me to cut down from serving 5 to serving 2. Now I wonder if I can get Master to eat scalloped potatoes…
If you’d like some easy crock pot recipes I have a few :) And I believe in cheap and easy.
Kaya,
97 cents for a box of augratin potatoes? That’s a great deal, at least from where I’m buying. If I can find them on sale for $1.50 a box, I’m a happy camper. We love augratin in my house and this will definately be going on the menu. I’ll probably skip the crock pot thing, since I tend to burn things in the crock pot (like speghetti sauce). Don’t ask, I hagve no idea how I pull that one off.
Dave
Well here in Australia I am not sure we can buy the potato mix (I havent seen it, but perhaps it just never occurred to me that you could buy it). I do something similar on occasion with thinly sliced peeled potatos layered with onion, cheese, bacon (or ham) and cream and baked in the oven.
I dont tend to do it very often as its extremely fattening. If I do do it I usually serve it with something else, chops or steak and home grown broccoli, or home grown broad beans, or whatever else is in the garden.
Supermarket items are definintely on the increase here and I try to grow as many vegies as I can rather than buy them. You cant beat home grown straight from the garden stuff.
You had a beautiful vegie patch in your other house kaya, I am sure you will eventually have the time for one in the new place. Although its coming into winter there I guess and harder to grow stuff.
Cheers
rosie
Another cheap and easy meal with spuds and sausages can be made when peppers are on sale (I like red ones best but you could use green or a mix of both.
Scrub a great big baking potato for each person and rub with a little oil, salt and pepper and prick with a fork, bake…
Slice the ring sausage thinly and kind of stir-fry it in a frying pan or pot with a little oil. I like it almost-but-not-quite burnt. Near the end add two or three peppers that you’d cored and sliced. You can add a sliced onion as well. Cook until the veggies are done to your liking.
To serve, split the potatoes, fluff up the center a bit and stuff with your sauteed peppers/onion/sausage stuff. Seriously decadent although not actually THAT bad for you, especially if you use a reduced fat kielbase or sausage.
Did I send you my crisp recipe, yet? Very fast, cheap, and easy! Just like us! ;)
Dear god, food prices have gone up. Potatoes are still rather cheap here in Sweden (I think it comes out at $1 a kilo) and milk and such is still relatively cheap.
But meat, cheese – even freaking flour – is getting really expencive. To cut food costs, I’ve considered going vegetarian, but since I’m not alowed to eat beans and peas, that idea is sort of screwed. I buy mostly pork, chicken and fish now, because they are the cheapest.
For us on a low budget, the rising food prices are a cause of concern. *sigh*
Here are a few things for you to try:
Buy cream (the 27% fat kind), real butter (80% fat), and either cabbage (um, the white kind you make coleslaw and pizzasalad of) or califlowers. Boil the cabbage/califlower entirely soft. Blend with cream and butter in a blender or mash with a fork. Voila, alternative to mashed potatoes! (The califlower gets yummy!)
Whole grain, rye, sourdough bread. Google it. *drools* Keeps one full for a long time.
A few eggwhites, a little sugar and a bit of coca or melted chocolate can be whipped really hard and put in the freezer for a little while, gives a nice dessert.
And… I had some more, but I lost them while typing. Now I’m freakishly hungry, though.
I’ve been feeling the wrath of food prices and gas prices.
Stupid economy.
So you’re living in the UP now, huh? Makes sense for the isolation.
I can recommend a really great site I found for cheap and generally easy recipes plus lots of other cost saving ideas.
The Hillbilly Housewife
She also has a weekly email newsletter.
Happy Cooking,
KnkyPet
Hey! You don’t actually need cheese to make gratin dauphinois, I have a great recipe with just cream and garlic and butter and potatoes. And believe me… oh Jesus it’s better than any sort of sex. Well maybe not. But it’s really good. Just mix the garlic into the butter, slice the potatoes really thin, layer them with dots of garlic butter between the layers, pour the cream over, pour the same amount of water over, more garlic butter on top, cook for an hour and a half and there you are. Don’t know how much money you’d save (and also last time I grated my thumb in half cutting the potatoes on a box grater) but you might. There y’are.