Dinner on a Budget: Sloppy Joes

Remember how I'm a poor college student? Yeah, well I'm always looking for cheap and healthy dinner ideas (like most everyone else). On the menu this past week? A kick back to the good ol' days of childhood: sloppy joes. Of course, I've made it a little more grown up with the sides and the ingredients.

Sloppy joes + seasoned zucchini and summer squash + sweet potato fries

Sloppy Joes

I always use ground turkey instead of ground beef. For one thing, it's cheaper where I shop, and it's healthier. But ground beef works too. Just brown a pound of ground meat (for 4 people) with 1/2 diced onion and 1/2 diced green bell pepper. When the meat is cooked, add sloppy joe sauce and let it simmer. I use whole wheat buns or bread if I don't feel like spending money on buns. White buns and bread works too, though.

Store-brand sauce: $1

Ground turkey: $2

Onion: about $1

Pepper: about $1

Sloppy Joes: $5

Zucchini and Summer Squash

Slice the zucchini and squash and quarter the slices. Depending on the size of the squash and zucchini, you'll need about 1 for 1-2 people. Saute them in a little bit of oil over medium high heat. Season with salt, pepper and any other spices you like. I used Mrs. Dash. Let them cook until browned.

Veggies: > $2

Baked Sweet Potato Fries:

1-2 sweet potatoes (1 sweet potato for 2-3 people)

Olive oil

1/2 T. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel and slice the potatoes into fry-sized pieces. Toss with a little bit of olive oil (only a little) and spices. Spread fries in even layer on cooking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes. When they're tender and starting to brown a little, they're done. Granted, they're not as stiff as regular fries, but they taste sooooo much better and they're a lot better for you. I like eating them with fry sauce (even parts ketchup and mayo).

Sweet Potatoes: > $2

Total price: Around $10

If you have bread, oil, and spices already, then the price is pretty unbeatable for a meal for 4 or dinner for 2 nights for 2 people.

Food Sections Worth the Read

Newspapers can have amazing food sections. While the larger papers have amazing recipes and spotlights on trendy city restaurants, local papers aren't something to be ignored.

My favorite food section would have to be The New York Times' section. Mark Bittman's blog, Bitten, is really good with a lot of great recipes and interesting personal stories related to food.

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/?ref=dining

Recently, having combed through much of the NYT's food section, I looked around for other good ones. On a whim, I decided to look at the Los Angeles Times' section and there was a phenomenal guide to buying fresh produce at the market. It included the regulars, like carrots and berries, but it also featured produce like figs and zucchini flowers. In total, there were 32 types of produce featured. Not too shabby.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-seasonal-cooking-pg,0,5765260.photogallery

And of course, I love my hometown newspaper's food section. The Columbia Daily Tribune always has tasty, simple recipes. Featured this week are turmeric and curry powder, corn and eating well in the recession.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/lifestyle/food/

Sunday Dinner

Boy did my tiny kitchen get hot yesterday. Corn chowder AND tomato and bacon jam? Whew. I had to kick up my AC, that's for sure.

As a college student living on a very tight budget, I've been missing Sunday dinner. Growing up, my family always had dinner on Sunday evening after church. We would have pot roast or homemade chicken pot pie--you know, the usual delicious home cooking. I missed being in the kitchen for the better part of the day and then enjoying what you make in the evening. Working full time doesn't really allow for much of that.

That's why I decided yesterday that I was going to make a Sunday dinner, and I would do it cheaply. I found a great recipe in my hometown newspaper for tomato and bacon jam. It sounded quite tasty, so I gave it a shot. It only called for one relatively expensive thing: bacon. It wouldn't be expensive if I found a recipe for Sunday dinner that called for bacon too, so I tried to find one. There was a recipe for corn chowder in the newspaper and well, I had to. Let me just say how much I love soup. I love soup. There. Now you know how much I love soup.

I thought a corn chowder would be a good compromise for soup in the summer. It would still be soup, but the corn would help make it taste summery. It was an easy recipe, but I changed it quite a bit. I added potatoes and chicken, and I used more chicken stock then it called for. The only hassle was frying bacon (which I hate doing). When I made the bacon for the jam, I just went ahead and fried up the bacon for the chowder too and got both starting at the same time. Hence the air conditioning.

The corn chowder was delicious, hearty, and everything a Sunday dinner is supposed to be. The brownies I made while dinner was cooking didn't hurt!

When I was done eating dinner, I poured the cooled jam into little jars and stuck them in the fridge. This morning, I made a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and spread some of the jam on top. It was pure heaven.

Sunday dinner and an awesome Monday morning breakfast? This week HAS to be good!

Tomato and Bacon Jam (recipe originally printed in The Columbia Daily Tribune on July 22, 2009)

2 lbs very ripe tomatoes, chopped and cored
1/2 lb bacon
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 T. cider vinegar
Salt and pepper.

In a large skillet over medium-high, cook the bacon until crispy, about five minutes. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain excess fat, blotting it dry with additional towels as needed.

In a large saucepan, combine the tomatoes, onion, sugar, cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring often, then reduce heat to medium. Crumble the bacon into the tomato mixture.

Simmer until very thick, about one hour. Season with salt and pepper, as needed.

Let the jam cool, then ladle into jars. Can be refrigerated for three to four days, or frozen for as long as two months. If freezing, divide the jam among several small jars. When ready to use, let a jar thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

Corn Chowder

6 strips crispy bacon
1 small onion, chopped
1 diced red bell pepper
1 diced green bell pepper
6-7 small red potatoes, chopped
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken breast tenderloins, cooked and cut into small chunks
1 T. ground cumin
1/2 T. cayenne pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2-2 1/2 cups chicken stock (use for desired consistency)
1 cup milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
1 16- to 17-ounce can whole-kernel corn, drained, liquid reserved
Salt and pepper to taste

In stockpot, fry up the bacon. Remove the bacon and leave the fat. Sauté onion, peppers, potatoes, cumin and cayenne until veggies are soft. Add in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring the whole time. Stir in chicken stock, milk, and reserved corn liquid. Let mixture come to a boil and whisk until smooth. Stir in corn and chicken chunks. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

When ready to serve, crumble bacon into chowder. Serve with shredded cheese on top if desired.

"Catching Fire" Update

So, I'm probably a third of the way through Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. It's a very insightful and well-written book. Some things I noticed or that stuck out to me:

1. The expensive tissue theory is really cool. Basically, Wrangham is saying that because of cooked food, which contains way more energy than raw food, our digestive systems were able to decrease in size, taking less energy. This then left energy for our brains, which then grew in size, leading to higher levels of intelligence and larger brains. I didn't know this, but apparently our brains consume 20% of all the food we eat--significantly more than any other animal. This probably explains why we have created amazing things like cars, planes and twinkies.
   
2. Wrangham uses a lot of studies, which is helpful. It also makes the book more of a "smart read" instead of a relaxing read. Probably my favorite study that he cites is one on raw food diets. He pretty much says that raw food diets are BS and there is no way humans could ever survive on such a diet. I want to say that more than 50% of the woman in the study completely stopped having their periods (you should read the book instead of quoting me on that).
   
3. Also, he mentions something about instinctual raw foodists. I know--just when you thought raw foodists were already crazy, here come even crazier ones. Basically, they "let" their stomachs decide what they will eat. They will smell all of the fruit in a bowl, for instance, and then instinctually pick what to eat.
   

Those are just a few thoughts. I still have a while to go before I finish the book. I'm actually pretty excited, though, because he's getting ready to talk about the gender roles that evolved from cooking. We'll see what amazing and brilliant things he has to say!

Note: I may or may not have a slight crush on this man.

Other note: I just read my post on the Farmer's Market. Boy was it sappy and generic. I guess that's what happens when you've been surrounded by fresh, amazing produce and food for an hour!

And just one final note: We went to CJ's last night. They have the absolute best chicken wings in all of this grand nation. I ate way too many and felt the grease monster to its full effect this morning. Totally worth it.