UF2.0 Cook Book ~ Planning meals on a tight budget! Post your Recipe!

First topic message reminder :

Ive seen a lot of good recipes posted in the "whats for dinner" thread in both the old and new UFF.

I think this would be a great resource for those looking for new ideas for meals on the cheap.

Please try and limit the discussions to only recipes etc and use the "Whats for dinner" thread for more generalized food chat comments

Happy sharing!! And good eating!

turkeys in the oven and it smells wonderful. Having turkey stuffed with a ground beef stuffing, gravy, potatoes, coleslaw, string beans, broccoli with cheese sauce, Mary Kay's cranberry relish, and my grandmothers recipes of bacon, onion mushrooms mixed with sour cream. No pie tho - we're not big sweet eaters.

P.S. I made the loaded potato soup Tuesday and it was divine - definitely a keeper.

Now that we have finished with the Turkey, Stuffing and Mashed potatoes, hoping all members have some really good "baked" goods and ideas for cookies, cakes and Holiday Buffets.

Please share!

P.S. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and safe travels.

Good Morning. Hoping all are well. I need a recipe for Minestrone soup if anyone has a good one I would appreciate it. My father loves minestrone and the two I have tried were not so hot. Thanks.

Sorry MK, I don't have one of those, but you asked for baked goods before...I have a great recipe for challah (Jewish egg bread) that you mix and raise in a bread machine, then braid, raise again, then bake again. Guaranteed to get ooohs and ahhhs. I will type it out next time I remember to grab it on my way past the fridge.

Sounds great. My cousin Karen is married to the greatest guy and he is always joking, that my Keugel is irish catholic, not jewish, so I will surprise him with the challah. He is so good to my Dad and my Dad's brother that I would love to do something for him.

Joan do you have the recipe for the cinnamon roasted nuts? That sounds delish. I would love to try that. (unless it's a family secret.)

Thanks. See you guys on Friday. Heading to Dad's right now. This is his last treatment until after Christmas.!

MaryKay, I would never keep secrets from you! Well, except maybe my mom's paska recipe (and even that might have a price )

Anyway, the cinnamon nut recipe isn't really a secret since it's right here: Cinnamon Sugar Pecans

Here are some tips that I've learned along the way:

• Use a really big bowl.
  
  
• Use a big whisk to mix them, not just to whisk the egg white.
  
  
• Try baking them for 15 minutes at first, and then keep a close eye. They will be gooey, but solidify when they cool, then you can break them apart.
  
  
• I bought the 3-lb bags at Costco of pecans and almonds. One was around $10 and one about $12, but I can't remember which was which.
  
  
• The 3-lb bag made exactly 3 batches of this recipe, so a batch takes a pound, which is 3 cups. So if you have a 1-lb bag, you don't have to measure. Yea.

I burned my first batch at 20 minutes, so I had to eat a lot of them. It was terrible, but I'm committed to quality control.

Good luck...let me know how they turn out!

Here is the challah. Note that you pretty much have to make this now because you have the leftover egg yolks from making the cinnamon nuts. The first amounts are for a 1 lb loaf, and the amounts in parentheses are for a 1-1/2 lb loaf. Make the big one...you know you want to:

Challah

¾ cup (1 cup) Water
1 tbs (2 tbs) Butter/margarine/oil
1 large (2 large) Egg yolk
1 tbs (2 tbs) Nonfat dry milk
1 tsp (1 ½ tsp) Salt
1 tbs (2 tbs) Granulated sugar
2 ¼ cups (3 cups) Bread flour
1 ½ tsp (2 ¼ tsp) Active dry yeast

In bread machine, run on Dough cycle. If you are not using a bread machine, mix as you normally would, starting with the warm water, yeast, sugar, etc, then let rise until approximately doubled in size, blah, blah, you know the drill. Punch down.

To shape, most people cut the dough into three pieces, form them into ropes, pinch the ends together, and then braid. Here is a different way that I thought up (maybe it has occurred to others): roll the dough into an oblong shape with a rolling pin. Make it roughly three times as long as wide. Slice it long-wise into three “panels”, leaving them attached at one end. Then braid them, and when you come to the end, pinch the ends together, and tuck them under. Do whichever way you like.

To make it pretty:

Beat an egg with about a tablespoon of water. Brush that on the loaf, then sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds.
Bake at 375° for about 40 – 45 minutes.

Good! AloneinNY deleted its post! Hope the model *moderated - behave ladies - X out!* from eating oatmeal and peanut butter!

Hi Tiya,

I am sorry for whatever I said to get people mad at me. My partner and I had way too much bubbly last night and she should have stopped me from making posts.

I received a PM about this so I kinda understand what I did. You can PM me anytime to share special recipes!

Good night!

Bubbly? "Dom Perignon"? What kind of caviar did you have to go with it?? Take a look back at the recipes, some are creative things to do with ramen noodles. Get over yourself!

Please can we get back on topic here, a lot of this stuff is for people who need it.

Here is a nice recipe that can be varied according to your taste, looks very pretty and is really inexpensive.

1 Block of Cream Cheese
1 Small Jar of Preserves:
(Pepper jelly is my favorite, but apricot, peach, rasberry are nice too)
Crackers of choice or toasted bread

For Christmas I put the block on a plate, cover with the jelly and surround the plate with the crackers. I trim the plate with parsley and it looks festive. Everybody loves it. It's about $4.

Hi all, what's cooking? Hoping everyone is having a great weekend so far.

MaryKay wrote:Hi all, what's cooking? Hoping everyone is having a great weekend so far.

Great day to try Lacey's Loaded Potato Soup!

Opps, I messed up with the cups/lbs of nuts in the Costco bags! Almonds are 3-lb bags, and are $9 and some change. Pecans and walnuts are 2-lbs bags are $14 and some change, so clearly the almonds are a cost saver. And pay no attention to what I said about cups per lbs, because now I'm not sure if that's true--better measure.

Im making beef stew today before I go to work...not a fan of peeling veggies though. wish me luck! lol

Sick & Tired wrote:Im making beef stew today before I go to work...not a fan of peeling veggies though. wish me luck! lol

Good luck!! I am not good at peeling either, I usually end up cutting up most of my fingers!

Oh its a nightmare, potatoes go flying, peels everywhere, fingers get peeled!! LOL I hate when that happens

Hope it turned out good, S&T! I made stew last week using one of those McCormick seasoning packs and it was pretty yum--added some butternut squash at the last minute (so it didn't cook down too much and disappear--I've learned that from experience)

Amy, here's a trick. Use Yukon Gold potatoes, just chop them. The skins are really good left on. I buy a bag of baby carrotts, don't have to peel or chop. Just the onion and celery.

I hate the carrotts and potatoes the most. Not only do I always peel a finger, cuticle and a nail, but my hands are always so dry, it takes a week and a half to remove all the "dirt" lines from the dry skin. ugh.

I would like to start a cookie exchange. So many of us have great recipes and love to bake. Many of us have children and grandchildren and it's always a fun thing to do with them as well. What do you think?

I am going to pull out some recipes tonight and post them tomorrow.

I am looking for a cookie recipe, that I used to have, my cookie shooter broke last year and I think when I tossed it, I accidentally tossed the index card with the recipe as well.

The recipe is for cookie shooters, it's a butter cookie recipe? Does anyone have one? I would love to have it if you do. Thanks.

I've gained weight during this time off from work because I've lived off of pasta, etc., because it's cheap, filling and comforting... I need to find inexpensive less caloric foods and recipes!

Sorry, MK...I've never been much of a cookie baker. Hope you find a good recipe.

Marian, I don't know if this idea would help, but maybe you might want to look into dishes that use beans. They're not all that light in calories, but they have protein and fiber, so they're satisying and might make smaller portions feel like more.