chicken of the woods

It is the fall mushroom season and this is one of the finest that can be found. Commonly called chicken mushroom or chicken of the woods, Laetipous sulfureus can be used in any recipe that calls for chicken or in traditional mushroom dishes. Rather than rewrite what has been written many times before here is a link to read more on it. When we had a chicken the other night, I made an Argentinian recipe called pollo el verdeo with it. It was quite tasty and very easy to make.

3 cups sliced mushroom or chicken
1/2 cup cream (plain yogurt works well)
6 green onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 cup vegetable stock or chicken stock
1.2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp butter

Cook "chicken" and garlic in skillet with butter til done. Add wine and green onion to skillet. In a bowl, mix cornstarch with cold broth and stir until completely dissolved and no lumps then add broth to prepared chicken. Reduce heat and cook 5 minutes. Add cream and mix thoroughly and cook until desired consistency. Serve over rice or pasta.

hillbilly caviar

I found this recipe several years ago after having had it at a bbq joint in NC. It is quite a nice salad taste wise and makes a very pretty dish. I have substituted home grown and cooked dry beans instead of cans and it works fine.

salad
2 cans black beans, rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can black eye peas, , drained
2 large tomatoes,chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 diced jalapenos, deseeded
optional gr or red pepper bits, olives or diced avocado

For the dressing I generally use an Italian dressing. Is quick and its simple.
or you can make this

dressing
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
3-4 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

mix all ingredients, chill several hours or overnight and serve

It makes a great light summer meal with with tortilla chips.

for those that like meat-- chicken, ham, summer sausage, salami or pepperoni are all great additions

simple supper- greens and pasta

It is the time of year that we seem to have a surplus of greens. I am always looking for recipes that are quick, easy, budget minded and use produce that we have coming from the gardens. This one takes 30 minutes from start to finish and that includes making your own pasta. Total cost for me to prepare the dinner for 4-6 people was the price of two cups of wheat berries. Even if all products were purchased from the store total cost would be under five dollars.

pasta recipe
3 cups white or whole wheat flour
3 eggs
pinch salt
3/4 cup water (bit more or less)

mix all ingredients and roll out into a rectangle. When rolled thin, roll it up into a tube then with a sharp knife slice into discs. Unroll and toss with flour and cook in boiling water until they float or about four minutes. When I slice ours I do not unroll them and simply cook in the disc shape.

the greens
large bunch of greens (collard, turnip, kale, chard
5 cloves garlic sliced
one large onion diced
tsp salt
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
1/2-1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2-3/4 cups fresh parmesan or asiago cheese
crumbled cooked bacon or crumbled cooked sausage (optional)
handful of cooked beans of your choosing (optional)

Wash and cut up greens. In the last minute of pasta cooking, throw the greens in to blanch. Drain. Brown garlic in butter, add seasonings and return pasta and greens to pot and mix in half the cheese. Serve and top with remaining cheese.

simple supper-mashed tater enchiladas

This is a very simple, budget friendly yet satisfying meal to make and even making everything from scratch, it can be completed in about an hours’ time. Enchilada sauce and tortillas can be purchased and left over mashed potatoes can be used for the filling which would cut preparation time in half. Spices, flour and oil are the only ingredients we have to buy which makes this a very cheap meal to make. For those purchasing all ingredients four to five dollars would more than cover the costs. This recipe will make approximately 8 filled tortillas and will more than feed a family.

filling

3 cups mashed potatoes

one medium onion-dices

2 cloves garlic-minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 to 2 jalapeño chili peppers-seeded, minced

1 tsp salt

Enchilada sauce

4 Tbsp chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon crushed oregano

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

Flour tortillas (8 large)

First make the enchilada sauce. Mix chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic powder, cinnamon, sugar, salt, and flour and oil in small pan. Cook for a minute or two, until fragrant. Slowly whisk in the water, until smooth. Let come to a simmer, cook for a minute, then remove from heat, cover and set aside.

To prepare the filling: Heat olive oil in a sauté pan on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and jalapeños and cook until the onions are translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Stir in mashed potatoes and mix well. Remove from heat.

To assemble: warm tortillas slightly so that they are pliable. Place 1/3 to 1/2 cup of filling in tortilla and roll. In a large baking dish put ½ cup of sauce on bottom of pan and spread evenly. Place rolled tortillas in pan then cover with remaining sauce. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I typically top with cheese, lettuce or cabbage shreds, green onion and a dollop of sour cream. Guacamole can also be served as a condiment. I serve this with beans or a small salad

Simple supper-hillbilly haluski

This is one of my favorite dishes to make and one of the cheapest too. There are many variations of it out there and it is called many different things but the one I am most familiar with is haluski which is Eastern European /Polish in origin and it has tons and tons of butter. While it is lovely it is also not very healthy and not very economic in the modern world. Maybe back when we all owned a cow or two a pound of butter for a meal was budget minded. In today's world where I can only afford to keep a goat on the farm, it most certainly isn't. I am also a fan of one dish meals,while traditional haluski can be that, it is not all that balanced or healthy if made according to all the recipes I have found over the years.

I have taken it upon myself to adapt this recipe to my own taste buds and come up with something that still resembles haluski but is a bit healthier and is a much more nutritionally balanced one dish, simple, supper.

While the noodles can be store bought egg noodles, it tastes much better using your own noodles because the noodles for the recipe are actually more like a dumpling than a noodle. They are very simple to make and much cheaper too. There are egg noodles or potato noodles but I would be willing to say that squash could also be used in the potato noodle recipe and still taste good.

egg noodles
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
½ cup water

Mix all ingredients together and beat with a spoon. Drop batter by teaspoonful into boiling salted water. Cook about 5 minutes(they will float) drain; rinse in cold water and set aside. Drain well and set aside.

potato noodles
1 lb about 4 medium potatoes (cooked and smashed)
1/4 cup flour
2 egg yolks
Mix all ingredients and place dough on a floured board and form into a log. Cut into small pieces and drop in to boiling water until they float. Rinse with cool water, drain and set aside.

the cabbage
3 tbsp butter (olive oil can be substituted, adjust quantity as needed)
1 medium head cabbage - shredded
2 onions - diced
Melt butter in large skillet or pan. Coarsely shred cabbage with a knife. Dice the onions. Add salt and pepper to season. Stir well and cook covered over medium heat heat, stirring occasionally, for about a half hour. Add drained noodles and cook for 10 -15 minutes, stirring often.

For a plain haluski that is all that is added. I however like to add meat to the recipe. Chopped pork bits, bacon and breakfast or polish sausage are all good additions. I brown these in the same pan that I use for making the cabbage and then add the cabbage to it. I also like to add shredded carrots to the recipe. They add nutrition and add eye appeal to the dish. Add the carrot shreds when you add the cabbage. and increase the amount of butter by a tablespoon. I also like to add diced apple to the dish. I think it adds a nice flavor as well as the health benefits. I also like to add garlic at times or serve with green onions and sour cream as a garnish. Heck, I suppose one could also add in corn or other veggies too.

When made with a choice of meat, carrot and apple, this dish costs me approximately $1.50. If one had to buy all the ingredients it would cost 4-5 dollars depending on where you live and the time of year. This recipe will easily feed 6 adults as a main dish. When I do not add apple in to the dish itself I usually serve this meal along side applesauce.
(photo in post is not mine)

fall veggies and a simple supper

Yesterday afternoon I needed a break from school work so headed to the gardens to walk through and enjoy them in the cool fall drizzle. While down there I decided these four heads of broccoli were done growing so I harvested them, thinned out one of the carrot beds, plucked some green onions, pulled a few peas, and ripped out some salad greens. The old saying of not going to the grocery store hungry also holds true for heading to the gardens. The only difference is you spend no money in doing so and the guilt does not come into play as it may in a store.

The only logical dinner I could think to make with the haul was pasta primavera in an alfredo sauce as it was nearly complete with my pickins. The only thing I needed to add to finish dinner was some pasta and a little bit of sauce to make it a meal. Veggies cost me nothing, pasta was about $.50, and the ingredients for the sauce were under a buck. It took me longer to chop the veggies than it did to cook and it made for a nice healthy meal. The recipe below is for 6 people as a main dish. While I used carrots, peas, and broccoli as my veggies, cauliflower, corn, mushrooms and summer squash also go nicely in the dish. Frozen veggies can be used in place of the fresh and the meal would still be a budget friendly option. Canned or fresh chicken or hams chunks also make a nice addition to the meal but are not needed to make it a more filling dinner for the meatosaurs among us.

pasta primavera alfredo
1 pound pasta (of your choosing)
5 cups of veggies sliced thin
1 onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 oz cream cheese
2 oz butter
1 cup milk
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
2 tsp flour

cook pasta as directed adding the veggies for the last 3-5 minutes of cooking. While pasta is cooking, in a sauce pan add butter, onion and garlic and saute to bring out the flavors of the onion and garlic. Add the flour and mix well. Slowly add the milk sour cream and cream cheese and heat until cheese melts and sauce thickens a bit, then add the parmesan. Drain pasta and mix the sauce with pasta, stir and serve.Add salt and pepper to taste.

simple supper-tater soup

It is soup and salad time of the year on the homestead and last night I made us a tasty tater soup for dinner. I must say that it was quite tasty considering I made it up on the fly. Then again, most recipes I post are made up as I go along at least to some extent because I either do not have the ingredients I need or do not use the ingredients that are listed. I also like basic recipes that can have many variations to them yet are frugal to make when I include them in simple supper posts. I do not like looking up budget minded recipes to see that I need a quart of cream to make them or that they cost 10 bucks to make 4 servings of the main course. To me that is not frugal in any way, shape or form. Back when I had to buy more of our food, I allowed for a dollar per person when buying food for an everyday type evening meal and added a dollar on. If there were four people my meal would cost under 5 dollars to prepare. It worked well so is still what I try to base recipes on for frugality

This is not a light soup, it is very filling like a stew but simple to make and is versatile. While I used a bit of bacon in it, it would taste just as good with no meat in it or a substitution. Many different veggies can be added to it and it can be served chunky or creamy. I served ours with a fresh salad and garlic toast but would have been satisfied with just one or the other to accompany the soup. Total cost of the meal for us was for two slices of bacon, flour, some spices and milk used as everything else was grown and made here.

I used left over baked potatoes for our soup and left the skins on. I like chunky soup and only mashed the potatoes with a hand masher rather than a food processor or mixer. I used powdered milk rather than whole milk because we do not use enough milk to justify keeping it around.

tater soup
4 strips bacon cooked and crumbled

2 – 3 tbsp. Bacon drippings

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch cubes (use left overs, it cuts prep time way down)

2 cups water (veg or chicken stock is called for, I use water and add my own spices)

1 cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon using until crisp. Allow to cool and chop or crumble into small pieces. Reserve several tablespoons of drippings. In large pot over medium heat add 2 tbsp. bacon drippings and cook onions, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Add potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally for a few minutes. Add enough stock to just cover potatoes. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender. Mash potatoes roughly with a potato masher. Scoop out about half of the remaining mixture and puree in a blender or food processor. Add milk and any veggies you may want and stir to combine well. Taste for seasoning and add more stock if soup is too thick for your liking. Stir in bacon and bring to simmer, stirring often. Serve hot. Garnish with additional crumbled bacon and chives or other herbs.

simple supper-"meatless" loaf & veggie burgers

Since we are having our first lengthy cold snap(4 days), the wood stove is fired up and I have been slow cooking meals and desserts we have not had in a while. Yesterday I made a pot of one of our favorite frugal and healthy dishes up and today I am breaking it down into other dishes. More specifically, a meatless loaf and some veggie burgers are now cooking away on the stove top and smelling mighty good. I am having a hard time deciding which we are going to have for dinner tonight.

What I really like about the lentil taco filling is that it is super cheap to prepare, several different meals from the base dish can be made with ease, and besides spices it calls for just two ingredients making it near impossible to mess up. A single recipe makes the two of us 4 dinners and two lunch meals. That is quite a few meals for under a buck. While today I am making burgers and a meat loaf, I have made salisbury steaks and meatballs too. For any recipe I make I treat the lentil mixture as I would ground beef and just replace about two cups of lentil for a pound of meat. I then follow the recipe for whatever it is that I am making. I always make sure to use a binder when making recipes. Most anything works, I have found but I tend to use oatmeal,or bread crumbs. When I make veggie burgers, I add binder, shredded veggies and any other herbs that I wish. Once the patties are made I dredge them in flour for cooking and cook with a bit of butter or oil as there is no fat as there would be with ground beef. The burgers freeze well both before or after cooking so they make a good meal for when time is short.

The meatloaf is topped with a couple fatty bacon strips to add a bit of oil and it is topped with a honey bbq sauce. The burgers have onion, summer squash, carrot and garlic in them. The manthing has decided he wants burgers tonight, so will serve them with a fresh garden salad and half baked tater wedges. Dessert will be brownies that I made last evening.

simple supper- squash/ lentil chili

it was steaming so is blurry

In my search for squash recipes  to try, I ran across this  recipe for squash/lentil chili. Since it was quite chilly and fall like here yesterday I decided to try it out and see what it was like. It is very easy to  prepare,  is a nice  quick,  healthy meal ,and the cost is very budget minded.  It is a decent recipe  but I wanted to use up a few leftovers I had  in the fridge so I tweaked it to suit my needs. Too bad I tweaked it wrongly as it  could have been very good, if I ha simply followed the directions.  I made some  corn bread to go with it.

 squash/lentil chili

2 tablespoons  olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon hot smoked paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 cup green lentils,
One 28-ounce can peeled  tomatoes, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound butternut squash or other winter squash—peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the smoked paprika, cumin and coriander and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add the  lentils, tomatoes and 1 cup of water; season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until the lentils are nearly tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the squash, cover and cook over low heat until the lentils and squash are tender, about 15 minutes.  I  made ours in the crock pot and it worked out quite well. I set the crock pot to high for the first 2 hours  with all ingredients in the pot, then turned to low for 3 hours.

simple supper-butternut squash pasta

No, no, this is not plasticized processed cheese food over pasta! It is a butternut squash sauce and boy is it good. Well, I think it is quite good and  I am sure picky kids would find it quite tasty. The picky manthing's, well you can't please everyone all the time :) When I made this the other night and served him his plate, his eyes went dim and out of his darlin'  pie hole came the opening words of this post. I looked at him n said, "why yes  dear, I jogged all the way to town  today  just to get  you some plasticized, processed cheese food for dinner because I know how much you like it." Truth be told, he is not a pasta fan to begin with  and  he  only tolerates squash because he has no choice in the matter. Anyway, this is a very simple,  quick, and cheap dinner  that is  also nice and healthy. And  thankfully, it tastes better than it looks.

 When I make this I  puree the squash after roasting or use already pureed squash that I have frozen. You can  however,  dice the squash,  roast and serve with bits of squash if you prefer. Most any winter squash or pumpkin can replace the butternut in the recipe, so don't be scared of changing it up. Most folks like to use bow ties or penne for the pasta, I use whatever I have on hand, why pay more for fancy shapes when it all tastes the same. In the recipe you will notice I have included choices for the liquid, the choice is yours as to what  is used. For creamier sauce, use cream or milk for a cheaper, less fattening sauce use veg. stock or water.

    1 butternut squash weighing about 2 1/2 pounds

    8 ounces of pasta

    1 tablespoon butter or olive oil

    1/3 cup of chopped shallots or green onion

        1/2-1 cup of heavy cream /milk/water/ or chicken stock

    1/8 teaspoon of grated nutmeg

    2 teaspoons of lemon juice

     Salt and pepper to taste

     2 teaspoons  fresh chopped sage

1/2 cup pine nuts or 1/2 cup parmesan cheese or 1/2 cup bread crumbs

Cook the pasta to au dente, drain, and set aside. Roast the squash, scoop out and puree. In  frying pan,  place butter and shallots and cook till translucent, add remaining ingredients and toss with pasta. The amount of liquid added will vary  depending on how thin or thick you want the sauce.  Add nuts, cheese or bread crumbs to top and serve. 

Served with a side salad this really does make a nice meatless  meal, don't let the picture fool you.  There are several other variations of this recipe out there. If you are not a fan of this one,  search  butternut pasta recipes and  an entire library of recipes will show up. Give them a try, they are a nice change from traditional sauces.

garden 2010-okra

 The okra  has been growing well through our hot, dry spell, and has begun producing like crazy in the last week or so. Most of our okra got eaten by deer last year, so I wanted to be sure and have enough this year, even if they ate a couple patches of it. I have 4, 8x4 foot beds and 4, 2x8 beds of it growing. Three of the beds are just beginning to flower this week and the rest are giving me about 3 quarts of okra per day. I have about 15 quarts frozen so far and am confident that I will get plenty more to get us through the winter.

This year we planted mostly Clemson spineless  along with a little bit of Alabama Red. The red okra is my favorite  of all the okras types I have tried. Big fat, tender pods  that could double as  Christmas ornaments, if Christmas was in  August.

Being the damned Yankee that I am, I had never  eaten  okra until I moved South. The first few times I ate it down here, I found it truly disgusting because of the slime factor. Since we started striving for sustainability, I had to learn to like okra, because it has so many uses on a homestead.  The pods can be eaten  fresh, dehydrated or frozen. The seeds in the pods can be dried and used like a pea, or dried, roasted  and used as a replacement for coffee.  Okra can also be used as a thickener in  some dishes, either in vegetable form or  dried and powdered. The critters all love okra pods and plants too so there is no waste in growing a lot of okra.

I have learned over time that the secret to okra is in the choosing when to harvest, the handling and cooking of  it.  Okra is best at about 3-4 inches in length. If you let it grow larger, it gets tough and tastes like shoe leather. Pick okra the day you plan on using it, if you must  store it in the fridge, rinse it off, pat dry and put in a bowl. Always handle and cut okra with dry hands and on a dry surface, the slime is nasty if you don't.

Many people  believe that okra is only good in gumbo, or coated with batter and deep fried. While  I too believed this for several years, those are my least favorite ways to eat okra these days. Very small pods, left whole, are excellent  in stir fries or steamed. The seeds after dehydration,  are very good in soups, stews, and rice dishes, and are a great way to use  the okra that got away. The "coffee" is my favorite coffee substitute. My favorite dish  for okra is  blackened okra. It is flash cooked,  very good and  can be served with most any  main dish or served over rice as a main dish.

Blackened okra

1lb okra (sliced in half down the middle)

2 tbsp butter

1 large onion (sliced or diced)

1 clove garlic (minced)

1 tsp paprika

dash cayenne or fresh  hot pepper

1/2 tsp  black pepper

salt to taste

In large frying pan or wok, heat butter until hot and starting to turn brown. Add all ingredients and fry for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, add salt and serve hot.

not my picture, mine are still stuck on the other comp.

simple supper-turbo burritos

 An internet friend posted one of her favorite easy dinners the other day and we eat something much the same  quite often. I never called them anything but food until  I saw them dubbed as turbo burritos. Since she is the one that posted the recipe I will direct you to her post rather than making one here.

 The only thing I do differently is that  I shred cabbage and place under the burritos  add green onions and  use paneer  or white cheese to top it with instead of cheddar.By adding a few more veggies it becomes a one dish meal. This is a very quick and easy meal to make and is pretty inexpensive  especially if you make all the ingredients from scratch rather than purchasing.

simple supper-lentil stew

Since we are having a cool and rainy  day  here today I decided to make us some lentil stew and corn dumplins for dinner tonight.  A nice, easy, hot meal that isn't overly heavy  yet is nutritious, filling, cheap and versatile, my kind of fare for a lazy and  relaxing day.

There are many different lentil soup and/or stew recipes out there and  I don't exactly follow any recipe in particular  but I always begin with a base mix of the following and throw it all in a crock pot. Cook times depend on what veggies you throw in  but 3-4 hours on high usually  covers it. Serve with salad and bread as a meal or thicken  and serve as a stew over biscuits, dumpling, bread or noodles.  Be creative  lentils are very versatile.

1-1/2 cups lentils

1 cup carrots sliced
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tbsp butter
15 oz can tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic

From this base I add other  spices, veggies, meat, rice or noodles even. Some of our favorites to add in are root veggies, although we tend to eat this in the winter months rather than now. A mild curry flavor is also nice as is adding Mexican flavors and veggies.  The Mexican  is especially  flavorful with corn  dumplins, almost like a pozole with corn tortillas  but not . Give it a Moroccan flare and throw some winter squash  or pumpkin cubes in. If your family needs to have meat with every meal, throw some diced bits of meat in, a little meat can go a long way in  dishes such as this.

Tonight our  stew is simply  the above  mentioned recipe with  some added spices and taters over corn dumplins. Total cost was the price  of the lentils (45cents),  flour(10 cents) and spices (10 cents). This will give us at least two meals  for the two of us and maybe even  three. It took me about 10 minutes to prepare everything   and get it cooking, now that is what I call simple.

For some very different lentil stews check these out.   For those that don't eat meat, simply omit it in the recipes, it is what  I do they are still very good. The only one that I have not made some sorts of variation of is the beer and bacon one. The rest are quite tasty and all are simple.

For corn dumplins just replace 1/2 of your flour in your favorite dumplin recipe with corn meal and cook as normal.  Here is the recipe I use for dumplins and they have not failed me yet. 

2 cups of white flour (not self rising, if using self rising omit baking powder and salt)

  (for corn dumplins use 1 cup flour and 1 cup corn meal)
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup of milk (or more)

 Mix all ingredients. Make sure your soup or stew is on a gentle simmer. Drop dumpling dough into the liquid by teaspoonfuls or for larger dumplings use a tablespoon. There's no need to worry about shaping perfect dumplings because they will puff up as they cook. Cover your pot with a lid so that the dumplings can steam. In crock pot this takes about 30 minutes on a stove 20.

simple supper-creamy root veg soup

I started out today going to make "grandmas turnip soup"  but I quickly realized as  per usual that the recipe would  not suit  our palettes in the way I wished and to be honest it was too white in color  to be  appetizing and appealing to the eye. My alterations to the recipe no longer left  it a turnip soup, it now turned it into a root veg soup.

creamy root veg soup

3 turnips cubed

2 medium potatoes cubed

3 slices bacon cut in small chunks or cooked in advance and crumbled

one medium onion diced small

1 medium carrot shredded or sliced thin

2 cups veggie stock  or 2 cups water and 3 bouillon cubes

2 tbsp flour

 dash pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

 cover potatoes and turnip with water and boil until tender .Drain off  all but about one  cup of the  water and Puree remainder with veggies  in food processor In the meantime in large sauce pan, cook bacon  drain off all but 2 tbsp fat,add onions  and saute.When done add the flour stir  and slowly add   the veg. stock, spices  and  all but a few tbsp of carrot. Heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes,reduce heat. Add milk and pureed root veg, stirring continuously until  mixed. Heat through and serve hot. Garnish with  some carrot bits and some green herbs. I used kale and parsley on ours. If you wanted to used bacos or some sort of substitute  or emit bacon altogether it would still be very good. Some cheddar cheese added in would be nice  as well. If i had thought about it I would have added a bit of parsnip too and it would have given a nice flavor.

This was  a very good recipe and made a thick,  hearty, tasty and very healthy  soup. I served ours with  toasted cheddar baguettes. It is a very cheap  meal to make. I think it could be a very versatile recipe depending on ratios of veggies you put in. Maybe  add some sun dried tomatoes and corn bits and serve with croutons.

simple supper-vegetarian tacos-lentil/rice taco filling

One of our  favorite meals here on the homestead is tacos. They make a great garden veggie using meal that is quick and easy yet mostly nutritious. Of all the things we eat tacos is probably one of our most served meals all year round. Unfortunately meat prices are crazy insane and one never knows what they are buying. Making bunny, goat or chicken tacos require some  time in preparing the meat to make it taco worthy. In the  busy months of the year that is not always an option  being that we only cook on wood and that requires tending. When I am busy working, walking back and forth 27 times to check food and tend fires does not a productive day make so I had to find a suitable alternative.

A couple years ago I ran across this recipe on hillbilly housewife and decided to try it. It quickly became one of our favorite healthy dishes to  make as well as an over all  good base recipe   for a wide  variety of meatless meat dishes and could slow cook all day long while we were out working.  When I make this recipe for 4 people I double it and get three meals and a snack or two out of it. Normally we do tacos twice then at least one meatless dish and often times two. With just the two of us  here  a single recipe will give us 4-5 meals. Pretty good for the price of a few lentils, some brown rice and some spices.

 lentil/rice taco filling

• 3/4 cup dry lentils
• 3/4 cup brown rice (do not substitute white rice, it just isn NOT the same)
• 4 cups  water
• 4 beef bouillon cubes (I don't like the msg so I make my own "bouillon" replacement)
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• I like to dice up onion and  jalapenos

In a 2-quart saucepan bring the water to a boil. As the water is heating, add all ingredients. Bring the whole thing to a nice fat boil. Reduce the heat to low. Place a lid on the lentils and allow the mixture to simmer for about 45 to 50 minutes. The water should be mostly absorbed.

  This recipe does very well in the crock pot on low for 7 to 8 hours or on  high for 3-4 hours. A double recipe fits nicely in the crock pot too.

For tacos, make some home made flour tortillas, add veggies, sour creme and home made salsa  and YUM!

pierogi

Pierogi are one of my favorite frugal recipes that I make. Not only are they delicious but they are very versatile. They can be boiled , deep fried or sauteed and can be filled with everything from sauerkraut , to meat or potatoes.They can be served as a main dish or side dish and in a myriad of ways from plain to extravagant. I have served pierogi with butter and cheese, tomatoes sauces, salsas and gravies. The worst part about making them is it is a bit time consuming to roll, fill and close allof them up. It makes a good afternoon family project and they freeze very well

Tonight I made mashed potato pierogi's with garlic and cheese as a one dish meal. I took a few pieces of bacon browned them up and crumbled. I then sauteed 2 large onions and two cups of chopped cabbage.When onions and cabbage were near tender I sliced two apples up and added that to the cabbage mixture and crumbled the bacon in. Heat through and serve over the pierogis.

recipe

2½ cups of flour

1 tsp salt

1 egg

2 tbs. sour cream

½ cup lukewarm water

Mix all ingredients together, and knead a bit. The dough should not be very smooth, and it should be quite sticky. Let stand covered for 1/2 hour before using. Take either all, or a portion of the dough, and roll it out until it is 1/16" thick. You will have to use plenty of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and rolling surface . Cut in to circles or squares and fill . Seal pocket completely and cook as desired.

Here is the site I get my dough recipe from. They have several recipes on different fillers for the pierogi and goes into much more detailed instruction. http://home.comcast.net/~dyrgcmn/Pierogi/pierogi.html