Recipe: Lazy Lasagna

Photo yoinked from Best Recipe.

Another cheap and easy recipe, name courtesy of my friend Colene's mom. I make this casserole every couple of weeks and it serves me and the manfriend for three generous meals apiece, at only about $2.50 a pop. You'll need:

1 lb. ground beef (grass fed, I beg you) or ground buffalo
red pepper flakes
salt
24 oz. (1½ bags) whole wheat penne, ziti, rigatoni, etc., whatever casserole-friendly pasta you like
2 jars pasta sauce (I like Trader Joe's tomato basil marinara)
15 oz. ricotta cheese
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Makes 6–8 servings.

This recipe works great split between two casserole dishes—one for now, one to freeze for an easy dinner at a later date. I use two different-sized dishes, but two 9"x9" dishes or one very large lasagna dish will work just as well.

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Brown beef in a sauce pan and drain excess fat. Season with red pepper flakes and salt.

3. Parboil pasta—it will soften the rest of the way as it bakes.

4. Mix beef, pasta, and sauce together. Dole half of it into the dishes.

5. Add ricotta one spoonful at a time, spacing blobs of it on top of the pasta / sauce / beef mix in each dish.

6. Dole the rest of the beef / pasta / sauce mix into dishes, covering the ricotta.

7. Add a layer of mozzarella to each dish. Cover each with foil, putting one in the freezer for later.

8. Bake for about 35 minutes with foil on (if cooking the second dish straight from the freezer without thawing, it will take far longer.) Remove foil and bake until cheese browns, about 15–20 minutes.

9. Om nom nom.

Easy Lunch on the Cheap

If you're lucky enough to live close to a Trader Joe's, I've got a quick and easy, low-calorie lunch suggestion for you. Provided I have the three simple components stocked, I eat this for lunch every damn day:

1 box Trader Joe's Creamy Corn and Roasted Red Pepper Soup
1 TJ's Spicy Jalapeño Chicken Sausage, chopped into tiny pieces
¾ cup TJ's frozen organic sweet corn

The chicken sausage is already cooked, so just toss all that in a saucepan, grind some black pepper in, warm it up, and you've got two meals' worth of healthy, filling soup—and for only about 300 calories and less than two bucks per serving. It also freezes and reheats beautifully.

Unseasonable Recipe: Chicken Stew

Nothing says August in the Northern Hemisphere like a steaming bowl of homemade chicken stew! Perhaps not, but times are tough and belts are tight, and chicken thighs are cheaper than breasts, so stew happens. So why not cool off on a hot summer's evening with a heaping helping of my personal recipe? Forgive the less than gorgeous photo, but I'm so not a cookbook photographer.

Ingredients
4 chicken thighs (cage-free organic if you want to go to heaven)
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup potatoes, chopped into dice-sized blocks
½ cup carrots, chopped
½ cup onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
fistful of frozen peas
fistful of frozen corn
1 bell pepper (I like red) chopped
optional extras: chopped mushrooms, zucchini, squash, cauliflower, etc.
½ cup flour, white or whole wheat
1–5 tbsp cornstarch (depends on how thick you like your stew)
salt and pepper

Directions
1. Cut chicken in to bite-sized chunks. In a large pot, simmer chicken in stock until the meat is cooked. You can also cook the bones down…I hear it's very tasty but I buy boneless so I have no advice about how to go about that.

2. Add all the veggies except the peppers and optional zucchini or squash (they'll get overly soft if they stew too long). Turn burner to low and cover.

3. Simmer 30–45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until carrots and potatoes are soft.

4. Add final veggies and sift in flour. Stir.

5. Sprinkle cornstarch in one tablespoon at a time, to avoid homely white lumps. Stir between sprinklings, to give stew time to thicken to your liking. Once you've reached this step, be sure to stir regularly, scraping the bottom of the pot. If it thickens too much, just add some water or broth.

6. Add salt, pepper and other spices (I like adding pakrika) to taste.

7. Stir and taste until final veggies are softened.

This stew goes great with crusty bread, or dished over rice or mashed potatoes. It also makes a great chicken pot pie filling, perhaps with a bit more cornstarch added for thickness.

Champs on the Cheap

Anyone who's known me for ten minutes knows I'm exceedingly cagey about advertising and product placement, so rest assured, any merchandise you see on this blog is stuff I stumbled upon myself and paid for.

Anyhow, given my new resolution to post short and often, I thought it might be fun to share affordable food and drink gems I come across as I go about my thrifty business. The other day I had a hankering for white wine, and I usually buy Barefoot, as it's the most potable, wallet-friendly brand my corner bodega sells.

It was a particularly steamy afternoon and I didn't want to wait around for a bottle to cool in the fridge, so I headed for the store's chilled bottles. At first—defeat! None of the Barefoot whites were stocked in the cooler. Oh but wait, there were some…but these were fancier bottles! Brut Champagne, and bubbling whites and a rosé. For nine measley bucks, I'd happily take my white with fizz. Bonus—I'd just finished rereading Valley of the Dolls for the millionth time, and a chance to play Neely (minus the pills and self-destruction) was welcome. I bought the pinot grigio variety, and though my palate is less than expert, I loved it. As good as twenty-dollar Champagne to my happily ignorant tastebuds. I highly recommend it.