Hearty Lentil Soup

Total Cost: Around $5, about 4 servings

I made this up a few weeks ago after thinking about what the fuck to make with all the random ingredients I had in my fridge/pantry. So I came up with this and it was way tasier than I thought it would be! It's very filling and nutritional and also VERY cheap. Each main ingredient costs around a dollar, provided you already have all the spices needed. I'm not even joking. You can also add 1/2 cup of barley about 10 min before adding the lentils for even more protein if you want.

• 5 cups of chicken stock/broth
• 1 cup of dried lentils, washed beforehand
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1lb yellow or red potatoes
• 1 head of kale, trimmed of stems and washed
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2.5 tbsp olive oil/vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup barley (optional)
• 1tsp lemon juice (optional)

Heat up the olive oil in a big pot. Dice the potatoes and the onions into about .5 inch cubes. Once the oil is hot, add the potatoes and onions and cook for about 5 min. Remember to mix every minute so the food doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot! Add all the spices and mix again. Cook until the potatoes are slightly easier to pierce a fork into (about 8 min). If using barley, add along with chicken stock, mix, bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 min. If not using barley, add the lentils and chicken stock. Mix around, bring to a boil, then bring back down to low, cover the pot with a lid, and let cook for 15 min. Add the kale and mix everything up, then let cook for another 5 min. Taste test before serving to see if you want to add the lemon juice. If it's good, then serve and enjoy!

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

My own spin on my mom's seafood gumbo recipe (but with chicken and sausage bc it's cheaper lol)

• 3 tbsp bacon fat (vegetable oil is fine if you don’t save your bacon fat)
• 1 lb chicken thigh/breasts
• 1 lb andouille sausage
• 3-4 cups chicken stock
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 tbps minced garlic
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 jalapenos (deseeded)
• 1 stick of butter (8 tbps)
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of rice (cook beforehand)
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tbps minced garlic
• Lemon juice (around 1tsp)
• Other spices that I never measure and I just guess lol: Dried parsley, thyme, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper
• Tabasco hot sauce (optional)
• Cookware needed: Cast iron skillet, big soup pot, whisk, wooden spoon

Chop up celery, jalapenos, bell pepper, and onion. Mix together in a bowl and set aside. In a cast iron pan, throw in the stick of butter on medium heat. Once butter is fully melted and is starting to bubble, turn heat down to low, add flour gradually, and start whisking the shit out of it for 15-20 min. DO NOT STOP WHISKING. And remember to get the sides! This is the roux. Roux should turn a nice even dark peanut butter-like color and consistancy and smell nutty. Once roux is done, add vegetables from earlier to it. Switch to a wooden spoon and keep stirring until veggies start getting soft. Remove the pan from the heat and put to the side for now. In a large non stick pot, add bacon fat on medium heat and let it melt. Cut up sausage and chicken and add to bacon fat. Add all your spices except the lemon juice, bay leaves, and thyme. Cook meat until it has that nice brown crispiness. Add chicken stock (enough to cover meat by about an inch) and bring to a boil. Once boiling, slowly add roux/veggie mixture and bring it to a boil again. Add bay leaves, thyme, lemon juice. Cover, turn to simmer, and let simmer for 20 min. Remove the cover and add hot sauce, salt, & pepper to taste. Remove the bay leaves and serve over rice!

King's Cowboy Beans

Grandpa's recipe :).You can use these in breakfast tacos, in chili, on nachos, on top of burgers or hot dogs, with a side of rice, etc. The ingredients are dumb cheap and you can freeze individual bags of beans to use for later.
Plz keep in mind though the beans need to simmer for eight hours and you need to check on the water level every hour or so, so only make this on the weekend of when you have a day off or something.

• 1 lb bag of dry pinto beans
• 2 1/2 cups beef broth/chicken broth/vegetable broth
• 1 smoked ham hock OR 1 lb pork neck bones OR pork jowl w/skin trimmed off
• 1 tbsp bacon grease (can substitute grapeseed oil or olive oil)
• 1 yellow onion
• 3/4 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 tbps minced garlic
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp mexican oregano
• 1 tsp majoram leaves
• 1 chipotle in adobo sauce or 1 jalapeno (optional)
• Cookware needed: Crock pot or slow cooker

Dice up the onion and cook over medium heat in a skillet with the oil/bacon grease. Cook until the onions turn translucent, then add cumin and garlic. Cook for 1 more min and then transfer to the crock pot. Add the ham hock/neck bones, beans, bay leaves, and broth to crock pot, mix everything up, cover, and cook on low for 7.5 hours. Make sure the check the water level every hour or so and add water when the level looks low for the first 3 hours, enough to cover the beans. Also remember to turn over the ham hock/bones every once in a while to cook it evenly. After 7.5 hours, discard ham hock/pork bones (if there's meat on there it should fall right off the bone). Add tomatoes, oregano, majoram, and chipotle/jalapeno. Also add Tabasco if you want. Mix up and cook for another 30 min. The whole mixture should have a creamy consistancy. Turn off crock pot and serve or let it cool off before putting the mixture in the fridge or later.

Dzik

This is a modified aztec recipe that is a kind of meat salad marinated in lime juice. I am shamelessly stealing this recipe from Rick Bayless's 'Mexico: One Plate At A Time' cookbook because that's what my dad did. The way my dad prepared and served dzik is slightly different from the way Rick Bayless does it though. Also this is one of the more expensive recipes on this page cause it uses flank steak specifically, which is one of the more costly cuts of beef.

• 1lb flank steak, trimmed and cut into 2-inch squares
• 2 cloves garlic, quartered
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1/4 tsp majoram
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/2lb red radishes
• 1 heirloom tomato
• Fistful of cilantro, chopped
• 2 jalapenos
• 6 tbsp lime juice
• 1 ripe avacado
• Tortilla chips for serving

Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan, add the squares of meat and skim off any grayish foam that rises to the top during the first few minutes of boiling. Add the garlic, bay leaves, herbs, a generous 1/2 teaspoon salt and half of the onion. Simmer over medium to medium-low heat for an hour or so, until the meat is tender. Let cool in the broth. Drain and discard all but the meat; then shred the meat into thin strands. Add shreaded meat to a glass serving bowl with the radishes, the rest of the onion, avacado, jalapenos, cilantro, tomato, and lime juice. Mix everything up and cover the bowl with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and let it marinate for an hour. Serve with chips and eat it like nachos!

"Loaded Ramen"

This is a meal I make when I don't have time or energy to make a full fledged dinner. Basically I take a pack of regular packaged ramen and add a bunch of shit to it. It might not be ""real""" authentic ramen, but who cares it tastes good lol. I get most of my ramen from H-Mart, so this recipe uses the good quality packaged ramen like Samyang Buldalk or Nongshim Neoguri but if you only have access to brands like Maruchan or something that also works! Also keep in mind that all of these ingredients are optional, it just depends on what you have in your fridge. The only nessecary ingredients for an actual dinner made of cheap ramen is the egg, and the veggies. Hell you don't even need fresh veggies. Just throwing in some frozen peas/carrots in the pot at the end is enough. That all said, this is how I normally repare my ramen packets!

• Packet of instant ramen
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1/2 cup sliced onion
• 1/2 cup kimchi
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 4 daikon radish slices
• pickled jalapenos
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• bacon
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 tsp soy sauce
• Various spices like paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper, whatever you want honestly
• Lime juice
• Frozen vegetables (if you don't have fresh veggies or kimchi)

If using bacon, cook it seperately and then set aside. Cook ramen according to instructions (but minus 1 min from what the instructions say the cook time is), and if using radish, add the radish into the ramen while it's boiling. While the ramen is cooking, heat up the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the mushrooms and onions. Once the mushrooms start to get soft, add the garlic, soy sauce, and spices. Cook for 1 min and then take the pan off the heat. Meanwhile, once the ramen is done cooking, take it off the burner and drain most of the water out. Add the pot back to the burner but lower the heat. Crack the egg into the pot and let it cook in the noodles. If using frozen vegetables, add them with the egg and stir the pot. Let the ramen cook for another minute and then transfer to a bowl. Add the mushroom/onion mix on top, along with kimchi, jalapenos, bacon, green onions, and any other toppings you want. Enjoy!