Cheap Easy Cooking: A to Z

Easy cooking is a necessity for those who work long hours as well as for those learning to cook. Cheap Easy cooking is becoming a necessity for more people as the economy declines. Cooking lessons are often geared to the more complicated foods instead of the easy ones. This alphabetical series of lessons will focus on cheap easy cooking ideas. Recipes and tips will be provided to help the novice learn to cook or to help the experienced cook for easy methods for their cooking.

Cheap Easy Cooking Lesson A focuses on Almost Homemade items. Almost homemade can have a variety of definitions but it boils down to making a meal at home that is not totally from scratch. Using some convenience foods makes it easy cooking while cooking at home as opposed to eating out makes it cheap cooking. Almost homemade may mean dressing up a boxed meal to make it more palatable, or making some portions of a recipe from scratch ingredients but others from store bought products. This cheap easy cooking lesson provides five recipes you can use to begin almost homemade meal planning. These five recipes give you a starting point for thinking of other similar type menu items you might be able to add to your almost homemade collection. If you watch the store sales for the items listed below, or other easy cooking items, you may be able to change your favorite easy cooking recipe into a cheap easy meal.

Cheap Easy Cooking Item One:

Almost Homemade Jell-O Fruit Salad:

Ingredients:

Lime premade Jell-O, 6 cup pack in the refrigerated section

1 small can crushed pineapple

1 small ready made whipped topping (Cool whip or other brand)

1 can sliced pears

Instructions: Empty the Jell-O into a serving bowl. Chop up into pieces. Drain the pineapple and add to the Jell-O. Drain the pears, chop in small pieces and add to the Jell-o. Toss whipped topping in with Jell-o mix and chill until ready to serve.

Cheap Easy Cooking Item Two

Almost Homemade Ham and Potato Chowder:

Ingredients:

Cubed Ham

Green Onions

Cooking oil

Au-gratin Potatoes

Milk

Instructions:

Cook chopped green onions and ham together in a small amount of cooking oil, over medium high heat. This only takes a minute or two, since the ham is already cooked. The stir frying of the two items together helps to meld the flavors. Scoop the ham and onions out with a slotted spoon and add to a pot for the chowder. Next, over low heat, you should warm up 5 cups of milk. When the milk is warm add the sauce packet from the au-gratin potatoes. Bring this mix to a boil stirring so it does not stick. Stir in the potatoes and reduce the heat to medium. Heat for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally to be sure the potatoes and ham do not stick. By using different flavor of au-gratin potatoes the soup will be different each time you make it. You can also substitute chopped chicken for the ham. Consider using left over ham to make this easy meal a cheap easy one.

Cheap Easy Cooking Item Three

Almost Homemade Macaroni and Cheese:

Homemade Mac and Cheese is an all time favorite in our house but it takes a long time to make. The easy cooking solution starts with two boxes of Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese. Buying the store brand or the on sale brand makes this a cheap easy cooking meal. Cook the noodles according to the box, drain and add the cheese pouch. Stir until totally mixed. Take a couple of serving spoons full of the cheesy noodles and lay in a 9X13 dish. Layer some chopped ham over the noodles. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the ham. Continue to layer noodles, ham and cheese with cheese being the final layer. Bake in oven pre-heated to 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Cheap Easy Cooking Item Four

Almost Homemade Taco Rice:

Ingredients:

Boil in Bag rice

Pre-seasoned taco meat (usually found close to sandwich meats)

Bag of shredded lettuce

Chopped tomatoes

Shredded cheese

Taco sauce

Instructions:

Cook the boil in bag rice according to the package directions. Make enough rice to have 1 cup per person. Heat the premade taco meat. When rice is done, drain and put one cup in a bowl per person. Top with the taco meat. Add all other toppers to the table so everyone can add the ingredients they like. Make this meal into a cheap easy cooking meal by using left over taco meat which you seasoned and cooked yourself.

Cheap Easy Cooking Item Five

Almost Homemade Meatballs and Gravy:

Meatballs are a favorite in my family also. I try to make them ahead and keep in the freezer but am not always successful. As an easy solution for a meal when I don't have them in the freezer, I buy a bag of premade ones from the freezer section of the grocery store. In comparison to the cost of buying ground beef these prepackaged meatballs can be a cheap meal addition. These can be placed in the crock pot with two cans of cream of mushroom soup and turned on low for 4 to 6 hours. If you do not have a crock pot, dump the meatballs in a baking dish and add the soup with about a half can of water. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Check a meatball to be sure they are hot all the way through. The soup becomes gravy and you can serve this over noodles or rice.

Almost homemade items allow you to provide a meal to your family without buying take out. Eating at home using cheap easy cooking can help you make ends meet in tough financial times. Think about the items you like to eat and consider what the easy cooking solution to them would be. Take that one step further and research a way to turn that into cheap easy cooking.