Groceries and Recipes a la Cheap

Each week we CANNOT go without:

pasta
rice
peanut butter
eggs
flour
bread
milk
*coffee*
spread (margarine)
chopped tomatoes
dolmio spaghetti sauce
onions
garlic


I have one day a week that is my cheap-I-didn't-want-to-think-I'm-too-tired meal.
I buy one jar of spaghetti sauce a week. We usually cook up some ground beef/mince (that's what it's called here), onion, and garlic and dump in the sauce. Boil up those 99c spaghetti noodles and voila. Dinner. Obviously the beef can be omitted. I've also learned that regular beef does very well in spaghetti, as does chicken pieces or chicken bits.

Two of our default foods here are stir fry and curry.

Curry (Nesi Drugu's recipe)
1lb (we use less) of meat (chicken, lamb, beef, fish, or shrimp) I'm sure this would work with tofu too, but I've never tried it.
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tomato diced (I use a can of chopped tomatoes just as well)
1/2 t cilantro/coriander
1/2 t cumin seeds
1/2 t mustard seeds
1-2 t curry powder (or 1 t tumeric and 2 t garam masala)
Salt & Pepper
onions
oil

Heat the oil, add the onions, garlic and tomatoes. When onion is transparent, add cumin and mustard seeds. Let sit 1 1/2 mins, Add meat and stir to mix. Let sit 1 min. Add curry powder, stir to coat. Cook 30-40 minutes. Add cilantro after 1/2 time and stir. Add S&P. I often add hot water while it simmers, otherwise it burns down. Or you can use a can of coconut milk/cream. Yummy. I like that best. Serve over rice. I love roti too, but that's a bit of a difficult concept to explain to the Western World.

It's easy. We bought the spices and I always have chopped tomatoes, onions, and garlic in the house. So it's my easy easy food. I wonder if you could do this with chickpeas for a vegetarian dish.

For stirfry - fry up your meat, garlic, and onion, add 1 T ginger powder and some pepper. Add your veges overtop and let them steam with a bit of water in the pan. Cook up your rice. Or if you're feeling adventurous, cook a package of spaghetti noodles, rinse, pour over a bit of oil, soy sauce, and 1 t ginger, and one diced clove of garlic. It's the easy way to Asian noodles.

More to come. Ha. If you ever come over to my house, you'll have my entire repertoire of food.... :)