If we can cook it, you can cook it!

Category: Inexpensive Meals

Sirloin Steak Kebabs with Green Peppers, Mushrooms and Onions

Sirloin Steak Kebabs with Green Peppers, Mushrooms and Onions

Summer Cooking doesn’t get much easier than this. When I saw Sirloin at our supermarket for $2.99 a lb., I couldn’t let it pass by.  When we were on a limited budget, I gravitated towards this cut of beef for its down-to-earth price and great…

Lemon Spaghetti with Genova Tuna and Breadcrumbs

Lemon Spaghetti with Genova Tuna and Breadcrumbs

This dish may be the least expensive meal we’ve ever featured. This recipe has so much going for it. It’s hard to how budget-friendly it is. The total cost of the dish was $15.51.  Break that down and if you’re serving four, it’s $3.82 per…

Tuscan Bean Soup

Tuscan Bean Soup

This bowl of cold-weather comfort revealed quite a secret. This hearty Tuscan bean soup is a perfect combination of smooth, silky soup topped with crispy, crunchy croutons.  It also fulfills our promise to put more plant-based meals together this year. And we’re not alone.  Americans…

Yankee Pot Roast

As we head into winter, what could be better than a Yankee Pot Roast for dinner one of these weekends.  Slow-cooked over a period of hours, the relatively inexpensive cut of meat used in the dish becomes meltingly tender. The sauce created lends itself to…

The Ultimate Inexpensive Dinner Party Dish: Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken with Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

The Ultimate Inexpensive Dinner Party Dish: Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken with Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Martha Stewart: Sheet Pan Expert For some time I’ve been intrigued by the concept of the Sheet Pan dinner. Basically all the ingredients—protein, vegetables, herbs and spices–are cooked on one large sheet pan.  Martha Stewart seems to be an expert in this regard.  She frequently…

Short Ribs in a Cinnamon and Red Wine Sauce: An East Indian take on a North American Classic

Short Ribs in a Cinnamon and Red Wine Sauce: An East Indian take on a North American Classic

A Fusion between Indian-inflected Spices and Great Canadian Beef           This was one of the first posts I published back in 2010 when I started to blog.  Because my readership was nowhere near what it is now, I should not have…

Beef Pot Roast with Mushrooms and a Balsamic Sauce

   Let’s be honest:  Balsamic Vinegar has taken the place of red sauce Italian in terms of being found almost too often.   It’s unfortunate too that America’s love affair with this ingredient is so completely antithetical to the way it’s used in Italy.  There, it…

Pork and Poblano Tamale Pie

        “The Joy of Cooking” was one of the first cookbooks I was ever aware of.  It, along with Boston Cooking School Cookbook (aka Fanny Farmer), the enormous Gourmet Cookbooks Volumes 1 and 2, and something called “The Encyclopedia of Canadian Cooking” (yes, Encyclopedia) formed…

Turkey Meat Loaves with Red Pepper Sauce

         I first wrote this post way back in 2010 when the blog was still quite new.  This year, Memorial Day put a crimp in my writing as we were up to our ears in gardening and celebrating the start of our…

Chicken Paillards with Lemon Caper Sauce and Orzo with Spinach and Hazlenuts

Chicken Paillards with Lemon Caper Sauce and Orzo with Spinach and Hazlenuts

        For one of the easiest dishes on this entire website, this one certainly has the longest name.  It is simplicity itself and I go to this dish every time I’m really pressed for time.  It’s amazingly flexible. If you’re not a fan of capers,…

Coriander Dusted Roast Beef

When I was growing up in Canada, Sunday was almost invariably the day when a giant roast beef would appear at the dinner table surrounded by crisp, brown roasted potatoes.  My personal preference was to eat as much rare roast beef as my father would…

Braised Chicken Thighs with “Pizza Spices”

        I don’t know about you but sometimes I think if I have to look at another skinless, boneless breast of chicken, I’d like to give up the bird altogether.  And yet a woman in my Food Writer’s boot camp says that, almost…