Basil-Cream Cheese Tart(lettes?)

Ingredients:
5 oz cream cheese (or another soft cheese, like marscapone or goat cheese)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Salt and Pepper
A handful of basil
1/3 cucumber sliced thinly into rounds
Cherry tomatoes, sliced
2/3 cup Bisquick


Tart Shells

1) Add about 1/4 cup of hot/boiling water to bisquick. Knead a little bit.

2) Portion into six equal pieces and roll out.

3) Fit into cupcake pans to make tart crusts

4) Bake at 350 degrees for about 15~20 minutes or until golden.

Filling:

1) Whip together cream cheese, yogurt, basil, salt and pepper (to taste).

Put it all together.

1) Fill each shell with a spoonful of the cheese mixture and top with cucumber and tomato slices.

Cost Breakdown.
Will come later... Maybe.
Probably around $2.50 for six. Or about $0.40 each.

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

Ingredients:

• Salt
• ¼~½ cup sugar
• ½ Serrano pepper
• A couple stalks green onion
• 1 ½ cups vinegar
• A couple cloves of garlic

I had pickled watermelon rinds at a restaurant one time and I really wanted to attempt it myself. Instead of throwing away the watermelon rinds from the melon salad I decided to pickle them.

1) Carefully peel the green skin off of the watermelon rind. I used a vegetable peeler. Be very careful.

2) In a bowl of cold water add salt, enough to make the water taste like the ocean.

3) Allow watermelon rind to brine for at least a few hours if not overnight. Drain the water.

4) Once brined add rind to a mixture of about equal parts vinegar and water with sugar add. If desired, you could boil the rinds in the water and vinegar but I like the crunch of the rinds.

5) Add sliced Serrano peppers, sliced green onions, and garlic to vinegar. Allow to sit for a couple of hours to pickle.

Calzones!!!

This is essentially the empanada recipe but with the filling changed out. To see how to make the dough check this post out. 

The only difference is that I didn’t want to make a bunch, just a couple so I only made half the recipe for the dough.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 cup Bisquick mix
• 1/6 cup hot water

Filling:

• 1/3 chicken breast, grilled
• Mozzarella cheese, shredded

“Marinara” Sauce:

• 6 ounces Tomato Sauces
• ½ onion
• ½ bell pepper (any color is fine)
• A couple stalks celery
• Italian Seasoning
• Basil
• Salt and Pepper

Marinara Sauce:
1) In a sauce pan cook down the aromatics (onion, bell pepper, celery) until they start to sweat.

2) Add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.

3) Add tomato sauce, and maybe a small amount of water.

4) Simmer for a bit. At the very end add basil.

Assembly:
1) Layer marinara sauce, cheese and chicken like a pizza. Then fold calzones closed and baked at 350 degrees for about 15~20 minutes until crust is golden brown. 

Side note 1: I sprayed the baking pan and the calzones with cooking spray before I put them in.

Cost breakdown:
Bisquick: $0.15x3= $0.45
Chicken: $1.19x 1/8 lb= $0.15
Mozzarella: $2.84/8= $0.36
Tomato Sauce: $0.99/3= $0.33
Onion: $0.20/2= $0.10
Bell Pepper: $0.30/2= $0.15
Celery: $0.89/10= $0.09
Basil: $0.07x3=

Total: $0.45+$0.15+$0.36+$0.33+$0.10+$0.15+$0.09+$0.21= $1.84 for 2
Total per Calzone: $1.84/2= $0.92

Sometimes I really miss home Part 2 of 2

Another “I miss San Diego” Recipe

Ingredients:

• 8 Extra Small Avocadoes, or as many medium or large ones as you want
• ¼ Medium Onion, diced
• Juice of 1 Lime
• The acidity in lime/lemons prevent avocados, bananas, and apples from oxidizing and turning brown too quickly
• ½ Jalapeno, seeded and de-veined based on preference 
• Salt

1) Cut avocados in half, remove seeds.
Side note 1: An easy way to pick a ripe avocado is to push a little bit into the fruit. It should give a little bit to the touch but not too soft. If the market doesn’t have any ripe avocados either wait for ripe ones or take the unripe avocados and stick them in a brown grocery bag for a few days.

Side note 2: An easy way to harvest avocado meat is to use a spoon and scoop out flesh.

2) Combine all ingredients. I used a potato masher to easily pulverize the avocados.

Cost Breakdown:
Avocadoes: $0.10x8= $0.80
Onion: $0.20/4= $0.05
Lime: $0.10
Jalapeno: $0.08/2= $0.04

Total: $0.80+$0.05+$0.10+ $0.04 =$0.99

Sometimes I really miss home Part 1 of 2

I’m originally from San Diego and therefore a huuuuuuuge fan of Mexican food. I gotta be real with everyone, the Mexican food in Northern California just isn't the same. To fix my cravings I decided to make some salsa. You can’t do much better than some fresh salsa/pico de gallo (unless it's the pico de gallo that you're Mexican friend's grandma made, because that is bar none the best).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced.
• ¼ medium onion, diced.
• 3 cubes frozen cilantro (or fresh)
• 2 cloves garlic
• Juice of 1 lime
• ½ Jalapeno, seeded and deveined based on preference
• Salt, to taste

1) Combine all ingredients. Serve with chips, or tacos, or on top of really anything that needs a bright acidic punch.

Delicious!

Cost breakdown:
Tomatoes: $0.89/2= $0.45
Lime: $0.10
Garlic: $0.06x2 cloves= $0.12
Onion: $0.20/4= $0.05
Jalapeno: $0.08/2= $0.04
Cilantro: $0.015x3 cubes= $0.05

Total: $0.45+$0.10+$0.12+$0.05+ $0.04+ $0.05= $0.81

Bread Pudding

For as much as I hate baking, I've done it a few times already...

Anyway, is bread pudding technically Southern?

Ingredients:

2 (stale) Croissants
1 ½ cups milk
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
Dried blueberries
½ cup sugar

1: Chop croissants into 1 inch cubes

2: Mix together milk cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and eggs.

3: Toss croissants with blueberries

4: Fill cupcake/muffin tins with croissants/blueberries

5: Fill each tin with milk concoction. The bread should basically be drowning.

6: Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until toothpick cleanly slides into and out of a muffin.

Cost breakdown:
I work at a coffee shop/café and we have a bunch of these things lying around. At the end of the day we throw out old pastries so I didn’t want them to go to waste.

In addition I took some cinnamon, nutmeg, and blueberries (we have some for the oatmeal we sell). The only things I really provided myself were the milk and eggs.

So basically these bread pudding muffins were free, kinda. 

Curried Beef Empanadas

My brother has a theory that every culture has a dish where meat is cooked inside some kind of dough. I think he might be onto something.

Today I went for curried beef empanadas! Aka, another Bisquick recipe (feels like I haven’t had one in a while, no?)

Ingredients:

• ¼ lb beef
• 1 potato
• ½ onion
• 2 gloves garlic
• 1 ½ tablespoons curry powder
• 1/8 small head of napa cabbage
• 1/3 cup milk (not pictured)
• 2 cups Bisquick
• ½ cup of boiling water

Side note I: I forgot I was going to use some shiitake mushroom, so I didn’t. It’d probably be good though.

1) Peel and slice potato into small cubes.

2) Mince onion and garlic.

3) Shred cabbage.

4) In a small skillet, cook garlic, onion, and garlic. Cook until potatoes are cooked through.

5) Add beef.

6) Add cabbage.

7) Add curry powder.

8) Add milk (to smooth out the flavor of the curry mixture).

9) Set beef mixture aside and allow to cool.

10) Mix Bisquick with hot water. Roll into a ball. Add more bisquick if too watery.

11) Cut into about six equal parts. I had a little of stuffing left over so I would try and get seven parts.

12) Spread dough out into about 2 ½~ 3 inch diameters.

13) Fill each with a heaping tablespoon or so of the meat mixture.

14) Seal off each empanada.

15) Coat the bottom of a pan with oil/butter/cooking spray to prevent stickage. I also brushed each empanada with some melted butter to make them brown pretty.

16) Cook for about 20~30 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown.

Cost breakdown:

• ¼ lb beef: $2.69/2= $1.34
• 1 potato: $0.06
• ½ onion: $0.20/2= $0.10
• 2 gloves garlic: $0.03x2= $0.06
• 1 ½ tablespoons curry powder: $0.05
• 1/8 small head of napa cabbage: $0.52/8= $0.07
• 1/3 cup milk (not pictured): $0.30/3= $0.10
• 2 cups Bisquick: $0.15x6= $0.90

Total: $1.34+$0.06+$0.10+$0.06+$0.05+$0.07+$0.10+$0.90= $2.68
Total per empanada: $2.68/6= $0.45 each

Potato "Chips"

Now if only I had some fish... it'd be a meal.

• 1 Russet Potato
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• Pinch of Chili Powder
• Salt, pepper, oil.

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2)Thinly slice the potatoes.

Side note I: If you plan not using the potatoes stick them in water to avoid oxidization
Side note II: I left the skin on, there’s lots of fiber there

3) Layer on cookie sheet. Drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Cook for 20~30 minutes.

Done!

Cost Breakdown:

• 1 Russet Potato $1.09/18= $0.06 per potato
• My 5lb bag of potatoes had 18 potatoes in it
• 2 Cloves of Garlic $0.48/18= $0.03 per clove 
• $0.03x2=$0.06
• My head of garlic had 18 cloves in it
• Pinch of New Mexico Chili Powder

Total: $0.06+$0.06=$0.12