Cheap Cookin'

Tonight I made mango ice cream.  It was quite a success.  \o/   Here is the recipe.  The mangoes were only $.50 each, and I spent a few dollars more on milk and cream.  Total cost was probably less than $5 for a tub of very tasty gourmet ice cream.  :D  Certainly you can get ice cream cheaper, but you cannot get great  ice cream much cheaper.

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In a rare triumph of justice over corporate fraud, StarKist Tuna has been convicted of underfilling cans. If you bought their tuna since 2009, you can file a claim for $25 cash or $50 in tuna.

What can you do with $50 of canned tuna?

Curried Tuna Sandwiches
Fisherman's Pie
Tuna Quesadillas (if some people don't like salsa, serve it on the side)
Tuna Stuffed Mushrooms

Canned Tuna Recipes (Allrecipes)
Canned Tuna Recipes (Allyou)
Canned Tuna Recipes (Epicurious)
StarKist Recipes

Tuna is high in protein, relatively low in fat, and a cheap way to add meat to your dishes.

This is one of the things that we made for supper tonight.

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For your holiday enjoyment ...

Here are some classic Thanksgiving recipes and instructions.  These are recipes for people eating alternative diets.

Know where to find cooking measurement equivalents and ingredient substitutions.  My favorite substitution?  Tapioca starch!  It's my favorite thickener for sauces, slightly sweet and very glossy, much less hassle than cornstarch or wheat flour without that pasty flavor.

Practice safe turkey.

Give thanks with prayers from various faiths and nondenominational gratitude prayers.  Here's a huge list of Thanksgiving blessings of all kinds.

Stay sane during family gatherings and accommodate special needs.  Give people something to do with family bonding activities.

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?  What are you thankful for?

Today I made two things with apple flavor.

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Today we got some free persimmons, so I made this. I probably put less than $1 of other ingredients in, so yay, almost-free dessert!

When I was little, my grandmother and I used to pick up persimmons from an empty lot near her house, and they are still pretty easy to find out in the world if you know what to look for: a medium-sized tree that drops most of its leaves and then has lots of little orange balls hanging from it. Pick them off the ground, not the tree. Persimmons make good pies, cakes, or persimmon butter. 

Does anyone else have a favorite persimmon recipe to share?  Now's the time to hunt for them.

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Read a spice guide. Not quite every spice we use is listed here, but most of them are. I'm surprised and pleased by the multicultural coverage.  When your food budget is limited, it pays to spend on spices -- a little bit goes a long way, and they can really change up the flavor of otherwise bland cheap foods.

The winter squash are beginning to ripen.  Know what to do with them.  They are cheap and filling, with bright cheerful colors.

In addition to specific recipes, I like to make cooking algorithms. Looking at my recent Barley Chicken Skillet Dish, I was inspired to make tonight's Beef and Barley Skillet Dish. Then I figured that I might as well just write down the algorithm too, so you can see how the mix-and-match concept works.

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I made this for supper tonight, and it turned out very tasty.

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