So you’re broke. All you can afford is non brand name Kraft Dinner and Crazy Ramen soup from the Asian corner store. Well I cook a lot…I mean a lot. So the 6 of us here in Revelstoke have been getting creative with what’s cheap…Not like KD is bad or anything…Check out the easy recipes down below for some cheap tasty treats!

Simple French Onion Soup…5 ingredients.

Onions: So have you ever went down to the grocery store and actually looked at how cheap a sac of onions is? It’s about $8 for 10kg of onions. That’s a lot of onions…and this requires very few onions in comparison.

Beef Stock: You know those little bouillon cubes, OXO packages…I believe it’s about $4 for a bunch of them. Depending on how many people you are feeding and how strong you want your soup this can last you a while if you stock up on them.

Thyme: Dried thyme is fine for this application, just buy a big dried canister of it for $5 and it’ll take a while to finish it.

Salt:If you don’t already have this…GO BUY IT. Season your food! Food tastes bland? Add salt and pepper!

Pepper: READ ABOVE!!!

Step 1: Cut up about 7-8 medium sized onions (yellow) for 5 people into small strips. Take the onion, cut off both ends, peel the skin, and cut it in half. Cut it from top to bottom, top being one of the ends. Then just cut into thin strips(half rings as thin as possible, knife width).

Step 2:Put all the onions in a big pot, turn the heat up to medium high and just let them cook, no oil or butter. Light burning on the bottom of the pot is ok, just stir occasionally. Take another smaller pot, fill it with 2l of water or so, as much as you want soup. Let it Boil.

Step 3: Once the water boils and add as many packages as you need, the package will say how many packages your amount of water you need. Once the onions are golden and soft, very reduced add the stock.

Step 4: Stir and scrape the bottom of the pot to take off the burnt stuff if you have any. Add 2 Tbsp..30ml..2 actual tablespoons. Taste your soup…It should taste good..and like french onion soup now. Now use your better judgement and add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 5: Eat…Now with real french onion soup you could put it in little oven proof bowls and put  big piece of bread on the bowl shaped like a circle and then cover it in either mozzarella, asiago or gruyere cheese. The put it in the oven till the cheese is browning and melted, then remove and eat like that, Amazing!

Sweet & Savory Pork Bites A.K.A Dog Food

So the story behind this recipes truely ‘enticing’ title derives from the initial reaction to the appearance of the meal when I placed it down in front of my best friend. “This looks like dog food…” He then proceeds to take a bite. “Best dog food I’ve ever had!” And he knows dog food, well cat food…He’s had some bad party dares in his past. But don’t let this or the strange combination of ingredients deter you, the payoff is in the flavor.

Ingredients:

Mustard: If you don’t have a big jar or bottle of no named mustard in your bachelor fridge, you haven’t lived. I never liked mustard as a kid, it tasted sharp, very strong and was yellow…I didn’t like bananas either. But now I see mustard as a strong, complex and deep flavor that’s cheap and can be mixed with many spiced to make an intriguing ingredient in many simple applications…such as this sauce.

Ketchup: Same as mustard but for a different reason, a good base to many barbecue sauces is in ketchup, it has a lot of the basic elements of a basic barbecue sauce, sweet, savory and a approachable familiar color. Ketchup combined with mustard is a great combination as seen in Hot Dogs and Hamburgers…But this is no tailgate party.

Onions: If you’ve read my French onion soup recipe you’ll understand why these might be the most well used $7 you’ll ever use at the grocery store. Onions are used in a ton of applications and are a great start to almost any sauce of the savory variety. The aromatics of onions and garlic make the mouth water of any person residing within sniffing distance of your kitchen. Get these!

Garlic: Same as onions, the smell of freshly sautéed garlic is one of my favorite smells, too much garlic does not exist…your girlfriend/boyfriend or significant other will not agree when it is fresh on your breath, but fight for it! I would be lying if i I said I used less then 7 bulbs of garlic a month at the least!

Sage: Oh sage! This i another thyme like ingredient. Through my short time as an avid cook, I have found that I am very comfortable with using certain spices, basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme and other common spice blends, but not so much with other more exotic and potent varieties. My experience with sage is mostly of the nasal variety, smelt it many times but mostly never used it. As I was creating this sauce, I smelled sage and for once, I said yes and the wonderful flavor it endowed this dish is awesome. I hope to be using this spice more often. Like thyme, just buy a small cheap jar of the dried stuff, it works well and that’ what I’m using.

Chili Powder: You must like chili! Come on?! This wonderful cheap spice blend adds a nice smoky heat to any dish without setting your patrons’ mouths on fire. It beats red pepper flakes and hot sauce out of the water if you’re not sure if your mates can deal with a sting…and really this dish doesn’t need it.

Salt and pepper: If you dont have a pepper mill with fresh pepper corns and a salt mill with koscher salt, GET THEM! No questions.

Pork: So down at my grocery store, a local branch of save on foods, they have some pretty wicked deals…on pork…just pork. At first I was skeptical to say the least to drop $20 on 5kg of pork chops and believe I could eat that many chops without going crazy, but I managed to fashion almost 13kg of pork into tons of great meals that are all miles apart in flavor and texture.  It’s cheap, you usually cook it to one temp so you won’t have to cater to all your guests wants and needs on steak doneness. It’s easy to tell if its cooked as well, they don’t call it the other white meat for nothing. Tenderloin and chops are your best bet for $/kg value in your local market.

Step 1: Take your defrosted meat (about a medium size chop per person, or 1.5 for the larger sized meal) and remove all(most) of the meat off the bones. For pork tenderloin, this stip is not needed as tenderloin is boneless.

Step 2:Cut up all your meat into bite sized shapes..for the dog food effect, get neat and make them all cube shaped, takes a bit more finesse but will make a slightly more shocking product.

Step 3:Dice up a medium sized yellow onion and 5 medium sized cloves of garlic and saute them until brown in oil on medium low. Use a large skillet with a lid preferably to help speed up cooking and allow even cooking.

Step 4:Once brown, add 1 cup of ketchup and 1/2 cup of mustard. I’m not completely sure about this, I don’t usually measure but about a 2:1 ratio that covers all your meat is what you’re looking for. Then add 1 tbsp of chili powder and 2 tsp of sage. Add salt and pepper to taste, be generous as it will make the flavor increase exponentially.

Step 5:Add meat to the sauce and toss the pork till well covered, cover and wait till pork is done but still tender. If you want the best ‘dog food’ possible, make the sauce, cool it and then add the pork to it and let it marinate for 24hrs in the fridge, then proceed to cook it slow till done. And if you want the pork to melt in your mouth, beat the pork with a  meat hammer once removed from the bones to help tenderized it even more.

Step 6:Serve over rice (cheap) or over any starch or vegetables you enjoy, add the left over sauce for anyone who likes it saucy, and add some hot sauce for people with fire retardant mouths. This eccentric flavor will leave you thinking like you were at the end of Donnie Darko.