Now that the Turkey day is gone, one of the delicous ways to use stock made out of leftover turkey is to use it to make this delicious Chili.

Ingredients:

• Homemade Turkey Stock, 3 cups,  (can be also chicken or beef stock)
• Celery, 2 stalks, large (11″-12″ long)
• 1 Large Onion
• 4 Garlic cloves
• Beans, black (cooked) , 1 cup
• Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)- (cooked), 1 cup
• Del Monte Diced Tomatoes, 1 can, drained
• Chili Powder, 2 tablespoons

Cut celery, onion and garlic to small pieces and saute couple of minutes in little it olive oil. Add drained diced tomatoes, cooked beans, stock and the chili powder. Get it up to boil then turn down and simmer for an hour.

Serve with sour cream if desired.

Note about beans. First off, you can use different beans than I did. You can use just one kind, or you can use even more variety. Second, dry beans are very economical but they take a long time to cook. I always cook a large pot at one time and then measure them out to small sandwich bags and then to large freezer bag to freeze. When ever I want to make a dish with beans, I just grab the number of bags and the type of beans I want to use, let it unfreeze, or if I am in a hurry, just dump the frozen beans into the hot mix and soon I have delicious and economical dish.

In making this bread, I do not use any special equipment, just plain old oven, the pan that came with it, some old cookie sheets, and 5qt plastic bucket that I got by buying ice cream in it. The secret of the best outcome is the hot oven and steam that is produced by adding hot water to the pan for baking. This incredibly tasty bread is very easy to make, extremely affordable but needs a little planning ahead to have ready when you want it. Like everything in life, you cannot get cheap, fast and well done all at once. In this case, this bread does not take a lot of time to make but requires couple of days (each time just minutes) to get the result desired. OK, ready to make some bread…

• 3 cups of lukewarm water
• Yeast, 1 tables spoon ($ 0.05)
• Salt, 0.75 table spoon ($ 0.01)
• Flour, whole wheat, 0.75cup ($ 0.13)
• Rye flour, light, 0.75 cup ($ 0.24)
• Flour, white, 4.5 cup ($ 0.48)

Total cost $  0.91 or $ 0.23 per loaf.

Mix all ingredients in the 5quart ice cream bucket or any other large enough bucket with lid.  Cover with lid and let stand in the room temperature for 2 hours.

The dough should have at least doubled by the time two hours has passed.

Dough is supposedly ready to be baked at this time but I have never attempted that. I always leave the dough in the refrigerator for overnight.

When ready to bake, take one quarter of dough and shape to your liking (This recipe makes four 1 pound loves).  Dust the dough with some flour and make sure your hands have flour as well, that makes it easier to shape and help the dough not stick to your hands. Put the shaped dough on the lightly dusted pan to rise ( I use cornmeal for dusting).

Let stand in room temperature for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat oven to 450°. Once the oven is ready and it has been at least 30 minute for the dough to relax/raise, dust the dough with flour and slash,  get as hot water from your tap than you can and as quick as possible ( so that oven does not cool) put the hot water on the pan on the lower shelf and put the dough baking on the upper shelf.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Try to wait a little for the bread to cool before cutting. I know it is hard but you will not burn yourself and it will be little easier to cut the bread as well

Ingredients:

• Potato, 3 small
• Beets, 1 beet
• Carrots, 2 medium
• Egg, 2 large
• Herring, 7 oz, boneless
• Peas, canned, 1.5 cup
• Sour Cream, 1 cup
• Mayonnaise, regular, 0.25 cup
• Onions, raw, 0.5 medium
• Dill Pickles, 1 medium
• Apples, fresh, 0.5 large

Boil potatoes, carrots, beets and eggs. Cool. If you have cleaned herring, cut to small pieces. Chop the rest of the vegetables and eggs to small pieces as well.

Mix in sour cream and mayonnaise.  Enjoy

I used the same dough recipe as I used for cheese buns for making this carrot bread.  In fact the other half of the dough that I made for the cheese buns was used to make this carrot bread.

Carrot bread filling ingredients:

• Carrots, raw, 1 lb ($ 0.80)
• Butter, salted, 50 grams, melted ($ 0.09)
• Egg, fresh, 2 large ($0.18)
• Granulated Sugar, 2 tsp  ($0.06)
• Pepper, nutmeg for taste

Filling Total: $1.13 or $0.09 per serving and for bread  total: $ 1.95 or $ 0.16 per serving.

Cook the carrots and cool. Shred or cut the carrots to small pieces. Mix all filling ingredients. Roll out the dough to about 113X9″. Spread the filling evenly on the dough.

Roll the dough up jelly roll style, move to greased pan and let rest for about 30 minutes. Preheat stove to 350°.

Slash the roll and bake 30 minutes . Enjoy.

Ingredients:

Total: $ 7.59 or  $ 0.95 per serving.

Sautee sausage, thyme, onion and garlic until the sausage is almost cooked.

Put everything from the pan to the pot, add water and cooked beans, bring to boiling and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Add tortellini and cook another 15 – 20 minutes.

Add spinach and cook another 3 – 5 minutes. Season to taste.

Ingredients:

• Egg, fresh, 1 large ( 0.09 ¢)
• Water ¼ cup
• Sour Cream, 3 tbsp ( 0.16 ¢)
• Olive Oil, 3 tbsp ( 0.24 ¢)
• Granulated Sugar, 3 tbsp ( 0.09 ¢)
• Flour, white, 2 1/8 cup ( 0.23 ¢)
• Yeast, ½ tbsp ( 0.01 ¢)
• Cheddar cheese, 8 oz ($1.50)

Total $ 2.32 or 0.19¢ per bun

I use bread maker to make the dough and I usually make double the dough at one time, as I have 2lb bread machine.

Once the dough is done, preheat the oven to 350 °. Roll the dough out to about 9” by 13”.

Cover the dough with shredded cheddar cheese (I used extra sharp). Roll the dough into jellyroll and cut it to 12 pieces.

Spray pan with oil and put the buns into it.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• Pasta, cooked, 16 oz ($1.00)
• Ham, 16 oz ($2.50)
• Cheddar Cheese, 8 oz ($1.50)
• Apples, fresh, 2 medium ( 0.80 ¢)
• Green Peppers (bell peppers), 1 ( 0.33 ¢)
• Onions, raw, 1/2 medium ( 0.06 ¢)
• Celery, raw, 2 stalks ( 0.15 ¢)
• Mayonnaise, regular 1/2 cup ( 0.20 ¢)
• Pineapple, fresh, 1/4 fruit ( 0.50 ¢)

Total: $ 7.04 or 0.88 ¢ per serving

Cook pasta according to package instruction. Meanwhile chop ham, cut the vegetables/fruits, shred or cube the cheese. After pasta is done, cool in cold water, drain. Mix all ingredients together, adding spices as desired.

I used some paprika to offset pineapple sweetness. You can add or subtract any fruit vegetable you wish, this is what makes this salad fun and how it comes out little different every time. Enjoy

Ingredients:

• can of sauerkraut (27 OZ)  ( 0.99 ¢)
• 3 medium potatoes ( 0.82 ¢)
• 1-2 big carrot ( 0.54 ¢)
• Sugar — 1 tablespoon
• Olive  oil 3- 4 tablespoons ( 0.24 ¢)
• 1 medium onion (yellow) ( 0.13 ¢)
• 2 large or 3 medium fresh beets ( $ 1.08)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes (0.86 ¢)
• 2 garlic cloves (0.03 ¢)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar or lemon juice or pickle juice or sauerkraut juice (optional)
• 1 cup of chopped beef brisket or ham or sausages or beef frankfurters and ($ 2.50)
  • 3 cups chicken broth or
  • 3 cups beef broth or
  • 3 cups broth from ham bone ( I used that )
• fresh dill (optional)
• sour cream (optional)

Total: $ 7.19 or $ 0.72 ¢ per serving

Prepare broth if not using ready made. I used left over ham bone and cooked it at low heat for several hours to get the most flavor out.

Then chop the onions and potatoes and shred beets and carrots. I love my microplane box shredder, I must say. My old one died and I was in search of box shredder not made in China ( I am sure you understand why I do not want anything made in China touch my food) and after long search I found my Microplane. Let me tell you, it was little pricey but is now one of my favorite tools in my kitchen and used daily

Heat the  oil over medium flame in a large pot. Add the onions and sauté until translucent, stir in the beets and sauerkraut  sauté for about 15 minutes, add tomatoes and salt to taste, and cook another 5 minute.

Add the the veggies, potatoes, minced garlic and meat to the broth, add enough water to cover all and get it up to boiling.  Turn down to simmer and cook another 30 minutes or until potatoes are done.

Serve hot or cold with dill and sour cream if desired.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Drumstick, 4 ( 0.99 ¢)
• Shrimp, 4 x-large (with heads) ($ 3.50)
• Cooking White Wine, 8 fl oz  ( 0.80 ¢)
• Olive Oil, 1 tbsp ( 0.08 ¢)
• Onions, raw, ½  medium (2-1/2″ dia) ( 0.13 ¢)
• Garlic, 5 cloves ( 0.06 ¢)
• Red Ripe Tomatoes, 1 medium whole (2-3/5″ dia) ( 0.62 ¢)
• Flour, white, 2 tbs ( 0.02 ¢)
• Heavy Whipping Cream, 1/4 cup ( 0.18 ¢)
• McCormick® Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning to taste (0.01 ¢)

Total: $ 6.39 or $ 1.60 per serving.

Original recipe was from a French cookbook. I like simple recipes that taste good, so I modified and simplified it to my taste.

Day before season chicken with seasoning and cover with cooking wine, refrigerate.

On the cooking day, peel the shrimp and remove heads. Put the peel and heads into a pot and cover it with the cooking wine that you used to marinate the chicken. Heat to boil and let it simmer while you cook the chicken.

Heat the olive oil on medium high on heavy duty pan, add onion, garlic and chicken. Turn chicken to brown all around evenly. This will take about  10 – 12 minutes. Then add the flour and turn to mix evenly. Next add the cooking liquid from the shrimp pot. Add chopped tomato and additional water to cover the chicken half way. Turn down the heat and let it shimmer until the chicken is cooked and falling off the bone.

Once chicken is cooked to your liking, add heavy cream and shrimp. Cook until shrimp is ready (couple of  minutes, do not overcook).

As a side I really liked the baked potato. I was baking bread while making the chicken, so I just put couple of potatoes to the oven while preheating and baking the bread. When bread was done, so were my potatoes

Ingredients:

• Margarine like spread, approximately 40% fat, 100 grams
• Egg, fresh, 1 extra large
• Granulated Sugar, 3/4 cup
• Buttermilk, 1 cup
• Oats, 2 cup
• Flour, white, 1 cup
• Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened, 2 tbsp
• Baking Soda, 0.5 tsp
• Cinnamon, ground, 1 tsp

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine egg and sugar, add lukewarm melted margarine. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Add try ingredients to wet ones and mix. I baked this cake in nonstick 9” 1.5” deep pie pan and used the nonstick spray to make sure that it really did not stick. Bake 35- 40 min.

Cool. Cut cake half to two layers. Use your favorite liquid or cream to moisten the cake. I think rum would be really good. I used lemon juice and some pineapple slices for garnish – it was really good as well. Next day I made some home made pudding (from milk) and that was really excellent cream for the cake as well. So there is lots of room for experimenting but all in all, it is an excellent starting point for healthy dessert.