Top 9 Recipes of 2023

As year-end recipe lists go, my Top 9 Recipes of 2022 is one you can really sink your incisors into. And all of my top picks are deliciously cheap to make. Just click on any recipe name to see the original 2022 blog post for tasty photos and my money-saving tips, and be sure to play any embedded videos below. The ranking order is random and not by delectability, so go ahead and dig in! 

1. Country Breakfast

Let's start with breakfast, a cheap$kate Country Breakfast with ingredients from the Dollar Tree. Click here to see bacon to biscuits that I scrounged up.

2. Quail Egg & Avocado Crostini

Ever had a quail egg? They are very small and speckled. A quail egg is harder to break as there is a thick membrane just underneath the shell. Use a knife to pierce it and the yolk comes right out. I didn't notice a real flavor difference from a chicken egg. They are just cool to cook with. Check out my Crostini with Quail Egg & Avocado.

3. Cauliflower Vegan Soup

I like a fresh vegan soup and mine can be served chilled or warm. I use a head of steamed cauliflower and almond milk as the main ingredients. My Cauliflower Vegan Soup is quick and easy to do.

4. Cassoulet - Beans, Sausage, and Chicken

I make this recipe the most during winter days. It's a one-pot dish loaded with white beans, veggies and meat. I boil the beans until tender then finish the dish topped with chicken and sausage roasted in the oven Make my version of the French dish Cassoulet, this recipe makes enough to last the next day.

5. Tuna Melt

A Tuna Melt is so satisfying. It may seem strange to grill a Tuna Salad Sandwich with Cheese, but it works deliciously. I use cheap canned tuna and American cheese of course. I make a simple Tuna Salad as the main ingredient. Try it out!

6. Mom's Sugar-Free Cupcakes

My Mom's brother has diabetes and every time she visits him she likes to bring a container of Sugar-Free Cupcakes. She uses a box mix and frosting that is labeled sugar-free, so anyone can make these, and they taste just like regular sugary Cupcakes. My Mom is 89 years old and does not cook anymore, so enjoy the last video I may make with her? 

7. Fried Baloney Sandwich

I never thought I would have a Fried Baloney Sandwich again. I guess you can call this a return to childhood recipes and how they hold up. And it was quite a tasty sandwich. Now you can get baloney with minimum preservatives and made with low-fat turkey. Check out my flashback recipe below, it ended up being my most popular YouTube video of the month.

8. Huevos Rancheros with Tortilla Chips

I make breakfast Huevos Rancheros the most. Beans, cheese, tortillas, salsa, and a fried egg, what's not to like? When I serve Salsa for a party I usually have tortilla chips left over. I usually make Huevos Rancheros with heated soft corn tortillas, but one time I ran out and had a partial bag of tortilla chips - Wow, what a great substitution tortilla chips make! The crunchy texture elevated the recipe. Anytime I have tortilla chips I make my Huevos Ranchos with them.

9. Shrimp, Jalapeño & Egg Tacos 

Tex-Mex cuisine is familiar to the 99 Cent Chef as I grew up with it in Texas. I lived in a seaside small fishing town called Port O'Connor where shrimp is king. Seafood and eggs go together, especially with a spicy jalapeño kick. Every time I return to Port O'Connor I get them from Josies Mexican Food and Cantina. Lucky you, just click on my recipe link for Shrimp, Jalapeño & Egg Tacos to make them right in your own kitchen.

Here are some Honorable Mention Recipes of 2023, just click on the recipe name to check it out: Bagel with Cream Cheese & Salmon Spread, Easy Coleslaw with Pineapple, Egg Salad, Kiwi Salsa, Persimmon Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs with Caramelized Onions, Easy Pineapple Cobbler, Pretzel Egg Sandwich, Blueberries and Yogurt, Shepherd's Pie, Cottage Pie, and Dirty Rice with Chicken Liver, 

It has been a fruitfully abundant year of recipes here at the Cheap$kate Chateau. I did the heavy lifting for you, so now all you have to do is pick a recipe link and save yourself some hard-earned cash by trying out any of the above. And if you have a favorite recipe of mine, then leave a comment to share.

And make sure to keep checking in here from time to time. I create yummy-looking blog posts with a dollop of humor, and while my tastes are cheap, my recipe flavors are top-shelf !!

Dollar Tree Country Breakfast

Sometimes the stars align and all the ingredients appear at one time as it does for my latest cheap$kate recipe Dollar Tree Country Breakfast.

A typical Country Breakfast is a combination meal and more than an easily and quickly made Bacon and Eggs with Toast. Going by region, a Country Breakfast can include grits, biscuits, ham, eggs, gravy, pancakes, hash browns, and more.

The Country Breakfast I grew up with in Texas consisted of Cream Gravy with Sausage, Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits, and Eggs.

I have a Dollar Tree  right down the street from where I live and usually get, on a regular basis, 6 to 8 eggs for a buck, breakfast link sausage and regular ground breakfast sausage, and milk. Sometimes flour shows up, and flakey-style biscuits in the cold case, too. That's everything I need for a quickly-made Country Breakfast.

The Dollar Tree eggs are usually the medium size and that's okay with me. 

The Farmer John Sausage Links, or Classic Pork Sausage, are a bit on the fatty side, but the flavor is there -- it's easy enough to remove rendered pork grease, but don't drain it all, as that is a great flavor.

Add flour to milk and you have Cream Gravy, but add bacon or sausage grease and you have Country Gravy. This is an artery-clogging start to the day, but I don't make it very often so it's a welcome decadent breakfast on a lazy weekend morning.

I like my eggs sunny-side-up, which are cooked on one side only until the white is done. It takes a little longer than over-easy (cooked on both sides). It's also idiot-proof since you don't risk breaking the yolk when you turn the egg over to finish frying. If you like your eggs scrambled then go for it. Country Gravy mixes well with scrambled eggs on the fork. 

 

I prefer homemade Buttermilk Biscuits, but deli case canned (cardboard-wrapped) flakey biscuits are fine in a pinch. They are like a croissant, with visible pastry layers, quite different than the Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits I grew up with down South. 

Buttermilk Biscuits are cake-like when sliced. They are easier to crumble and soak up gravy beautifully. I can get premade ones though, on sale at my local grocery chain store, Ralphs. 

Dollar Tree also sells a dry mix to make a homemade Buttermilk Biscuit. If you don't want to spring for flour you can get a Country Gravy mix, too.  

My latest Cheap$kate Recipe only uses ingredients from the Dollar Tree, so I'm sticking with the flakey deli case biscuits. And they are easy and quick to use only taking 15 minutes to bake brown - about the time it takes for the Country Gravy and Sunny Side Up Eggs to finish cooking.

99 thanks to Dollar Tree for all the tasty ingredients for my Cheap$kate Dollar Tree Country Breakfast. And you can bet your bottom dollar it's really easy and quick to do, so get to cookin' -- and after this meal, you can skip lunch, believe me!

Country Breakfast - Video      Play it here. Video runs 3 minutes, 13 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here. 

Ingredients (about 2-3 servings)

• 1 to 2 Eggs - Fried eggs over easy or sunny-side-up. Okay to scramble eggs your way.
• 4 to 5 Biscuits - I used ready-to-bake canned that hold 5 biscuits. Okay to use your favorite biscuit recipe or mix.
• Breakfast Pork Sausage - about 8 ounces, links or ground pork. If you buy cooked links or patties, cook sausage for a minute or so to heat and render some of the fat then follow gravy directions.
• Milk 2 cups - whole or low fat. 
• Flour 1/4 cup - white or wheat. 
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions

Start by baking canned biscuits according to package directions, usually bake at 350 degrees in the oven for about 15 minutes until the biscuits brown.

It takes about 15 minutes to prepare the gravy - about the same time it takes to bake biscuits. So you can start both at the same time. If the biscuits take longer to bake, you can keep the gravy at low heat, until ready to eat (stir in a tablespoon of milk at a time if the gravy thickens too much).

While biscuits bake, in a large pan or pot, over medium heat, add raw pork breakfast sausage. As sausage browns, break it apart into smaller pieces. It's okay to use formed sausage patties or links, just break them up as they cook. 

It's best to get the sausage nice and brown, at least on one side. The caramelization adds a lot of flavor to the gravy. Cook the sausage all the way through for about 5 minutes (depending on the size of the sausage pieces).

 Breakfast sausage tends to have a lot of fat, so it's up to you how much-rendered grease you want to keep in the pan. It's okay to pour out some grease to lower calories, but do leave a tablespoon of grease for extra richness and flavor.

Next, sprinkle on a quarter cup of flour. Stir into the cooked sausage and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. 

Slowly pour in the milk and stir to mix well. Keep stirring so any flour lumps break down. Once the gravy is brought up to a low simmer, it should begin to thicken in a couple of minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the gravy is thick and hot it is ready to pour over the biscuits.

My gravy recipe is for a thick one. You can add a tablespoon of milk at a time to thin it out if that's the way you like it.

Fry or scramble eggs any way you like. I would cook eggs after the biscuits and gravy are done, as they can sit for around a couple of minutes while cooking eggs.

Serve hot biscuits covered in my delicious Homemade Sausage Gravy. Some like to tear their biscuits apart first, then spoon on the gravy. I just lay out a couple of them and cover it all with sausage gravy.

My Country Breakfast barely takes half an hour to make. And it's enough for a couple servings so invite a friend!