My Top 9 Recipes of 2019

As for year-end lists, my Top 9 Recipes of 2019 is one you can really sink your teeth into. And all of my top picks are deliciously cheap to make. Just click on any recipe name to see the original 2019 blogpost for tasty photos and my money-saving tips, and be sure to play any embedded video below. The ranking order is random and not by delectability, so go ahead and dig in!

1. Mango Pancakes
Let's start with breakfast. I love mangos and have a few recipes that feature them. One of my faves is to just slice out the soft and sweet flesh to add in a pancake batter. I add the slices directly on the griddle then pour on the pancake batter - the better to caramelize the sugary mango!



2. Mango Salsa
When I bring this to a party, along with tortilla chips, my Mango Salsa is the first pot luck dish to disappear. If you don't believe me try it when your next party invitation comes in!



3. Gazpacho - vegan soup
For chilled veggie soup on a hot summer day and all you need is a blender. Attention all you home gardeners and foragers of your local farmers market and roadside veggie stands -- this recipe is for you and it's vegan! Roughly chop bell pepper, onion, garlic, cucumber, and a whole lotta tomato. Add it to a blender and pour in olive oil (or any fragrant favorite veggie oil) and blend until smooth. Serve cold or at room temperature.



4. Mushrooms Sauteed in Coconut Oil
Keepin' it vegan, mushrooms sauteed in tasty oil is a simply luscious recipe. My local 99c only Store carried all kinds of mushroom this year including shiitake, oyster and even portabella. Of course, use any cheap ones you find like white or brown button mushrooms.



5. Easy Smoked Ribs
Going from vegan to meaty in a minute, I've finally gotten around this year to BBQ Ribs! Do check out the video below and watch my easy smoking version. The main trick is to bake ribs wrapped in foil until tender, then give them a quick hour smoke on the gas grill - that's how I do it. Hey, you can just bake them with your fave BBQ sauce and stop right there.



6. Black Pepper Chicken - Panda Express Ripoff Recipe
Boy, is this recipe cheap! Poultry is the least expensive meaty protein and the veggie accompaniment is cheap celery. This stir fry I ripped off from Panda Express, a local fast-food Chinese restaurant, does use more expensive purple onion, but it will taste just as good with budget yellow or white onion.



7. Mom's Cherry Pie
Pay attention to this recipe as I do not do desserts very often, but don't worry about my lack of baking prowess, as my Mom takes the reigns of this recipe. Mom makes a homemade crust, but you can buy a frozen one from your local grocery store. And she uses canned cherries, so anyone can make my Mom's delicious dessert.



8. Mom's Chili-Cheese Enchiladas
Mom's recipes are always on my Top 9 Recipes list and this one is a childhood favorite of mine. My highschool buddy Marvin would always "just show up" when Mom made a platter of gooey cheesy Enchiladas. And he makes a return visit to Mom's kitchen one more time in the video below. Check it out and see what my whacked-out flashback enchilada version of tasting a Madeline cookie in Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" brings.



9. Deep-Fried Frog Legs - with the Swamp Chef
Let's wrap up the year-end rundown with my most outrageous recipe of the year! You probably won't cook one yourself, so at least watch how it's done. And believe it or not, but frog legs kinda taste like chicken! Allow my brother from another daddy, the Swamp Chef, to get the tasty cooking details from my Cajun nephew Chef Matt. And be sure to watch the video all the way to the end where green swamp croakers get their revenge!



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 !

Mango Pancakes - Video Recipe

Add some tropical flavor to your breakfast pancakes with my Mango Pancakes Recipe.

A ripe Mango is super sweet fully ripe. They are quite easy to peel, then just slice off the soft flesh into bite-sizes to add to your fave pancake mix. When they make contact with a hot grill they sweetly caramelize like grilled pineapple (ha, another future pancake recipe!)

Mangos are ripe when soft to the touch, kinda like an avocado. I have gotten Mango that goes from green to bad on occasion, sometimes they will not ripen right...oh well. But when they do they have the best flavor.

I peel a Mango by just slicing into the skin, top to bottom about 4 slices per Mango. That is usually enough to then peel each segment of skin to reveal the orange flesh underneath. Then you just slice off the flesh until you hit the large flat/oval seed.

Living in L.A. Mango are easy to get and cheap, too. I get mine at my local Latin grocery store, Superior Grocers.

For the pancake batter, I use a commercial brand. If you have a homemade recipe then use it. I can get a large box of dry pancake batter at my local 99c only Store or Dollar Tree. Regular grocery stores sell it cheap enough, too.

Start your day right, with my tropical cheap$kate breakfast of Mango Pancakes.

Mango Pancakes - Video

Play it here, video runs 1 minute, 34 seconds.

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

Ingredients (2 servings, using a pancake mix)

• 1 cup pancake mix - any favorite
• 3/4 cup water - okay to use milk for a richer pancake batter.
• 1 mango - roughly sliced or chopped. Depending on the size, one larger size is plenty. Okay to substitute with any fresh seasonal fruit like: blueberry, peach, apricot, strawberry, and even sliced banana or canned fruit like pineapple.
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil - to grease skillet. Add more when needed, depending on how many pancakes you make.
• Butter and favorite pancake syrup - add as much as you like.

Directions
Prepare pancake batter according to package directions. My pancake mix calls for 1 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water.

Mix pancake ingredients in a bowl. When mixed it will be like thick country gravy.

Start to heat the pan over a medium/low heat.

Peel Mango and slice off flesh from the seed. I slice into skin top to bottom, 4 slices total. Then loosen the top of a slice and peel off the skin. Sometimes it breaks and sometimes it peels all the way off. I do one half at a time so it's less messy to separate the flesh.

I then slice off the flesh of one side. Then I turn over Mango and slice into skin and remove it. Finally slicing off the rest of the flesh.

Mix sliced Mango into pancake batter. Sometimes I will lay out the mango slices directly on the hot pan and pour pancake batter over the slices. It's okay to just mix in the Mango into the pancake batter.

Add oil to pancake pan and pour on the pancake batter with Mango pieces. Brown each side of the pancake. Mine took about 3 minutes for each side. It really depends how hot your pan gets.

The box directions above mentions cooking time to brown each side as 1.5 minutes each....hmmmm, they must be using a super hot pan!

If you want a dark brown pancake presentation, then just cook one side to get the right amount of brown, then cook the other side for a minute, to finish. Serve browned side up, on the plate.

I serve hot with melted butter and favorite pancake syrup.