Hold on a sec, don't throw out that baked ham bone or turkey carcass yet! It's leftovers time at the Cheaps$kate Chateau so read on for flavorful recipes I like to make which uses up every tasty morsel of your holiday meal.
(And click on any recipe name to be directed to my blog post with all the delish recipe text and yummy photo illustrations.)
If you are the Christmas Baked Ham type, soup the best way to use up any ham pieces and the ham bone too. New Year's Day is right around the corner so it's time for traditional Black-eyed Peas made my cheap$kate way using the leftover Christmas ham bone for extra flavor.
What I especially like about a pot of Black-eyed Peas is they cook in half the time of regular pinto, red or white beans. So you can serve them in just a couple of hours.
Do check out my recipe video below to see how quick and easy you can make your own and ring in the New Year with a fragrant bowl of legumes, and don't forget to make some rice too, for a Hoppin' John version.
Green Split Pea Soup is next up, and it cooks quickly as well. I like to add a lot of extra veggies to my version including carrot, celery and onion. Cook it with a few extra chunks of ham and even your most picky kid will go for this recipe.
Adding a slab of ham is always a welcome addition to any sandwich. One of my favorites is called a Cuban Sandwichwhich is comprised of ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese and a slice of pickle. And it's served pressed, hot off the grill, all melty and warm.
Cuban Sandwich
A French Ham Sandwich is simply made with ham slices, real butter and crunchy French Bread. It's perfect for a picnic. I did one once, but cheaply, with margarine instead of butter. If you have the extra bucks do use real butter if you are bringing them to a picnic party.
I grew up with ham added to my plate of fried eggs with Breakfast Potatoes. Diced ham adds heft and flavor to a Cheese Omelet.
A McDonald's Egg McMuffin uses Canadian Bacon, which is very similar to ham. I am so cheap that I've come up with an inexpensive homemade one. Check out the video below to see what I mean.
When I'm on a roll, that is with dice, I head for the Vegas buffet table for a gambler's Eggs Benedict, made with poached eggs, ham and creamy Hollandaise sauce over a toasted English muffin. You've hit the jackpot when you try my cheap$kate version.
Eggs Benedict
The easiest and quickest use of a LeftoverChristmas Turkey is to just pile them between 2 slices of bread or bread roll. I like mine with stuffing, cranberry sauce, warm gravy and turkey.
Click on any photo to see larger.
But to kick the sandwich up to an Ultimate Turkey Sandwich, just crisp-up in the frying pan some of that uneaten soggy turkey skin.
It is a decadent and tasty addition to a classic Turkey Sandwich. Check out my recipe video below for a little culinary decadence.
A most popular leftover for the coldest days of winter is a warm and soothing Turkey Soup. I hope you saved the poultry carcass?
For the tastiest soup, it's best to boil leftover roasted turkey bones and turkey bits in a pot of seasoned water. Once the water is simmering on low, just step away for an hour, and meanwhile, do a little veggie and leftover turkey chopping to add with strained turkey broth.
My Chicken Soup recipe starts with uncooked chicken, so this Turkey Soup spin-off will be done in less time -- just simmer long enough to tenderize the chopped carrot, onion and celery. This soup is easier with cooked turkey.
If you feel a bit more ambitious, then rustle up a Cajun classic Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, but with leftover turkey instead of chicken.
My Mom lives in Louisiana and she sure knows how to do a Gumbo. This is another cold weather dish. Serve Mom's Turkey and Sausage Gumbo over rice. Again you can reduce the prep time because the leftover turkey is already cooked. And another shortcut is using a pre-made Gumbo base called a roux, that is often stocked in regular grocery stores.
Check out my video below for all the tasty details.
A pot pie is the most soothing of winter meals, and my Turkey Pot Piemade with Christmas leftoverswill have you returning for seconds and thirds!
For my simple recipe, I used a grocery store frozen pie crust that covers the leftovers. And all you do is load up a deep baking dish like you would a lasagna - layering mashed potatoes or yams, veggies, stuffing, turkey and gravy.
My video below lays it on thick, that is, with plenty of delish leftovers.
I hope you had a great gathering of family and some friends for Christmas. And do check back for more 99 cent cheap$kate deliciousness.
This recipe is for all you home gardeners! And my Gazpacho video is just in time for the end of summer vegetable harvest.
Even if you don't have a summer garden, all the veggies in this recipe are easily had from local farmers markets and roadside fruit and vegetable stands. I get my ingredients from a local Latin grocery store, too. All are for less than a buck per pound.
Click on any photo to see larger.
Tomatoes are the most expensive veggie, but they often come on sale somewhere. Cucumber and bell pepper are cheap, and onions are the cheapest veggie by far. I sometimes use garlic from the jar, but I also like a fresh chopped extra-pungent clove.
The other main ingredients are olive oil and vinegar. I get extra virgin olive oil in small bottles from my local 99c only Store and Dollar Tree. While not the best quality, hey it's good enough for me. And you can use any expensive olive oil, flavorful oil like avocado, or a nut-based one.
Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup originally from Spain. They use Sherry Wine - use that if you can find it, but I find Red Wine Vinegar is an easy substitution. It's okay to use any vinegar you have on hand like apple cider or white vinegar.
There is no cooking involved, all you do is roughly chop all the veggies to fit in a blender or food processor - you can use a hand blender. Pour in a half a cup of olive oil and a couple tablespoons of vinegar, then blend it all together for a minute or so, until smooth and creamy.
I like to serve Gazpacho chilled and topped with a sliced fresh herb like basil. I add a sprinkling of fine-chopped tomato and cucumber for extra color, and crunch.
The veggie balance is up to you. Some recipes call to peel and remove seeds from the cucumber. The cucumbers I've gotten lately are almost seedless, or the seeds are very small and soft. If you peel the cucumber the Gazpacho will be a brighter red color.
I used green bell pepper, but any color on sale will do. Red, yellow and orange bell peppers are a bit sweeter but more expensive.
Tomatoes are the main ingredient. So let them fully ripen on your kitchen counter or windowsill. I use a couple pounds of tomatoes, and you can use as much as you like with an extra-large crop to harvest. Adjust the veggie amounts to suit your tastes.
My patio garden tomatoes.
So get to chopping and blend my summer fresh Gazpacho Soup for a cool and refreshing appetizer or light lunch.
Gazpacho - Video
Play it here, video runs 2 minutes, 48 seconds.
My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.
Ingredients
2 pounds tomato - roughly chopped, about 3 to 4 cups. I used 4 regular sized tomatoes.
1/2 onion - roughly chopped
1 bell pepper - remove seeds and white membrane.
1 cucumber - Some recipes just throw in a chopped and unpeeled cucumber with seeds. Okay to peel and remove seeds for a more colorful soup.
1 clove garlic - 1 teaspoon chopped. Fresh or from a jar.
2 tablespoons wine vinegar - usually sherry vinegar is used, but any type vinegar will do.
1/2 cup olive oil - okay to use any favorite flavorful oil.
Directions
Chop veggies to fit in a blender or food processor. The veggies don't need to be fine chopped, just a quick couple slices will do. If you have a hand blender then put chopped veggies in a large bowl.
Remove seed and white membrane in the bell pepper. Some recipes say to remove cucumber skin and seed. The type I get recently have little to no seeds. If you peel the cucumber the Gazpacho will be brighter orange or red.
You can add or subtract the amount of garlic, onion, bell pepper and cucumber. Just make sure to add plenty of tomatoes! I do remove the stem part, but I keep the seeds.
Add veggies to a blender or food processor. Pour in a half cup of olive oil or favorite flavored oil. It's okay to add more or less olive oil, to suit your tastes.
Finally, add 2 tablespoons of vinegar. I use Red Wine Vinegar, but it's okay to use any you have on hand including balsamic vinegar. Add as much or as little as you like.
Some recipes call for adding a slice or two of bread to the blender for a thicker soup. I leave it out for this recipe.
Cover and blend it all together until smooth and creamy, about one minute.
Chill Gazpacho until ready to serve. I like to top my Gazpacho with a fresh sliced herb and a small amount of chopped veggies like tomato and cucumber, for added crunch and color.
The Cheapest Chef has been shaken but not stirred! With 2 earthquakes near Los Angeles over the span of a couple days and whose epicenter was an hour and a half away in Ridgecrest, California -- and the last one was a magnitude 7.1.
After being thrown around in this giant bouncy room of a city the Wobbly Chef made his way to the local Dollar Tree to replenish his Earthquake Survival Kit with foodstuffs of the thrifty variety.
And boy did I find what I was looking for. Hey, when the big one hits I want to be able to get 3 squares a day when the city shuts down and I'm stranded because of collapsed freeways.
This is a Public Service Message isfor cheap$kates only, so the rest of you can take the Seismic Chef's meal deals with a grain of salt. Let's just say I combine the good, the bad and the ugly all into one blog post !
If you have trained in the military, the following dining tips will go down good as all the mess kit contents are unrefrigerated and ready to eat -- while some are made more palatable with short heating times
And as a caution make sure gas lines are not broken in your vicinity, as I describe cooking with a small flame below.
Now, not all Dollar Trees are stocked the same. When I visit Louisiana they sell items for more than a buck as these stores are closer to a generic convenience store, but there are still plenty of dollar deals to be found. And impulsive shopping is fine for foodstuffs too good to be true -- because they may be gone tomorrow, so stock up!
And read on future cataclysmic survivors, Judgement Day and Rapture awaiters, Global Warmers, Illuminati enthusiasts, New World Order bunker builders, and especially my visitors from other States with their own environmental calamities, like tornadoes, flooding, drought, and hurricanes.
Morning Beverages
When you awaken after being knocked out by that poster or painting hanging over the bed headboard, weave your way to the nearest Earthquake Kit and make a cup of coffee to help clear your head!
Click on any photo to see larger.
I've found ground and instant coffees at theDollar Tree. I think a jar of instant coffee will last longer and lose less taste. Just add to a cup of warm water and stir (keep reading further below for my ingenious heating method using Canned Heat or Sterno.)
Before I became an internet chef, way back in the day, I used to drink instant coffee. I know, how lame, but this was way before Starbucks when Folgers and Maxwell House were king. So after devastation, drastic measures are needed. -- damn the taste, I want my caffeine.
A cup of Stormtrooper - May the Force be caffeinated!
For you tea drinker there are plenty of boxes out there. I'm sure you could just set a bag in a cup of water in the sun and in an hour it would be ready to drink. In the South, we call this Sun Tea.
My localDollar Tree sells milk and soy milk in a box and they are unrefrigerated! When you open them use plenty in your coffee, tea, oatmeal or breakfast cereal - once opened the milk and soy milk will go sour without refrigeration.
A great breakfast (or anytime) addition are single serving 100% Juice Packets. I found small Orange and Apple Juice Boxes with straws included.
As you move wheelbarrows full of debris drink plenty of water. Most dollar or 99 cent stores carry plastic bottles of water, single serving 6-packs or larger half gallon jugs. So do stock up with these.
Health authorities commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses of per day, which equals about 2 liters, or half a gallon. This is called the 8×8 rule and is very easy to remember? I probably drink half this amount as morning coffee, and later an evening beer help fulfill that quota.
Breakfast
Let's start the day with something light to eat. If you were rattled in the morning, then a light breakfast may be in order. I enjoy dipping Italian-style Biscotti with Almonds in my French Vanilla Cappuccino.
And your traumatized digestive system may need a jumpstart, so take a slug or two of Prune Juice.
Breakfast Pop-Ups (Pop-Tarts) are usually precooked pastries with frosting and filled with jam, so you don't need to toast these. And a bowl of Capt'n Crunch will supply all the sugar energy I need to get through a cataclysmic day. And double that fructose dose by serving cereal drenched in Chocolate Milk!
Of course, use any healthy Granola or dried low sugar Cereal you like. And there's always Instant Oatmeal served with or without milk. I do like to add dried cranberries or raisins to mine.
Canned Heat
Many foodstuffs on the shelf taste better heated. My Dollar Tree sells small cans of Fancy Heat for warming small amounts of food or liquids - you often see these tins lit under metal chafing dishes of food in the buffet line or at a fondue party. One lit can warms up a cup of coffee or tea in a ceramic cup quite quickly. Of course, be careful heating up small items as they can get too hot to handle!
I made a small Homemade Grill using a metal grilling rack balanced on a couple of small bricks, or you can build your own heating unit. Place one or two Canned Heat tins under the grill and light the wick(s) with a lighter or match. And this grill can be built almost anywhere even on the ground if the aftershocks are coming fast and close together.
I guess in a pinch a couple tealight candles would work as well if you can hold the cup of coffee over the flame long enough!
With a small cooking pot, you can heat up almost anything. Now you don't need to bring canned or packaged foodstuffs like beans, veggies, chili or canned pasta up to a high temperature, just let it heat up enough to warm through.
This Homemade Grill is best used out of the wind as the canned heat flame is small and blows around easily, thus making heating less effective.
When cooking with canned foodstuffs, I've read they can spoil if stored in the sun, so keep them in the shade!
This setup will also work well for Instant Oatmeal and small cuts of Pasta (macaroni, bow tie, etc.) or Ramen Noodles.
Disaster relief - soothing Mac & Cheese.
I would break spaghetti and ramen into smaller sizes for quicker cooking. Cover pasta with an inch of water. When the water reaches a medium hot you can soak pasta/ramen covered for half an hour and it will tenderize. Hey, I like pasta al dente so mine will be ready quicker, ha!
Now, if you have a BBQ gas grill or a camping stove that wasn't crushed in the garage where it is stored, then you've got it made!
After cooking, canned food is difficult to tell when it goes bad, so use quickly within 20 minutes. Try to keep all prepared food covered and in the shade. There is no surefire method to tell when cooked and opened items are spoiled after laying about for half an hour, so if in doubt, throw out!
My above method is for cooking stovetop style, not about keeping food hot for long periods of time, like at a Buffet.
Snacks
Small Fruit Cups, packages of Nuts, and a Granola Bar or two are light and quick energy boosters, so you can start picking up all the objects that have shaken off your shelves.
Crackers and Rice Cakes keep long and single-serving Flavored Tuna, or small cans of Mystery Meats, like Vienna Sausage, Spam and Potted Meat are simple and quick to assemble.
Sometimes I need me Louisiana Hot Sauce, yea !
Chips and Dips are an indulgence, but you might as well go for it, hey what do you have to lose after you've lost everything?
Lunch & Dinner Meals
Temp your frightened feline friend back home by setting out an open can of Chicken, Turkey or Tuna. And these do double duty when made into a spreadable Saladon a Saltine. The protein is cheap enough and carried at any discount or local grocer. Mayo and sweet or regular pickle relish come in small unrefrigerated jars so you can chow-down on a stack of Chicken or Tuna Salad on Crackers. Tuna in oil can be heated like this soldier does it -- his pretty wild way is setting it on fire as described right here.
My Loaded Tuna Salad recipe text with photos is a click away here (okay to add or subtract ingredients on hand.) And here's the yummy video.
After stanching the bleeding of your loved one's wounds, clean up and prepare them a Mexican Lunch!
Mmmm, how I love Tamales. They are plump packages of deliciousness and I have my local fave here in L.A called Tamales Alberto. So how does Hormel Tamales in the can stack up? Well, let's just say smother them in plenty of Pace Picante Sauce!
If the earth shakes on Taco Tuesday and your local fast food Mexican joint is jolted into closure, I have a cheap$kate alternative -- those folded hard Corn Tortillas sold in a box! They store well and taste like Taco Bell crunchy corn tacos.
If you can heat up a can of Refried Beans, a couple tablespoons will fit snuggly into the hard corn Taco Shell. Add some flakes of White Meat Chicken from the can. And finally, top with Cheese Sauce and Salsa...yummy! This hardy Happy Hour meal will help put your wounded spouse or roommate on the road to a quick recovery.
Hamburger Helper? No, it's Tuna Helper.
The whole family loves Pizza, right? I found enough budget ingredients to feed your brood --including pre-cooked single serve Pizza Crusts! You can coax them out from under the sheets, or if they are hiding under the bed, with this fast-food favorite.
So what does your picky kid like on her's? Hmmm, how about Pepperoni with Cheese Product and a little Pizza Sauce?
Or maybe they're a vegan-in-training so Black Olives or Mushrooms instead of Pepperoni? Well go ahead and mix and match!
Did you grow up with Chef Boyardee packed in your school lunch? Well, then it's time to become reacquainted with this meal-in-a-can. Add some black olives or mushrooms from the can or jar to make the meal more palatable.
Before you turn in for a cold night under a tarp because your home has been leveled or flagged uninhabitable, a warm supper is in order. Just fire up the homemade grill and open canned meals like Chicken and Dumplings, Beans & Franks or Beef Stew.
Desserts
Desserts are always appreciated as you psychologically recover after an apocalypse.
I love me some Moon Pies. Or how about European Cookies with a smear of Cake Frosting and Sprinkles?
Nutella, you had me at Pretzel.
Local Los Angeles dessert legend Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies are always a welcome treat!
And these imitation Twinkies will last until any end-of-times scenario, plus they double as pillows!
If you have any wood splints left after setting your neighbor's broken bones you can use the lumber to build a fire and roast a few Marshmallows...yum!
Another sweet smelling headrest.
Vegan and Vegetarian
I haven't forgotten my vegan or vegetarian friends, even after being knocked out by the overhead ceiling fan! Dollar Tree sells plenty of Canned Veggies and some specialty appetizers like Peppers Stuffed with Cream Cheese in Oil.
Let's get a little chic amongst the rubble and dust off the white tablecloth and dig out a couple of candles to light up a makeshift table made from the collapsed front door hanging by a hinge, and dine on a Pasta entree featuring imported Potato Gnocchi and Pomi Chopped Tomatoes, both from Italy.
This posh meal is served with Red Peppers, Genovese Sauce (basil pesto) and finished with Grated Topping. No gratuity is necessary for this Uptown Chef, but thanks anyway!
Can Opener Cuisine is the easiest way to go. Soups in tins come in all types, vegan, vegetarian and good old fashioned Chicken Soup.
The Andy Warhol Diet
Soups On!
After your meal just relax with a cheap small airline bottle of Wine or a warm (European serving style) can of Beer with Beer Nuts.
Well, don't sweat the small stuff at this point, you are still alive and kicking, right?
On the serious side, my meal ideas can be adapted to your favorite grocery market, including Whole Foods, Ralphs or any chain, neighborhood and ethnic markets.
I've seen healthy soups in boxes, organic canned goods, and breakfast cereals low in sugar. Make your own Earthquake Kit to suit your and your families dietary needs.
So when nature turns toxic and before disaster stikes, take a few of the above tips from the Good Samaritan Chef and be sure to stock up the cheap$kate way!
Only the trauma of an earthquake would cause me try this hot mess!
For the tastiest soup, it's best to boil leftover roasted turkey bones and turkey bits in a pot of seasoned water. Once the water is simmering on low, just step away for an hour, and meanwhile, do a little veggie and leftover turkey chopping to add with strained turkey broth.
