Top 9 Recipes of 2017

As for year end lists, my Top 9 Recipes of 2017 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 2017 blogpost, or play any embedded video below. The ranking order is random and not by delectability, so go ahead and dig in!

It was the Year of the Legume in the Cheap$kate Cocina with two Top 9 Recipes featuring slow-cooked beans

1. Cuban Black Beans
This could be my favorite recipe in the batch. I've been making these beans for the last few years and have perfected a recipe you will be coming back to for seconds and thirds. In 2017 I finally put the recipe to video, so make sure to bookmark this one!



2. Mexican-style Pinto Beans
This is the recipe I make the most. I grew up eating Mexican-style Pinto Beans and have many recipes that use them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Anytime I throw a Carnitas Taco Party, you will find a pot of Pinto Beans and my Mom's Mexican Rice warming on the stove - with a line of party guests refilling their bowls.



3. Quick Pizza with Egg
I first had an egg baked, with the yolk still runny, on a pizza in Rome, Italy. Well, this Culinary  Renaissance Cook has come up with a quick and easy way to make your own - try it sometime, I bet you will never look at a pizza the same way! Pizza for breakfast? Sure why not.



4. Roast Chicken with Rosemary 
If you're an urban gardener, or at the very least have a windowsill box with a few herbs, then this recipe is for you. Hey, it's okay if you just get a bottle of dried Rosemary from the local grocery shelf, too. Rosemary needles are pungent, fresh or dried, and go especially well with a Roast Chicken. My recipe is simple and easy, and loaded with earthy herb flavor.



5. Mom's Cajun Potato Salad 
My Mom lives in Louisiana and when we get together the sparks fly. And our video recipes together are always a year-end highlight. This year she shared her Cajun Potato Salad recipe with me, and now my visitors can get all the tasty details.



6. Grilled Fish
Summertime is more than barbecuing burgers and hot dogs. Try grilling a whole fish...the 99 Cent Chef way. All I use is a little olive oil, salt and pepper, that's it, but boy is it flaky fresh.
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7. Fresh Boiled Corn
Everyone knows how to boil corn, right? Hey, if you are a cooking newbie, or just never got around to working with fresh ears of corn, I got your back!



8. Sauteed Crookneck Squash
I like to cook with yellow Crookneck Squash, because you use the whole thing. No peeling or removal of seeds is necessary. No muss, no fuss, just the way I like it.



9. Strawberry Compote
My final recipe is perfect for the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays. Strawberry Compote is like a homemade jam made with fresh fruit. Use a package of whole cranberries instead of strawberries and you have a Homemade Cranberry Sauce - save the canned stuff for another day. I've poured this fruity topping on ice cream and pancakes.

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 !

Top 9 Recipes of 2016

As for year end lists, my Top 9 Recipes of 2016 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 2016 blogpost, or play any embedded video below. The ranking order is random and not by delectability, so go ahead and dig in!

1. Cherry Pancakes
Let's start out with breakfast. I've been making pancakes with fresh fruit lately. Try mixing seasonal fruit into to your favorite pancake batter.

Cherries take a couple of slices to remove the seed, and you only need 2 or 3 cherries per pancake. So give my Cherry Pancake recipe a try next cherry season.

2. Huevos Rancheros
My favorite breakfast lately is Mexican-style Huevos Rancheros. It's really easy to make with fried eggs, refried pinto beans, and cheese topped with your favorite store-bought salsa, all resting on a couple of heated corn tortillas. You can get the ingredients cheaply, even canned refried beans, at your local grocery store.

My homemade recipe is so good I had to make a stop motion animated recipe video for it. So check it out below - warning, make sure you have eaten beforehand as the imagery is mouth-watering.



3. Chicken & Basil Stir Fry
I like to use fresh herbs whenever possible. Usually you only need a few sprigs or a small clipping. My next Top 9 Recipe of 2016 is a pungent Thai-style Chicken & Basil Stir Fry that's quick and easy to make.

I usually buy a whole basil plant and use some leaves as needed for Italian pasta sauces, but for my stir fry recipe I almost use a whole basil plant! Make some rice to soak up the basil and chicken flavored sauce, too.



4. Korean-style BBQ Chicken
During summertime I fire up the gill almost every weekend, and boy do I have a scrumptious Top 9 Recipe using cheap chicken called: Korean-style BBQ Chicken.

It's all about the marinade. The dominate sweet and salty soy flavors are a perfect savory combination. And copious amounts of minced garlic takes the marinade over the top. Korean-style marinade is a nice change from typical tomato-based BBQ sauces. So click on the recipe name above to get all the tasty recipe details. And add extra bonus points as this recipe is Wife Approved!

Korean-style BBQ Chicken

5. Peach Salsa 
Serving chips and salsa to greet guest for a party? Then try my Peach Salsa for a fruity change of pace. If you are from the South then you can get plenty of this stone fruit cheaply during peach season in late summer. Plus, the ingredient list is a short one.

Serve my Peach Salsa with blue corn chips for extra festive color.

6. Trump Orange Chicken
I threw my whisk into the bombastic U.S. Presidential race last year with my tasty Trump Orange Chicken recipe. I have to say it's the greatest and most beautiful recipe of the year...absolutely fantastic. Only short, lying, low-energy, small-fingered, ugly, crooked, and nasty people would disagree.

If you voted for Trump then celebrate the new POTUS by making my glazed, orange-hued, fried chicken entree. Or, if you think Trump is a pathological liar, narcissist, con man, chauvinist, whining crybaby, pompous ass, and bully, then just change the name from Trump Orange Chicken to plain Orange Chicken. My recipe is delish by any name or political persuasion!

7. Homemade Chili with Beef & Beans
Slow-cooking soothes the soul. There is nothing like the kitchen fragrance from a large pot of Homemade Chili with Beef & Beans. And I don't have to point out how inexpensive pinto beans are. I also use one of the cheapest cuts of beef out there called beef shank. This recipe is money in the bank.

So get out your favorite Chili toppings - I like chopped onion, melty cheese and crunchy Fritos Corn Chips!

I usually get most of my 99 cent ingredients at my local 99c only Stores, but lately I've has some good luck shopping at Dollar Tree. I came up with a Top 9 Recipe using bargains I scooped up from there.

Click on any photo to see larger.

8. Homemade Italian Sausage & Black Olive Pizza
Using breakfast sausage and some Italian herbs, I came up with a homemade Italian sausage, that tops my single serving pizza. The other Dollar Tree pizza finds include: black olives, tomato pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and small precooked pizza crusts (2 per package) - all for a dollar per ingredient. That's a lot of dough savings!

 Make sure to click on the name Homemade Italian Sausage & Black Olive Pizza to see the recipe.

9. Mashed Potatoes
The last recipe I made in 2016 was classic Mashed Potatoes. Potatoes are one cheap ingredient - sometimes even less per pound than brown onions.

Everyone know how to make Mashed Potatoes, right? Well if you are a cooking newbie, then check out my stop motion animated recipe video below and see how simple it is to make.



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!

Top 9 Recipes of 2014

Living high on the hog  was dirt cheap this year and here are my Top 9 Recipes of 2014 to prove it! While there were fewer recipes to choose from, my picks this year are still top shelf. (I took off the summer from posting food recipes, and instead posted a video series on my enlightening and entertaining Indian Summer Vacation.) And click on any recipe name to see what I'm talking about.

To start with I made an earthy Vegetarian Mushroom Soup using crimini, white button and portabella mushrooms, that I purchashed from my local 99c only Store. I also bought pungent veggie broth and some cheap white wine to simmer the fungus in. I brought some to my workplace for my vegetarian friends and they raved about it.

I've been making Old School Hash Browns for breakfast all year long. I like to pair them with 2 sunny side up eggs, so the warm yoke soaks and flavors the crisp and tender sauteed potatoes - it's a perfect combination. Some hash browns are chunky; I like mine grated with some added onion, and grilled until a hard crisp shell is formed, but the center is still moist. You definitely want to try my recipe out - it's so simple but so delicious.

Probably some of my craziest recipes are from my Sushi Video Series. Yup, you read right, raw fish. Of course I couldn't have done it without being friends with my neighbor Don the fisherman. Most summers he goes off the coast of Baja, Mexico and brings back slabs of yellowtail and bluefin tuna, that he hands out for free!

Now, I know this is a cheat for cheap$kate ingredients. But I made an exception and went ahead and did a sushi recipe series anyway. If you make friends with a fisherman then you're in luck. But, I have a few inexpensive shortcuts you can use.

It's funny how persnickety and intimidating sushi chefs are. Chat a bit with one and they are really pleasant. As for making sushi, it's not that hard, if you just roll with it. I give you easy GIFs and illustrated photos to get you through the hard parts - believe me it's not that hard to do, and don't worry if the end result is not perfect - it will still taste good. Start with a hand roll, that's easiest to do.

Also, I did include a few cheap$kate ingredients anyone can get, like krab. You definitely want to try out my California Roll that's made with avocado, cucumber and krab (it's fake crab, but I think it's an inexpensive and tasty substitution over the real thing.)



My favorite 2 sushi recipes from the video series are: Spicy Tuna Hand Roll and a California Roll.



My wife picked up some ceramic ramekins this year so I had to make use of them. What I came up with is a luscious Baked Eggs Florentine. So good, just spinach in a cream sauce with a fresh broken egg on top. It's a handsome dish that's made to impress, but still simple to make.

And I close out with the final three recipes using cheap chicken. My wife loves Trader Joe's Curried White Chicken Deli Salad with cashews and raisins, and so do I. Trader Joe's is a great local market here in Los Angeles. They make a lot of prepared food to take home. There curried chicken salad is exceptional, so much so that they run out of it by the time I get off work, so that's why I made my ripoff (I mean homage) recipe. It's wife approved, so I know you will like it too.

Chicken Caccaitore is a one pot meal, easy on the pocketbook and tasty, just the way I like it. Serve it with a little pasta or rice.

And this year I tried my hand at Fried Chicken. Almost everyone has their own favorite recipe, well here's mine. And if you are a newbie at it, then start with this recipe. I made a Fried Chicken Sandwich recipe video that's easy to follow. I use boneless and skinless chicken, but you can use any whole chicken pieces you find on sale. I also throw in a cheap$kate Homemade Buttermilk recipe.



Roasted Chicken with Peaches & Herbs is a great combination - one of my favorite recipes of the year. It's sweet with caramelized fruit and succulent roast chicken, and the herbs take it all to another level. Plus it's another one-pot meal that is so easy to assemble. Just check out my recipe video below to see how it's done.



Well that's it. I had a delicious year of cooking and I hope you did too, especially if you've tried any of my Top 9 Recipes of 2014.