Economy Cooking from your pantry

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Thank you for these! My husbands family makes biscuits and chocolate gravy for breakfast! He dearly loves it!
And yes, I make breakfast food for other meals as well.
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Keep your ideas coming!
 
My grannys West Texas Green Chili Casserole can be morphed to suit any budget, and pantry, but you gotta have Hatch Green Chili because every thing else tastes wrong and my granny will haunt you.
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1 pack of corn tortillias( amount depends on how many you cook for, I cook for 5 ravenous savages, so I use the big packs)
1-2 cans of cream of celery soup
2-4 cans of Hatch diced green chilis mild for those less inclined to toast their taste buds, hot for those of us who have lived in AZ or West Texas a while.
1 diced onion
1lb or so of grated cheese or cheese product or what have you
1 lb or so left over meat,(I have used ground beef, chicken, turkey, leftover steak, and even gone meatless) and used Basmati rice instead when times were tough.

You need a 13x9 cake pan, but I have also used a casserole dish, and a pie tin in a pinch to make this.
Preheat your oven to 350, and then lightly fry each of your tortillias in crisco so that they are soft and pliable and place a layer in the bottom of your chosen pan.
While this is going on, mix the soup and the canned chilis together and heat the mix so it is just bubbling,(add just a little bit of water to thin it) and add extra chili if wanted.
After you have the entire bottom of the pan covered in tortillias, then add some of the soup and chili mixture, just enough to make it kinda moist so that the tortillias dont get all tough and crunchy, then add your meat, cheese, onions and then another layer of tortillias, soup and so on, until you reach the top,(or end of your meat or one of your ingrediants)you then top with a layer of tortillas, pour the remainder of the soup mixture over it and then I top with more cheese and cook for about a half hour.
In all fairness to the $5 rule of this posting, I do buy in bulk because I cook for 6 people every single day, so I can pull this meal in, using leftover meat, for under $5, and even add a salad. We dont do desserts because the ex gained 75 lbs on my cooking when we were married, and he is still trying to lose weight, and I limit all sweets, so usually I cut up a banana or an orange for the kids.
I dont know where my granny got this recipe, but she could whip up a meal to feed 20 people from next to nothing, she grew up on a ranch in West Texas, and married at 13 to escape starvation because she was the 2nd of 14 kids. Her and my Pa were married for 72 years, and I have never met two people that loved each other more, so since she made this for him as a treat, I always tasted the love in it. Hope ya'll like it.
 
With my stepkids coming to live with us recently, and us having to go from a household of 3 to 7, I have began to make more staples like rice and beans. We live in San Antonio, and they have some awsome Mexican restaurants here and my favorite is refried beans. I tried making them before, but they didn't turn out like the restaurants.

This is what I tried last night and they turned out great.

Refried Beans

I started with leftover whole pintos that had been cooked the day before and poured off most of the juice. And set the juice aside just in case.

Next I got a skillet hot and added some lard until it was shiny.

After that, I added two teaspoons of flour and cooked it over medium high heat stirring constantly to make sure it turns brown but doesn't burn.

Lastly, I add the beans and mash them with a potato masher over med high heat until smooth.

Edited to add: If they are too thick, you can add a little of the saved juice at a time to make them smoother.
 
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We had a dish that my DW whipped up last night that was quite good, so I'll share here.

Boil a 1 pound bag of wide egg noodles.

In a sauce pan heat up four 10 3/4 oz. cans of broccoli soup along with two 10 oz. cans of chunked chicken. as the mixture warms slowly add 1/2 cup of milk, heat until completely mixed.

After egg noodles are done and drained, add contents of sauce pan to egg noodles and stir until mixed.

This feeds 4-6 people.
 
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Parsons Chocolate Gravy

1/2 cup flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on your taste)
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk (depending on how thick you like it)

Mix sugar, cocoa, & flour in saucepan. Turn on medium heat, slowly add in milk, stirring constantly. Add butter, let melt.
Serve over homemade biscuits.
 
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I am have jumped ahead but here are some cans I threw together last week that we really liked.

1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans (Drained and rinsed)
1 can rotel tomatoes

I mixed the contents of the cans together in a med sausepan and brought to a boil. Mashed some of the beans and simmered while I cooked rice and cornbread. We actually that night had with fish my husband had caught.

It was good.


Here is a recipe that you can do with a boiled chicken and use only half a whole chicken saving the rest for soup or a pot pie.

Amish Chicken Casserole

1¼ hours | 30 min prep

SERVES 4 -6

8 ounces noodles, cooked
2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 cups chicken broth (canned is ok)
1 cup milk
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup margarine
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
Melt margarine, then add flour and stir until smooth.
Gradually add milk and broth, then seasonings and mushrooms.
Combine chicken, cooked noodles, and prepared sauce.
Place in an ungreased 9 x 13 inch baking pan and top with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350º for 35-45 minutes, or until heated thoroughly and top is browned slightly.

I usually use fresh mushrooms.

Another hint is if you have an Aldis buy the ground turkey which is .99 cents here and use in enchiladas.
 
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