Cheap Easy Dinners!

Does anyone have any vegetarian crock pot recipes?

Sarpedon said:

Does anyone have any vegetarian crock pot recipes?

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Is cheese allowed?

Sarpedon said:

Does anyone have any vegetarian crock pot recipes?

Click to expand...

Maybe you can start a "Crock Pot" thread.

Cheese is allowed. Even some meat. I'm not really a vegetarian, I just have decided to reduce my meat intake of late, so I'm trying to make 3/4 (at least) of my meals vegetarian.

I'm not sure if it warrants its own thread, as the crock pot is a major part of cheap cuisine, and vegetarian meals are often cheaper than meaty ones.

This may sound nasty but its really tasty and real cheap, I call it spampo' and what I do is boil up some red potato's, fry up a can of spam chopped, with a sliced onion salt, pepper and garlic powder. Once the taters are soft I mix everything together with a half stick of butter then poor in a can of corn. Then I add about three heaping tablespoons of sour cream, and mixit all up again, slap it in the oven for 25 minutes at 350, heap some chedder cheese on it, then cook it for another 5 minutes and whalla!!! SPAMPO....... by d.g.allen....

Whoops almost forget,,,total cost for Spampo....10 maybe 12 bucks,, should feed 3 or 4.

Sarpedon said:

Cheese is allowed. Even some meat. I'm not really a vegetarian, I just have decided to reduce my meat intake of late, so I'm trying to make 3/4 (at least) of my meals vegetarian.

I'm not sure if it warrants its own thread, as the crock pot is a major part of cheap cuisine, and vegetarian meals are often cheaper than meaty ones.

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I don't know if it would affect the flavor terribly, but you could try taking the meat out of my crockpot bean casserole. I would definitely add a different type of bean and increase the onion and possibly the liquid smoke by about a teaspoon to make up for the lack of bacon, but I don't think it would hurt anything. Or you could look for a meat substitute and use it in place of the meat. Same thing with the green pepper casserole. Just take out the meat and increase the mushrooms (they have a meaty texture). Let me know if these ideas work out for you if you try them.

One of my quick lunch "recipes" (courtesy of my mom):

Rice or noodles with butter and grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
Tuna fish
Spinach (optional)

Mix. Eat with fork or spoon.

My cats like it when I make this because they get the tuna juice and half the can of tuna.

Sarpedon, I did a bit of research and here are some places where you can find some vegetarian crockpot recipes.
http://chetday.com/crockpotrecipes.htm
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/980702d.cfm
http://www.a-crock-cook.com/
Hope it helps hon

Here's my barbecue meatloaf recipe, my smothered pork chops, and oven fried chicken. All of them are really easy.

Barbecue Meatloaf:

1.5 pounds of ground beef or turkey
2 eggs
1 cup of oats oats (it doesn't matter whether its the old fashioned or the quick cook ones; you can also use breadcrumbs)
About half an onion, finely chopped
1 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce

Beat the eggs and pour them over the ground meat. Add the oats and onion. In a separate bowl, mix the barbecue sauce and the teriyaki sauce. Add about half to the meat mixture. Mix it up with your hands (a spoon doesn't seem to get it mixed as well). Form it into a loaf and put it in a lightly greased loaf pan. Add the rest of the barbecue sauce on top, along with some onion, if desired.

Smothered pork chops

Two onions
Four pork chops, boneless
Pork gravy
Shake 'n Bake (If I don't have Shake 'N Bake, I make my own with some bread crumbs and seasonings that I like)
1 tablespoon of oil (I used olive oil)

Cut the onions like you would for onion rings and toss in oil. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat the pork chops according to the instructions on the box. Layer them in the pan and top with the onions. Bake 30 minutes, then pour gravy over the top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 15 more minutes. This is excellent. My little girl loved it.

Oven fried chicken:

Four or five chicken breasts (Or however many you need to fix. You can also cut a whole chicken for this)
Two eggs
Cup of flour
Paprika
Chili powder
Salt
Pepper

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Place a little butter or margarine in a casserole dish and place in the oven. Allow it to get hot. Place flour, paprika, chili powder salt and pepper in a plastic baggie. Break eggs over chicken and mix with your hands. Sprinkle the spices over the chicken and egg mixture and mix again. Place the chicken in the baggie. Seal it and mix it up over and over again to coat the chicken in the flour. Put the chicken in the hot pan and allow to cook for 20 minutes. Turn and cook on the other side for 20 minutes. This is also really, really good. And, if you want, you can use oil in the dish instead of butter or margarine.

Kitrianna said:

For those of you that own crock pots, here's some budget stretchers. And for those of you who don't...What the bloody hell is wrong with you? Crockpots are time AND budget stretchers!!!

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Crockpots don't exist here. If a person can afford a crock pot, then generally, she can afford a house servant to do her cooking for her, so a crockpot would be considered a waste. Alas, we don't fall under that category. As well, crock pots don't go well with the local cuisine, habits, whatever you want to call it. Generally, a typical meal will consist of rice, a protein curry (soy is big here for the Buddhists, chicken, beef, fish, egg, whatever), a couple of vegetable curries, perhaps a sambol or a chutney, maybe a dahl. Meals are generally still very much not a quick thing to make and are very much made from scratch in this culture. Mixes, canned good, frozen foods are still at the beginning stages here, and only those who are wealthy(er) buy them. So, you know, crockpots just wouldn't sell here.

Whew! That was much longer than I'd intended!

Sarpedon said:

I'm not sure if it warrants its own thread, as the crock pot is a major part of cheap cuisine, and vegetarian meals are often cheaper than meaty ones.

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I vote for a crockpot thread. Yeah, it's a part of cheap meals, or can be, but it's also a category unto itself.

L M Ashton said:

Crockpots don't exist here. If a person can afford a crock pot, then generally, she can afford a house servant to do her cooking for her, so a crockpot would be considered a waste. Alas, we don't fall under that category. As well, crock pots don't go well with the local cuisine, habits, whatever you want to call it. Generally, a typical meal will consist of rice, a protein curry (soy is big here for the Buddhists, chicken, beef, fish, egg, whatever), a couple of vegetable curries, perhaps a sambol or a chutney, maybe a dahl. Meals are generally still very much not a quick thing to make and are very much made from scratch in this culture. Mixes, canned good, frozen foods are still at the beginning stages here, and only those who are wealthy(er) buy them. So, you know, crockpots just wouldn't sell here.

Whew! That was much longer than I'd intended!

I vote for a crockpot thread. Yeah, it's a part of cheap meals, or can be, but it's also a category unto itself.

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Well that just bites! I make some mean curries in my crockpot. Yes I have a varied taste when it comes to cuisine. If you want one, I can send you my spare!

A quick question for everyone, I personally vote for the crockpot thread, but how about a mexican thread too. I have some good mexican recipes, but I want more. It's so hard to find authentic recipes some times and the best dishes are ones passed down from mother to daughter, at least that's what I've found.

No to the crockpot. Lovely gesture - incredibly lovely - but the electricity requirements here are incompatible. I have, however, been contemplating solar cooking, and that would be a crockpot-equivalent (that is, a slow-cooker), but without the electrical requirements.

Yes to a Mexican thread, too.

Hmm, solar cooking...sounds like a great idea, pity for me it's too cold round here for 6 months of the year, but that's when I do wood stove cooking, also similar to crockpot cooking. Pitiful thing is it's the only way that I can make rice turn out properly, save buying instant. Shame on me.

Kitrianna said:

Well that just bites! I make some mean curries in my crockpot. Yes I have a varied taste when it comes to cuisine. If you want one, I can send you my spare!

A quick question for everyone, I personally vote for the crockpot thread, but how about a mexican thread too. I have some good mexican recipes, but I want more. It's so hard to find authentic recipes some times and the best dishes are ones passed down from mother to daughter, at least that's what I've found.

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Why don't you start the thread yourself with one of your recipes?
You can do it from the Now We're Cookin' main page, new thread button on upper left.
Sounds like a lot of people here would love to participate.

Hehehe! It's already up with the only recipe that I currently have on me. I'll bring more next week. I promise...

Okay here's one.

Sort of a cheapo curry, so serve with rice.

I buy dry chickpeas and leave them to soak overnight. A quick boil usually gets them to the right texture.

One peeled, diced sweet potato (dunno what you call them - yams? Sweet potatoes?)

I fry up some onion in curry powder or garam masala, and add the chopped sweet potato and chickpeas and a little water. Cook til tender. Add fresh dhania and ginger and garlic if you've got them.

This is also nice with a bit of chicken cooked in, or maybe some green beans and tomatoes.

One way to extend your proteins (chicken, pork, beef) and get the most value from them is by pounding them out – technically known as making paillards out of them.

Yesterday, my neighbor called and said she had to work late and would I keep an eye on her four kids, ages 6, 8, 9, and 12. No problem. The little devils enjoy my cooking so naturally they wanted me to make supper. I had one $2.14 package of round steak in the refrigerator. (Well, that’s not all I had but they weren’t getting the expensive lamb chops.) So, I cut it into four pieces and pounded them out, breaded and fried them, and then put them in the oven to stay warm. I added three pieces of bacon to the drippings in the pan and made country gravy. While the country gravy simmered, I whipped up some instant (doctored) mashed potatoes, scrapped the corn off two cobs left over from the night before, and then sautéed the corn with a wee bit of green pepper and onion.

Four nice plates of home cooked supper that cost somewhere around a dollar a piece and took about fifteen minutes to make. Granted, after dinner, they attacked and finished off an expensive cheesecake (also left over from the night before), which raised the bottom line for the meal somewhat, but I didn’t need the extra pounds anyway.

Unfortunately (and stupidly), that's the same explanation I gave my better half when questioned as to why I allowed the kids to devour the cheesecake, which explains why I am in the doghouse today.

This is a great thread. My first reaction to the minced collops was "gross!" But then I thought about it, remembered I love oats, and am now curious to try it.

Btw, Trader Joe's has steel-cut oats that are about the same price as their regular quick-cooking oats. I think the steel-cut are a few cents more expensive, but since the packages are the same size but the steel-cut oats cook longer and expand more, you end up getting twice as many bowls of oatmeal out of them, so they end up cheaper. Trader Joe's is a godsend if you live near one.

For fried rice, it's extra delicious if you fry the rice in sesame oil. However, the price of sesame oil probably cuts down on the cheapness factor.

my favorite spaghetti sauce - (recipe was leaked from our local favorite italian place)


2 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can paste
garlic (add a little or add a lot)
olive oil
1 cup grated cheese (romano and parm mixture is great)
1 cup natural applesauce (yes, applesauce is a thickener and sweetener)
1/2 to 3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley

Sautee the garlic and paste in a little olive oil on low heat. Dump the rest of ingredients and simmer for about 30 min. FREEZES GREAT!

Of course you can add any meat you like.

I made a pasta dish today that will probably be considered sacrilegious by purists...

Brown onions and chicken together in some oil until the onions are caramelized. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as a buttload of coconut milk, a couple of chicken bullion cubes. Bring to a boil, then add your pasta and let boil happily away, adding more water as necessary to make sure the pasta has the necessary liquid to cook properly, but not so much that you end up with a soupy mess. At the end, you want a fairly thick sauce, after all. At a couple or three minutes from the end when the sauce is getting thick enough and the pasta's cooked through, add some diced tomatoes. You can also add mushrooms in at the beginning with the onions instead of/in addition to the chicken. You can add some lime juice for a bit of a sour taste. You can add red chilli powder if you're making it for my husband. You could even add a pinch of turmeric with the red chilli powder. You can add bell peppers if you like. It's really flexible.

The best part of it is that it's only one pot, which caters very nicely to my lazy side.

This started out as a pasta recipe from Taste of Home, but then I lost it and had to recreate it, and now I like the recreation better. It's reasonably Weight Watchers friendly if you take it easy on the Parmesan, and really inexpensive when fresh vegetables are in season.

Saute about eight to ten slices of pepperoni per person in a non-stick pan (that way you don't have to use any oil besides what's already in the pepperoni) with some minced garlic. Add thinly sliced onions, red and green peppers, black olives, zucchini, yellow squash, and pretty much any other fairly solid vegetable you feel like adding, and saute a bit more (until the onions are translucent). You may need to add just the tiniest bit of olive oil at this point, depending on how good your pan is. Add your more delicate vegetables (mushrooms, artichoke hearts) and saute another minute. Finally add chopped tomatoes (canned or fresh) and heat through. Toss with cooked pasta and a lot of grated Parmesan.

Chili Soup or Tex-Mex Lasagna

1 can of good quality chili with beans
2 cans of diced tomatoes (Tex-Mex seasoning if you can get them but NOT important)
1 can of drained rinsed kidney beans
dash of hot sauce (Tobasco is my favorite)
Garlic Salt to taste

Options:
Serve over rice, corn chips, tortilla chips or corn bread.
Top with: cheese, diced onions, cilantro, sour cream, plain yogurt, avocado, sliced radishes, black olives, and or chopped chili peppers.

OR MAKE A TEX-MEX TYPE LASAGNA:
In an oiled 10 x 12 baking dish, layer the chili mixture with corn tortillas (or tortilla chips) and cheese. Then bake in a 350 degree oven until hot and bubbly. Top with diced onions, sour cream, plain yogurt, avocado, sliced radishes, black olives or chopped chili peppers if you want.

By adding the tomatoes & kidney beans (which are inexpensive) you can stretch the expensive can of chili to feed 4+ adults. I would estimate the base recipe at $1.25 - $1.50 per serving.

Eggy bread, or French toast. Beat eggs with a pinch of sugar. Dip the bread in the eggs, fry in butter until golden brown. I'm not saying it's healthy, but it's yum and quick.

Barley and vegie soup. About a cup of barley, onion, carrot, celery and whatever other vegies you like. Beef or vegie stock. Simmer until the barley is soft enough to mash -- yeah, I tend to partially pulverise this soup.

Chick pea patties. (and apologies that I'm bad at quantities). Can of chickpeas, drained. Mash until smooth. Stir in a couple of spoons of flour, and I like a bit of pepper, too. Add frozen peas, diced spring onions, grated cheese and one beaten egg to combine. Should make about eight patties fried in a little olive oil.

What to do with some of the free Zucchini.....

2 cups Shredded zucchini
1/4 cup of parmesian cheese
1 teaspoon dry basil (see **)
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano (see **)
garlic salt to taste (see **)

**If you don't have basil, oregano and garlic salt you can substitute 1.5 teaspoons of dry Italian seasoning (or spaghetti sauce mix) and salt.

1/4 cup finely diced yellow onion
1/4 cup finely diced green, yellow or red pepper (can even use roasted red pepper from a jar)
dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce (more if you like a bite)
1 egg or egg substitute
1/4 cup water
1 T flour
enough bread crumbs (cracker crumbs, quick cook oats, oat bran, crushed corn flakes, or mixture of any/all to bind the zucchini into a patty)

form into thin patties (this will make about 6), chill in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour (they'll hold together better)

preheat skillet on medium heat with 1 T olive oil and 1 T cooking oil.

Cook the patties until golden brown. Serve with your favorite salad dressing (I like Ranch or Blue Cheese) or with a wedge of fresh lemon or some left over spaghetti sauce.