Not too long ago, I was talking to someone who brought up a recipe for cheesecake that she apparently learned in the lunchroom during elementary school.
You need the following:
1 graham cracker
cream cheese
sugar
Take the sugar and the cream cheese, mix them both together, and put them on top of the graham cracker. Voila! Instant cheesecake.
My immediate inclination was to scoff at this, but I’ve talked to a few people about it and, while they don’t think this sounds especially appetizing, they do agree that this is basically what’s in cheesecake.
And this made me wonder: does anyone else have any other spectacularly low-rent recipes?
We do a similar recipe at my house. My fiance really loves lasagna, but I prefer penne or rotini to the big flat lasagna noodles, so we often mix rotini, ricotta, sauce and ground beef, throw some mozzarella on top and bake it. We call it “Compromise Casserole”.
Heat sour cream in a container in the microwave for 30 - 60 seconds. Stir in shredded cheese while hot until desired consistency. Mustard/Pepper/chives/parsley are optional extras.
1 can of split pea soup, 1 can of tomato soup. (The kind you don’t have to add water)
Put both together in a saucepan and heat.
Add curry powder.
Stir.
Serve.
Will make people think you spent hours laboring over it in the kitchen.
Mix one can of condensed cream of mushroom or celery soup with about a cup of grocery store salsa. Add a little milk–it should be a bit thicker than soup.
In a casserole dish, layer leftover cooked chicken bits and shredded cheese between sliced corn tortillas (preferably old ones that are too dry to do anything else with). Pour the sauce over this and top with more cheese.
Bake like lasagne until heated through.
Vaguely like enchiladas.
My mother used to make this as a topping for Christmas pudding. It’s also good over ice cream or cake.
In a small pot, melt a tablespoon or two of butter (by eye - don’t measure!). Add an equal amount of flour and stir it together until well mixed. Add about a cup of water for each tablespoon of butter. Keep stirring! Throw in brown sugar until you like the colour (kind of pale tan, but not too pale) and the sauce thickens. Optionally, you can add cinnamon or whatever spices you like just after the water, or a little rum or brandy to dress it up.
not exactly a recipe per se, but from the local chinese take out joint, when funds are low, I’ll get a small white rice and two egg rolls, dump the contents of the egg rolls out into the rice, mix, and viola! Instant, well, I don’t know but it’s good.
Heat enough olive oil (or butter, if you must) to cover the bottom of a large frying pan, throw in leftover pasta, and keep tossing it around to coat with oil and heat through. Grind plenty of pepper onto it, and add just a little grated cheese if you have it. Toss everything together, then leave it to fry a bit longer, until the bottom starts to get a little crisp. Toss again if you like, and serve.
Chopped olives are good in this, or onions (fry those a bit first), or garlic, or chopped leftover meat or vegetables.
I buy a quart of egg drop soup and a pint of veggie fried rice. Something I invented as a vegetarian entree to order if there is nothing else.
Easy cheese sauce: Pour a 12 ounce can of evaporated milk into top of double boiler. Grate in a pound of any cheese. Heat until smooth and season to taste. Keeps forever in the frig.
Adding equal parts of this to a can of cream of anything soup and thinning with milk makes a good cheesey cream soup.
Boil a pound of noodles, preferably fettucine. In a large frying pan, melt 1/2 a stick of butter (1/4 pound) and add 1 cup of cream. Throw in the drained cooked noodles, and mix in 1 cup of shredded parmesan (REAL shredded parmesan, not the stuff from the green can). Mix it all together over low heat. Add salt and pepper.
This makes a really good alternative to jarred alfredo sauce.
Egg drop ramen. Make ramen, add flavor packet to water but don’t drain. Add some frozen veggies (optional). While the water is still at a simmer, stir in a beaten egg.
Also, ramen lo mein. Make ramen, drain. Stir fry some frozen veggies. Add drained ramen. Push ramen and veggies to the side. Scramble an egg in the pan, then mix into ramen. Depending on how spicy you like the ramen, you can add the flavor packet to the water and drain it or sprinkle it on to the stir fry.
This is gonna sound gross, but it’s really not! I tried it out of desperation, and ended up liking it.
2 packages of Ramen Noodle Soup, chicken flavored
1 can of tuna, drained
mayo.
cook the noodles as usual, add flavor. drain noodles, add tuna mixed with mayo. It’s really good.
Also another cheap desert I’ve made, death by chocolate cake:
1 pkg brownie mix
1 pkg of chocolate instant puddin
1 tub of cool whip
cook the brownies, and prepare the pudding. then layer brownie, pudding, cool whip twice. It’s real cheap and real tasty! Must keep refridgerated (that looks odd).
ooo I hope this didn’t get posted twice…we shall see
In a pot, brown some ground beef, up to a pound.
Add a can of tomato sauce, a drained can of kidney beans.
Sprinkle chili powder over the top, stir, heat through and serve.
Directions: Take the ramen noodles out of the package, and eat them. Drink the water so they don’t swell up in your stomach by absorbing the previous contents.
