Can confirm. I did this during the Years of No Job (2008-13). It still cost me a bit, but they managed to do a root canal that actually held for a few years until I had a job and coverage. It failed eventually, but my (insured) dentist was surprised that it had even been attempted since it had been a very difficult job (weird roots, very small jaw, rear molar), and even more surprised that it had lasted a couple of years. Nothing fancy, but it let me keep that back tooth a little longer. (OHSU Dental School, Portland. Sometimes takes a while to get an appointment, but worth pursuing.)
Fat is a lifesaver in general.
Try to get some bulk fat you can cook with, ideally from an animal source. Not only does it contribute significantly to flavor, but it helps prevent malnutrition as many vitamins in veggies are fat-soluable, so if you eat them without fat you aren't actually getting the full benefit of your food.
Beef tallow. Go to a butcher shop and ask for fat trimmings. Render that shit out in a crock pot, freeze extras and you can have like a years supply of cooking fat for maybe $20 bucks if that. I believe we paid a buck a pound for the raw fat
Hokay, this is my best poorfag recipe for chili. (Or for anyone who's got to feed a teenage boy. Ho-lee schist, can those kids eat.....)
1 lb ground whatever is on sale, drained. Beef, chicken, turkey....it's all good.
2 cans chili beans with seasoning (14 oz)
2 cans diced tomatoes (14 oz)
1 can black beans (14 oz), drained and rinsed.....unless you like really dark colored chili.
1 chopped onion
1 package taco seasoning*. (see note below)
Toss it all in a stock pot. Add two cans (or more) of water.....get those cans clean by pouring it from one can to another. Then go do whatever the hell you want for a couple hours while this cooks on medium heat. If it looks a bit too thick for your tastes, add more water. Top it with cheese if you got it, more onions, corn chips.....whatever.
I feed two teenagers and a bottomless hole of a husband with that, with leftovers for a big lunch. When the kids were little, we could eat that for a couple of days.
And shaddup about "chili doesn't have beans". This is the poorfag thread. Go make your filet mignon chili and enjoy, Moneybags.
*Don't have taco seasoning? Go through your spice drawer and make your own. You probably have most of these in there.....
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Use 1 tablespoon of the above mix in the chili recipe instead of the packaged shit.
You can also use 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning to make salsa chicken - three chicken breasts, cup of salsa (chunky works best if you got it), cream of chicken (or whatever you got, I've done it with cream of mushroom and it was fine), and the taco seasoning into the ol' crockpot for five hours on high. Shred the chicken, add a drained/rinsed can of black beans and 16 oz of sour cream. Cook for another hour. Serve this lovely slop over rice. Again, serve with cheese if you got it.
(And yeah, you can use the taco seasoning for.....tacos. Or nachos, or a bunch of other good stuff.)
Do you get a gas or electric bill in a state with deregulated energy? You can actually choose who supplies your gas or electric. Your utility prints info on the bill every month about this. Look for something like "price to compare" or "choice ID"
You can get a low rate for a month or two in the winter when rates are the highest. You just need to be sure to read the fine print and do not sign any contracts!
Okay, let's talk GARDENING....especially since Po'lissa and Joh done pissed me off with their "farming cosplay" shit.
Look, nothing beats the taste (and nutrition) of growing yer own. While this *can* be kinda expensive if you just have to be Martha Stewart, it doesn't have to be.
Didja know that you can use your SNAP/EBT to buy seeds and seedling plants? YUP. That's why you see the SNAP/EBT stuff at Home Despot and Lowe's. Spending a few bucks here can save you several times that amount in fresh produce. (USDA estimates that you get 25 times the return for each dollar you spend on seeds or seedlings. I think that's a bit much, but yeah, it's going to pay you back handsomely.)
Great, Haram.....but what to buy, you ask? Should I grow this, or that?
Here's my top suggestions for all you poorfags and cheapfags ~
1. HERBS. Nothing beats the return on your investment more than herbs, and even you fancy city folk can do this on a window shelf. Depending on your climate, they can even be perennial.....which means you don't have to plant them every year. Most of them are pretty easy care. Just give 'em some water and sun, for the most part.
I've got a rosemary plant that has been producing for me for five years, and could easily go for a very long time. Mint is damn hard to kill - even when you think you have finished it off, don't be surprised if it pops back up (definitely a container plant, to keep it from invading the rest of your garden.). Basil is another good one - with not that much effort, you can easily grow enough for your own fresh pesto, and still have plenty of it for your other dishes. Thyme and sage are fabulous for perking up meat dishes. And you gotta have oregano if you like Mexican or Italian food, right??
Parsley is the one that I recommend you don't start from seed - that bastard's tricky. Get the seedlings, save yourself some tears. Mine's still going strong.
Dry them and you can enjoy them all year long if you have to deal with snowy temps. Give yourself the ability to not settle for bland, or just salt & pepper as seasonings.
2. TOMATOES. Cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, or paste tomatoes all gotta have space in your garden, even if you "don't like tomatoes" (probably because you have only had that stuff from the store.).
If you can only pick one....go for the cherry tomatoes. You'll get quite a harvest out of most varieties, and they are pretty versatile. You can brighten up a salad, or cut them up for a pasta dish. (Or so I've heard. Mine usually get eaten right off the vine by the herd around here, so .....)
Paste tomatoes (like Roma) will give you some of the best pasta sauce ever. They are less, um, gooey than regular ones. Toss in the basil and oregano from above. Yum......
3. PEPPERS. All kinds. Sweet bells are great for salads and stuffed peppers. Mini ones are great for snacking and salads, too. Or just fancy appetizers if you stuff them with some pimento cheese.
But my favorite, though, are the hot peppers. Cayenne and jalapeños are pretty easy to grow, and they will provide you with lots of those little demons. (Hold off on the water for jalapeños right before you harvest them, if you wanna "make 'em mean." Aka hotter.).
If you like to live dangerously, try shishito peppers. These little Japanese buggers are usually mild, but every now and then you get something fiery.
Just....go find some and plant them. Or get the seedlings if you want faster gratification. You won't be sorry.
4. BUSH BEANS. You don't have to stake these suckers. They stand tall all by themselves. Fresh green beans are delightful and freeze pretty well if you blanch them first (dump them into boiling water for a short time, then shock them in ice water - that's a beautiful green right there.)
You usually can get two harvests out of them. The first harvest will be bigger than the second. If you have a long growing season like I do, you might be able to get a small third harvest from them.
Plus.....they make your soil better by helping to fix nitrogen in there. What's not to love??
Look for Blue Lake varieties. Grow 'em from seed. (Can't say that I've ever seen seedlings around.). They're very easy to grow and good for you, too.
5. BERRIES. The price of these little gems in the market is frightening sometimes. But you already knew that. Here's how to indulge in one of summer's best fruits for less.
Get yourself some blueberries (dwarf versions are 2 to 4 ft tall, regular ones can get up to 8 feet tall.). Some varieties are self-pollinating, which means you don't need another plant of a different variety to get it to provide up to its full potential. I'd still get another variety if you can find one, just to maximize yield.
Have patience with them - you might not get a lot from them the first few years (like 2 pints), but by the fifth year or so.....you gonna be harvesting a lot of these little morsels (maybe up to 10 pints/8 lbs per plant.). Freezing them couldn't be easier - just spread them out on parchment or wax paper lined rimmed baking sheets in your freezer for at least three hours. You don't even have to wash them first.
You'll have some beauties to spiff up your pancakes and oatmeal for months, plus enough to make some amazing pies and jam. Take care of the plants, and they could outlive YOU. (Some live for 50 years. No sheet.)
Don't like blueberries? Try blackberries, especially the thornless varieties, or raspberries, boysenberries, anykindberries like that. Again, you'll have to have some patience with them, but in a few years, you gonna have lots of yummy fresh or frozen berries to enjoy (these ones you will have to wash and dry thoroughly before you freeze them, though.)
Strawberries your thang? Get yourself some plants - you can either go with "bare root" (it's gonna look like a weird mass that someone dug up, because, well.....it is. Keep the little nodule above ground and bury the root mass), or cute little plants that are good to go. Depending on where you are, you might be able to get them to winter over for a few years' of crops. Where I am (DeathSantisLand), they're an annual because it's too hot. They're the divas of the berry world and will require more care on your part, and birds/bugs love 'em. Netting is crucial if you don't wanna share them.
Freezing them is also more of a pain. Again, you'll need lined, rimmed sheets for the freezer. It's probably best to cut them in half, or quarters if they are big, after you hull them, and leave them in overnight.
Whatever ones you choose, freeze 'em and bag 'em in Ziplocs. Theoretically they can all last for months, but if you got a crew like mine, they'll be gone ASAP.
6. DWARF TREES - if you got space for them, especially lemons and limes. Do I really *need* to tell you all how versatile they are in recipes? I got myself a pretty little variegated pink lemon and a key lime, myself.
"But, Haram, I live somewhere cold...."
That's why I said "dwarf". You can take them inside when it gets cold. They can stay pretty small - like 2 or 3 feet, depending on the variety. I don't usually have to worry about frost where I am, but on the rare occasions that I do, I can move mine into the house or garage for a cold snap. The blossoms are heavenly in the spring, which always makes me happy (until I remember that it's Nature's warning it will soon be as hot as Satan's armpit.). A friend o' mine has had a Meyer lemon in Alaska for years, ffs. It can be done.
I admit, this isn't a top priority. Do the other things first, especially if you are broke AF. The tree could cost you upwards of $50. You'll have to wait a bit to get a harvest, and it will require special citrus food. But it's pretty damn fine to stroll out to your own tree for that perfect hit of lime or lemon juice on your dinner or salad....or to make your own fresh curd.
7. PEAS. Spring's favorite veggie, by far, and another one that makes your soil better by fixing nitrogen to it.
You can get "bush" varieties of these beauties. They will get to about 2 feet tall, but will benefit from support like a tomato cage. Other varieties - pole ones - will require a trellis of some kind, because they can grow up to 8 feet of vines. Bush varieties usually produce faster than the pole ones, if that's a consideration.
"Alaska" is a good one to try for garden peas. It's a bush variety, which means a little less work if you don't have the time or reserves (financial or physical due to disability) to build a trellis.
I also like to grow snow peas, because they are so damn expensive in the store, and I like stir fries. They don't take much more effort than regular peas do. Freeze them by blanching like green beans to keep them past their harvest date.
8. SALAD MIXES/LETTUCE. Eat yo damn greens! Why eat "death fat beige" all the time??
Besides, they are pretty easy to grow, and you don't need to prep them much for a lunch or dinner side, or a bit of crunch in your sandwich. Don't settle for "iceberg" when there are so many different kinds you can explore. Dark green, light green, reddish on the ends of the leaves.....they all good.
9. RADISHES. Pretty much the easiest thing on this list, and the fastest to reward you. Plant the seeds, and in about three weeks, you got radishes. Fry 'em up with some butter and salt like my sweetie. Eat 'em raw or add them to salads for some crunch and color.
Can't wait that long? You got radish sprouts, which you can use on your sandwiches for a little peppery kick.
Seriously, just grow them for almost instant gratification. "Cherry Belle" is a classic, as is "French Breakfast".
and finally......
10. SPINACH. Yeah, you can steam it and add it to entrees (makes anything "Florentine".). But I like adding it to my salad greens. Grow it in cooler weather so it doesn't "bolt" (aka start producing a seed stalk.)
Spinach is loaded with all kinds of wonderful nutrients - iron, vitamin K, carotenoids - and it tastes better than that frigging kale. It's a "cut and come again" veg that will reward you handsomely. Cooking it makes it easier for your body to access all of its goodness, but you'll get plenty when you eat it raw, too.
---------
Look, you can grow anything you want, really. If your favorite isn't here, give it a go and ignore my suggestions. (Limit yourself to one squash or zucchini plant. Trust me on this, unless you got a fam the size of the Duggar clan.)
You'll *still* be ahead of the game nutritionally and economically by growing your own, not to mention the other extra benefits of gardening (getting out of the house, getting some vitamin D from the sun, the joy of watching things grow, and exceptional flavor from truly FRESH food.)
It's helped me not just feed the fam, it's also helped me to deal with cancer-related disability (being tired all the damn time while I recovered from the cure) and depression caused by not snapping back to health immediately. I couldn't get it together to exercise, but I could always just slink outside for 15 minutes of planting, maintenance and watering. I can't tell you how good for the soul it was to just see something sprout, and be able to harvest some yummy treats - even if it was only a few little things for the evening salad.
Sprouts are a good gateway into gardening. People try to sell fancy kits but you don't need to buy a lot of supplies, they don't take much time per day and the turnaround time to edibility is quick. Radish seeds and such can be expensive, but you can get bulk alfalfa or (untreated) clover seeds cheaply.
"Crunchy and green" can be the most expensive kind of food to secure, and it usually lasts the shortest time (other than cabbage, which also rules). Sprouts on the windowsill pep up sandwiches but also your soul, man.
A combination of location, possums and practicality has limited me to succulents and cacti. The only useful plant I can keep rn is aloe vera. Still, seeing my little plant minions every day is so calming and peaceful. I'm still in a steep learning curve, and I suspect that at least some of the succulents will burn off in the summer months, but I'm still enjoying it. It's interesting that so many people who breed cacti and succulents to sell are aged or disabled, and are supplementing their income with their hobby.
I guess this is as good a time as any to share this site.
Yes, you can use a bucket for your, um, excretory needs. But there's a lot of other things you can do with the ol' Home Despot/Lowe's specials (and other plastic containers.). Including a cat litter box for a cattery that had a population explosion.....just sayin'.
So there is a new app now that allows you to very cheaply buy the leftovers stores will just throw away at the end of the day. It's called "Too Good To Go" and though I have not tried it out it was brought up from a client today that they had good luck in their area getting items.
Paste tomatoes (like Roma) will give you some of the best pasta sauce ever. They are less, um, gooey than regular ones. Toss in the basil and oregano from above. Yum......
A big fat heirloom tomato is nice too. Nothing like caprese salad made with tomatoes and basil fresh from the garden. You can also make your own mozzarella if you feel like it.
And you really need to grow tomatoes if you want decent ones and don't have a good farmer's market nearby. Grocery store tomatoes might as well be made of wax because the fucked-up Frankenstein shit they do to make them survive travel also makes them inedible trash.
3. PEPPERS. All kinds. Sweet bells are great for salads and stuffed peppers. Mini ones are great for snacking and salads, too. Or just fancy appetizers if you stuff them with some pimento cheese.
You can't get enough calories to survive by gardening. But that's fine! You can buy calories in the form of rice and flour and beans dirt cheap. Your garden gets you the extra stuff that makes it worth eating those cheap calories.
Hokay, this is my best poorfag recipe for chili. (Or for anyone who's got to feed a teenage boy. Ho-lee schist, can those kids eat.....)
1 lb ground whatever is on sale, drained. Beef, chicken, turkey....it's all good.
2 cans chili beans with seasoning (14 oz)
2 cans diced tomatoes (14 oz)
1 can black beans (14 oz), drained and rinsed.....unless you like really dark colored chili.
1 chopped onion
1 package taco seasoning*. (see note below)
1 each of onion, green bell pepper, fresh jalapeño, all diced. Can also add carrots or celery if you have some that need to be used up
Plenty of minced garlic
Oil
Ground meat like 1.5ish lb
Cumin
Oregano
Beer (preferably stout, but basic lager or anything else goes tbh. Can also add a splash of bourbon if you have some)
2 cans kidney beans
28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, crushed with a fork (or any other canned tomato type)
Splash of Worcestershire or soy sauce
A couple tablespoonfuls of canned chipotle in adobo (blend/chop/process the peppers into the sauce)
Chopped bunch of cilantro (if you are blessed with good genes and not a soaplet)
Pour a bit of oil in the bottom of a big pot over medium-high and saute the veggies until they soften, then add the meat and brown it. Add a healthy amount of cumin and oregano and let it toast slightly in the heat and fat in the pan, then deglaze with the beer. Then you just dump all the rest of the ingredients in, stir and bring it to a boil, let it simmer for a while and season with salt, pepper and msg to taste. Stir in the chopped cilantro a minute or two before serving
You can't get enough calories to survive by gardening. But that's fine! You can buy calories in the form of rice and flour and beans dirt cheap. Your garden gets you the extra stuff that makes it worth eating those cheap calories.
If you are a soaplet, try eating it with tamarind. I'm not sure why it works, some kind of chemical magic, but I can only taste cilantro properly if I eat it with tamarind.
This week I learned: it's always worth a look, rule nothing out.
There's a bulk meat butcher that I go past once a month or so, but I never bothered to stop and go in because they advertised some really expensive shit. But this time I thought, what the hell, I'll check it out.
T-bone steak for $20kg.
The good stuff too, thick, even, deliciously marbled.
Minimum spend 2kg. Nine in total. I've had two and they're fucking incredible. I've been chewing on supermarket dairy cow mince and rump for so long I'd almost forgotten just how good good meat truly is. I also bought ham for the same price I'd buy in the supermarket, and instead of salty protein for sandwiches, it was actually delicious. And I don't even like ham!
So yeah. Don't assume that something is beyond you, go and see for yourself.
This week I learned: it's always worth a look, rule nothing out.
There's a bulk meat butcher that I go past once a month or so, but I never bothered to stop and go in because they advertised some really expensive shit. But this time I thought, what the hell, I'll check it out.
T-bone steak for $20kg.
The good stuff too, thick, even, deliciously marbled.
Minimum spend 2kg. Nine in total. I've had two and they're fucking incredible. I've been chewing on supermarket dairy cow mince and rump for so long I'd almost forgotten just how good good meat truly is. I also bought ham for the same price I'd buy in the supermarket, and instead of salty protein for sandwiches, it was actually delicious. And I don't even like ham!
So yeah. Don't assume that something is beyond you, go and see for yourself.
Thank you for this post. The whole thread has been useful, but thanks to you, I've just checked out the local butcher that I assumed was for richers and discovered that they have excellent weekly specials. Bone-in ribeye for $10.99/lb? Sign me the fuck up!
Doing home butchery is very good advice but it can be intimidating to get into. My family never did that kind of thing when I was growing up but as the price of meat has risen (I eat a lot of meat for health reasons, though I’m small so it’s not really that much) I’ve been figuring it out. There’s a lot of resources online, and if you aren’t ready for a whole animal it’s actually pretty easy to buy a subprimal cut of beef or pork at Costco and cut it up (this YouTube channel has good tutorials for that). It’s obviously still more expensive than rice and beans but if you have the means to buy and process an entire chuck roll (a cheap part of the cow) you can have meat for months. That includes a good amount of ground beef and tallow, which are thread favorites. Same goes for pork.
Speaking of beef, there are some cheap cuts that can be great if you know what you’re doing. Find a couple marinades you like and usually have the ingredients for and soak cheap eye of round steaks (I’ve seen these for as low as $2 each) and similar lean cuts overnight. My go-to marinade is olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard, a little Worcestershire sauce, either balsamic vinegar or lemon, and maybe some herbs. It’s low effort and tastes like it’s worth 5 times what it actually cost. People say not to reuse marinades but if you have two pieces of meat to eat on two consecutive day you probably won’t get sick from using the same marinade for both. The even tougher cuts can go into a soup, an instant pot, or be braised. Add carrots, potatoes, onions, etc and a relatively small amount of beef can be stretched over several hearty meals.
Misc. kitchen tips:
Stockpile bits of tallow and/or lard in the freezer, then when you have a few pounds render it. This is very simple and will yield a jar of prime cooking fat that won’t spoil easily. Chicken fat is a little trickier to collect and render and the fat will have a distinct taste. Schmaltz is good for toast, chicken soup, and frying certain things but won’t be nearly as useful as tallow or lard.
Get dried herbs, spices, and peppers from Latino or Asian markets if you have the chance. They’re cheaper and usually better than what you’ll get in a regular market. This goes for other items too but IME the difference is most drastic with those and if the market is far from home you can stock up on them.
Rather than buying bean sprouts you can buy dry mung beans (also way cheaper in Asian markets) and easily sprout them. A couple tablespoons of dried mung beans can become several cups of sprouts, and they don’t even need sunlight.
Instead of buying seasoning blends, just buy a big box of salt and the spices you like and mix them yourself. It will probably be cheaper in the long run and your spice collection will be more versatile.
Keep nice jars and containers, you already paid for them and if you’re following the previous tips they’ll come in handy.
Buy some MSG, it will last a long time and even a pinch can improve the flavor of almost any savory food.
Anytime you’re eating tough meat, cut it against the grain and it will feel more tender. The lines you see in the meat are muscle fibers and the more you cut up those fibers the easier it is to chew.
Edit: Loose leaf tea is much more bang for your buck than teabags are. It’s higher quality, the leaves can be used at least twice, and unless you’re buying fancy tea it’ll end up being cheaper per serving than teabags. If washing the strainers is annoying you can buy teabags and fill them yourself. BTW if you like matcha, you can buy sencha powder which is the same but less fancy. It’s pretty hard to taste the difference.
Instead of shitting in a bag, go around the 'hood and offer to rake up/bag up leaves*. (Post a notice on Craigslist or on a telephone pole if you want to be lazier about it.). Charge a few bucks and gather 'em up.
"But Haram, how does that help my garden??"
Well....you bring 'em home, and you have the makings of some fine soil amendments. Dump 'em as mulch before the snow hits, or toss 'em in your composter (you *do* have a compost pile, right? Full of veg and fruit scraps, egg shells, citrus peels, toilet paper rolls, paper towels you used to mop up after the kids, and other biodegradable stuff? RIGHT?)
Leaves break down into some really fine soil, loaded with nutrients.
If you have a citrus tree, try to get yourself some oak leaves for mulching.
If you have an outdoor citrus tree, you probably have heard of citrus greening disease, or the Yellow Dragon (its Chinese name, first discovered there in the 1940's but has now spread worldwide.). It's a bacteria spread by a shitty little psyllid bug. Your tree starts producing weird, inedible fruit, where the top half looks ripe but the bottom half still looks green. Eventually it will kill the tree. This crap is the reason that "life expectancy" for citrus trees has gone down from 50+ years to 15.
There's no cure for it if your tree gets drilled by that effing psyllid. HOWEVER, researchers at the University of Florida discovered that citrus trees that had a bunch of oak leaves underneath them seemed to be resistant to the bacteria. Some big brain noticed that the trees at the edges of the orchards, close by to oak trees, produced normal fruit for a longer time than the ones in the middle that had no oak leaves underneath. They haven't figured out why, yet. It's possible that when it rains, the water filters through the leaves like some kind of "tea" that protects them. In any case.....I'm piling my oak tree leaves under my little citruses and hoping for the best. So far, so good.
* - if you come across black walnut or eucalyptus, separate them out from the rest. They contain natural herbicides that keep other seeds from germinating. You can still use them, but only for spots where you DON'T want other things to grow, like if you have a garden path or a fence line. Think of them as cheaper, safer Roundup.
So...get some exercise, get some beer money, and get some good, cheap , organic soil boosters. Your yard/plants/compost heap will thank you for it.
One more recipe thingy for this thread.
You like pulled pork? Of fucking course you do. It's wonderful.
It's also pretty cheap and super easy.
Get yourself a Boston Butt. Some parts of the country call it a pork butt or a blade cut. Anyways, it's the top part of the pig's shoulder....not his/her ass. (Don't ask me why a pork's butt is up front.). It's the one with a fat cap on it, not the skin (that's usually called a picnic shoulder.) It's generally around $3-4 a pound, and sometimes a lot less on sale
Anyways.....take your butt home, and rub it lovingly with some olive oil to keep it from sticking to your crock pot insert. Yep, massage your big butt - singing along to Sir Mix A Lot's best is optional. Sprinkle it with some kosher salt and some black pepper, and gently place it in the ol' crock pot. Add 1/2 c of water, leftover chicken stock if you're fancy, or hell, apple juice. Cook it for six hours on high. It should be falling apart by then, and ready to go!
That's it. Really. So simple even Po'lissa can do it (but we know she won't.) Apply your favorite BBQ sauce, serve it up as a sammich or with some mashed/smashed taters on the side, and it's yum.
But wait, there's MORE!
Take the leftovers and make carnitas. Put the pulled pork in a nonstick skillet on medium. Add citrus juice (lemon or lime for acidity, maybe a little orange or clementine if you have it for some sweetness.). Toss in some oregano and cumin in a 1:1 ratio, with some garlic or onion powder. Toss it around until the edges of the meat are crispy. The meat *should* have enough fat in it, so you don't need to add more, but if you do....add some from the butt's fat cap.
Use this meat for tacos, enchiladas, burritos or anything vaguely Mexican.
Speaking of beef, there are some cheap cuts that can be great if you know what you’re doing. Find a couple marinades you like and usually have the ingredients for and soak cheap eye of round steaks (I’ve seen these for as low as $2 each) and similar lean cuts overnight. My go-to marinade is olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard, a little Worcestershire sauce, either balsamic vinegar or lemon, and maybe some herbs. It’s low effort and tastes like it’s worth 5 times what it actually cost. People say not to reuse marinades but if you have two pieces of meat to eat on two consecutive day you probably won’t get sick from using the same marinade for both. The even tougher cuts can go into a soup, an instant pot, or be braised. Add carrots, potatoes, onions, etc and a relatively small amount of beef can be stretched over several hearty meals.
Anytime you’re eating tough meat, cut it against the grain and it will feel more tender. The lines you see in the meat are muscle fibers and the more you cut up those fibers the easier it is to chew.
Our grandparents and great grandparents were right about meat. I know the push these days is shit like "meatless Mondays" but when it comes down to it meat and other animals products are extremely important for our health and I wish I'd understood that sooner.
That said, you don't need the "fancy" stuff. Tough cuts, soup bits, organ meat, all of it is "enough".
Our grandparents and great grandparents were right about meat. I know the push these days is shit like "meatless Mondays" but when it comes down to it meat and other animals products are extremely important for our health and I wish I'd understood that sooner.
That said, you don't need the "fancy" stuff. Tough cuts, soup bits, organ meat, all of it is "enough".
Our grandparents and great-grandparents didn't eat nearly as much meat as we do now, and meat and animal products aren't really as healthy as keto types suggest.
Meat doesn't have to be the centerpiece of a meal. It's healthier and cheaper to use it like a garnish.
Our grandparents and great-grandparents didn't eat nearly as much meat as we do now, and meat and animal products aren't really as healthy as keto types suggest.
Meat doesn't have to be the centerpiece of a meal. It's healthier and cheaper to use it like a garnish.
Completely true. You don't need a massive chunk of steak, but you do need something. You can use tools like this to figure out not just your macros, but your amino acid intake as well: https://tools.myfooddata.com/protein-calculator
