We bought the corn muffin mix at the store for 2 boxes per dollar, and each box will make plenty for the 2 of us. We keep a few on hand just in case we crave corn pancakes. The meal is quick, the dishes are light, and it will only cost a buck or two per person for the meal. This is the kind of food I like to cook. 

p.s. for a picture representation of the process, continue below Jazmine’s article. 

Southwestern Corn Pancakes

by Jazmine

Budget meals can quickly become tired and bland, especially when pasta and canned goods are typical budget fare. However, shopping for common ingredients and using them in uncommon ways can add new flavors and textures to everyday dishes.  Look forcorn muffin mix to make corncakes for breakfast or buy sweet potatoes, instead of Idaho, to make mashed sweet potatoes.

This meal takes a typical breakfast food and turns it upside down. In addition to being cheap, Southwestern Corn Cakes are quick, simple, and can double as a breakfast or brunch. Jiffy corn muffin mix can easily be converted to pancakes using the instructions on the side. Add a fried egg on top for protein and substance, giving you energy for class or work.  Replacing syrup with salsa fresca wakes you up in the morning and has the added benefit of fewer calories and keeps away the dreaded sugar crash.

Recipe serves two:

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

¾ Cups water

1 egg

3-4 Eggs for frying

Salsa Fresca (can be replaced with store bought salsa or hot sauce)

1 Tomato

1 Onion

1 Clove of garlic

1 bunch of cilantro

Roughly chop tomatoes, onion, garlic, and cilantro and combine in a Tupperware container. Shake ingredients for a bit so flavors combine.

Preheat large frying pan or skillet on medium heat. Stir muffin mix, water, and one egg in large bowl until combined.  Grease bottom of skillet and pour about ½ cup of batter for each cake. Cook until sides are barely crisp and top is bubbly, then flip. One package will make about 6-8 medium sized pancakes. Fry eggs sunny side up or over easy and then lay over corn cakes. Add salsa over the top of everything to taste and enjoy!

Picture Representation

by Clay

Started with the mix in a small bowl. 

Then added the ingredients.

 
Dropped some batter onto the skillet and waited until it was a little browned around the edges and there’s a couple of bubbles (what it says on the box).  

Then a flipped …. It was a little burnt. 

It’s really good with some salsa (as though it was syrup for non-corn pancakes). 

And it’s really good with a fried egg.

The white was still a bit runny. Flipped it over for a sec, but I still wanted the yellow to be runny. That makes every egg-on-top dish good. 

Added the egg. 

I like it with some green salsa. 

I threw in some squash, onion, and mushroom better than bouillon. The outcome was very delicious indeed. I ended up putting it on both rice and pasta, but I really didn’t need to add it to anything. 

To start this stew I cut up all of the veggies into stew-sized portions. Well duh.

With the Okra, I wanted to squeeze out some of the goo. After cutting them up, I put it in some paper towels. 

Covered it and rolled it up.

Then gave it a good squeeze. 

This didn’t work as well as plan. Just act like it did ;p. jk jk. Anyhow …

Turning to my pot that I heated for a minute or so on medium heat, I tossed in some olive oil and onions. I wanted the onions a bit tender and translucent. This brings out the sugars hidden in onions. 

After cooking for about 5 minutes, I added some squash and covered it. 

5 more minutes, then the green peppers.

Then some mushroom better than bouillon and water. 

Here’s the stuff. 

And the black eyed peas … the original black eyed peas. Please don’t add a CD of the black eyed peas … I doubt it would turn out tasty.  

After simmering for probably half an hour (might have been an hour, I forgot), I got some delicious stew. 

I think I just seasoned this with some salt, pepper, and curry powder. 

Stew’s my easy way to get all the good stuff from veggies sitting around in your fridge. There’s no recipe necessary. I usually just toss whatever I want in it (as long as I think the flavors compliment). Some of the ingredients I have added to stew have been cheese, egg, peanut butter, meat, veggies, starches (potatoes, yuca, etc), spices, diced tomatoes, coconut milk, cream, milk, and broth. I haven’t yet tried to put them in all at once … and I don’t think I will. But with just veggies, broth, and seasonings, I made the delicious stew shown above. 

On a side now toss on a fried egg or two onto any thick soup or stew and you’ll get an amazing and hardy breakfast. 

Yup. Just about anything goes with stew, even an egg. I used the delicious black bean soup from The Vintage Garden Kitchen for this start-of-the-day meal.

Jazmine and I found a great recipe from New York Times, since they have pretty amazing recipes. My cooking (and the food found on this blog) is mostly quick, cheap, easy, and little to no dishes. This is definately an exception. But the result was well worth the work and cost.

First I started with some onion and garlic in some olive oil.

I added some tomato paste from a can and split&seeded dried chillies that I brought back from mexico city farmers market a year and a half ago. I continued by pouring some dry white wine into my mouth … err I mean into the pan. Someone told me that dry white wine is dry because there less sugars in it. I believe them since that person is a internationally reknown carbohydrate chemist. 

So the New York Times recipe was kinda hard to read. I forgot to saute the meat in the pan first. So I pulled out a another pan … uggg more dishes. I rubbed off some of the spices. I think I should have removed more of the spices since it was so salty. 

I added everything to a casserole dish (yet another pan … couldn’t I have just used a single pan for all of this?). I covered it with  some parchment paper and then foil. 

Just look at how it shrank. To me that means it shrank and became very tender. 

Or somewhat tender. It was easy to cut, but not easily pulled apart. 

I used my pyramid mold and put some rice on a plate. 

Then added some of the delicious spiced goat with sauce, onions, and chillies. 

The rest … is history.

I washed the bones and gave them to my neighbor’s dog. This meal was delicious. Absolutely Delicious. A wonderful treat. My only wish was that I had removed a little more salt before I cooked it. The recipe called for a couple of ingredients that I did not have (pimentón dulce and parsley), but I don’t think it would have made a huge difference.

The recipe also called for removing the chillies. But why would I want to do that? They were so tasty. It seemed as though they melted so well that I probably could have spread them on some toast for a side or snack. 

Down side: It took alot of dishes. It also took a bit of time. 

I would like to try it again with some boneless goat shoulder and use the twine idea that was mention in the New York Times recipe.

Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the whole process, but here’s the final product of my efforts. 

Delicious, ain’t it. I’m sorry, you must be drooling a bit. You should go try making it. 

I’m definitely making this again. It was a lot less trouble than I initially expected. I was able to walk away and tend to other things while making this. I also got rid of some veggies that seemed to linger in the kitchen (squash and tomatoes). 

Simple recipe. Not much trouble. I highly recommend it. Took about an hour of on&off attention for this pan of deliciousness. Want to make it yourself? Then check out the New York Times recipe.

Ingredients: olive oil, zucchini or squash, tomatoes (canned is ok … i just used one and a half creole tomatoes), sugar, garlic, onion, eggs, salt and pepper).

The whole dish feeding about 2~3 meals probably cost me less than 5 bucks (woah, and I didn’t even have to use Ramen). Dishes to clean were a cutting board, spatula, knife, a cast iron pan, and lid.

Note: Don’t have a cast iron pan? I don’t think it would make much of a difference in using a regular non-stick pan. You may have some problems in heat transfer, but probably not much. I recommend trying this dish even if you don’t have this pan.

Also note: Also, I’m sure eggplant would  be a good substitute to the zucchini or squash, but it may become a bit acidic with the tomato. Maybe add in a carrot before cooking to cut the acidity and than take it out after cooking. 

I took out the Chicken and 40 Cloves, still in the casserole dish from the day before. The drippings had become a little bit … gelatinous. 

I had to fix the gelatin issue before I started. I put everything on the stove on medium-low until it become more liquid. Then I took out the chicken, potatoes, and garlic  into a separate container in order to focus on the gravy.

I heated the gravy until it was bubbling and then spooned out a little into a coffee mug with some flour. 

I mixed this up, and kept adding drippings until I got more of a liquid than a dough. 

I then added it back into my drippings in the casserole dish. 

I mixed this up and added some salt and pepper. Then I put the stuff back in to warm up with the gravy as the gravy thickened.

Then I plated it and added it to my food collection … in my stomach. 

It was pretty good although Iliked it better the night before as Chicken and 40 Cloves. I want to cook more whole quartered chicken. It’s so much cheaper than buying chicken breast. It only cost me like $5 for a quartered chicken and 3 chicken breast cost $8. Outrageous! They are charging you more per chicken to take out the wings, legs, and thighs, but those are the good parts. (Sure they’re also charging for the deboning and convenience of boneless breast, but still … it’s outrageous).

Both dishes were amazing. The first only took about 5-10 minutes to prepare and then for 90 minutes cooking at 350F. I’m not sure why, but some of the garlic didn’t cook all the way. The chicken was fully cooked and succulent, and the potatoes were nice and tender. I’m going to have to make this again sometime soon. 

First I cut up some onion and made a bed for the chicken and garlic to rest on. This helps prevent the chicken and stuff to stick to the bottom of the pan. 

Then I added the chicken. Really … I just dumped in the chicken. 

I went to my neighbor’s and grabbed some rosemary (left) and thyme (middle) for the chicken. The tarragon (right) was just so I could taste it. I have never had tarragon before and I was intrigued. It’s a bit like licorice, and I’ve been craving licorice things lately. Maybe I’ll do a tarragon infusion drink sometime. 

I added the garlic to the chicken

Then I added the herbs. 

Then I poured in some olive oil

And mixed it up

Added the potatoes. 

Put the top on to keep in the heat and juices. 

Cooked it at 350 for 90 minutes to 2 hours and voila! 

A delicious easy dinner. See all those drippings? That is tastiness. That will be in the next post. It was cooked so well that I could just pull everything now and have another couple different dishes, but that may be for another time. For now I just plated it. 

I then experimented with the garlic on some good bread I bought. It was soooo well roasted I could just spread it like butter. Well most of the garlic I could. Some weren’t fully cooked :(. 

Then some I made into garlic-chicken sammiches. 

Both were incredible. 

Check out next time for the Smothered Chicken that I had the night after.