Thanks Obama!

[WeAintFoundShit]

Y'all know that I'm broke, like 99.99% of the time. It's somehow the subject of seemingly half of my posts, and just part of being a hardcore student.
Y'all who've read of my recent relationship exploits also know that I'm feeling the brunt of that broke-itude right now. Feeling it to the point where I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to eat or pay my bills until April.
(On the subject of eating, btw: I just learned that a half a bag of cheap lentils, a couple cups of cheap brown rice, half a red onion, a few cloves of garlic, some frozen corn, a couple of decent sized potatoes, some olive oil, 1/3 cup of flour, and three or four cheap chicken thighs, makes enough stew for three days worth of eating, lunch and dinner, for seriously like, $5. But I digress...)

Well last year I made about $5000 doing actual work, along with some chump change here and there doing odd jobs, and the part where I cleaned out my piggy bank for $200 in quarters.
I claimed like, seven dependents on my W-4, so my total federal tax withholding out of that $5k was $140.
The rest of the money I lived on was from financial aid.
Well, I just did my tax returns, and am (apparently) going to get $1,763! Almost $1,800 fucking dollars!?
It's all thanks to some part of the investment act where folks who qualify can get a significant portion of their educational expenses back in tax credits.

Is it the most fiscally responsible policy for our country? Hell no.
Is it going to keep me from starving next month? You bet your ass it is!

[Korpen]

Congratulations! I'm so happy to hear that! You definitely could use the break.

On a side note, you should totally send me the recipe for that stew, 'cause as a poor student myself cheap meals are always a great idea.

[guitargeek]

Great news, man! When you get that, go buy 100 lbs of quinoa!

[WeAintFoundShit]

Quinoa sounds pretty spot on. I like the high dietary fiber content, coz I've got blood sugar problems, and fiber helps to keep it stable (rice actually kind of fucks me up, and I've been searching for things I can combine it with so I won't be hungry every two hours when I eat it).

Anyway, that stew?

Well, feel free to muck about with the recipe, because it's seriously something I just threw together off the top of my head the other day. (Adjust the amounts to whatever you feel like will fit in your pot. I was using a 3 or 4 quart.)

Two or three potatoes, cut into large-ish cubes (I used red potatoes, because they were on sale).
Three or four chicken thighs. (Chicken thighs and leg quarters are usually dirt cheap, because everyone wants white meat. Safeway usually has them frozen in a bag. Lots of chicken for $3-$4.)
Half a pound of lentils.
Two cups of brown rice. (neither the lentils or rice should be fast cooking. Just get the normal/cheap stuff that takes for fucking ever to cook.)
A cup or two of chicken broth (you can either make your own by boiling your leftover chicken carcasses from a different meal, and whatever random veggies you have lying around, and then scraping the scum off the top, or just buy a carton at the store. It's cheap.)
A half a red onion or so (or white, or yellow, or whatever is on sale.)
And whatever other veggies you can afford to throw in: Frozen peas and corn are cheap, carrots are usually cheap, fresh or frozen doesn't matter, but big chunks of carrots are tasty in stew, so if fresh is cheap, you might as well.
Celery?
About 1/3 cup of flour.
As many cloves of garlic as you feel appropriate (four? five? six?)
Three or four bay leaves, and a teaspoon each of rosemary, oregano, thyme, and black pepper.

Start off by boiling the rice in about 1/2 a pot full of water, then reducing it to medium low heat to simmer. Lentils usually take about 10 minutes less time to cook, so throw them in about ten minute later.
Cut the chicken off the bone and throw away the skin.
Peel, smash, and chop the garlic into medium sized chunks.
Chop up your onion into slightly larger chunks
Brown onion and garlic in a separate pan with some olive oil or butter (don't get your oil hot enough to smoke. If your oil smokes, throw it out and start over. It's bad for you.)
Cube your taters and your carrots if you use fresh ones, and after the rice and lentils have been cooking for about 20-30 minutes, throw them in the pot along with the onions, garlic, and spices.
Add in the chicken broth.
Brown the chicken in a separate pan, and throw that in when it's done (along with the drizzlins, if so desired). It doesn't have to be cooked all the way.
Boil that for another ten minutes or so, then throw in whatever frozen veggies you're using.
Mix the flour with enough water to form a thin-ish paste, then stir it into the pot. Be sure to do it kind of slowly, or you'll make the world's most boring dumplings. The point is to thicken the stew (and add more cheap calories to the pot).
Add in more water or broth as you deem appropriate (might as well fill the pot, right?)

When it's just a little thinner than you'd like it, take it off the heat.
That much food will continue to cook/thicken for a while.
Don't try to put it into the fridge for a few hours, coz you'll kill your fridge.

I served it up on top of some whole wheat bread (soaked in a little exta chicken broth, coz I made the stew a little thicker than I wanted).

If you're a thrifty shopper, and already have the spices, this is a dirt cheap recipe for a seriously large amount of food.

(Oh yeah, I'd taste it before adding salt. You might not need it if you use a lot of chicken broth.)

[GeekGrl]

might I suggest throwing in some frozen spinach to boost the nutritional value? Corn and celery are nice in a stew, but have pretty low nutritional value. And to save even more cashey money, try using bouillon cubes to make your stock rather than buying cans/cartons of it ...

... I make some similar concoctions that are equally cheap (and quicker) to make but yield a lot of food and are pretty healthy ... if you're interested, let me know ...

... hmmmm, do we need a "cheap food recipes" thread?

oh, and congrats on the massive tax return! I'll probably OWE that much. Spend most of it wisely but at least a few bucks on something fun!

[WeAintFoundShit]

Bullion cubes are wicked cheap, but I'm trying to cut down on my sodium, so I use low sodium broth.
Good idea for those who don't need to care about their salt intake.

At what stage would you suggest throwing in the spinach?
I would think sort of late in the game, so it wouldn't turn to mush.
Cheap recipe thread sounds bitchin' to me!!

(Or even just a recipe thread with a keyword at the top of each recipe. Cheap, healthy, veggie, uber-carnivore-meat-explosion-bacon-turtle, gourmet, etc...)

[GeekGrl]

If you're using cheap frozen spinach, probably throw it in just a few minutes before taking it off the burner ... stir it in and that should thaw it out, just remember that it will add a wee bit of water content. I get a bag of shredded spinach at Trader Joe's for about 2.50 (I think). Lasts me for about 6 or 7 food concoctions.

Bouillon ... I use a 1/4 of a cube to make two cups of broth ... it cuts down on the sodium, and so long as you're making THAT much food and not ADDING any more salt, your net sodium per serving won't be that much.

[WeAintFoundShit]

Good to know.
I started that recipe thread, btw.

[GeekGrl]

Good to know.
I started that recipe thread, btw.

and I just posted a recipe for you!