Offended by chicken cutlet recipes

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PinkFridge

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 8:40 am

amother OP wrote:

Ok, so I’m jumping on the sensitive topic bandwagon. I’m hurt by all the chicken breast recipes in all the cookbooks and magazines. I can’t afford them.

Why do the ‘simplest dinners’ and ‘easiest go-to’ recipes always seem to assume we’ve got stacks of cutlets in the freezer?

Sounds dumb, but I do get a pang every time I’m recipe flipping and see all these recipes. Same with meat, by the way, but certainly feeling it about all the cutlets.

Yes I’m sure everyone would eat them and my kids would love them and they’re easy peasy… but we can’t.

Gotta run. I'm sure I'm not the first to say, and salmon.
I do get light cutlets when cheap. Frozen is usually cheaper so I have to prep a whole block worth a few meals at a time.

amother

Bellflower

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 8:42 am

Lol I find Mishpacha, Binah, and Ami all to be offensive. Not for the recipes for the content. You can partake in frum society without reading them just like me.

yo'ma

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 8:45 am

heidi wrote:

OP, I feel your pain.
Living in Israel, I absolutely do not enjoy reading recipes from American frum magazines that call for ingredients you just cannot get in this country.
Lately everything seems to call for beef fry, navel pastrami, wonton wrappers. Nope, nada, not happening.
However, it's not the magazine's fault that I chose to live in this country bereft of so many material niceties.
I do understand why you find it frustrating.

That’s what I was thinking. If you’re going to give a recipe that calls for chilli sauce, for example, give a link on how to make it from scratch.

essie14

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 9:02 am

amother Bellflower wrote:

Lol I find Mishpacha, Binah, and Ami all to be offensive. Not for the recipes for the content. You can partake in frum society without reading them just like me.

Haha! I'm waiting for someone to revoke my frum membership because I have never in my life bought Ami, Binah or Mishpacha.
Yes, it possible to be frum and not read them!
I also get recipes from cookbooks and the internet! How novel!

PinkFridge

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 9:12 am

Can I go back to salmon?
It's actually not so expensive from the right places. But the problem I have with serving it weekday (small number of regulars at this point) is that unlike chicken, I can't figure out Shabbos recipes that are so so different from how I'd prepare it for weekday. So I'm saving it for Shabbos and weekday.

amother

DarkGreen

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 9:32 am

Amarante wrote:

Yes. Tofu is significantly cheaper than kosher chicken.

You can get kosher chicken less expensively in some stores but the per pound cost would still be higher than tofu.

And beans, lentils and other legumes are also inexpensive, are a complete protein when combined properly with their complementary vegetable protein source and make some delicious food.

There is a lot of interest in easy and fast vegetarian food because traditionally it was thought to be time consuming to prepare.

ETA - I know this isn't a request for recipes but here is an example of a recipe that uses legumes - is inexpensive - uses relatively inexpensive pantry ingredients and when served over rice (especially brown rice) is a complete protein equivalent to meat. It would also heat up well if made in advance.

Rosemary White Beans With Frizzled Onions and Tomato

Source: Melissa Clark

INGREDIENTS

Yield: 3 to 4 servings

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, halved and thinly sliced into half moons
Fine sea salt
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary, or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes, more for serving
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, such as cannellini or butter beans (preferably canned with salt), drained and rinsed
1 cup chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
1½ teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves and tender stems, more for garnish

PREPARATION

In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil until it shimmers over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned all over, 7 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, transfer half of the onions to a plate and season lightly with salt.

Add remaining 6 tablespoons oil, the garlic, rosemary, red-pepper flakes and a pinch of salt to the onions in the skillet. Cook until garlic is pale gold at the edges (don’t let the garlic turn brown), 2 to 5 minutes.

Add beans, chopped tomatoes, ½ cup of water and 1 teaspoon salt to skillet; stir until beans are well coated with sauce. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook until broth thickens, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Stir in lemon zest and parsley, and taste, adding more salt if needed. Garnish with reserved onions, more parsley, olive oil and red-pepper flakes, if you’d like. The beans thicken as they cool, but you can add more water to make them brothier if you like.

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I’ve been searching for such a kind of bean and rice recipe.

Amarante

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 9:40 am

amother DarkGreen wrote:

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I’ve been searching for such a kind of bean and rice recipe.

You are welcome - it would seem as though a thread - or even a recipe subforum on recipes using relatively inexpensive ingredients would be helpful to many people.

amother

Sage

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 9:59 am

amother Red wrote:

I'm offended that people think that spaghetti and meatballs is a cheap dinner that can be sent over to a new mother.

I priced out all of my dinners, and most are between $15-$20 each. Guess how expensive meatballs are? Over $30.

(For whatever it's worth, if I can get by on a single family pack of cutlets, I can make shnitzel for under $25.)

I think the thought behind spaghetti and meatballs being more affordable is that you serve less meat. The pasta is the main part of the meal and the meatballs are more like a sofe portion. If you make meatballs using the same amount of meat you would use for a main dish, you definitely won't save. You don't need a whole family pack of beef to make spaghetti and meatballs for a single family.

Amarante

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 10:06 am

amother Sage wrote:

I am trying to understand how a normal meatball recipe could cost $30 just for the meatballs unless one is cooking an enormous quantity. I just checked pricing at Western Kosher and premium ground beef is $6.99. Four ounces of beef extended with other meatball ingredients and served with a hearty sauce plus pasta would be a normal serving.

amother

Sage

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 10:20 am

OP, I understand that it's painful to see something that's supposed to be for the general population where the norm is just unattainable for most. Maybe you wonder how everyone else can afford when you can't. Honestly, most of the stuff I see in frum magazines seems outrageous and unaffordable.

Personally, getting subscriptions to multiple frum magazines and getting multiple frum cookbooks feels like an expensive luxury to me, like the chicken feels to you. I'm not making any assumptions about people who are able to do this. We actually get magazines secondhand when others are done with them.

People who really like chicken cutlets might find other ways of adjusting their budgets to fit them in. Or they get from Costco at much cheaper prices. Or they're just rich and we should fargin. Who knows.

Amarante

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 10:25 am

amother Sage wrote:

I think magazines intended for consumers is generally a way of creating jealousy if one compares one's own life to the aspirational life depicted in the magazines. Consumer magazines - I.e. lifestyle magazines - exist in order to sell advertising and in general depict an aspirational lifestyle.

Now a lot of that kind of aspirational stuff exists more on social media rather than magazines.

However fashion magazines generally how clothing that is unaffordable and/or unwearable for their average reader and design magazines generally show rooms, kitchens and baths which are unaffordable to the average home owner.

amother

Wine

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 10:37 am

I dont buy these magazines at all.

But first of all, I take this thread is I shouldn't take for granted the stack of chicken cutlets in my freezer, bec. most of us do.

You dont need recipes! at all.
Make your own recipes, from what you have in your fridge and freezer.
You dont need to be a genius to cook stuff without recipes.
We can do a "mystery box" thread, where people post what they have in their fridge and what they should make.

Amarante

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 10:41 am

Here are two more recipes that are inexpensive, easy, use pantry ingredients and are probably very palatable for everyone in your family - I.e. not weird

What is interesting is that the recipe originated with Molly Yeh who has a food blog, cookbooks and a cooking show. She is a Chinese Jewish woman who married a farmer in the midwest and now lives the farm life. It was modified slightly by Smitten Kitchen whose recipes are generally very realistic to home cooks

Brisket Braised Chickpeas with Squash
Source: Molly Yeh

serves 6

1/4 c olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 large or 4 small carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
black pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c dry red wine
1 small butternut squash, cubed
1 (14 oz) can tomatoes
2 c veggie broth
2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas, rinsed
2 sprigs rosemary
2 bay leaves
chopped fresh parsley, for serving

hunks of bread, for serving

preheat the oven to 350ºf.

in an oven-safe dutch oven or cocotte, heat olive oil over medium, until shimmering. add the chopped onion, carrots, celery, and a pinch of salt and cook until soft, 10 to 12 minutes. (alternatively, you can work in a non-oven safe pot and transfer your mixture to an oven-safe dish when it's time to move to the oven.)

add the cayenne, a few turns of pepper, and the garlic and cook another minute, until fragrant.

add the red wine and cook until it's reduced by half. add the remaining ingredients, give everything a stir, and cover.

transfer to the oven and braise for 2 to 3 hours, until the chickpeas are soft. discard the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs, top with parsley, serve with bread, and enjoy!

Smitten Kitchen Version

Tangy Braised Chickpeas with Carrots and Mushrooms

SERVINGS: 4 TO 6 TIME: 2 HOURS
SOURCE: SMITTEN KITCHEN, BUT INSPIRED BY MOLLY YEH

Note: Soy sauce can contain gluten; check the label if you need this recipe to be gluten-free. Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian; it contains anchovies.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
2 large, thick carrots (12 ounces), in 1/4-inch slices
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 ounces or 2 large portobello mushrooms, in generous 1/2-inch slices
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 to 4 cups mushroom or vegetable stock
1/3 cup red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire or soy sauce
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 bay leaf

Heat oven to 350 degrees. If you have a Dutch oven or braiser that can go from stove to oven, start in this on the stove. If not, start with a wide, deep saute pan and transfer the mixture to a 3-quart (or 9×13-inch) casserole or baking dish for the oven part.

Heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and add onion; cook 3 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Add the carrots, 1 teaspoon salt, freshly ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 more minutes, until they begin to glisten. Add the mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add tomato paste and brown sugar and cook until well-incorporated, 3 minutes. Add 3 cups stock, vinegar, Worcestershire or soy sauce, chickpeas, and bay leaf and bring to a simmer with another teaspoon of kosher salt and more ground pepper.

Once simmering, either cover tightly with a lid or pour into your baking dish and cover with a lid or tightly with foil and transfer to oven. Braise chickpeas and vegetables for 90 minutes, checking at the 1 hour mark to make sure the chickpeas haven’t absorbed all of the broth (and adding the remaining 1 cup broth if so). Remove from oven, discard bay leaf, and adjust seasonings to taste.

Do ahead: Braised chickpeas will keep in the fridge for 4 days, and for a month or longer in the freezer. Reheat at 350 degrees.

amother

Pumpkin

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 10:45 am

I actually find things that chicken cutlets and ground beef are the easiest thing to 'stretch' and I use them really often for chilis, stir fry etc

Example: I thinly slice chicken breast (while partially frozen), season with shawarma spice and sliced onions (you can also add in chunked potato). 4 cutlets fed my family of 4 2x (when served alongside boxed couscous that I added a can of chick peas to, and sliced fresh veggies)

1 lb of ground beef made into meat sauce (with onions, celery, carrots, garlic, tomato etc) with a 1lb of pasta easily feeds my family of 4 2x as well (served alongside butternut squash fries and brussel sprouts)

I have a million examples of this. I find both to be more economical than chicken on the bone (unless the chicken is used for soup and the meat taken off for another recipe)

zaq

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 11:09 am

amother Outerspace wrote:

Well truthfully, when I see some of the influencers Instagram, they’re always posting expensive meats and fish, or extravagant dinners out, where they have multiple appetizers and desserts. It is a certain luxurious lifestyle.

So why are you following them? There are umpty-ump websites with names like FrugalFantastic, CreativeTightwad, CheapChic, MagnificentMiser etc. (I made those up but YKWIM) that feature economical cooking and homemaking.

Years ago I read a great book called the Tightwad Gazette, actually a collection of periodic newsletters by the same name. Now many of the tips were not applicable to frum families, but I don't think I have ever read a publication from which I could or wanted to apply every.single.item. I'm betting that nobody here has used ALL the recipes in the BY cookbook or Spice and Spirit. Only in the film Julie and Julia has anyone ever tried every.single.recipe in a book.

Surely you-all have the brains to either weed out the items that don't apply or adapt them to suit. Take the best and leave the rest. You can use less meat and more beans in the chili, can't you? Or leave the meat out altogether. Our rebbetzin makes a super vegan cholent for kiddush for the benefit of some vegan congregants. Use cheaper chicken parts instead of costlier ones, use less chicken and more veggies than the stir-fry recipe specifies, can't you? Some stores carry dark-meat cutlets; they work just as well as classic cutlets and are usually cheaper. I've never bought chicken cutlets, but when my supermarket was selling chickens with hypertrophied chests, too big to be a single serving, I sliced off a big chunk of each to make small cutlets to freeze, leaving just enough meat on the bone to make a reasonable serving. Get yourself a really good knife, cut your own cutlets if you're really yearning to make something that calls for them, and use the carcass for soup.

If I see a recipe calling for blue-green Himalayan salt, Norwegian earwax, Filipino eye of newt and fresh Andalusian toe of frog, I don't feel offended. I just skip it, knowing darn well that I will probably never again have any need for eye of newt, Filipino or domestic, and it's not worth buying a half-ounce of stuff that costs more than gold when all I'm going to use is five milligrams.

amother

Red

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 1:29 pm

amother Sage wrote:

Great, so we’re doing meatballs wrong? My kids do in fact eat an entire family pack of ground beef worth of meatballs. And the spaghetti too. I can stretch a pound of ground beef for sloppy joes, but no way will my kids be satisfied with just one or two meatballs.

STMommy

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 1:38 pm

My crazy making recipe in a frum magazine or cookbook is London Broil Salad. If I could afford red meat you better believe I am NOT throwing it into a salad!

amother

Pumpkin

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 1:51 pm

STMommy wrote:

My crazy making recipe in a frum magazine or cookbook is London Broil Salad. If I could afford red meat you better believe I am NOT throwing it into a salad!

.

Agree. I made a 2lb London broil as a roast last shabbos for shabbos Chanukah/rosh Chodesh. Sliced great and Perfect size for our family of 4

mha3484

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 1:56 pm

I think with london broil its served as a salad because its a meat that really does not reheat well so if your not serving it warm you serve it cold. Also sometimes you can stretch the meat more as a salad with a lot of other ingredients.

amother

Amber

Fri, Dec 30 2022, 2:11 pm

I BH can afford cutlets and find them to be most economical rather than chicken on the bone. But I'm always baffled by the weekday dinner recipes that call for expensive cuts of meat, even Dinner Done which is easy, family friendly food, has some really fancy meats as a quick and easy dinner and I can't wrap my head around that.

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