I like to experiment, and when I came across a YouTube video on homemade deli meat, I was intrigued. This led me down a rabbit hole of other videos, all with the same conclusion: homemade deli meat was significantly less expensive and more delicious than the stuff that you buy at the deli counter. All I needed was a “ham press,” a device that would let me make deli meat, and they were only around $25! I was in.
I’m using a lot of my gadgets, but you absolutely don’t have to be gadget-rich. I’ll list alternatives in the photos below. I’m following a recipe that came with the ham press, but there are many, many variations on this theme. My results were… well, I’ll get to that. Let’s get into the recipe, shall we?
These are the dry ingredients. Other recipes are much simpler. All of the spices were at 1teaspoon, and the unflavored gelatin was at 2 teaspoons.
I used this ground turkey. It was around $3.50 a pound, but if I had gone to Aldi, it would have been $2.50 a pound. If my experiment worked out, I could eventually make deli turkey for $2.50 a pound. In my area, the real stuff is between $10-12/pound, so that could be a real savings
I mixed the spices, gelatin, and meat in my KitchenAid. However, you could absolutely do this by hand.
Per the instructions, I added 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
I then pressed the mixture into the ham press. The press provided plastic liners, but in the YouTube videos, the demonstrators just pressed the meat mixture directly into the cylinder. Some used a little cooking spray to help with removal.
Here are the other parts that came with the ham press.
This spring contraption “presses” the meat mixture during cooking.
You have to force the lid against the spring. The milling of the ham press parts is pretty rough, so I wound up cutting myself.
Here is the complete assembly. You need to cook the meat at a low simmer, so I’m using a Sous Vide at 185°F (85 °C). You cook until the thermometer inserted into the press reaches… well, some recipes say 165°F and others say 185°F. I went with 170°F (77°C), as poultry should be cooked to at least 165°F (74°C). You absolutely could nix the sous vide and just use a pot on the stove with the water simmering. It took around two hours to reach the desired temperature.
I then placed the press in an ice bath to rapidly cool it. After that, it went into the fridge overnight.
I used a meat slicer to slice the loaf. True confession: I bought this slicer during COVID, but this is the first time that I used it. I’ll probably do a review on it in an upcoming post. Of course, you could just use a knife.
Here is the result, Yep, not picture perfect. The slices taste pretty good, actually better than traditional deli meat, as that is overly salty. But the texture? Could be better. So the verdict on this meat press is pending. I’m going to try it on some chicken breasts when they go on sale, as the problem may have been in the ground turkey tube slop. At this point, I can’t recommend making your own deli meat, but stay tuned for trial number two.
As a kid, I disliked anything that had lentils in it. However, as an adult, I really like lentils. It is funny how that works.
I make a couple of different red lentil soups; this one is a bit spicier, and it is my adaptation, so I can’t credit another source. The great thing about this soup is that you can go from start to finish in less than an hour. I’m serving it up with some Naan bread, which is more South Asian, but that is the way I roll.
If you want it less spicy, use less chili powder. Let’s take a look at the recipe.
Here we have one carrot, one parsnip, and one onion diced. One and a half cups of red lentils, rinsed. One teaspoon of cumin, a pinch of Chili Powder, 2 cups of water, 4 cups of chicken broth, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, and a little salt and pepper. At the end of the recipe, the juice of one lemon and some chopped cilantro are added.
Cook the onion until somewhat brown. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the spices and tomato paste, and stir for about 1 minute.
Add two cups of water. Add the carrot and parsnip.
Add the red lentils. You could use other colored lentils, but the red lentils look the best.
Add 4 cups of chicken broth. If you want a vegetarian dish, use vegetable broth.
Partially cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
While the soup is cooking chop up some fresh cilantro and slice a lemon in half.
When the vegetables are soft, remove half of the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Then return this mixture to the soup pot.
Add the juice of one lemon to the soup and mix.
Decorate the soup with some of the cilantro.
Add a bit more cilantro to each serving. Here I’m adding some toasted garlic Naan bread.
This is a simple, delicious recipe. Give it a try.
When I was growing up, I didn’t think much about meal decisions; I ate what I was given. Some meals excited me, and others were less interesting. Things are different now that we live in a world of restaurants, drive-throughs, and DoorDash. It is common to ask the question, “What do I have a taste for?” These selection options have also drifted into home cooking. Have you ever looked into a full cupboard or refrigerator and said to yourself, “There is nothing good to eat!” If so, you may be wasting food and increasing your grocery costs, something that can be especially stressful amid inflation and the Trump tariffs.
I have talked endlessly about the benefits of cooking at home, especially cooking from scratch. However, to achieve cost savings, you need to prepare what you have. If you find yourself buying groceries only to throw them out at the end of the week, you are needlessly wasting your hard-earned cash. With that said, I am also guilty of tossing wilted salads and leftovers that are past their prime. However, I am making efforts to reduce these behaviors, and those efforts are easier than they may appear.
When I was a resident physician, I was very poor. I was in the process of getting a divorce, and I needed to pay my divorce attorney, who seemed to think of me as an ATM rather than a client. I had a small child who stayed with me on the weekends, so it was impractical to share an apartment; I had to rent my own. Additionally, I was paying child support. Money was extremely tight, and the most I could spend on my weekly groceries was $20, or about $55 in today’s money. That cash had to fund three meals a day, as well as other necessities like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and the building’s pay washer and dryer. Resident physicians were not paid very well in those days, and even when I became Chief Resident of Psychiatry, I was only given an additional $100 (before taxes) a month. For that $100, I not only had to do all my regular doctor work, but also administrative duties for a 4-year residency program, including scheduling, monitoring, disciplining, training, interviewing candidates, and other responsibilities.
Aldi stores existed, but not in my area, so I shopped at “the Jewel,” our local grocery store chain. In those days, they had a generic aisle that carried inexpensive foods. These foods were clearly a cut below house brands and were objectively of a much lower grade. Once, I opened a can of green beans to find an entire plant inside, including stem and roots. The refrigerated section of the store included cheap items, like hamburger meat mixed with TVP and a generic bologna made with mystery meat products, possibly yak? One highlight was turkey legs, which, for some reason, were pretty inexpensive in those days. These were the foods that I could afford, so these were the foods that I bought.
With my doctorly, administrative, and parenting responsibilities, I didn’t have much time for elaborate meal prep, so I came up with options that were both easy and tasty. I also developed hacks to save money. For instance, it was sometimes cheaper to buy frozen hamburger patties than fresh hamburger (even the TVP stuff), so I would use 1 or 2 patties to make meatballs or a meatloaf. I had more of these simple but effective hacks; I’ll save those for another post. I figured out how to make meals cheaply and simply. I would make dinner for two and then immediately portion my meal in half. I would eat one portion for dinner and place the other in a Rubbermaid container for my lunch the next day. This simple meal prep allowed me to make two meals at once, saving me both money and time.
Most of my kids are now living independently. We cooked together for years, and they are wholly comfortable in the kitchen. They have professional, demanding jobs, so their time is limited. They are also in the early stages of their careers, and they understand that eating out all the time will hamper, not enhance, their financial progress. Based on this, they have adopted their own meal prep styles.
My one daughter has been meal prepping her breakfasts and lunches. She likes breakfast soaks (oatmeal, fruit, chia seeds, etc.), and will make 3-4 at a time. She also packs a dense bean salad for work. Apparently, these salads stay fresh for days. She picked up an Instant Pot on Black Friday and has started batch-cooking dinners. As I write this, she sent me a photo of some red beans she made and another of her using food cubes and a vacuum sealer to portion them for future meals.
My daughter sent me a photo of her batch of red beans. It made eight portions, so she needed to freeze some.
She froze portions in food cubes and then repacked them with rice for a complete red beans and rice dinner. These vacuum seal bags can be dropped in boiling water to cook or you can make a little slit in them and cook them directly in the microwave.
My other daughter has a repertoire of dinners for 4 that she has gleaned from home, friends, and a website called “budgetbites.com.” She is comfortable eating the same dinner for 4 days in a row, and that is exactly what she does. She recently sent me a photo of a roll-up lasagna that she made. It was inexpensive and made more than 4 meals, so she froze a portion or two for emergency backups. She also has my love of vacuum sealers, so those extra portions will stay fresh in the freezer for a very long time.
My other daughter found this recipe for lasagna roll-ups on budgetbytes.com. It made more than 4 portions, so she freezed a few extra meals.
Here are the lasagna roll-ups baked. Delicious!
I have a son in a PhD program who still lives at home. He is quick to grab our dinner leftovers to take for his school lunch. He likes home cooking, and the price is right!
My son will pack leftovers from our dinner for his school lunch. When he gets hungry dinner is just a press of a microwave button away.
I’m incredibly proud of my kids and their frugal habits. Each has adapted a version of batch cooking that works for them, and I’m certain that they will modify those behaviors as their needs change.
I enjoy watching food prep videos where the presenter prepares elaborate batch meals or transforms a single ingredient into 5 different dishes. However, for my kids and me, that is just too much work. Each of us has developed ways to save both time and money using batch cooking. I’m not pushing any of our methods; rather, I would like you to think about what would work for you.
Abandon the idea that every meal needs to be exciting. Buy basic foods and build a reasonable pantry over time. Explore recipes that you like. You don’t need 100 of them. My one daughter has around 10-12 dinner menus that she rotates, each serving her for 4 days. This makes her grocery shopping very easy. Since many of her menus use similar ingredients and spices, she always has what she needs on hand.
Consider purchasing the right tools for the job. My other daughter has slowly curated items to make her meal prep easy and fun. Mason jars for her soak breakfasts, an Instant Pot, food cubes, and a vacuum sealer to freeze extra meals. Yesterday, she told me that she would like a Dutch oven for her upcoming birthday. My son has a favorite commuter mug and a quality packable/leakproof food container for school. What is that container? A Tupperware one that my wife found at a thrift store that he claimed as his own.
There is no sense of deprivation; there is a joy in reducing decision fatigue and a sense of security in saving money. How great it is to know that a homemade dinner is waiting after a long workday, ready for a quick reheat. Running late in the morning? No problem, grab that jar of cold soak and eat it at your work desk. Trying to save money as a student? Easy when you have a completely delicious lunch waiting for you that only requires the press of a microwave button.
Come up with your own ideas, the ones that work for you and your lifestyle. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect. This is not an all-or-none behavioral change. Perhaps you want to meal-prep only a couple of lunches per week. That’s OK. Maybe you can’t stand leftovers. Freeze them and eat them later. That way, they are no different than heating up a purchased frozen dinner, except the quality will be better and the cost lower. Feeling left out when everyone goes out to eat? Join them, just don’t do it every time. It is all OK.
We love bananas at our house, so it is a good thing that they are fairly affordable. That said, we often discard the overripe ones, even though I’m always trying to gauge the right quantity and pick the proper greenness. It seems that they can go from optimally delicious to over-ripe in a matter of hours. Inflation and the Trump tariff taxes are straining our grocery budget, and it is criminal to throw out food. Overripe bananas can be used in a variety of recipes. They can serve as an egg substitute, be blended into a smoothie, or, in the case of today’s recipe, be used to make a simple and delicious banana bread.
There are many recipes for banana bread, but I like the classic Betty Crocker recipe from my 1990s cookbook. I believe we got that book as a wedding present, and it has been well used. I also have a 1970s edition that I bought new. Yes, time marches on! Classic cookbooks like Betty Crocker’s are wonderful because they are written for the average user. They tend to be straightforward and limit the use of exotic ingredients. They are also well tested, so users are more likely to achieve good results. This recipe is a heritage recipe, meaning that it has been popular since the mid-20th century. Let’s take a look at the ingredients.
The ingredients are straightforward, but we will make a few substitutions. You can freeze bananas in their skins for later baking use. You can also peel and mash them, adding 1T lemon juice to prevent oxidation. If you do the latter, note that 1.5 cups of mashed bananas is enough for this recipe.
These bananas are no longer edible in our home. However, they are perfect for smoothies or banana bread.
The recipe calls for 1/2 C of buttermilk, but you don’t need to go to the grocery store; just make your own. Add 1/2 T of vinegar and enough milk to bring the total volume up to 1/2 C. Let the mixture stand for around 10 minutes before using. We are not using vinegar for flavoring, so any vinegar can be used. White vinegar is very inexpensive and always good to have in your stockpile, as it has so many uses.
Cream the sugar and the butter. If you forgot to take the butter out to soften, you can soften it in the microwave. All microwaves are different, but usually 15-20 seconds is enough to turn a rock-hard stick of butter into soft butter. Don’t overdo it, as a few extra seconds can melt the butter, leaving you with a greasy mess to clean up. I started at 15 seconds, then added 3 more, and the butter reached the perfect consistency.
Here, I creamed the butter and sugar. Did I do a perfect job? Probably not, but it is good enough. I scraped down the sides a few times. You can absolutely make banana bread by hand, but an inexpensive hand mixer is a worthwhile investment, although not absolutely necessary. After the butter was creamed, I added the eggs.
Here is the mixture with the eggs beaten in. I scraped the bowl with a spatula during this process to make sure everything was mixed in.
I missed taking a photo of myself adding the bananas. I just broke the bananas into pieces and used the mixer to mash them into the batter. If I didn’t have a mixer, I would have mashed them separately and then stirred them in.
I then added the homemade buttermilk and the vanilla and mixed them in. I’m using real vanilla, but you don’t have to. Cooks often say real vanilla is the best, but that may not be completely true. Manufactured vanilla doesn’t have all of the volatile compounds of real vanilla, so real vanilla is the best choice with unheated foods, like a milkshake. However, most of those compounds are lost in baking, and in baked goods, most people can’t tell the difference between the two. Real vanilla is very expensive; manufactured vanilla is very inexpensive.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. When measuring flour spoon it into the measuring cup and then level the cup with a knife.
Pro tip: if you want less mess, convert the volume measurements to weights and use a food scale. Then no measuring cups are needed! However, since not everyone has a food scale, I’m going with standard Imperial measurements.
I could keep using my hand mixer, but it is gentler to fold the flour in with a spoon or spatula. When mixing the other ingredients, mix for as long as necessary. However, you should mix the flour only until it is incorporated, as you don’t want to develop gluten. Developing gluten is great for bread, which is why you knead it. However, it makes cakes, muffins, and quick breads tough and chewy, so avoid excessive mixing once you add the flour.
Here is the batter ready to go into the pans. At this point, you can add your extras. Walnuts or chocolate chips are fantastic additions. However, one of our family members doesn’t like nuts, and another dislikes chocolate (I know, hard to believe).
Pour the batter into 2 greased loaf pans. I’m using 8″ pans, but 9″ pans also work. I like the smaller pans as the loaf will be a bit taller. Per the recipe, bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 hour in 8″ loaf pans and 1.25 hours in 9″ loaf pans. However, my bread only took 45 minutes to bake. Set your timer for less time than the recipe states and check. You can always add time, but you can’t take it away. The bread is done when the batter pulls away from the pan, and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Here are the breads out of the oven. Allow them to cool for around 5 minutes before turning out. We will eat one and wrap and freeze the other for a future treat.
Quick breads are delicious, and once you make one, you have the skill to make any other variety. A slice can be a dessert, a snack, or something to take with you on your morning commute. A nice piece of homemade banana bread and some home-brewed coffee beats an expensive trip to a coffee shop every time.
There you have it, a really delicious treat from food that most people toss in the trash. A penny saved is a penny earned!
It is time for contemplation and review. This month, I have been retired for over 8 years from my private practice and 7 years from my addiction work. That is a long time. Am I the same person that I was 8 years ago? No. Are my goals the same? No. Am I happy? Yes!
Things change over time. Important things become less important, less important things become more important. Life goes on. I think that I’m doing well, and part of my success is in allowing myself to change. I know some people who are constantly battling to be the same person that they were 10 or 20 years ago. Good luck to them, but I think that is a futile and frustrating objective.
I love to cycle, and there is nothing wrong with doing so on an e-bike!
As I have aged, I have faced more challenges, not all of them being personal. My wife developed a serious illness that impacts her daily. This has altered what we can do together, but it hasn’t eliminated those activities. We have had to become more mindful of our actions as we accept her limitations. More on that later in this post.
I have always urged people to discover their core interests because understanding these basics makes adapting to and modifying one’s life much simpler. For me, I have three simple drives: I love to learn, I love to teach, and I love to create. Those basic drives can be filled in countless ways. For instance, in the past, I loved learning the neurobiology and biochemistry of a new drug. Today, my learning may be researching the biochemistry of various bread-making enhancers, as I make much of my own bread. These two topics are more similar than you may think and are equally satisfying to my brain.
Baking my own bread has become a fun activity.
I love to teach, as anyone who knows me will attest. Sharing information with others makes knowledge grow and expand. Helping someone understand something is an absolutely wonderful feeling. It is exciting to see another person’s eyes light up when they connect the dots. How many live in ignorance, how powerful it is to understand. One of my recent teaching efforts has been through this blog. With inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, many are struggling. I have been posting simple recipes to encourage others to cook from scratch with an emphasis on flexibility. Those who have not cooked may be afraid to do so, fearing they will not do things perfectly; my posts emphasize that perfection is not the goal (none of us are Martha Stewart). The goal is to be “good enough.”
I love to teach, and most recently, I have been teaching people how to cook from scratch.
I’m always creating something; it is in my blood. My creations can be as simple as cooking a nice meal or as complicated as relearning how to create and build an entire website, a project that I just completed for a friend. Certain creative interests never leave me, for instance, my obsession with photography. I love discovering beauty that others miss. I’m fascinated by using angles and light to transform a boring image into something interesting. I continue to do some professional photography, but I also relish the joy of my personal photography. Recently, I saw a YouTube video from a guy who travels to small towns to take photos. “OMG,” I thought, “That’s me, too!” It turns out this person has a photo club that meets in the town right next to mine. I’m excited to attend my first meeting, but it is also a stretch for me. I’m what you call a functional extrovert. I know what extroverts do, and I can mimic their behavior. I have no problem giving a lecture to 200 people. I have no problem being assertive. I have no problem dealing with conflict. However, those activities are not part of my nature. I do them because they are necessary life skills, so I have taught myself how to do them. However, going to a club where I will be the only new person is a challenge for me, because it isn’t necessary. My true nature is more introverted. I don’t want to impose. I don’t want to be pushy. “What if they don’t like me?” “What if they don’t like my photography style?” I worry about such things. However, I know that growth sometimes requires discomfort. I have never let discomfort stop me in life, and I’m not about to now that I’m retired.
That said, I think self-acceptance is also critically important. During my professional years, I would see other doctors connecting with health professionals on a personal level, not because they wanted to, but because it was a sound business decision. I could never do that as it felt fake and dishonest. Eventually, I came to accept myself. I couldn’t schmooze my way to success; I would have to do it on the quality of my work alone. In the end, that was enough.
I feel similarly now. I am who I am. I will never be the person with a million friends. However, I will be the person with a handful of very close connections. I like to invest in those people that I love, and that takes a lot of energy and effort. Having a handful of people who I genuinely care for who feel similarly about me is more than enough. I am blessed in this regard.
In this 8th year of retirement, I am still drawn to nature. I was recently telling a friend that one of my greatest joys is Violet, my adventure van. In 2018, my friend, Tom, and I converted a raw-cargo van into a camper, designed for the wilderness. She is capable of generating her own electricity, purifying her own water, and can remain habitable in just about any situation, from a hot desert to a Midwestern winter. Violet has shown that an old guy like me can find joy in creating the “clubhouse” he never had but wanted as a 12-year-old. It is never too late!
Tom and I built out Violet, the adventure van, in 2018, but she still gives me great joy!
My wife has been more willing to adventure with me over the last few years. We had a couple of rough starts as her illness left her more immobile, and some of our trips ended abruptly with a visit to the ER. However, we are now adapting to her limitations and are having success on our adventures. Remember, our measure of success is what we can do now, not what we could do when we were 20. We are planning and hoping for more adventures this year.
Hiking in the Arizona desert.
I have also realized I don’t have to do everything I “should” do. We should be doing some upgrades to our home, basic things like changing out our carpets, and updating our kitchen cabinets. These are massive jobs, as they involve moving tons of junk to get the job done. Suddenly, I had the realization that I didn’t have to do those things. Everything in my home is functional, so I can leave it as is. We are not slated to be on the cover of “Better Homes and Gardens.” I’m not saying I won’t upgrade; I’m just saying I no longer feel the urgency to tackle these laborious jobs.
I have taken over most of our basic household tasks, from cleaning to grocery shopping, as my wife is still working. When she eventually retires, I’ll turn over some of those tasks back to her. I don’t find these jobs too menial. They are a necessary part of life and therefore are important in their own right.
Over my retirement I have shifted from an accomplishment mode to a connection mode. I have invested heavily in those I love and that has been one of the wisest investments that I have ever made. I have invested in my family, my extended family, and my friends. These connections have given me countless joy and a true sense of purpose. Having the time to do this has been the greatest gift from retirement. These connections are likely the main reason why I am so happy and content during my retirement years.
Well, that is my 8 year update. Peace and blessing to you, my blog friends. May you find joy in the simplest things and awareness of the beauty that is all around you.
During the 1960s and 1970s, home cooks embraced cooking shortcuts, and suggestions were everywhere from newspaper columns, to church cookbooks, to the back of packages.
My mom was right on these trends, and I have fond memories of the delicious foods and desserts she made for us, including the dump cake. A disgusting title for a delicious cobler-like cake that could be thrown together in literally seconds. Like many foods of the era, it incorporated a variety of pre-made ingredients readily available at any market.
When my kids started to move out of the house, we pondered ways to stay close and involved in each other’s lives. We wanted to see each other more than just on holidays, and we wanted to know the details of each other’s lives beyond a text exchange in a group chat. One of my daughters came up with a solution, a rotating brunch.
This month, the brunch rotation is at our house. My son suggested a “make your own breakfast sandwich,” and the rest of the family was on board. It would be up to my wife and me to figure out the logistics of such a meal, but that sort of challenge has never bothered me.
These brunches include a sweet treat, like a quick bread or a coffee cake. However, I wanted to try something from my past, a dump cake. These cakes became a hit in the late 1960s, and there are now many variations on the dump cake theme. However, I decided to go with the OG dump cake, which is cherry- and pineapple-flavored.
The dump cake isn’t exactly a cake, it isn’t exactly a fruit cobbler, it isn’t exactly a coffee cake; it is a dessert unto itself. It could be a great first cake for someone to make, and can be served warm or cold. Often, a little whipped cream or ice cream is added to further elevate the experience. Let’s take a look at the recipe.
Classic Dump Cake
1 box yellow or white cake mix
1 can crushed pineapple, including the juice
1 can cherry pie filling
2 sticks butter
1/2 C chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Powder sugar (optional)
Spray a 9″ x 13″ pan with cooking spray and pour in a can of cherry pie filling. Spread it out.
Add a can of crushed pineapple, including the juice, and spread it out.
Spread a box of dry cake mix over the fruit. On top of the cake mix, add 1 stick of butter sliced evenly. You can add nuts at this point, but we have an anti-nut person in our family, so they were omitted.
Melt another stick of butter and add this to the top of the mixture. Note, there is no mixing of any of these ingredients.
Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 35-45 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned and the fruit is bubbling. Once cool you can dust with some powdered sugar (optional).
Here it is served with a little whipped cream. Ice cream would also be nice. It is delicious and as easy as pie. Well, actually, it is a lot easier than pie.
Many variations of this recipe use different cake mixes and fruit ingredients. A perfect and easy dessert.
By the way, the brunch was a success. We set up a self-serve bar, and everyone made their own sandwiches, choosing a croissant, bagel, or English Muffin. We had bacon, sausage, and cheese to go along with a huge batch of scrambled eggs. I did wind up burning a couple of croissants when I tried to toast them under the broiler, but we had extras. All in all, a delightful meal made sweeter with the addition of dump cake.
It is great to plan activities to keep families together. Our brunch rotates, so the burden is light on all participants. It is also early enough in the day for everyone to still have time for other weekend activities. We try to schedule the next brunch at the end of the last one, so everyone has the date on their calendars. Consider this tradition with your family.
Mike
We had a “serve yourself” bar so everyone could customize their breakfast sandwich.
I went with a toasted croissant, eggs, bacon, and cheese. Yummy!
By now, you know that I’m the self-proclaimed king of simple cooking and one-pot meals.
You also know that I remember my mother as being a fantastic cook. How did she feed 7 adults day in and day out? Often with casseroles, soups, and stews. Food that fills you up and stretches a meager portion of meat. My mom made spaghetti more like a casserole rather than the traditional spaghetti with a blob of meat sauce. I recall her making two types: one very mild and the other a bit more traditional. I loved both of them. She would always have me go to our local grocery store called “Grocerland” to pick up some fresh Italian bread to serve with our meal.
This recipe reminds me of my mother’s, but there is a twist: it is made in a pressure cooker. Making spaghetti in a pressure cooker turns a simple meal into an even simpler one. Everything is made in one pot, and the spaghetti is done 8 minutes after the pot reaches pressure. With inflation and the Trump tariff taxes, it is important to stretch every penny, or I guess nickel, since we no longer use pennies. The meal ingredients themselves are very inexpensive. Additionally, using an electric pressure cooker is one of the most energy-efficient cooking methods. Here is this very simple recipe.
Brown the meat using the saute setting on your electric pressure cooker. I’m using 1.5 pounds of ground turkey.
Drain off excess fat and add your spices.
Add the jar of spaghetti sauce.
Use the spaghetti jar to measure the water. Add one and one-half jars of water.
Add 1 can of diced tomatoes.
Break 1 pound of spaghetti in half and add it to the pot. Make sure that the spaghetti is submerged and try to separate it as much as reasonably possible (this doesn’t have to be perfect).
Set your pressure cooker for 8 minutes on high pressure. When it is done, immediately release the pressure.
Stir. Initially, the mixture may seem too watery. However, stirring not only thickens it but also breaks up any clumps of spaghetti.
Served with some Parmesan Cheese and some garlic bread. It was delicious.
This meal fed three adults, and there is plenty left for 2-3 additional meals. There was minimal cleanup, as everything was made in a single pot. The original recipe was from “The Salty Marshmallow.” However, there are many variations on this recipe. Try it, especially if you have kids. I think that they would love it.
