Aspies For Freedom

THought it would be fun and useful to have a thread for things that fit these criteria:

1. Healthy or healthier alternative to a prepared or usual food
2. Inexpensive to make
3. Tastes good.
4. Easy to make.

I'll start off with a substitute for margerine or spreadable butter from the store that contain hydrogenated fats (very bad for you)

Take any amount of real butter, bring it to room temperature and then soften it. Add an equal amount of oil of your choice. I use a mixture of 1/2 canola and 1/2 extra virgin olive oil. As an example, to 1 cup of butter you would add one cup of oil of your choice. If you use olive oil avoid using it exclusively for the oil, but mix it with other oils such as peanut/soybean/canola etc.

You'll need to start mixing the oils in slowly or you'll end up with lumps of butter that don't incorporate well. After you've slowly added about 1/2 the oil and stirred until it's smooth you can start adding it more quickly. You can finish it off with a touch of salt (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) but I find this really doesn't need it.

Cover and refrigerate. This is of course higher in saturated fat than vegetable oil margerine, but because margerines are hydrogenated, this is a healthier alternative, less expensive than margerine (where I live at least!) and spreads nicely on bread straight out of the frig. And tastes really nice

I love Yum yum noodles, they aren't healthy as I know of, but they seem to be alot cheaper than Mr. Lee and tastes alot more. And then there is wok which I help my mother make sometimes. It is meat, vegetables and rice/noodles with some oil and spices boiled together, I don't have a good recipee right now.

Try beans.  Canned beans on toast is easy and nutritious.  I make bean burrittos.  I fry chopped onion and garlic, add one can of pinto or romano beans and some salsa.  I mash it up with a potato masher.  I put it on a tortilla with some cheese, green onion, tomato or whatever and roll it up.  

Black-eyed peas make good stew and soup.  There are many kinds of beans.  Leftovers can be frozen.

New England Baked Beans

These are usually referred to as Boston Baked Beans when made with yellow eyed beans, however I come from Maine, where there is a greater variety of regional variation with varieties of beans used. Perhaps a more intrinsically 'Maine' recipe would use either the yellow eyed beans as used in the Massachusetts area, or Jacob's Cattle Beans. --I have seen baked beans made with Red Kidney beans as well.

My mom's family comes from Lewiston, where Navy beans are the variety that is commonly used. Therefore that's what I'm using in this recipe. Also, aside from the bean variety, and my omission of Brown sugar in the listed recipe, the ingredients listed is pretty much universal throughout most of New England.

Some people omit the whole cloves, other people use a blend of Brown Sugar,white sugar, and Molasses, and vary the mixture according to taste. In northern New England, pure maple syrup is also used as the primary sweetening agent.

Other people like to add only a tablespoon or so of medium molasses, blackstrap, or other natural sweetening agent. --Feel free to experiment with this, as non Native American New Englanders have been doing this for the past 350 or so years.

2 16 Oz. bags of small white (Navy) beans Cleaned and Soaked

1 whole medium Onion

8-12 Oz. LEAN Salt Pork copped in 1x1/2 inch pieces ( If you're of Hebraic/Islamic or Vegetarian nature you can substitute 8-12 Oz. Butter)

Black Pepper (To Taste)

1 Teaspoon, Dried, ground Mustard (I usually use Colman's)

1 to 1.5 cups molasses

1 Tablespoon Whole Cloves (In a Tea Ball, or in knotted cheesecloth)

Pick throught the beans for detritus (Rocks, Pebbles, Etc) wash and cover them with 3-4 inches of water, and let them soak and expand overnight. The Next Morning, Drain the beans and put them in a large electric Crockpot, along with the peeled onion, salt pork, or butter, Dried ground Mustard and the Teaball containing the cloves. Cover this with water, then add the Molasses. Stir a little, cover, and cook on the crockpot's LOW setting for eight or more hours. You may want to give this a stir every 2 hours or so.

Beanz meanz Fartz.

....Meanz deaf people can experience being around somebody that ate beanz.

You can't beat a good stir fry - just chuck it all in with some stir fry sauce and off you go.

I am really good at making curries -once you get past the initial investmnet in all the required herbs and spices it's a cheap thing to make.

2 chicken breasts
Rice
Tinned tomatoes

Once you have all the herbs and spices in that's all you would need, at worst you may need to buy some cream or yoghurt or maybe even some coconut / coconut milk.