Slow Cooked Southern Pinto Beans

Total Cost: ~$1.90; Serves 4 at $0.47 per serving

This is without a doubt one of the easiest and cheapest recipes on this blog ever. You could essentially make this with only 5 ingredients, throw it in the crockpot before work, and have a delicious and filling meal ready to eat when you’re off. And honestly, I’m always looking for an excuse to use my grandmama’s 1960s crockpot because it’s just too cool.

So essentially, 5 ingredients is all it takes (and are the most traditional): pinto beans, onion, bacon, salt, water. I’ve found, however, that the addition of some extra non-traditional ingredients (particularly of the garlicky nature, all hail king garlic forever and ever amen) make this dish something special and something that I crave on a regular basis. This is perfect for cool fall days, but I enjoy it year round.

*All ingredients for this recipe can be bought at the 99 Cents Only Store

Ingredients

1lb dried pinto beans (99¢)
3 slices bacon (75¢)
1 small yellow onion, halved (25¢)
3-4 whole garlic cloves
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 bay leaf
few slices pickled jalapeños (optional)
splash of pickled jalapeño juice (optional)
salt
water

Directions

Place onion halves and garlic in the bottom of a crockpot. Wash beans and pick out any stones or leaves. Here’s the best part: you don’t have to soak the beans! Just add dried beans, bacon, bay leaf, garlic powder, and a few pickled jalapeños plus a splash of their juice (only if you’re a fan of spicy) to the pot. Next, add water until the water level is around 2 inches above the beans. Set on high for 6 hours or low for 8 until beans are soft. It will be bland at this point, so add salt to taste. Remove the onion as best you can, it’s essentially flavorless at this point. That’s it. You’re ready to eat.

Pinto beans are always served with cornbread. Optional toppings can be raw onion (my personal favorite) or sour cream.

And here’s how I eat it when I’m not taking pretty food shots for the blog…

Enjoy!

Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkeumbap 김치볶음밥)

Total Cost: $3.35; Serves 2 at $1.68 per serving

I’ve debated whether or not to include some Korean recipes on this blog for a number of reasons. For one, the ingredients. There’s no getting around it – some of the ingredients will most definitely have to be bought at an Asian supermarket and are not always the cheapest. This kind of goes against my mantra of using cheap and easily available ingredients. However, once I started to make this dish I realized that half of the ingredients for kimchi fried rice can actually be bought from the 99 Cents Only Store. The other half were purchased at a Korean market and will last you for a long time and are very versatile. If you like Korean food or want to experiment with it, you will use these three ingredients all the time: kimchi, gochujang (hot pepper paste), and sesame oil.

Another reason I hesitated to include some Korean recipes is because I’m not Korean! The food blogosphere can be a tough place for cooks who experiment with another culture’s cuisine – especially one as respected and non-changing as Korea’s. That being said, I have immense respect and passion for Korean food, and while I will never be able to say “this recipe has been passed down from my great great ajumma and is authentic as it gets”, I can say that I have a tiny shred of credibility when it comes to Korean cuisine. I lived in Korea for almost three years and I ate it every day trying as much variety as I could. I loved hearing my Korean friends talk about their country’s food because they were so serious and passionate about it, to the point where I got a history lesson every time I went out to eat. When I moved back to the States there was undoubtedly a big hole in my life that needed filling. I couldn’t just stop eating Korean food; it was part of me now and I missed it dearly.

I have to give a shout out to one of my favorite YouTubers, Maangchi, because she has taught me how to cook the dishes I miss the most and is showing home cooks how easy and accessible Korean food is to make in your own kitchen. The recipe I am making is her recipe for kimchi fried rice, only I’ve tailored it to my tastes based on how I had it when I was in Korea (more heat + more kimchi + egg).

Okay! Enough about that. I didn’t mean for this to be a novel so let’s get started.

*All ingredients were purchased at the 99 Cents Only Store except kimchi, gochujang, and sesame oil.

Ingredients

1.5 cups kimchi, chopped small (80¢)
1/2 cup kimchi juice (from your jar of kimchi)
1 cup uncooked white rice (30¢)
3 tblsp. gochujang (85¢)
2 eggs (40¢)
1 tblsp. sesame oil (50¢)
2 green onions, chopped (optional) (10¢)
1 tblsp. toasted sesame seeds (optional) (20¢)
5 sheets of roasted seaweed snack, sliced into strips (optional) (30¢)
vegetable oil

Directions

Start your rice according to package directions. If you want to be really Korean about it, before you cook the rice, rinse it in some cold water until the water runs clear. Next, in a large non-stick skillet, fry both eggs to your liking in a little vegetable oil (I prefer over-easy) and set aside for later. In the same skillet on medium-high heat, heat up some vegetable oil and add kimchi. Stir fry kimchi for 1-2 minutes until fragrant (should not burn or turn brown). Add cooked rice until well-incorporated. Add kimchi juice and gochujang and stir fry for 2 minutes until rice is fairly sticky and red. If the rice starts to stick to the bottom, add some water and stir. Add sesame oil, stir, and turn off the heat. I like to let it sit in the pan for a few minutes so the bottom gets a crusty layer of rice. At this point it is ready to serve. Place egg on top and garnish with green onion, sesame seeds, and seaweed strips (as much as you like of each).