Your parents clearly taught you how to make the most of your kitchen if these classics are in your usual cooking lineup.
Homemade chicken stock
If you roast a chicken for dinner, there’s no need to toss the bones. Throw them in a pot with carrots, celery, onion and water. Simmer the ingredients to create your own broth that you can use in soups, sauces or stews.
Lots of cooks keep their vegetable scraps in the freezer until they’ve gathered enough to make a batch of stock. Once the broth has cooled, divide it into plastic containers and put it in the freezer.
Turning what you might have thrown away into another meal is no trouble at all. Of course, canned broth certainly comes in handy, but preparing it yourself helps you control the sodium levels of the broth.
Slow-cooked pot roast with vegetables
If you’re not careful with how you cook it, chuck roast is a cut that can get really tough. But, if you cook it low and slow with some liquid, that same roast can cook until it’s fall-off-the-bone tender.
A lot of pot roast recipes start by searing the meat on all sides, then put it in liquid to simmer or braise. Onion, carrots, and potatoes are popular additions to beef broth for cooking pot roast.
If you’re craving beef, slow cooking lets you reach for a more affordable cut and turn it into something delicious instead of always buying steak. The liquid it cooks in also helps you make a great gravy to serve on the side.
This recipe does take a while, but for much of that time, it’s simply cooking away at a low temperature. And pot roast is another crowd pleasing family meal that can feed your entire family with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Creamed chipped beef on toast
Creamed chip beef is another comfort food many Americans grew up eating. This dish is made with dried salted beef covered in a creamy, white gravy usually spooned over toast.
This dish is made with only a few simple ingredients you most likely have in your pantry. Butter or fat, flour, milk, and beef are all it takes to make this comfort food taste good. Another name for creamed chip beef on toast is SOS.
Sausage gravy is another dish made with milk and flour but uses sausage instead of beef and is typically served over biscuits. These recipes are great examples of how to take everyday ingredients and turn them into a meal that doesn’t involve costly cuts of meat.
Green peppers stuffed with rice and meat
Filled peppers turn minimal ingredients into a hearty meal. Typically, you stuff the bell peppers with ground beef, cooked rice, onions, herbs and seasonings, then bake them in tomato sauce or another cooking liquid.
Some stuffed pepper recipes suggest softening the peppers beforehand. Still others place them straight into the oven without softening first. This recipe is easy to customize because each family tends to have its own take on the filling and how it’s cooked.
This pepper dish is also a great way to stretch your ground meats when you mix it with rice and veggies. If you’re using raw ground meat in your peppers, make sure the filling is cooked all the way through before serving.
Crispy potato cakes from leftover mash
Transform leftover mashed potatoes into something hearty for round two.
Shape the mash into patties and fry them until they turn crisp and golden brown. Add an egg and a sprinkle of flour to help bind everything together. Chop some green onions, herbs or cheese to mix in for extra flavor.
The outside of these potato cakes will get crunchy while the inside stays soft. You can pair them with breakfast, lunch or dinner depending on what you have on hand. And these leftover potato cakes taste absolutely delicious.
Ham bone bean soup
A tasty pot of navy bean soup is easy to make when you have a leftover ham bone on hand.
Simmer the ham bone with dried beans, onions, carrots, celery and seasonings. You’ll need to soak navy beans or cook them longer, whichever approach you decide on. Split peas typically don’t need to be soaked. Remember, that meat left on the bone adds some real heartiness to the soup too.
Most of the time, a big pot of ham bone bean soup will feed you for several servings. Sometimes the leftover soup tastes even better the next day. And that’s a smart way to turn one meal’s leftovers into the start of another.
Homemade egg noodles in broth
Using just flour and eggs, you can make your own egg-noodle dough at home. Once the dough is mixed together and kneaded, it can be rolled out and cut into strips before being added to soup or broth to cook. Whether thick or thin, homemade noodles can be made to suit the cook’s preference or the family recipe.
These noodles are particularly delicious in chicken soup, as they soak up some of that broth while cooking.
Making noodles by hand takes a lot more time than just tearing open a package, but they cost very little and require no special tools. Families who made them regularly probably didn’t treat rolling out and cutting the dough as anything special, just another step in getting dinner on the table.
Homemade gravy from pan drippings
Those brown bits left in the pan after cooking chicken, pork chops, or roast can become the base for delicious gravy. Combine flour with a portion of the fat, and gradually whisk in broth, milk, or whatever liquid you choose. As the mixture cooks it will thicken into a sauce that complements potatoes, meat and biscuits.
Learning to make gravy smoothly is just a matter of practice. If too much liquid is added at once or if it isn’t stirred consistently, lumps will form. Use butter and stock if you don’t have enough pan drippings.
Sure, making gravy from scratch isn’t your only choice, but it’s a handy skill to pick up if you want to get more flavor out of what’s already in your kitchen.
Skillet cornbread with a crisp crust
Baking cornbread in a preheated skillet gives it a browned, crisp bottom while the inside stays soft.
You warm a little oil or other cooking fat in the skillet before adding the batter, so the bread starts crisping the moment it goes in. Some recipes call for sugar; others leave things more on the savory side.
And you can serve cornbread alongside chili or beans, soups, or just as part of a simple meal shared with your family at the table.
Meat and rice-stuffed cabbage rolls
You’ll need to do some prep for cabbage rolls, yet they can turn simple ingredients into a satisfying dinner.
Once softened, the cabbage leaves can be peeled away from the head whole. They’re stuffed with meat and rice mixture, then rolled up and placed in a baking pan or pot. Tomato sauce, broth, or sweet-and-sour sauce may be poured over them, depending on family tradition. Feel free to adjust what goes into the cabbage leaves to match what you’ve got at home.
Since the cabbage stretches this dish so well, just a bit of meat is enough to make plenty of servings. Cabbage rolls also show up in many cultures, each with its own seasonings and cooking methods. And they’re a wonderful meal to share with friends and family, or to freeze for later.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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15 comfort foods boomers love and younger generations rarely try
A meal that’s pure comfort for Boomers might come across as rather unappetizing to a twenty-something.
15 comfort foods boomers love and younger generations rarely try
