Making Something (Delicious) from....Crap.

I've decided to take things in a new direction, as bitching and complaining about humanity's utter lack of good manners is a little tired, and well, hopeless.

On a more positive note, please enjoy the first installment of a little something I like to call "Stoner Cooking," but you may also call it "Ghetto Cooking," "Hobo Cookin'" or "I-Never-Go-Grocery-Shopping Cooking," or whatever makes you most comfortable. The scope of these posts will be to provide easy, quick recipes composed of cheap crap and leftovers you already have in your kitchen*, for those nights when you are too broke or tired or stoned to actually go out and buy something to eat.

Tonight's Menu: Macaroni Surprise!

Equipment: Medium-sized pot to boil pasta, collander
Ingredients:
~One box of macaroni, plus fixin's for the sauce. If you don't have milk, just add a little extra butter. If you don't have butter, just add a little extra milk. I use margarine, because it's about 1/4 the price of butter. Yay.
~Canned or frozen small veggies of your preference - I like peas and corn, because they are small and taste delicious, and are usable in both canned and frozen form. Some veggie medley might work nicely too, and a bag of frozen peas is really cheap - and when you get in a fight, you can use it to ice your shiner!
~Cheese!!! This is another thing I think you should always have in the fridge. I know it's not cheap, but it's really the only expensive thing you need. With cheese, the sky's the limit!
~Chicken Nuggets! I know you have a few chicken fingers or nuggets or maybe even a veggie burger in the back of the freezer....I use veggie nuggets (I call it "ficken nuggets") because I am fancy.

Directions:
1. Make the macaroni as you would normally make macaroni. MEANWHILE, throw your handful of nuggets (like, 5 or so would be fine, whatever is left) or patties into the oven or microwave to defrost/heat them.
2. While the mac is cooking, put the colander in the sink and toss in a handful of veggies. You really only need about 1/2 cup total of veggies, canned or frozen - you don't want them to dominate your delicious cheesy pasta. Rinse them veggies in the collander with warm water if they are frozen (you DO NOT want to put frozen peas into hot pasta. Ew.) Save the leftover canned stuff in a jar (re-use old salsa jars, the are the best.) to use for another stoner meal later this week. We'll get there.
3. Drain mac straight into the veggies in the colander. Now everything's warm and nice. Once it's drained, throw the whole mess back into your pot, and add the cheese sauce and stir it up.
4. Grab those hot meat products now, and chop 'em up into bite-sized pieces. Throw 'em in the pot and stir them in too.
5. As a finishing touch, I like to add a few handfuls of grated cheese into the mix and stir it up for extra cheesy-protein-licious-ness. Then sprinkle a little on top to make it look fancy.
6. Enjoy! Impress your friends. Serves 3 or 4, easily. (The more extra crap you add to stretch the macaroni, the more you can feed, obvs.)

Also keeps nicely to bring to school/work for lunch tomorrow! YuM!


*Disclaimer: I believe that one should always have some very basic baking ingredients in the house: baking powder, flour, and sugar are a good place to start, and also, they are cheap, and they last a long time. Just get some now and it will save us a lot of grief later.
**I am also assuming you live somewhere that there is a kitchen - ie, a fridge, sink, stove, and oven. Ok? Good.