I decided to go through the fridge to see what we had leftover to cook with. Since I had leftover broccoli from the Apple Broccoli Salad and leftover cheese from the Savory Summer Cobbler and Vegetable Quiche, I decided to make Broccoli Cheese! The recipe in Good and Cheap is actually for Cauliflower Cheese but it says that the cauliflower could be substituted for broccoli so that's exactly what I did.
First I put a pot of water on the burner to begin heating to a boil. The new cooktops work a lot better but it still takes awhile to get the water heated up. While I waited for this, I cut the head of broccoli into bite-sized florets. Once the water came to a boil, I threw in the broccoli and salt and let it boil for 4 minutes.
Next, I greased a pie pan with Crisco then added the broccoli. Based on my last experience, already I knew the dish wouldn't fit in the oven but it was all I had to work with so I rolled with it.
Next, I greased a pie pan with Crisco then added the broccoli. Based on my last experience, already I knew the dish wouldn't fit in the oven but it was all I had to work with so I rolled with it.
The next step was to make the cheese sauce. Since I now had two cooktops to work with and the previous meals had been so time consuming, I thought I'd try multitasking and start some pasta boiling for the Pasta with Eggplant and Tomato dish I was also planning to cook. In hindsight, this was probably not the best idea.
The sauce was very quick and easy however there were many steps involved and they happened very quickly so I was a little nervous about this part. I started by melting the butter in a saucepan. Next I added the chopped garlic and chili flakes (I was also supposed to add a bay leaf but I didn't have any so I skipped that). I let this cook for about a minute then added the flour and stirred for another minute before slowly stirring in the milk. I waited a few minutes for this to come to a boil before turning off the heat and stirring in the cheese. After adding a little salt and pepper it was ready to be poured on the broccoli then the whole dish went in the oven.
The sauce was very quick and easy however there were many steps involved and they happened very quickly so I was a little nervous about this part. I started by melting the butter in a saucepan. Next I added the chopped garlic and chili flakes (I was also supposed to add a bay leaf but I didn't have any so I skipped that). I let this cook for about a minute then added the flour and stirred for another minute before slowly stirring in the milk. I waited a few minutes for this to come to a boil before turning off the heat and stirring in the cheese. After adding a little salt and pepper it was ready to be poured on the broccoli then the whole dish went in the oven.
Before I even got started, I had already made two mistakes. #1: Instead of using a half pound of pasta, I boiled an entire 1 lb bag. #2: While making the Broccoli Cheese, I neglected the noodles and let them boil for waaaay too long. I guess I'm not quite ready to multitask in my cooking just yet.
Anyway, so the recipe called for one large eggplant. I wasn't really sure what constitutes as "large" in eggplant terms but the only size the store seemed to have was ginormous! I mean like the bottom was almost the size of a basketball! Since that was all they had, that's what I got although I'm pretty sure the cost of the meal could be a LITTLE cheaper if I had used a smaller eggplant.
I cut the eggplant into cubes until my red bowl was full but still had quite a bit leftover. I wasn't sure what to do with it and didn't want to it to go to waste so I put it in a bag in the fridge to see if it would keep until I figured out something to do with it.
Like the recipe says, I heated some olive oil in a pan then added the eggplant and salt and let this cook for about 5 minutes. Next I stirred in the garlic and chili flakes then through in the tomatoes and let it cook for another 20 minutes.
Not sure exactly how it was supposed to turn out but it never really got to the point of resembling a "sauce" in my opinion. Just cooked eggplant and tomato. I'm thinking I probably should have cooked it for a bit longer and used a little less eggplant. Idk, I seem to have a bit of trouble cooking tomatoes properly. I think the extra water in them throws me off. But honestly, that was the least of my problems with this recipe.
Anyway, so the recipe called for one large eggplant. I wasn't really sure what constitutes as "large" in eggplant terms but the only size the store seemed to have was ginormous! I mean like the bottom was almost the size of a basketball! Since that was all they had, that's what I got although I'm pretty sure the cost of the meal could be a LITTLE cheaper if I had used a smaller eggplant.
I cut the eggplant into cubes until my red bowl was full but still had quite a bit leftover. I wasn't sure what to do with it and didn't want to it to go to waste so I put it in a bag in the fridge to see if it would keep until I figured out something to do with it.
Like the recipe says, I heated some olive oil in a pan then added the eggplant and salt and let this cook for about 5 minutes. Next I stirred in the garlic and chili flakes then through in the tomatoes and let it cook for another 20 minutes.
Not sure exactly how it was supposed to turn out but it never really got to the point of resembling a "sauce" in my opinion. Just cooked eggplant and tomato. I'm thinking I probably should have cooked it for a bit longer and used a little less eggplant. Idk, I seem to have a bit of trouble cooking tomatoes properly. I think the extra water in them throws me off. But honestly, that was the least of my problems with this recipe.
So... yeah. As you can see in the pic below, I totally lost track of my pasta and let it cook for waaay too long. It was a mess the noodles were huge and soft and half were stuck to the bottom of the pan. I managed to scrape most of them off and added it to the pan which was now overflowing. At first I thought this was caused by the pasta expanding a lot from overcooking however I later realized that I had actually cooked twice as much as I was supposed to... oops.
But on the bright side, the Broccoli Cheese turned out awesome!
But on the bright side, the Broccoli Cheese turned out awesome!
I can't say this was the best meal I've ever cooked. The pasta ended up pretty bland since there wasn't enough "sauce" to cover all the excess I made. That really kinda sucks because Ian was already not crazy about eggplant and after this recipe he's pretty much confirmed that he doesn't like it. I don't think that would've been the case however if things would have turned out right. I might have to try this one again just to give redemption to the eggplant.
Overall it didn't turn out THAT bad. With enough salt and cheese, I can make almost anything taste decent. Plus we had some amazing Broccoli and Cheese to go with it. Pair that with some MacGyver on Netflix and it turned out to be a pretty good night :)
Overall it didn't turn out THAT bad. With enough salt and cheese, I can make almost anything taste decent. Plus we had some amazing Broccoli and Cheese to go with it. Pair that with some MacGyver on Netflix and it turned out to be a pretty good night :)
Oh, and the cost. The Broccoli Cheese came to a grand total of $1.85 and as a side dish, we got about 4 servings out of it.
The pasta came out to be $5.72 total, or $2.86 per serving but again this number is a bit inflated due to the fact that I cooked twice as much pasta as necessary and used a gargantuan eggplant. Even so, that's still not bad compared to what we would've paid going out so I'd call it a win :)
The pasta came out to be $5.72 total, or $2.86 per serving but again this number is a bit inflated due to the fact that I cooked twice as much pasta as necessary and used a gargantuan eggplant. Even so, that's still not bad compared to what we would've paid going out so I'd call it a win :)