Friday, November 8, 2013

Easy, Cheap Meal Ideas

Thanks for coming to visit The Cherry On Top!

Today I'm starved and thought I might share with you some meal ideas.  One is super duper easy to whip up and you might just have all of the ingredients in your house at least most of the time.  The other is a popular Belgian meal that I thought anyone would love.

Let's start off easy!  I grabbed these pictures from the internet.  My pictures of food usually look ...not so yummy.  Hehehe...

This is pasta carbonara.  I only recently started making it, but it is so popular even with my extremely picky, Autistic, sensory sensitive children.  As you are preparing your pasta to boil, you start on the sauce.  First, fry up some bacon pieces.  Chop'm up if they aren't already, then put them to the side.  You can use many different things to make this creamy, cheesy sauce.  I've used cream cheese, herbed cream cheese and sour cream, although most recipes call for heavy cream.   Seeing how my hubby has heart complications, I go for the "Light" cream cheese or "Light" sour cream.  I also find that when I use this, the consistency comes out perfect!  No rue or starch needs to be added for the thick consistency.

Use a container of cream cheese or sour cream or even mix them up if you don't have a full one. (This is for two adults and two little ones.)  Keep the temperature low so nothing sticks to the pan and just keep on stirring slowly.  Put in peas if you like.  Add some parmesan cheese or some other kind of hard-ish cheese.  I used emmental once it was just as delicious. A touch of white cheddar might be ok, too.  Wait until it melts, throw in the bacon to warm it through and add some pepper.  You don't need salt because your bacon is salty enough.  It would probably be pretty good if you just sprinkled that, in the can parm, too. If you didn't have any other cheese.  Get the consistency you like by adding more cheese or more cream.  Ready in about 5 minutes!  Wow!


Uitsmijter is a typical Belgian meal.  I absolutely love it for so many reasons.  Though, I totally pimp it up!  American style, baby!  Hehehe...

First, wrestle up some over easy eggs.  I put my eggs in a sleek, slim skillet and cook them just until they set.  You are gonna want to have them a little oozy.  Mmmmm....Put them aside.  Use the same pan for the rest of the meal.

Second, ya get your slices of bread.  I cut mine thick.  Then I melt butter or herbed butter, even better and spread it all over both sides of my bread.  The beauty is, the bread doesn't have to be fresh because your gonna toast it up in the pan!  Awesome, right?!

When one side is finished toasting (maybe a minute or two) flip it over, add a nice thick piece of cheese and a generous slice or two of ham, rather thinly sliced, then slap those eggs on top and let it get nice and warm all the way through.

If ya wanna do an extra step, you could pop it in the oven for just a few minutes.  Your egg will cook a little more if you don't like it too, gooey and the ham will start to get crispy if you used thinner ham.

I serve mine up with a bit of rucola or a small, simple salad for some roughage.  Mayo is a nice compliment and I MUST have hot sauce.  Hehehe...

The kids are not a fan.  So, I just make them either eggs and ham or a ham and cheese sandwich, which they absolutely love.


If you need more details let me know.  I'll be happy to help!  Until the next time. Bon appetite!