Join me as I recap our cabin trip cooking adventure, where we served up delicious, home-cooked meals on a budget. Using upscale yet healthy ingredients, we fed 8 people for 3 days, all for under $200. From hearty breakfasts to satisfying dinners, this video shows you how to eat well without breaking the bank. Don’t forget to like, save, and check out the full recipes and instructions below! Subscribe to my blog for updates or follow us @brushedatl!
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Sauteed Shrimp
Ingredients: Two to three bags of frozen shrimp (head and shell off), complete seasoning mix, minced garlic, olive oil.
Directions: Wash your shrimp thoroughly, then dice your shrimp up maybe slicing each piece in half or into threes, then you're gonna warm up a pan on medium high heat, while that pan is warming you're gonna season your shrimp with your favorite seasonings. Add a little olive oil to your pan insulted your shrimp. Don't forget to add your minced garlic for an extra little pop. Cook until your desired temperature for shrimp.
Cheese Grits
Ingredients: grits, heavy whipping cream, shredded cheddar cheese, butter
Directions: follow the basic directions on the bag for cooking grits, and to add a little bit more creaminess to them, you're going to slowly stir in heavy whipping cream cheese, butter and your favorite seasonings to give it a little pop. I prefer to use kosher salt a little bit of pepper and a little bit of garlic powder. Make sure you don't cook your grits too fast or too high you wanna cook them low and slow.
Honey Croissants
Ingredients: Honey croissants they come in the can. Syrup for dipping.
Directions: follow the directions on the container.
Sauteed Spinach and Grape Tomatoes
Ingredients: fresh baby spinach, great tomatoes, minced garlic, butter/olive oil
Directions: thoroughly wash your spinach, then add a little smidge of olive oil to your pan and heat it up, add your slightly damp spinach to the pan (on medium heat), add a little bit of seasoning to your taste (spinach in my opinion really absorbs a lot of flavor so don't overdo it), I like to add a little kosher salt a little complete seasoning including garlic powder and not in powder. Cook and so your desire softness, I like to leave mine a little firm. You're going to follow the same process with your cherry tomatoes in a separate pan, I like to slice my cherry tomatoes in half. And once both the tomatoes and the spinach are cooked almost done you can combine them together in one pan you have a delicious tasty accompaniment for your shrimp and grits.
Fruit Assortment
This one is easy, I just chose a variety of fresh fruit for the trip which included: seedless green grapes, seedless red grapes, and strawberries. Wash your fruit thoroughly and it is a nice add on to just about any dish. I made sure I had enough for multiple meals and you could simply arrange it on a charcuterie board or in a cute little dish on the side.
Spinach Dip
Ingredients: fresh baby spinach, heavy whipping cream, cream cheese, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, a fresh lemon or lemon juice, season to taste.
Directions: follow the instructions below above as far as washing and sauteing your spinach. Then you want to soften a block or so of cream cheese in the microwave, you wanna melt that cream cheese along with some heavy whipping cream into your sauteed spinach. Slowly add in heavy whipping cream in order to help the cream cheese milk and begin to make your spinach did very creamy. Add in your seasonings (again I like kosher salt, a little bit of complete seasoning garlic powder and onion powder), then add in a little bit of your Monterey Jack cheese which will definitely give it a lovely pop. Lastly, you're going to cut a fresh lemon in half squeeze a little bit of lemon juice (not too much) on your dish just as you're wrapping up cooking. Adjust the cheese and heavy whipping cream to your liking. One additional tip is that you can serve this hot right off the stove or you can put it in a dish and bake it to brown the cheese at the top if you like.
Honey BBQ Chicken Nachos
Ingredients: Frozen chicken breasts, honey BBQ sauce, Nacho chips, 2% milk, queso cheese (mild or medium for a little pop), white onions, natural honey.
Directions: first you want to take your frozen chicken breasts, and boil it down to the molecules (that means until it gets super soft), then you wanna drain the chicken and use claw shredders or two forks to completely shred the chicken. You can store this chicken in a zip lock bag if you plan on traveling or you can get right to cooking if you want to make it in advance. You want to sit that chicken to the side and slice up one to 1 1/2 of a white onion. Once you're ready to cook your dish, you're gonna add a little bit of butter to your pan and put it on medium heat, and then you're gonna add your chicken and you're gonna pour maybe about a cup or so of 2% milk and let that chicken marinate and rehydrate. The last thing you want is some dried out chicken for your dish. Once that chicken is softening up a little bit you can add your ingredients in this order: 1st at your seasonings (I like a little rotisserie seasoning, complete seasoning, kosher salt, and if you have one of those barbecue or smoked seasonings that would be delicious as well. Then you are going to add in your honey BBQ sauce, a few tablespoons of honey, throw in your onions, and mix it all together and let it cook for a bit it should be sweet and savory and have quite a good pot to it. Once it is creamy to your liking you can add in a little bit of queso dip to your desire flavor. Adjust the various ingredients as needed.
Marinated steak and onions
Ingredients: good quality steaks from your local discount store, baby Bella mushrooms, onions, minced garlic, marinade seasoning pack (liquid)
Directions: It may be painful but the first thing you want to do is dice your steak into huge chunks (this will help you to better cook the steak and also feed more people without waste). In a large bowl you're gonna add your diced steak, and then you're gonna wash and dice up your mushrooms and add that to the mix (make sure your dice your mushrooms really fine). Then you're going to add your various seasonings which include in nice smoked steak seasoning, complete seasoning, and kosher salt (add garlic powder and onion powder as well), and then you're gonna add your liquid marinade mix as well and mix all of that together. You can marinate overnight in a plastic zip lock bag if you want more of a pop but you can also cook this fresh as it should be well seasoned and have a nice flavor already. Sit your meat to the side and slice up a significant amount of white onions. Heat up your pan with a little bit of olive oil or butter and sauté your onions season a lightly with a little bit of kosher salt and pepper. Once your onions are juicy and cook medium you can add your steak to the pan and cook on medium high. Be sure not to overcook your steak, and really watching it closely and cooking it to medium temperature should be fine. You can cook the steak until it's almost medium and then put it in the oven as well. Do not overcook!
Twice baked potatoes
Ingredients: medium to large russet potatoes, green onions, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, white onions, heavy whipping cream
Directions: You're gonna wash your potatoes and put them in an extra-large microwavable dish. You're gonna microwave them until tender (for me that's usually about 15 minutes). Be careful not to overcook these potatoes, or you will have mashed potatoes and won't be able to dig out the inside of the potatoes from the skin. What's your potatoes have been softened you're gonna cut them in half with a large knife. Then you're gonna take your scooper (this makes life so much easier but you can use a spoon), and you are going to scoop out carefully the inside of the potatoes and place them in a large Tupperware bowl. Once you have all your potatoes piled up in your bowl, you're gonna pile on the fixins (including you're super thin shredded onion)-which I ran mine through the food processor, as well as your butter, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and seasonings. I like to use a good bit of kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, are you powder. Add a little heavy whipping cream to the mix, and then gently fold all the ingredients together. I like to leave mine a little chunky, but this certainly could be delicious whipped as well. Once everything is mixed together (don't scrimp on the onions they give it the pop), you can use your scooper to fill the skins of your potato back up. Sprinkle a little diced green onion on top for a pop and you should have a delicious and tasty dish.
Pan Seared Green Beans
Ingredients: fresh green beans, minced garlic, olive oil and butter
Directions: This is a simple and delicious dish that really just requires a little bit of patience as you slowly allow the green beans to cook. You wanna wash and cut the ends of your fresh green beans, then you want to heat up a little bit of olive oil and butter in a pan (you really don't need much). Then you're going to drop your green beans into your pan and add about two tablespoons of minced garlic and your preferred seasoning mix. You're going to slowly saute these greens and give them the opportunity to soften. If the pain gets a little dry, I periodically add water and allow the green beans to steam. You can use a pan covering to speed up the process and then when the greens are almost to your preferred texture, you could take the top off and pan sear them a little bit on high just to make the flavor pop. Make sure you taste the green beans because if you have not used fresh green beans before they are considerably tougher in terms of texture then canned green beans which are typically very soft and mushy.
Caesar Salad
Ingredients: The lettuce of your choosing (I chose to use 3 heads of romaine lettuce), shredded parmesan cheese, seasoned croutons, Caesar dressing (thick style)
Directions: Dice your lettuce into big chunks and then thoroughly wash it (or you can do it in reverse order.) Add your lettuce to a bowl and sit besides near the lettuce so that guests can choose what they want to add to their salad.
Breakfast Scramble
Ingredients: frozen sausage patties, baby Bella mushrooms, diced onions, shredded cheese, eggs, 2% milk.
Directions: you can fall out and break up your sausage patties in advance. You can also use those tubes of sausage if you like but I couldn't find those and wanted a very particular flavor. Cook your sausage medium well if you're preparing it in advance, but not to where it is dried out and crispy. Drain and sit back in the pan, and then start working on your eggs. Depending on the size of your group place several eggs in a large bowl, and add a little bit of kosher salt a little bit of pepper and a little bit of 2% milk and whip vigorously. In a separate and smaller pan you're going to dice up your mushrooms and and your diced onions and sauteed them in a little butter. Once your sauteed mushrooms and onions are done you're gonna dump them into your pan of sausage turn your pan back on and add your eggs. Slowly stir and cook your mixture together, the heated ingredients should warm up your eggs real nice. And right before it done, add your shredded cheese to the mix. You are now ready to serve.
Heart Shaped Waffles
Ingredients: premade pancake and waffle mix, small waffle maker, cooking spray.
Directions: Mix your pancake mix with a little bit of water, but be sure to leave it a little thick as if it is runny it will spill out of your waffle maker. Follow the instructions for using the waffle maker (I suggest using a little olive oil spray to make sure your waffles don't stick). I probably went overboard, but just for a cute little look you can get a heart-shaped waffle maker and use your food scissors to cut off the excess edges of your waffles.
Cookie Cake
Ingredients: two packages of refrigerated cookie dough, the cooking spray.
Directions: spray your pan, heat up your oven as directed, and arrange all of your cookie dough into a super large cookie that is no more than 1/2 inch thick. Watch carefully and follow typical instructions for baking cookies.
Double Fudge Brownies
Ingredients: follow the ingredients and instructions on the box, and make sure you don't over cook the brownies. Typically once you smell them they are done and ready to come out of the oven.
I hope you enjoyed this list of recipes that are a mix of dishes that I have created over the years and also some more modern dishes as well that I have tested and are tried and true. The guests gave ray reviews and I'm excited about that and the fact that I didn't break the bank. Remember, many of these dishes can be prepped in advance if you're planning to take a trip and you simply want to heat them up and cook them in front of the crowd. So save yourself some time with a little bit of planning budgeting and coordinating and you'll have a lovely experience with delicious food. Enjoy!
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