By Up-in-Arms Biscuits and Gravy by Terry Bellefleur
Biscuits and Gravy is a popular breakfast in the South, so I was excited to try this one!
The biscuits were made first. The dough was pretty crumbly, but after some kneading I was able to get it to all stick together.
The gravy was fairly simple, though did require monitoring and constant stirring. I wasn’t able to find “bulk” breakfast sausage, so I bought regular breakfast sausage and removed the casing.
The biscuits ended up being a bit dry, but the gravy turned out perfectly. It was good. The flavor was a little bland for me, but my husband really liked it.
Taste: 8/10
It was pretty good, though a bit bland.
Difficulty: Average
The gravy does require monitoring and constant stirring, and the biscuits are bit of a struggle to get the dough to stick together. But the recipe itself is easy to follow.
Cost: Average
Breakfast sausage is the biggest cost here. The rest is milk, flour, vegetable shortening, and other items you’re likely to find in your cupboard already.
Suggestion:
You could try making this with other types of sausage, or adding herbs to the biscuit recipe if you want to mix up the flavor.
Skin-Deep Potato Skins by Sookie Stackhouse
I put my husband in charge of grocery shopping this week. It went exactly as you’d expect. So instead of regular bacon for this one, we ended up with Smoked Maple Bacon, which most definitely changed the flavor of these potato skins.
These took a VERY long time to make, but it was well worth it! It’s hard to go wrong with potato skins, even when you put the wrong bacon on them. They were really good, and would probably be even better without the sweet maple flavor in there.
And even though they took a while, a lot of it was just waiting for potatoes to finish cooking in the oven. It wasn’t like I was working at it for the 90 minutes. And the toppings themselves only took 15-20 minutes to prepare.
Taste: 9/10
With the maple bacon I really give these an 8/10, but with regular bacon (as the recipe calls for), these would most likely be a 9/10. I thought they went a little light on the cheese and sour cream, otherwise I’d increase this even further to a full 10/10.
Difficulty: Average
The potatoes are pretty easy, but they do require that you cut and scoop out the innards of hot potatoes, so be careful! You also need to flip the potatoes a few times while they’re in the oven, so be very careful not to scoop out too much potato and to not leave any loose potato pieces in there.
Cost: Cheap
Potatoes were the biggest cost here (which are cheap), and most people will already have cheese, sour cream, etc. in their fridge for the toppings.
Suggestion:
I would suggest adding more cheese and sour cream than what the recipe calls for.
Drop-Dead Tuna-Cheese Casserole by Maxine Fortenberry
Tuna is one of the few fish I can bring myself to eat, so I actually tried this one!
It started off really well: sautéing green pepper and onion in butter, which always smells amazing!
Then I added in the tuna, cream of mushroom soup, and Worcestershire sauce. It was at this point I got a little concerned about the consistency of the casserole. And it looked a little questionable.
Finally the peas, Tabasco sauce and spices were added for flavor.
The entire thing was poured into a baking pan, topped with cheese and crushed potato chips, and tossed into the oven.
I was honestly really worried about trying this one given its appearance, but it was pretty tasty! Not something I’d make again, but way better than I thought it was going to be. And the texture really didn’t bother me all that much, after all.
Taste: 7/10
Not my favorite thing, but not that bad. The Tabasco sauce, cheese and chips really helped the flavor of this one.
Difficulty: Average
It does involve some chopping and dicing, as well as cooking both over the stove and in the oven. Otherwise, however, it’s fairly straight-forward and easy to follow.
Cost: Average
Biggest costs were tuna, cream of mushroom soup, and plain chips. The rest of the ingredients are most likely already in your kitchen: Tabasco sauce, cheddar cheese, frozen peas, etc.
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