Food, Fast (ish)

Red Beans And Rice, February 13

1/2 bag brown rice, .50
olive oil
2 cans red beans, ~$2
1 onion, chopped (the whole bag was ~$2)
3 slices turkey bacon, diced (I have no idea how to calculate this)
bacon grease
black pepper, sage, parsley, chives, bay leaf

Salad- Romaine lettuce $2, sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, croutons $1.50, Ceasar dressing $2.00

So, I cooked the rice like I cook rice. (I told you about this already, right?) Then I put a lump of bacon grease in a large saucepot with the onion and the turkey bacon. When that got all cooked, I added the beans and the seasonings. Except bay leaf. I seem to be out of bay leaf. But I'd've included it if I'd had some.

Serve with cornbread, garlic bread, salad, whatever. Season with hot sauce (like Tabasco) to taste.

Fed the four of us, with leftovers, so we'll call it six (maybe eight).

Oh, and... the turkey bacon is tasty and cheap and I buy it in bulk at the Costco. But it has almost negative fat content, so I neeeeeed the bacon grease. Besides, I LOVE bacon grease. It's tasty and it's a free byproduct of pork bacon, and adding fat to a meal makes it more satiating. I am a big supporter of fat, the good 'food' sort of fat, like olive oil, bacon grease, butter, fish oils and so on. Without enough fat, you feel hungry enough to put just any junk in your face. Whatever the grease is that's in cheez poufs, that can't be 'food'.

~$4.00 for beans and rice
$5.50 for salad, but we only ate half, and didn't finish the croutons or dressing
 Total: $9.50ish

Prep time: half an hour on the rice, ten minutes on the beans, but no one was hungry so it all sat around for an hour before we ate. The rice stayed warm, but the beans needed to be warmed.

 Pasta Bake, February 14

11/2  1lb.box of pasta- ziti, bowtie, rigatoni @$1ea = $1.50
1 3/4 jar red pasta sauce @ $1 ea =$1.75
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, if you have it
Italian Seasoning, $1 (I didn't use all of it, of course.)
Shredded Mozzerella cheese (ok, after 3 attempts I give up on spelling that) ~$3?
   (not sure, bought it in bulk @ Costco)
Olive oil

Cook pasta til al dente. Drain, then toss with olive oil and Italian seasoning. Place a layer of pasta in a large glass baking dish. Dust with Parmesan cheese. Layer red sauce on top of pasta. Cover with shredded moz. Repeat. Bake at 350*F for 35-45 minutes. Serve with garlic bread and leftover salad. Fed the four of us. I didn't put away dinner, but I think there were leftovers for lunch for 2, so 6ish servings.

Garlic Bread

1 stick butter ~.50
I Tbsp garlic powder or minced garlic
Italian seasoning
loaf of Italian bread $1.50


Total cost: ~$10.

Tonight I plan to make chicken pot pie. I'll post that soon. Well, soon-ish.

Back, With Recipes

7 February 2014

My apologies. I got discouraged.

What I discovered was that while I can buy groceries for $50.00 a week, "feeding the family" is another story. The teens want money for pizza and chips. The husband buys 7-11 hot dogs, and spends about $2.50 every day for those Giganto-Gulp cups. Once in awhile, I ignore my wincing and spend $7.50 on a cafe au lait and fancy pastry in a frou-frou internet coffee shop.

However, my intrepidididity (? ,)   wins after all. I will post recipes and their corresponding costs. You can figure out for yourselves (if there are any of you left at all) how to budget your grocery money.

OH! AND! Super tip: adding refried beans as a thickener also adds fiber, extends the 'meat' of the meal and is Very Nearly Invisible to the eater.

For example:
Shredded Chicken BBQ

2 cans chicken ($3 each)
1 bottle BBQ sauce ($3)
few tablespoons pineapple salsa, mango chutney, other fanciness, or not, if you don't have some
1 can refried beans (.80)
1 bag Torta rolls (Costco, $5.50)

Slice the Torta rolls. Set aside, or heat if you wish.
Heat wet ingredients together in crock pot. Make sure chicken is well shredded and beans are well blended. It sort of gives it away if there are lumps of grey-brown goop in the sandwich. Scoop onto rolls and enjoy.

My goal always is to serve a salad with this meal. It rarely happens.

So, total meal cost: Roughly $12.50, which sounds high to me, except it feeds the 4 of us (2 teenagers, remember) WITH leftovers for lunch. And my husband has occasionally walked in the house with a bag of fast food just for himself that bears a receipt in that very neighborhood.  We'll say ~$2/serving and call it good.

Michael's White Bean Soup

2 cans Lima beans
2 cans White Northern beans
2 cans Butter beans
4 cans Cannellini beans
2 cans refried beans
(.80 each, x 12 =$9.60)
3 cubes Knorr's vegetable bullion, or 3 Tbsp Better Than Bullion, Vegetable (no idea)
1 Tb chopped garlic (from a jar)
1 Tb ground tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground sage
1-3 Tbs ground black pepper
parsley
chives ($2)

Serve with hearty rolls, shredded cheese, pumpernickel croutons, blue tortilla chips or whatever. And a salad.

I made this to take to a SuperBowl party, where my friend Michael, who has allergies to many common ingredients, would be a guest as well. I tried calling it White Chili, but that was weird: Michael's allergic to chili powder, so it had none in it. I'd say it served 6 to 8 people at the party, then the kids & I had it as CORN on Monday, and then I froze about 4 servings of it. We can call that 14 servings. That seems right. If I was to halve the recipe, I'd guess it would serve 6. Considering that I had most of the seasonings and didn't buy any of them special for the recipe except the chives (which, to be honest, I wanted as garnish anyhow), I would say this meal cost $~12.00, and certainly is under $1/serving.

Okay. More of these, but later.