Open up: Chili and cornbread

This isn't from scratch, but just a quick example of a tasty meal that requires little more than opening some packaging. Yes, of course we would all like to eat organic home cooked meals at all times, but I am here to show you how it is possible to eat cheap with some variety!

Start with a can of Chili and a box of Jiffy cornbread mix.

Corn Muffins:
Follow the directions on the box. Now, I hate crumbly cornbread. I'm already a hot mess without having to brush crumbs off my top. My little secret is to add 50% more milk or water than the box suggests. It makes them more moist and less thirst inducing. Everything else remains the same.


Chili:
Open up a can of chili and heat it up on the stove. You can use any kind of chili you like. I used Ralph's Chili with Beans. I added water because I thought it was a little pasty thick. I wanted more of a soup chili than a topping chili.

We put the hot corn muffins right into the chili. It was delicious.

Cost Breakdown:
Can of Chili (Ralph's): $1
Corn muffin mix (Ralph's): $0.33
= $1.33/2= $0.67 a person

Wino "Fancy Pants" Steaks

A friend gave me 2 bottles of wine at a dinner party. We didn't end up drinking it, and I discovered I didn't like it. But, being both cheap and considering dumping booze nearly a sin, it's been sitting on my counter. I marinated a roast in it. But I wanted to try something new and I had a couple of steaks to dress up. I've heard and read about wine reduction sauces. My mom is a great cook and she works at Richard's Farm Restaurant.

I turned to my old friend Google and began a search. I had decided on a dinner of steak with a red wine reduction sauce, baked sweet potatoes and green beans. I looked at several red wine reduction sauce recipes and got a general idea of what to do and just made my own version.

Baked Sweet Potatoes:
I'm still working on doing mulitple steps and having everything done at the same time. This should have been my first step.

1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Wash sweet potatoes and puncture them.
2. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 45 -60 minutes.
3. Cut open and garnish with butter and brown sugar.

Wine sauce
Ingredients:
Olive oil
Fresh Garlic; chopped (You could use the minced kind in the jar)
Diced onion (I used the dehydrated kind you buy in the spice aisle)
Red wine
Flour

1. Heat saucepan on the stove
2. Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Heat the oil.
3. Add chopped garlic and onion. Let the garlic and onions carmelize.
4. Pour wine into sauce pan. (I think it was about 2 cups. I don't make it a habit to measure when pouring wine.)
5. Add a couple pinches of flour to thicken the sauce as it reduces.
6. Boil until the mixture reduce to 1/2, maybe a little more. Stir occaisionally.

Steaks
I covered the steaks lightly with a rub of olive oil, salt and pepper. As they were thin steaks, I only cooked them 1-2 mintues on each side.

Green Beans
Let's not pretend. I opened a can of green beans and nuked them with some diced onion mixed in.

Cost Breakdown
Steaks: $2.10 (Ralph's Manager Special)
Wine: $FREE.99 (You could pick up a bottle of 2 buck chuck and drink the rest)
Baked sweet potatoes: $ .34 (1/3 of the $1 bag from 99 cent store)
Green Beans: $1 (Ralph's)

$2.10
$0.34
$1.00
_____
$3.44/2 = $1.72 a person

Cheap, easy and fast never tasted so comfy

Hey all -

A quick little post reminding us again that there are often things in the house that can make a great meal. I heated up a can of Campbell's Chunky Beef and Veggie Soup and made 2 grilled cheese sandwiches for me and Zell. Fast, easy, cheap. All things I had in the cabinets or fridge.

Before you run to the store, double check all the stuff you "don't have to eat" in the house. It will probably surprise you.

Sloppy Cost Breakdown:

The soup was probably from the 99cent Store. We all know how I love that place.
4 pieces of bread - 7 grain loaf cost $2.50 ish (yeah, day old bread!)
2 slices of cheese - a 16 piece package was on sale at Ralph's for 2/$4

Soup - $1.00
1/4 loaf of bread: $.63
2 slices of cheese: $.25

= $1.88/2 = $.94 a person

Side Dishes Demand To Be a Meal

Quick little lunch post, this is easy peasy. Or you could eat it for dinner. This does not change it's difficulty level

Ingredients:
Potatoes
Raw Spinach
Pear
Feta
Dressing of choice (Optional)
Potato additions like butter, sour cream, cheese, etc

1. Bake potatoes in an oven. Or toaster oven. Or microwave. (I usually microwave for about 6 minutes, maybe more) I realize with this post, I don't really officially know how to bake potatoes. I just put them in a hot oven for a while until I think they are done. I have realized this is foolish. Here you can find many ways to bake a potato.

2. Once spuds are baked and ready, make a simple spinach salad. Slice pear and top spinach with pear and feta. Add dressing if desired. I used an Italian. Not an actual Italian - there is no pretty boy named Bonaventure (an Italian name meaning good luck) making my salads.

3. Add desired toppings to potato. I like to use plain non-fat yogurt instead of sour cream. Thank you, Jen! You really can't taste much of a difference.

Serve and eat!


Cost Breakdown

Bag of Potatoes: $1 @ 99 cent store - We'll just say this equals about $.10 a spud even though it isn't near that much.

1/4 Bag of Spinach: $1 @ 99 cent store/4 = $.25

1/2 pear: $.79 @ Ralph's/2 = $.40

2 TB of Feta: $.36 a serving (Confusing math time, GO! There are 14 tablespoons of Feta in a $2.50 container.)

I'm not breaking down the cost of dressing and toppings. The feta equation hurt my brain.

$.10

$.25

$.40

$.36

______
$1.11 a person!

So today we have learned I need to learn how to actually make baked potatoes and some info on how to name your Italian child.

Chicken Schmarmesan

Now that you have clipped your coupons - or maybe just thought about it - let's make a meal! Do you think it's too expensive to have friends over for dinner? Lies. Bold. Faced. Lies. How about dinner for 4? Tonight, I made dinner for Zell, Chuck and myself. (And someone gets leftovers for lunch tomorrow!) Did I mention it only cost $1.80 a person? I ate this a lot growing up and I have since deemed it Chicken Schmarmesan. A poor man's version of Chicken Parmesan, this is both delicious and easy to make.

For this meal you need the following ingredients:

- 4 Chicken Patties
- 1/2 bag of Pasta
- 1 can spaghetti sauce
- Shredded Mozzarella
- 1 bag broccoli

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Make sure to check that there isn't already anything in there. Some people just keep pans in there for storage. But once, in high school I didn't check and someone had put one of those grocery store roasted chickens in there. By turning the oven on, I managed to melt the damn container. My house smelled like burnt melted plastic for about a week and a half. And lest we forget, Carrie Bradshaw uses hers for her sweaters. And no one wants baked cashmere.

2. Place Chicken Patties on cookie sheet. Bake them for 15 - 20 minutes, flipping 1/2 way through.

3. About 5-7 minutes into baking the chicken, put a pot of water on to boil. Once boiling add pasta. Once pasta is cooked, make sure to drain. Spaghetti soup would be gross.

4. At some point you should heat the sauce. This can be done in a sauce pan or the microwave. I put mine on simmer when I put my pasta water on to boil. I would advise you not to heat your sauce on high. This creates little volcanic eruptions in the sauce which get all over the stove. And unless your stove is marinara colored, this is annoying.

5. After you flip your chicken patties, make the broccoli. I cheated and made mine in the microwave. And you couldn't even tell.

6. About 5 minutes before the chicken is done, open the oven and spoon sauce onto each patty. Then sprinkle cheese on top of the sauce. Now, close the oven. Bake 5ish minutes or until cheese is brown.

7. Now your meal is done! Serve on plates and make sure all burners are off.




COST BREAKDOWN
*note: This meal may have been cheaper if I had gone generic, but I was feeling super classy today.

1 Box Frozen Tyson Chicken Patties $3.20
- Originally $4.49 (Ralph's Card - $.49, - $.40 coupon/Doubled)

4 oz Kraft Shredded Mozzarella Cheese $.99
- 8 oz bag $1.98 at Walmart

1/2 bag of Pasta $.50
- 1 small bag of pasta $1.00 at 99 cent store

1 can (26.5 oz) Del Monte 4 cheese Pasta Sauce $1.00
- At 99 cent Store

1 bag (16 oz) of Ralph's Brand Frozen Broccoli $1.50

$3.20
$ .99
$ .50
$ 1.00
+ $ 1.50
__________
= $7.19 total/4 = $1.80 a person


Responses from the Critics backslash Dinner Guests:

"This is neither 'the wrong stuff' or 'garbage'. This is frozen food, and yet, delicious!" - Zell

"Parmesanerific? If that's even a word..." - Chuck