Meals Under A Dollar

Our M.U.D. for this week is on the menu for Monday night:

Red Beans: (<$2.50, we won't eat the whole thing, it should cover lunch the next day, too, call it $1.75)

2 cans Red Beans (2X $0.50)
2 fresh tomatoes ($0.75)
1/2 lb Sausage ($1.25)
1/2 Onion ($0.25, it was bogo for onions last week at Albertson's)

Rice: ($0.50, my best guess, since a one-lb bag is about $1)

Fried Cabbage: ($1.00)

1 head Green Cabbage ($0.50, on sale this week)
1/2 Onion ($0.25)

Salad: ($1.20)


Total Cost: $4.45 to feed four people


I'm finding it a leeetle tricky to be accurate with pricing, since most of the time we have left-overs that go for lunch the next day. So I'm not going to stress too much about going $0.45 over my $4 goal :)

Grilled Peasant Bread

Crusty bread (or rolls)
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
Italian seasoning (basil, oregano, rosemary)
minced garlic

Heat olive oil in a cast iron frying pan till hot, add seasonings. Lay bread slices or sliced rolls in the pan-- face down. Grill till browned. Add additional oil and seasoning as needed for all your bread.

YUM!!

Bean Salad

(the original recipe calls for dried beans, cooked each according to it's own kind-- 1/2 dry of each)

Salad:
1 can Black Beans
1 can Red (adzuki) Beans
1 can Black-eyed Peas
1/2 lb green beans (use frozen or fresh, cook to tender-crisp)
1 small red onion

Dressing:
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon (sometimes I use honey mustard instead, depends what I have in the pantry)
1/2 c Olive Oil (spring for the high quality stuff, it's totally worth it)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Combine beans and onion in a serving dish. Mix dressing ingredients together and pour over. Chill and serve.

Meals Under a Dollar

Ok. So. Tonight's dinner was awesome. Awesome and super cheap. It has inspired me to start a new... sompthin.' Meme? Series? Whatever. If y'all want to join in, let me know in the comments and I'll set up a Mr Linky so y'all can add in your own posts. The basic idea is for menus for tasty meals that cost under one dollar per person. Tasty is important. If it's not tasty, we don't care how cheap it is :) I'm calling it MUD: Meals Under a Dollar, 'cause I'm a sucker for an ironic acronym.

Here's the menu and cost breakdown. I'll post the recipes in subsequent posts.

Bean Salad (from the Williams-Sonoma Cookbook) Deviled Eggs (my own recipe) Grilled Peasant Bread (my own recipe) Frozen Orange Julius

(and I bought some Brie to serve with it, but forgot to put it out :P )


Cost Estimates (I'm not including things like salt and pepper and condiments, since I keep those on hand and have no idea how to estimate those costs...)

Bean Salad: ($3.75/2 since we only ate half... $1.90)
3 cans beans (3X$0.60)
1 bag green beans ($1.50)
1 onion ($0.20)
dressing ($0.25)

Grilled Peasant Bread: ~ $1.00
whole wheat rolls ($0.75)
olive oil (?X 1/4 cup))

Deviled Eggs: $0.32
eggs (4X$0.08-- eggs were on sale this week, so I've been using them for proteins as much as I can)

Orange Julius: $0.60
oranges (free)
bananas ($0.10-- I buy over-ripe ones @ $0.25/lb and freeze them, which makes really great drinks)
milk (~$.50)

Total Cost: $3.82 to feed four people