Hellobee Boards

Salad with grilled chicken.

Bagged salad - 1 dollar we buy the huge bag at Costco.
Dressing - 1 dollar
Chicken - 2 lbs at 1.99 so four dollars
Tomatoes - 1.50
Cucumber - 69 cents
Roughly eight dollars for two people.

Dinner tonight is salmon and green salad - pretty typical dinner in our house.

Faroe Island salmon: $14 (little more than 1lb.)
Bag of local mixed greens: $5.99
Avocado: $2 (hand on hand already)
Red onion: had on hand (usually about $1.79/lb)
Lemon: had on hand (usually around $.85-$1)
Olive oil and balsamic: had on hand

So, $22 costs + whatever the portion would be of stuff on hand. Wine: $6.79

Today was cheap!
Pasta and a jar of sauce $1 each.
Onion (I get it 99c/lb), left over veggies: red pepper (1.99/lb), mushroom (1.99 8oz). ~$5 for dinner and lunch tomorrow for dh and me.

I think I did this right, but I might be off by a few cents in either direction. It was all stuff we had on hand.

Baked barley with mushroom and white beans, roasted asparagus

Organic pearl barley: $1.04
1 can cannellini beans : $.59
16 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced: $2.50
1 white onion: $.80
Minced garlic: $.19
1/2 tbsp seasoning blend: $.10
Vegetable stock: $.39 (Better than bouillon + water)
Asparagus: $2.99

So, $8.60 for the pot, and there's enough leftovers for lunch, so $4.30 for the meal, which fed 3 of us for $1.43 each?

@looch: but you didn't use all the park, Wasabi and soy sauce for this meal so technically less?
Btw totally love this post. Interesting to see the meal cost for what people are eating and the different cost of items.
Ie cannelini beans on sale around here are 99cts a can!

@hotchildinthecity: I'm completely shocked at how cheap your organic chicken is. Especially in the city. Is that whole chicken?

I'll have to look later because actually brought dinner over to my ILs. It fed 5 adults, 1 toddler. Leftovers for ILs, a meal for their freezer and ours.

Chickan Divan casserole:
2 lbs chicken thighs -$6.88
Shredded cheese-$2.88
Ritz crackers-$2.77
2 onions-$1.00
1.5 lbs broccoli- $2.79
Instant rice-$2.49
Chicken broth- $1.79
-------------
$20.60 for the raw ingredients
The recipe makes 8 servings though, so it comes down to $2.58 per serving. We will probably eat this for 3 days or so.

Baked turbot with parsley potatoes and asparagus.

Turbot ($15) with panko (pantry), butter (pantry), lemon ($.79), 1/2 bunch of parsley ($1)
Mini Dutch creamer potatoes ($3) with parsley (included above), butter (pantry)
Steamed asparagus ($3)

About $23.

Sad because there won't be any leftovers, but eating good fish is important to me. It's no wonder our grocery bill is so high.

OK. So we made baked ziti w/sausage & meatballs tonight and recreated olive garden breadsticks.

6lb ground beef $16.50
1.5 lb ground pork $4.57
8 sweet Italian sausage $5.40
(3) 45 oz jars of pasta sauce $4.38
(2) boxes of ziti $1.80
1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 onion $2.50
1 big bag of shredded mozzarella $2.50

$37.65 round up for misc spices + bit of parsely = $39 / 3 pans = $13

But this fed 5 adults + 1 toddler. FIL had 3 servings, DH & BIL 2 servings, MIL, LO & I 1 servings each. And there's leftover for them for dinner.

And we made two extra pans to freeze.

We made breadsticks tonight from everything we had in the house so I'll round it that tonight's meal was $15 for 5 adults + 1 toddler and leftovers for 2 adults. Not bad!

@redsmarties: yes fish is always expensive but the meal itself isn't bad because we use pantry items to season and usually cheap sides (rice and steamed veggies). Same goes for steak dinners usually.

Our steak dinner is usually

T Bone steak ($6.99lb and we usually buy over a pound and share one)
Rice side (~$1)
Steamed frozen veggie ($1 per bag)

So even though the steak is expensive it's still a meal under $10 for 2 adults, 1 child.

@T.H.O.U.: for the baked ziti? Sorry, I don't because DH makes his meatballs from scratch. He always uses ground beef but wanted to add ground pork tonight so that's not always a constant. It was a splurge! He always adds minced onions, mince garlic, garlic salt, pepper, bread crumbs and eggs. He just kinda does it to consistency?
For the sauce we typically like Ragu tomato, garlic and onion for a baked ziti. I always saute garlic then onions and peppers. Then we add the meatballs and sausage and let it simmer for about an hour.
For the pan I put sauce down, then ziti, then meat, then ziti then sauce again and mozzarella on top. Bake in 350F oven for 20 minutes. Broil at the end for crisp the cheese.

Tonight was a really easy dinner:
- Pre-made Greek turkey burgers from our amazing market that does a ton of prepared meats, $4.82 for 2 burgers
- Asparagus, $2.99
- Sweet potato (we shared one), maybe $1?

So, less than $5 per person. LO ate a bit earlier and had lentils and a banana (bland diet for his tummy)

Me:
Salmon $7 plus herbs, lemons, and Dijon mustard (pantry
Arugula $1 (I had 1/3 of the bag) with evoo and balsamic (pantry)

DH:
Tilapia $3.50 with same seasoning
Pasta with red sauce $2

$13.50 total or $6.75/pp

I made the chicken noodle casserole that was on the blog a couple of weeks ago. We'll get at least 2 more dinners and 2 lunches out of it (it's huge!) so I am guessing just a couple of bucks for each of us (just me & DH).

@locavore_mama: hahhaha #pregnant

I made slow cooker pulled pork.

Pork roast (4.5lbs) $12
Large sweet onion $1
Tortillas (had in pantry but cost $2.50)
Cheese 8oz $2.50
Safron rice $2.00
Mustard powder, bay leaves, garlic, celery salt, cumin, crushed red pepper, vinegar (pantry)

So $20.00 but it fed LO and DH tonight for dinner and all 3 of us will have it for dinner tomorrow. And I will have it for lunch tomorrow and probably several "snacks" for DH since he is a meat head. So I would say a minimum of 7 "meals" so $2.68 per serving.

Indian take-out (chana masala, chana vindaloo, samosas): $26. I only ate half of my chana, so the leftovers will be lunch tomorrow!

@MrsSCB: I'm soooo jealous!!

Curious how the salmon turned out for you!

Tonight's dinner was incredibly simple...

Roasted chicken drumsticks -
Chicken drumsticks ($2.79/lb) = ~$4
Salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning = pantry items
Mushrooms stirfried with butter and S+P = ~$3 for mushrooms

$7, with leftovers for tomorrow.

@lawbee11: @Mae: haha, Canes is our go-to fast food splurge -- sooooo yummy!