$5 a meal recipe for today

Yummy chili dinner

Chili con carne with skillet cornbread (serves 2 at this meal. There’s enough chili for 4, so the rest should be made into chili breakfast burritos tomorrow)

Chili:

1 bag of red pinto beans ($.99)

1 onion (0.00)

1 can of chopped tomatoes ($1.19)

3/4lb ground chuck ($3.99/lb at Agata & Valentina)

Spices: Salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, a variety of red pepper preferably from Mexico

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1. Chop onion, sautee with ground beef.  Once browned, throw in a can of diced tomatoes.  Sprinkle salt, pepper, throw in about a teaspoon or two of cumin, paprika and simmer till corn bread is done.  Just check it every 15 min or so, make sure there as much liquid as you want.  If too watery, throw in a bit of tomato paste if you have any.  I also like to throw in some italian seasoning (oregano, basil, etc.)  In the meantime, make the cornbread

 

2. Cornbread: 

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
1 cups well-shaken buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425° F. Melt butter and cool. Into a bowl sift together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Heat a dry well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet in middle of oven 10 minutes. Put a bit of butter and heat 5 minutes. Swirl skillet to coat. While skillet is heating, make batter: Beat eggs into butter and buttermilk. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture gently but thoroughly. Pour batter into hot skillet and, working quickly, spread evenly. Bake corn bread in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. 

To store the rest, because cornbread will be about 4 servings, wrap it up and refrigerate. Microwave before serving.  Good served warm with jam for a snack or for lunch with an apple.

Menu $5/person, per meal: Recipes for Sunday

Sunday

Branzino Fillets in Tomato-Caper Mediterranean Sauce

1 1.1lb Branzino ($8.99/lb) (keep bones, head, tail for Monday, so [(8.99 x 1.1)/3]x2 for Sunday = $6.59

1/2 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice, juices used (on sale, $.99/2)=$.491/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped white onion 
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 small bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (1 bunch for the whole week, $.99)=$.15
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
2 tablespoons drained capers (1 bottle seems to have about 10 servings.  It’s old, I can’t tell. $1.99/10)=$.19

Basically, this is a casserole.  You sautee everything (in proper order-you always saute garlic and onions together first), make a sauce (blend or chop up those tomatoes).  The sauce should look like a really nice marinara.  Throw in the capers last, as they can get a bit bitter. Spoon sauce over and under the fish, place in the oven for 15 min at 425.  Dead easy. Save some fresh parsley for sprinkling at the end.

Total Cost: $7.42/2=$3.71 per person

With Corn bread, of which we had 1 pc per person, so it worked out to $.13/person  with a total of $3.84 for the whole meal.

This was a yummy and quick meal.