A couple weeks ago, CityMama posted a challenge to create a healthy, balanced meal for a family of four for under $10. This was spurred by Prego's new campaign to promote $10 meals. Most of my dinners come out to under $10 so I wasn't going to blog about it, but then over dinner we began flipping through the little guy's Cub Scout handbook and one of the units was on food preparation. And wouldn't you know, there was an activity that asked the scout to break down the cost of a meal. Doing a few calculations about what I used that night, I realized our meal was easily under $10 and could have fed a small army.
The little guy will eat basically anything that has beans in it, so I cook a lot of beans and lentils as healthy, inexpensive sources of protein. This significantly lowers my food budget, then I keep every imaginable spice around to mix things up and keep things tasting new and exciting.
(Picture taken after we were done eating - these are the leftovers)
For the cost portion of this breakdown, I over-estimated the actual cost of what I used. So while a gallon of milk is $4.25, I used 1/16th of that (4qts to a gal, 4 cups to a qt) for an actual cost of $.27 that I rounded up to $.50. I also gave the spices a level price of $.25 per spice, though I buy all of my spices in bulk for far less.
Easy Crockpot Beans with Cornbread
1lb dry kidney beans soaked overnight $1.50
2 smoked ham hocks $1.75 (package of 4 for $3.50, froze the rest)
1 medium onion $.25
3 carrots $.30
3 bay leaves $.05
3 cloves garlic $.25
1/4 cup molasses $.50
1/4 cup sugar $.10
1tbl worschester sauce $.25
1tsp hot smoked paprika $.25
1tsp dried marjoram $.25
1tsp ground cumin $.25
salt
pepper
Cornbread
1 package Penguin brand cornbread $1.50
1 egg $.20
1/3 cup canola oil $.50
1 cup milk $.50
2 tbs butter (for pan) $.20
Total cost = $8.60
Actual cost for me (excluding staple ingredients) = $5.50
Shred the onions, carrots, and garlic. Throw everything into a crock pot and add enough water so the level comes up 1" over the top of the ingredients. Cook on the high setting for 8hrs.
Once the beans are done, preheat the oven to 375 and heat a 9" cast iron skillet on the stove (can also be made in an 8" x 8" baking pan). Make the cornbread mix following the box instructions. Melt the butter in the skillet (or the microwave if using a baking pan) and spread around the skillet. Immediately add the cornbread mix and bake for 30mins.
The guys in the family like to put the bread in the bottom of a bowl and pour the beans over top. I prefer to eat them separate.
This made two complete meals for my family of 3, with one quart of beans left over that I froze for future use.
