I'm not in charge of the grocery buying or the main cook like I was in the apartment, which is the reason I haven't been doing as many food posts.  But I prepared a meal the other day that was yummy, healthy, and fit the one dollar meal plan so I thought I'd share.

I bought a small bag of Kroger brand long grain rice (67 cents), which we boiled.

I also bought a single head of broccoli, a small bag of organic carrots (about $1), and small pack of button mushrooms (about $2).  We used 4 carrots, the whole head of broccoli, and the whole pack of mushroom.  We washed them and sliced the carrots and mushrooms so that they were flat.  We then sauteed all the veggies (which means we put a little oil in the pan, turned the temp to 7 / med-high and cooked them just a little bit on each side).  They should still be crisp when done.

I found some beef (for braising) on Manager's Special.  It was .8 lbs (or 12.8 oz) for $2.12....which means there was 6 servings of meat in the package ( 2 oz. servings).  We cooked the meat in the same frying pan we had used for the veggies, not doing anything special to it, just making sure it cooked through.  Then we sliced up the meat into smaller bit sized pieces.

Normally I use teriyake glaze (or in a pinch soy sauce) to flavor this kind of meal, but we had neither.  So I used what we had, mixing by smell.  In the end I came up with a concoction that was about equal parts Worcestershire sauce and apple juice, with some cinnamon powder, some onion powder, and a lot of garlic powder.  This was poured over the cooked meat, and actually tasted pretty good.

Everyone fixed their own plate, but it was really just beef and veggies over a bed of rice.  There were three of us (me, my brother, and my co-writer), and I took the leftovers home and made another 3 meals off it.  So we got about 6 meals out of food which cost me about $6.  (Sorry I don't have the exact numbers...receipt is missing, had to go by memory.)
 

I had the urge to make pancakes this morning, and dug into an old cook book for a scratch recipe.  It called for Baking Soda, which I didn't have, but I found another recipe for French pancakes.  It called for three eggs, 1/2 cup of flour, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 salt, 1/2 millk and 1 tbsp butter.  I cheated a little with recipe since I didn't have a sifter, but they still came out very yummy.  There was enough for me and my brother, and I think I may have eaten a bit too much.  I also had a banana and a glass of OJ.  May call it brunch rather than breakfast.

There are some recipes you can't cheat with, but I've found most recipes can be fudged a little bit.  I prefer spinach so I tend to substitute it when a recipe calls for lettuce.  Cooking is fun and a very useful skill, particularly if you're trying to eat in more.  Don't be afraid to make small experiments.  That's how we learn.

For next few weeks I'm going to post a list of what we buy, so you can see how we're putting the plan to use.

Again, this is a starting point. Those living in areas where the cost of living is high or who have special dietary needs may need to adjust this up to as much as two or three dollars per meal. I believe the plan works better when you have more people involved, like family or roomates. In great part because food is eaten more quickly and therefore it's less likely that something will be spoiled or wasted.