As all of you regular or semi regular readers know, Scott and I picked up and moved from Calgary Alberta to Kamloops BC at the end of September.
Moving, selling and buying houses is expensive business. So I was primed and ready to go when the hostess of this months Weekend Cookbook Challenge, Cady of $40 A Week challenged us to stick to a food budget of $40 a week per person, and share a recipe from the week.
To stay under $40 a week per person, you have to average $5.71 or less per day. Not hard to do I think, but you certainly need to be creative. Here's how a couple of my days looked.
_________________________
Breakfast - 1/4 of a fresh pineapple - $0.99 per person
Lunch - split pea soup, apple - $1.73 per person
Dinner - 2 pcs pizza from Costco - $0.67 (cheap!!!)
Total for one person $3.39
________________________
Breakfast - 2 eggo waffles, sliced strawberries - $2.10
Lunch - green salad $1.32
Dinner - small tray of veggie sushi $3.99
Total for one person $7.41
_______________________
I decided for such a challenge I had to use one of my recently acquired books, Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking Volume 3 Bur-Buy. Quite frankly, most of the recipes in this book scare the pants off me. But one did catch my eye - Genoese Rice Balls.
I've had rice balls, also sometimes known as arancini, only a couple of times before. They are delicious, but not something I would have thought of as a budget meal. Turns out I was wrong. These are good and cheap too!
Genoese Rice Balls
adapted from Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking Volume 3 Bur-Buy
1/2 cup uncooked rice
3 oz salami, chopped
1 egg, separated
8 oz can tomato sauce
2 tb parmesan cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
oil for frying
1/2 tsp basil
salt and pepper
Cook the rice according to the package directions. Stir in the chopped salami, egg yolk, parmesan cheese and 1 tb of the tomato sauce. Shape into 6 balls.
Place the egg white on a place and beat until frothy. Carefully and gently roll each ball in the egg white, then in the bread crumbs. Chill the rice balls several hours or overnight.
Heat 2 or 3 inches of oil in a small pot over medium heat. Fry the balls, 2 at a time, until brown and crisp, turning once. Drain on paper towel and keep warm until all the balls have been cooked.
While the balls are cooking heat the remaining tomato sauce with the basil and salt and pepper. Serve the sauce on the side.
Here's the breakdown of cost for the recipe.
rice - $0.35
salami - $2.02
egg - $0.25
tomato sauce - $0.73
parmesan cheese - $0.47
bread crumbs - $0.12
oil - $0.50 - I just guessed this as if you were inclined, you could re-use the oil
basil salt and pepper- not included as it was such a small amount
Total for 2 people $4.44
Not bad at all for a fancy schmancy dinner!
WCC 22 is running until November 18 - so get your frugal eats to Cady at gambini at gmail dot com.
Moving, selling and buying houses is expensive business. So I was primed and ready to go when the hostess of this months Weekend Cookbook Challenge, Cady of $40 A Week challenged us to stick to a food budget of $40 a week per person, and share a recipe from the week.
To stay under $40 a week per person, you have to average $5.71 or less per day. Not hard to do I think, but you certainly need to be creative. Here's how a couple of my days looked.
_________________________
Breakfast - 1/4 of a fresh pineapple - $0.99 per person
Lunch - split pea soup, apple - $1.73 per person
Dinner - 2 pcs pizza from Costco - $0.67 (cheap!!!)
Total for one person $3.39
________________________
Breakfast - 2 eggo waffles, sliced strawberries - $2.10
Lunch - green salad $1.32
Dinner - small tray of veggie sushi $3.99
Total for one person $7.41
_______________________
I decided for such a challenge I had to use one of my recently acquired books, Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking Volume 3 Bur-Buy. Quite frankly, most of the recipes in this book scare the pants off me. But one did catch my eye - Genoese Rice Balls.
I've had rice balls, also sometimes known as arancini, only a couple of times before. They are delicious, but not something I would have thought of as a budget meal. Turns out I was wrong. These are good and cheap too!
Genoese Rice Balls
adapted from Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking Volume 3 Bur-Buy
1/2 cup uncooked rice
3 oz salami, chopped
1 egg, separated
8 oz can tomato sauce
2 tb parmesan cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
oil for frying
1/2 tsp basil
salt and pepper
Cook the rice according to the package directions. Stir in the chopped salami, egg yolk, parmesan cheese and 1 tb of the tomato sauce. Shape into 6 balls.
Place the egg white on a place and beat until frothy. Carefully and gently roll each ball in the egg white, then in the bread crumbs. Chill the rice balls several hours or overnight.
Heat 2 or 3 inches of oil in a small pot over medium heat. Fry the balls, 2 at a time, until brown and crisp, turning once. Drain on paper towel and keep warm until all the balls have been cooked.
While the balls are cooking heat the remaining tomato sauce with the basil and salt and pepper. Serve the sauce on the side.
Here's the breakdown of cost for the recipe.
rice - $0.35
salami - $2.02
egg - $0.25
tomato sauce - $0.73
parmesan cheese - $0.47
bread crumbs - $0.12
oil - $0.50 - I just guessed this as if you were inclined, you could re-use the oil
basil salt and pepper- not included as it was such a small amount
Total for 2 people $4.44
Not bad at all for a fancy schmancy dinner!
WCC 22 is running until November 18 - so get your frugal eats to Cady at gambini at gmail dot com.
No comments:
Post a Comment