Can you prepare a good meal for a dollar? (beers, ingredients, burger)

[jtur88]

The challenge: Prepare a nutritious, tasty, varied and balanced meal for a dollar per person, assuming you have the bulk ingredients on hand and simple cooking facilities.

Here's an example: (Compare this with a burger from the dollar menu.)

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal, cooked into a thick polenta, 5c
... topped with a pat of butter and either a sprinkle of grated cheese, or a dollop or sour cream. 10c
1/5 pound of sauteed chicken liver, hearts or gizzard. 20c
A half an onion, sauteed. 15c
A qarter of a one-pound sweet potato, baked or boiled, skin on. 20c
One banana. 15c.
A six-oz glass of milk. 10c
Total = 95c. (Prices may vary according to locality and season. I can do this here, at today's prices.)

[rainroosty]

O-M-G, please give me the dollar menu burger any day!!!

[JustJulia]

1/4 lb chicken (50c), browned in a little olive oil (5c), mixed with 1/2 cup cooked brown rice (20c). Serve with lightly sauteed fresh spinach (25c).

[Lucky Lady123]

Originally Posted by rainroosty

O-M-G, please give me the dollar menu burger any day!!!

[Mooseketeer]

I'm afraid there is no way I could cook anything half way decent for a dollar. Well I suppose I could do a rice or pasta dish for very little ( not sure about under a dollar though). Anything with meat ? No way.



I tend to like free range/humanely reared meat for example and if I can buy fair-trade or organic so that pushes the price up.

Hubby always complains it's cheaper for us to go out than for me to cook and it's probably mostly true as I enjoy cooking with the best ingredients.

I am embarassed to say I am not a thrifty cook.

[Happy in Wyoming]

One dollar's worth of:

1) Mashed potatoes topped with butter or something you happen to have left over

2) Noodles topped with butter, oil and Parmesan/Romano, gravy, or leftover sauce of some sort

3) Scrambled eggs with lots of butter; toast and jelly optional

4) Milk toast

5) Bisquick drop biscuits with cream gravy

6) Two cans of Vienna Sausages

7) Bisquick drop biscuits with butter and honey or jelly

8) Pancakes, either potato with sour cream or regular with either syrup or salt, pepper, and sour cream

9) Fried potatoes

10) Creamed carrots over toast or noodles

I picked the above because they taste good. I'm not trying to save money on food; but not all good food is expensive.

[elnina]

The bigger the meal ( # of portions) - cheaper one portion.
If you cook a nice meal for, say $7, and are able to divide it in 7 portions, then you get $1 a portion.
It is really very hard to cook just one portion of a meal for a dollar.
I do that sometimes: cook bigger meal, divide it for single portions and put in the freezer. If you get several different varieties of meals - you can eat every day something different till you start all over again.

[Capt. Cave Man]

Two cheap beers for b-fast, lunch, and splurge on supper.

[CMichele]

I sure can. It's a simple meal but really good. I'll add that I live very close to the WI border - farm and dairy country.

A local market had whole fryer chickens, yes you heard me say whole chickens, for $1 last year. The limit was 2/visit. Needless to say, I visited many times during that sale. I packed them into my freezer. A whole chicken netted ~3 meals for my family. So meat was .33/serving.

Corn on the cob was (is) 10/$1. So add .10 to get .43 for the entire meal so far.

Broccoli was (is) .69/lb. A lbs is about 2 servings. So add .35 to get .78 for the entire meal.

Potatoes are often .99/ 8lbs or 10/$1 here. I'll go with with 10/$1. My meal now stands at .88.

Add in anything else you'd like. Whole roma tomatoes are often .39/lb. Cucumbers are even cheaper. You can make a cucumber and tomato salad for many for less than .20/serving. Jiffy bread is ~.50/box. You can even make it cheaper with traditional ingredients that you have on hand already.

Yes, I can make many meals for < $1. I often do.

[Opyelie]

Originally Posted by elnina

The bigger the meal ( # of portions) - cheaper one portion.

Absolutely, which is how the army cooks LOL