The challenge: Cook dinner for four people, for three days, under $25 TOTAL, and in less than 2 hours TOTAL. Oh, and the food has to be pretty.
Challenge accepted!
Saturday:
Turkey stuffed bell peppers with a side of roasted asparagus
Serves: Easily 4 people.
Prep time:
20 min to pan fry all 'inner' ingredients
40 min to bake
1hr TOTAL
Shopping list:
1 package ground turkey
1 package mushrooms, whatever one's are you favorite/on sale
1 1/2 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen corn
3-4 bell peppers, pick your favorite colors
1 small bundle asparagus
Monterey cheese, or a somewhat hard white cheese of your choice
1 egg
1 slice of toast
In case you can't tell, I believe in opportunistic cooking!
Things I'm assuming you have on hand:
olive oil
pepper
basil, oregano, or really whatever you like here
red pepper
salt, always to taste
a bottle of chilled white wine, always to taste
Instructions:
1) Open the bottle of wine and pour a glass
2) Pan fry the ground turkey, pulling apart in to mouth-size-bits. in other words, you want a chunk on the end of the fork. Butter would also work here, but I tend to use olive oil, (or bacon grease).
3) Season to taste, preferably heavy on the pepper, and just a dash of red pepper for kick!
4) Add the slivered mushroom and 1/4 cup of white wine if desired. Allow to steam for 5 minutes with the lid on.
5) Then add the broccoli and corn and cook another 5 minutes to evaporate some of the liquid off.
6) Meanwhile, prepare the washed bell peppers. I put them long ways so to be able to uses both halves without having to include the steam of the bell pepper--although this does make them more difficult to stuff.
**) Put half of the pan ingredients into a left-over container-- It's for Monday night!
7) Turn off the the stove and let sit (3 min) so as not to cook the egg.
8) Add one egg and one slice of toast, chopped up, directly to the pan. No extra dishes!
9) Stir everything together. You now have you 'inner' ingredients.
10) Stuff the bell peppers. The mushrooms may not be cooked all the way-- that's fine.
11) Top with cheese and place on a baking sheet.
12) Lay the washed and snapped asparagus on the other half of the same baking sheet and drizzle olive oil and salt/pepper to taste. It's okay for everything to get cozy.
13) Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 325. Serve hot.
14) Get back to that wine-- It's a Saturday night!
Cost:
$2.50 ground turkey
$2.00 mushrooms
$0.75 broccoli
$0.75 corn
$3.00 bell peppers
$1.50 asparagus
$0.75 cheese
$0.20 egg
$0.60 slice of toast
$12.05
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Sunday:
Lemon-Mustard Steel Head
Serves: Easily 4 people.
Prep time:
7 min to prep
20 min to bake
27 min TOTAL
Shopping list:
1 package of steel head fish (or salmon but steel head is cheaper.)
white rice
1/2 package of peas
1 lemon
Things I'm assuming you have on hand:
butter
pepper
basil, oregano, or really whatever you like here
red pepper
salt, always to taste
mustard
Instructions:
1) Start the rice. As you will only be using half of it tonight, I'm recommending three cups or rice with double that in water.
2) On a sheet of aluminum foil, lay out slices of lemon.
3) Lay the fish on top of the lemon and season to taste. Rosemary is amazing on this one!
4) Drible mustard on top of the fish and baste the fish with a back of the spoon. A sweet mustard works best, such as apple honey mustard or champagne mustard.
5) Fold foil over the fish and roll to seal. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.
6) Meanwhile, melt 1/8 cup of butter in sauce pan.
7) Add peas and seasonings to taste. Cook until just warm, with constant stirring. You want the peas to maintain their firmness to counter the softer textures of the rest of the dish.
8) When the rice is done, you are done-- Serve hot!
Cost:
$8.00 fish
$1.00 rice
$0.50 lemon
$1.00 peas
$10.50 TOTAL
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Monday:
Turkey Stir-Fry!
Serves: 4 people. (Adjust rice proportion if necessary.)
Prep time:
20 min stir fry time
20 min TOTAL
Shopping list:
NOTHING-- It's a Monday, who want's to go to the store ;P
Things I'm assuming you have on hand:
oil
pepper
soy sauce
sesame seed oil (optional but amazing!)
red pepper
Sriracha or other hot sauce
salt, always to taste
Instructions:
1) Add yesterday's rice to a hot pan with about 1/4 cup of oil in it. Canola oil is recommend.
2) Go heavy handed on the seasons, but light on the soy sauce-- it's salt heavy.
3) Drizzle the sesame seed oil on top of the rice and turn over the rice continuously.
4) Add in the 'inner' ingredients of turkey and continue to season to taste.
5) Serve up and dash of Sriracha on top, to complete the look. Serve with chop sticks.
Cost:
At this point you have spent a couple dollars in seasonings and oil over three days.
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Total time: 1 hour and 47min
Total cost: $22.55, plus seasonings
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