Four Dollar Dinners....

[loria]

Ok, my daughter has a challenge for cooking a meal for the family (four of us) for $4.00--part of a school assignment on the depression--
we went over the beans and rice options--then found chicken on sale (59 cents a pound!!!--practically unheard of in this neck of the woods) .
she wants to try to get creative and we are going to scour the markets and recipes for a good meal for four--we've thought of a lentil stew with roasted chicken and rice and cookies for dessert (i think we can manage that)--
she is allowed to use the spice cabinet and pantry basics--

any cool recipe ideas for a depression dinner for four??? I know there are some great creative cooks on here, so give us some magic!

[mbw1024]

what kind of chicken do you have?

[loria]

what kind of chicken do you have?

I am not sure marybeth--we just looked at the store circular--i assume it's either legs or thighs --nothing fancy--but all the perdue is 40% off--so we'll be looking for savings there ...

[liamsaunt]

Is this $4 per person, or $4 total? That makes a big difference. Assuming it's $4 total, the first thing that came to my mind is a chicken and dumpling stew. It's traditional for that time period. If you are buying bone-in skin-on meat, which you must be for that price, you could use the bones/cartilage and the vegetable trimmings to make stock after roasting the pieces and pulling the meat from the bones. The typical recipe for that time would just need the chicken meat and stock, plus an onion, a carrot, some butter. Then flour, salt, pepper, and baking powder--all of which would be pantry staples. You'd probably have enough money leftover to buy a green vegetable to go with it. Use the leftover butter and some more pantry staples to make sugar cookies for dessert.

[loria]

thanks liamsaunt--
it is indeed 4 dollars total-

[pipanale]

Buy a pound of pasta...should be able to find it for under a dollar. Heck...if it's on sale, splurge and buy 2! Cook it. Find whatever you want in the pantry to season it. It really doesn't matter.

Buy a bottle of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Shaw_wine"> 3-buck Chuck</a>

Drink it.

Problem solved!

[Chickadee]

Make bread.

Can you buy beef soup bones w/ marrow cheap? If so, make beef stew, use the marrow to spread on your bread. Maybe turn the stew into pot pies?

Anything with potatoes, they're cheap and versatile.

Do a Google search for Depression Era recipies, you'll come up with a surprising number of hits!

Seriously, though, is that $4 adjusted for inflation!? Wow, great project, great lesson. Will have to remember this for some time when my kids are older...

[djmom]

I would suggest either of these recipes which can be googled. We have enjoyed both of them, and kid friendly. Not gourmet fare, but not a bad weekday dinner at all.

Turkey meatloaf (Barefoot Contessa)-you can halve this recipe and have plenty. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Salmon cakes (Rachel Ray)-you can cut out some of the extras like fresh dill, bell pepper. You would need to use the canned salmon, but actually we use it a lot for this recipe and it is good and loaded with calcium. Serve with beans and rice?

We will also do the salmon cakes and serve them on a bun with ketchup and call them "crabby patties". That is how I got the kids to start eating them, they love them. You could make some oven fried potatoes to go with that.

With a little modification and sale shopping I think you could possibly do these.

[XOXO]

This brings me back to my poor staving college days. I lived on those packets of chow mein noodles, bread, cheese and butter. Sad huh??

I would have loved to have boiled up some chicken to add to those noodles!! (:

Gina

[djmom]

Gina,
I lived off of buttered rice with Texas Pete sauce for about a year after college. How I thought of that I don't know and I never want it again.

[chicagoans]

What a great challenge Lori! You'll have fun doing this together.

Do you have a food co-op type place near you? The one near us is called Home Economist and you can buy baking staples (flours, sugars, etc.) spices, pastas, dried fruit, nuts, etc. in bulk. It's amazing how inexpensive things can be when you're not paying for packaging and brand name.

Love the stew/soup idea because you can bulk it up with inexpensive items like lentils or potatoes.

Let us know how it goes!

[loria]

OK, so here was our 4 dollar dinner--the one conundrum is we all have to eat and I am a vegetarian and Master Loria is a dedicated non bean eater--so has to work for all...... We thought around a moroccan flavored chickpea and lentil stew that i make---but way to many ingredients on that list to make the cut--so we simplified.... we started with a bag of Lentils ($ 0 .79) and then found some chicken thighs that cost $2.11 for the package of four--(reasoning Master Loria could eat two of the thighs if he wouldn't eat the lentils )--
for the stew we bought a very large carrot (().79) and a small onion (0.21)
So we made the lentil stew: sauteed onions with oil and a bit of garlic powder and turmeric (couldn't afford garlic--but we can use herbs and spices in our pantry). add the carrots , lentils and water.....then simmer.......and add salt , cumin, some green herbs (oregano and basil--little ms loria was doing the additions)

the stew was YUMMO--
then we made biscuits--can't use milk it costs money--so we find a recipe for water only biscuits--we use olive oil, flour, baking powder and salt--roll them out and make a dozen biscuits....
because biscuits are based all on staples they are cotsed at
we have to go to a hockey game (where Master Lorias team ends up as second place in the tourney)--and Ms Loria pan roasts the chicken --
we arrive home to a table set with candles and flowers and bowls of lentil stew, biscuits and chicken--she did a great job!!!
We all were incredibly full at the end and Even master Loria Liked the Lentils!