I Say Potato!

This sack of potatoes was just $1.49 at Save-a-Lot.  That's a great price and it helped me make many inexpensive meals.  At first, it might seem that healthy meals like fresh salmon, or splurge meals like rib eye steak, or tender stew, are not frugal meals.  The thing is, with a cheap meal base like this bag of 'taters, you can really make great dishes that don't cost a lot.  Because of the spuds, the cost averaging comes down to a meal for only a couple of bucks per person.

The first incarnation, was chuck steak with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots.  Using marked down beef and the sous vide, we had super tender and flavorful beef that set us  back only $2.49 per pound.  This  meal was delicious and probably cost about two bucks per serving -- if even that, because most of the mashed potatoes were stored for future meals.  There are days I just want to have mashed potatoes for breakfast or lunch, and I indulged!

I knew the next stop for the meat would be stew, so that remaining beef was stored in the fridge, where it got more tender and flavorful.  Prior to mashing I took a couple of pounds of potatoes and left them in wedges after boiling.  I stored them together with the carrots.

The stew was delicious.  Not only did it have the carrots and potatoes in it, I added some left-over green beans which were $1.69 per pound and enjoyed with some fresh salmon.  That cheap meal worked out even though the salmon is over seven dollars per pound -- the sides, as was the case with the beef meal, were cheap (I made a mixed grain combo of quinoa, wheat berries and farrow).

We had another dinner of stew, along with some lunches.  I purchased a couple of marked down rib eye steaks for about $3.50 each which I also cooked in the sous vide.  The steak meals were cheap because I used left over mashed potatoes and green beans for the side.  In fact, we had another salmon meal using those potatoes too.

We had many high quality frugal meals using ingredients that many might not consider budget conscious -- top round beef, rib eye steak, fresh salmon, etc.  What made these meals affordable, were the cheap sides -- potatoes at thirty cents a pound, green beans at $1.69 per pound, and carrots (the best veggie bargain there is).  Medical and nutritional professionals recommend eating salmon at least once per week, if not more.  It isn't out of the realm of a frugal budget if the price is balanced out with affordable sides.  Yet another reason not to give up carbs!