Monday, May 5, 2008

I do have the best intentions

I can't believe that the Frugal Cooking Carnival was over a week and a half ago. I had every intention to participate, but if you read my post that day I had a lot of my plate. I'm not sure how I thought that I would get to it. I decided that though it's over, I still would love to share a family favorite that is very inexpensive. Along side the ingredients I will post prices for our neck of the woods, and will be using the price I get ground beef at in this example. Since it's awfully difficult to determine the price of spices in quantities so small.. I'm just going to add $0.25 and I think that should be more than sufficient to cover those.

Barleyburger Stew
1 lb ground beef, venison, or turkey $1.99
1 c chopped onion $0.25
1/2 - 1 c chopped celery $0.60
1 can (46 oz) tomato juice $1.39
1 c. water
2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 c. uncooked barley $0.20

In a 3-quart saucepan, cook and stir meat and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat. Stir in remaining ingredients; heat till boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until barley is done and is a thick stew/chili like consistency. About 45 minutes - 1 hour.

This serves 4-6. It serves our family for dinner which is comprised of 4 children, and 2 adults who like seconds. I usually double this when I make it because it freezes excellently. Men love this meal. Total cost of the above recipe : $4.68, depending on 4 - 6 people it's $1.17 - $0.78 per person.

And of course since I'm breastfeeding, I like to divide the cost by 7 since Shiloh is getting nourishment from the meal too making the bottom line $0.67 per person. Because that makes me feel really good despite how silly it may seem.

2 comments:

Joanna said...

Sounds wonderful! I am gonna print this out and make it next grocery shopping time. Thanks!

Owlhaven said...

Thanks for sharing! We do something similar to this too..and it is well liked...

Mary, mom to many