Miserly meal number one

Tonight's menu is Jam chicken and oven roasted vegetables right out of Jonni McCoy's Miserly Meals. Also, I am making a beer bread to go along with it. This beer bread I had a good year or maybe even TWO *gasp!* It's still sealed and perfectly good, so I mixed it up and popped it in the oven. It looks GREAT!! The beer was even free because our landlord (the guy, not the wife...LOL) gave us 4 bottles last night because he didn't like these. They are from Great Lakes brewing Co. and honestly, I tasted some, it's kind of bitter.....so perfect for the bread hopefully ;-) I am not really counting the bread toward the cost of this meal since I have had it for so long.

For the Jam chicken on Page 80, Jonni says it's .66 cents for a 1/4 lb. serving. This was in 2002, however, my guesstimate for today based on my shopping is .88, which is not too shabby at all!

As for the oven-roasted veggies on page 72, .57 per 3/4 Cup serving is the winning number. According to my experience, it is more like $1.00, which we have to admit, is pretty decent.

I said I wasn't going to mention the beer bread, but for curiosity's sake (watch out cat!) the total batch is $4, with 14 servings, coming out to slightly over .25 per serving, (and no I am not obsessive) including the beer as if we had bought it. Honestly, WHO are they kidding??? This really is going to be 7 servings, so let's call it .50.

Here is a pretty little plate for a hungry tummy, for the grand total of $2.38. Of course, we are feeding seven, but when you put it that way, it sure puts things in perspective. Also, since the beer bread was free, we could just call it $1.88. WOW.