Miserly meal number two

Last night I made Jonni's baked chicken nugget recipe (page 102). Let me just tell you they were the BEST nuggets I EVER had!! So tasty and moist. The secret lies in the coating in mayo before the bread crumb mixture. I didn't measure any spices, just dumped in per my usual style. WOW At first the kids weren't too excited, guess they didn't have the look they expected nuggets to have. However it was love at first bite and every child ate them.

I used 2.5 lbs. of chicken breast to feed 7, and I am guesstimating it cost .72 per 4 oz. serving. Jonni's 2002 price was .67 so that's not too shabby for 8 years later. I actually got my chicken breast for a steal at 1.78/lb during peak grilling season. YEAH!

I also fried up some homemade french fries using 4 huge yukon gold potatoes. Prob. not the best potatoes for frying but they were very good!

So for 1.47 per plate, dinner was served.

I also threw in some green beans with margarine and almond slivers on top to round out the meal. Still under $2.00 each plate with the fancy green beans.

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.