Corner Store Dinner for 2

For this challenge, I wanted to go to a corner store and actually look at the options and prices. First, I went to the one closest to my house. This one only had candy, chips, juice and automotive items. This one was a gas station with a  Rainbow right down the road from it. After seeing what was in that gas station, I realized that this may be harder than I thought it was going to be. I decided to go to an actual corner store, that was right across from the street from a BP and a couple apartment buildings. The address is 2424 Larpenteur Ave W Lauderdale, MN 55113.

I went in and found the pantry area. I saw a taco making kit, canned beans, canned vegetables, canned fruits, a few spices, flour, sugar, microwave foods like macaroni and cheese, as well as small bowls of ravioli. I noticed underneath each item was a bar-code, but no prices. This made getting the prices for each item even more difficult. I asked the woman working if she had the prices and she told me that I would have to ring up each item to see the cost. She said they do that because the prices change every week.

I went back to the pantry isle and looked at my options. The only fresh items were oranges and bananas, which were in surprisingly good shape. I figured that there were enough ingredients to make chili, tacos, or something with rice. I chose chili over noodles because it seemed the healthiest. I went to the check-out to see the cost of each item.

$2.99 for 1lb of elbow macaroni noodles
$1.99 for 16oz of kidney beans
$2.99 for 0.75oz of dried minced onion (they did not have fresh)
$2.29 for 14.5oz of diced tomatoes

 

I ended up going off of Bittman's Chili non Carne with Tomatoes (pg 429). I would have to use all of the kidney beans, minced onion, and tomatoes, which would cost $7.27. I would only use half of the noodle package, which would cost $1.50. I assumed that I had chili powder at home, which would take the place of the cumin, oregano, and garlic. I would not use the tomato paste (as shown in the picture above). The cost of this would be $8.77.

 

 

I noticed they had bananas on sale for 3/$1. I bought three and figured that we could cut them into slices and put them in the freezer for dessert :) Yum!

 

 

 

All together, the cost was $9.77 for about 4 servings of food, according to the nutrient facts on the cans and box. This means leftovers or inviting guests over :) Either way is a win! The meal contains protein from the beans, carbohydrates from the noodles/beans, vegetables as tomatoes and fruit as the banana.

 

I realized how difficult it is to figure out dinner for two from a local corner store. Thinking through recipes and what can be made out of certain ingredients is difficult, especially when on a budget. The items at the store are really expensive compared to Cub or Rainbow and there was not much fresh food. They also didn't have whole grains like brown rice or whole-wheat noodles.