final challenge

This turned into a pressed-for-time week so for the challenge recipe, I actually ended up making something from ingredients I had at home (shhh...) because I didn't have time to plan an entirely different meal and go shopping for things.

HOWEVER

I knew that this was a very inexpensive meal and would probably clock in under or close to the $10 mark.

AND

I went to Seward Co-op this afternoon (where I probably bought some of the ingredients anyway) and priced everything out... and I was about right!

The dish I made was sort of a pantry curry, one of my go-tos. I like to keep dried lentils and coconut milk on hand, that way I can put something like this together with whatever vegetables are sitting around in my fridge. This time it was spinach and cauliflower.

But--assuming I had to buy all these things, here's what the cost would have been:

Spinach!

Cauliflower!

Lovely papery onions

These are French lentils. I like them. I don't know where else to buy them besides Seward Co-op. They are small and stay pretty firm and hold their shape when cooked, so they're nice if you want something with more texture than regular lentils.

And this magical stuff. I happened to have this low-calorie version at home, which is kind of a stupid product because it's literally just coconut milk cut with water. It's a little less magical that way. When you use the full-fat kind a little goes a long way. I probably ended up using twice as much from the "lite" can to get the flavor I wanted, so any calories or grams of fat I was supposed to save there definitely got canceled out.

The method: Butter and onions in pan, cook cook cook, add garlic and ginger, a few good pinches of spices (salt, cumin, garam masala, in this case). Add chopped cauliflower when fragrant, cook until softened, add spinach, wilt, then add cooked lentils, coconut milk, and stock or water. Add more seasonings, let simmer, taste, add even more seasonings.

Here's how I priced it out:
Onion: 1.99/lb (1 onion=1/4 lb roughly)
Garlic: pantry
Ginger: pantry (if you're not like me and don't keep ginger root around, I probably only used 15 cents' worth)
Spices: pantry
Spinach: $3.29/bag
Cauliflower: $2.99/lb (I used about a pound)
Lentils: $2.49/lb (I used a half pound)
Coconut milk: $3.19/can

TOTAL: $11.22

Technically I went over BUT. This recipe also made a lot of food. Definitely enough for three people, probably even four. So I'd estimate the cost of this at $6-7 for two people.

Lunch!