Chicken Tacos and Rice Pudding

Okay, I did some number crunching tonight after dinner because I was wondering if dessert would actually end up being more expensive than dinner!  Here's what I found: 

Chicken Tacos
1 Chicken Breast (from a whole chicken roasted yesterday)-- 3.00
1 cup chopped Spinach-- 0.85
1/2 cup stonyfield yogurt-- 0.40
24 tortillas

• 4 cups sprouted whole wheat flour-- 1.00
• 2 TBS organic palm shortening-- 0.20
• 1 tsp Real salt-- 0.02
• 2 tsp baking powder-- 0.20

1 Pepper-- 1.25
1 onion-- 0.75
1 cup uncooked rice (I actually cooked 2 cups, and used the rest for dessert...)-- 1.00
Total: 8.67

Rice Pudding
3 cups cooked rice-- 1.00
3 cups raw milk-- 1.32
2/3 cup organic raisins-- .56
1/3 cup maple syrup-- 1.50
Vanilla-- gift
1/2 tsp cinnamon-- 0.12
2 eggs-- .60
Total: 5.10

So, it turns out dinner was more expensive than dessert!  Also, there is enough rice pudding leftover for tomorrow night, so that's about $2.55 per dessert.

The chicken was roasted yesterday and then we used the leftover chicken for dinner tonight.  Also, I will make 4 quarts of broth out of the bones.  The chicken cost 12.00 for an organic whole chicken. I figured 3.00 for dinner last night, 3.00 for dinner tonight and then 1.50 per quart of broth I will make.  Not bad for one chicken.

Also, I was excited to find out how cheap it is to make tortillas!  $1.42!!! We only ate about half of the tortillas tonight and I will use the rest for lunches during the week.  They are cheaper than the bread I make because of the oil and honey in the bread. 

Okay, this has been another episode what things cost at Janet's house.  Thanks for playing! (Or, at least.... reading... )   :-P

What more things cost...

I have been really intrigued by the experiment Laura over at Heavenlyhomemakers.com has been doing about the cost of food.  I have been crunching numbers all weekend.  It is fun!  And, really helpful in identifying things we eat that are expensive that I thought were cheaper.  Maybe it will change some things that I make on a regular basis.  We shall see. 

Anyway, after sharing with you what pizza costs to make, I did some more number crunching today. Here are the food items I figured and also how much our dinner cost and how much it costs to make bread.

Honey: 46.00/gallon; 0.36/ounce
Coconut oil: 44.00/gallon; 0.34/ounce
Olive oil: 21.00/101 ounces; 0.21/ounce
Yeast: 2.55/pound; 0.06/TBS
Real Salt: 1.91/pound; 0.07/TBS
Sprouted Wheat: 0.75/pound= 3 cups flour; 1 cup= 0.25
Raw Milk: 7.00/gallon; 0.44/cup


My Bread Recipe 
6 cups flour-- 1.50
1/3 cup olive oil-- 1.05
1/3 cup honey-- 1.80
1 TBS yeast-- 0.06
2 tsp salt-- 0.04
2 cups water--0.00
Total: $4.45 for two loaves; $2.23 per loaf



Dinner Tonight
Tuna/Sardine Melts, Broccoli with cheese sauce

1 lb. broccoli-- 2.00
1/2 loaf bread-- 1.12
1 can tuna-- 2.79
1 can sardines-- 2.33
3 TBS flour-- 0.09
3 TBS butter-- 0.39
1 1/2 cups milk-- 0.66
6 oz. cheddar-- 3.00
Total:  12.73

Some notes about dinner-- whenever we have tuna, it is really expensive, because I buy wild planet tuna and we also buy wild planet sardines.  The cheddar was organic valley raw cheddar.


Dinner Last night
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti-- 1.50
1 jar sauce-- 2.79
Total: 4.29

Last night, Chris and I went out.  The kids ate this with the sitter and there was enough left over that we had it for lunch this afternoon with garlic bread and pears.  If we had eaten this as a family last night, it would have either been all gone, or there would have been one small little portion left. But, i just wanted to include this meal as well so you can see that our meal costs vary from night to night.  While tonight's dinner might seem really expensive to some, I feel last night's dinner was relatively inexpensive.  I don't know!  What do you think? How much do YOU spend on each meal?  Is this even something you think about? I know I didn't really until this past week. 

Hope you enjoyed this exercise as much as I did.  :-)  I will probably be posting more costs of meals in the next few weeks. 

PIzza and what it costs

Laura from Heavenlyhomemakers.com is doing an experiment to see how much some of her recipes cost.  I thought it would be fun to do some of my own.  Here's how much the pizza we had for dinner tonight cost.  We also had five pieces left over, which Chris will take for lunch.  So, that's five people for one meal and two lunches.  That's less than $2 per meal ($13/ 7 meals).

mozzarella (1/2 pound fresh made at store)-- 3.50
mushrooms (8oz package)-- 2.00
onion (1 organic)-- .50
flour (5 cups sprouted whole wheat)-- 1.25
oil (1/4 cup)--
salt (2 tsp)--
yeast (4 tsp)--
tomatoes (organic grape, 1/2 package)-- 1.75
tomato sauce (12 oz jarred crushed organic tomatoes)-- 1.50

TOTAL: $13 or less for two pizzas

ps. sorry i didn't figure out how much oil, salt and yeast cost me because I am too tired right now! also, i didn't figure out how much each cup of flour costs me, i just stole laura's calculation of $.28 per cup.  mine may be a bit more or less.  i rounded up.  :-)

Hope this was insightful.  :-)