Today's Frugal Dinner - 1/10 and 1/11

Two delicious and frugal meals in a row!



Here's what we had:



Monday, 1/10 -- Pork fried rice



I used leftover pork from Sunday's pork roast. In addition to the pork and rice, our fried rice has tamari, eggs, sesame seeds, and (in this batch, anyway) thick-cut pepper bacon. We did buy a package of bacon just for this dish. We spent $5 on that bacon, but used just less than half. Our delicious pork fried cost us about $3.25!



Tuesday, 1/11 -- Creamy white cheddar shells with grilled garlic-herb pork



I used 2 boxes of Pasta-roni that I've had in my pantry for ever. I don't know how much it cost. I'd have to guess it cost less than $1 a box. Surely it did, or I wouldn't have bought it, right? (I really hope I wouldn't have spent more than that on a boxed pasta mix.) I grilled a package of pork chops from our most recent Publix trip, costing about $3.34. I served it with homemade biscuits, which probably cost $1 for the whole batch of 30. We also had tangerines, for a total cost of $.30. This meal cost just about $6.

Okay, here's a disclosure that I'm ashamed to make as a Wannabe Cheapskate -- we usually eat out more than we eat in. By the time we get out of work, I usually just want to go sit somewhere, have someone bring me a diet coke then keep the refills coming, and to not have to clean up after our meal. So, after all my hard work getting all these groceries for so little, they tend to sit in the pantry night after night while we go to Sonny's or Whataburger or Logan's or Chick-fil-a or whatever. I'm very proud of our family -- yet still ashamed that I am saying this -- we have eaten in for 3 straight days. No breakfast out, no dinner out. And it's been hard! Each day feels a little like a victory, though. Three straight days. (I see a breakfast out sometime in the next two days.) Having a plan for dinners make it so much easier to come home instead of going out. And having a clean sink (www.flylady.net) makes it quick to get dinner together and easy to clean up afterward. Our plan is to have either Kuresa's Wicked-Awesome pork in the crockpot or grilled chicken and rice or potatoes. Here's hoping for a great second half of this week!