Tortillas

They're not perfect yet, but I still have four months to work on them...

Mexican Skillet Price Per Meal

Last night, Mr Oh and I (okay...mostly him), made a skillet full of Mexican goodness. It's sort of an enhanced version of my mom's goulash (which consists of macaroni noodles, condensed tomato soup, and ground beef - that's IT!). A few weeks ago I attempted to follow a recipe for Mexican Monday, but due to the fact that I tried to basically double the recipe when I was a little short on some ingredients, it wasn't quite the yumness I'd anticipated.

Here's how we break it down for last night's cookin':

3/4 lb of ground beef - 2.60
1 green bell pepper - 0.68
1/2 red onion - 0.28
1 can of pinto beans - 0.77
1 can of diced tomatoes - .80
1 can of tomato soup - 0.54
1/2 lb of macaroni noodles - 0.43
sprinkling of cheeses - 0.50
dollops of sour cream - 0.50
corn - 0.00 (because I forgot to put it in!)
smattering of spices - ??

total cost (7.10 ) / total servings eaten (5) = $1.42 per serving

we also made a tossed salad:

1 head of lettuce - 0.99
1 tomato - 0.83
1 green bell pepper - 0.68
1/2 red onion - 0.28
croutons and dressing - ??

total cost = 2.78 (we both ate helpings last night, i've had two bowlfuls tonight, and there's about half left, so we're talking about 0.35 per serving!)

we also ate 2 tortillas each (4 x 0.9) = 0.36



So roughly, we each consumed about $1.95 worth of food last night. That's not too shabby!

The best part is that by having leftovers, I had an effortless lunch to take to work today, and there's no pots to wash tonight after dinner!

A few of my prices are best guesses, but I did pull out a bunch of receipts, so a lot is exact. (The beef cost seems high, but I'm not sure.) I didn't add tax, but a lot of the groceries were bought at Target where my discount cancels out the tax (plus some!). I also didn't add the cost for spices, croutons, and salad dressing because I didn't feel like putting for the effort, plus it would be fairly negligible (especially because of my discount).

taco soup

Taco soup is currently simmering in my crockpot. These pictures are actually from several weeks ago, but I never got around to posting them. It's kinda funny, because as I look at the photo, I'm embarrased that I have Hunt's diced tomatoes, actual Rotel (which is just a few cents higher) and the brand for Ranch Style beans. Also, I'm laughing because I realized I forgot to add the generic Rotel that I bought today. Oh well. I need it for Velveeta queso for tomorrow's Mexican Monday.

You can see most of the ingredients in the picture, but I'll list it out...

• pound of browned ground beef
• 2 cans of stewed tomatoes
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of Rotel
• 1 can of hominy, drained
• 1 can of corn, drained (I just used some frozen corn today)
• 1 can of almost every bean you can name: kidney, black*, pinto, ranch-style
• packet of taco seasoning
• packet of ranch seasoning
• cheese**
• onion***
  

*I lost the recipe for this (it's written on the ticket stub in the photo), and apparently couldn't recall it very well today. Not only did I forgot the Rotel, but black beans aren't an ingredient, and I put them in. Oh well.

**My mom's used Velveeta before and says it makes it extra creamy and yummy. I've used gobs of shredded cheddar/Mexican blend. Today I didn't add any, just to make it healthier. When I make a bowl later, I'll add a bit of shredded cheese on top, as well as sour cream (speaking of healthy...hehe), and some tortilla chips.


***As I posted this last picture, I realized I didn't put onions in either! ttfn...

Mexican Mondays

If there's such a thing as having a food specialty, then ours would be Mexican. This is due largely to the fact that mom's good home-made cooking was always amazing Mexican food, and that DW loves this Mexican.

Even with this specialty, DW and I cannot claim the genius of the foundation of Mexican Mondays. It was an idea brought forth from DW's sister K; without whom Mexican Mondays could not exist. It is more than just eating good Mexican food, it is an opportunity for our families to amalgamate over delicious dishes of delectable delights of the Latin American culture.

Tonight, we broke out our finest eating ware for a night of tacos, potatoes, rice, and, of course, beans. Also, in order for seven people to sit around our table, we swapped it with the coffee table. It was a bit of a squeeze, but it was better than sitting on the floor as we have when we've previously hosted.






The Z boys have their own perspective on Mexican Mondays...

I believe this is known as Mexican Mush.