My super awesome friend Juliet just gave me a $25 gift card to Trader Joe's because I have been hanging out with her kids lately. I guess it's babysitting, but I have fun with them and enjoy going to her place to play... must be the kid in me. :) Anyway, she thoughtfully gave me the gift card as a thank you, which is perfect because I was wanting to try to make turkey meat loaf and mashed potatoes sometime this week, but was also wanting to keep my grocery budget in check. So, after the kids went to bed and I finished watching Lost (seriously, easiest babysitting gig ever!) I busted out Juliet's laptop and looked for some recipes on epicurious.I was stoked to see that I had a bunch of the meat loaf ingredients leftover from other meals I've been making. I was wondering how I was going to use them up (carrots, an extra onion, fresh parsley) and this is perfect. The cooking stars have aligned.
So, my goal is to hit up TJ's for the majority of my ingredients without going over $25. I am also going to get the TJ's exclusive stuff to make tortellini soup again, since it's pretty cheap and I have leftover chicken stock from when I roasted my own chicken and then used the carcass to make my own stock. Even better, the chicken was free-range and organic. I am thinking I can get nine or so meals and spend less than $5...but we'll see if I can do it. If the recipes go well, I will post them on the blog...which has become combination personal finance/cooking blog, but for me the two have gone together. I eat out WAY less when I have delicious meals at my disposal.
That is some expensive meatloaf if you can't get the ingredients for under $25
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