What I ate last night

This is something I'm kicking around as a weekly series to post after a recipe that I particularly liked. I also need something to use photos and give the blog some color. I haven't decided if I'm going to dedicate this to a frugal meal, or not, but I will to my best to cost out the meal.

Last night I made: Orange – Balsamic glazed chicken breast w/ tangy lemon risotto. This is a recipe from and can be found @ Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals.

Ingredients:

This recipe requires many ingredients. 18 for two dishes, but most of them were items we would buy and have on hand anyway. The only items I had to buy special was Rosemary. Here's a breakdown of what I used, and the estimated cost. Note that if I used a portion of an item, I calculated a proportionate cost. The rest will be used in another menu item later.

Total Cost: $18.83

• Rice: $1.50
  
• Chicken Stock $6.00 (big opportunity to make my own here)
  
• Chicken $5.00 (we made about 2x what the recipe calls for, this could be cut in half)
  
• Olive oil $0.09
  
• Small onion $0.20
  
• Garlic: $0.02 (Pre minced jar)
  
• Lemon $0.33
  
• White Wine $1.50
  
• Sugar $0.03
  
• Butter $0.15
  
• Parmesan Cheese $1.00
  
• Basil $0.50
  
• Poultry seasoning $0.06
  
• Rosemary $0.30
  
• Marmalade $0.50
  
• Balsamic Vinegar $0.30
  
• Arugula $1.25
  
• Scallions $0.10

Cooking: Mrs. Lwil actually cooked this meal. It took about 45 min. It takes a lot of practice to actually turn out a 30 min meal in 30 min! The cooking seemed very easy. It was hands on, with a lot of stirring, but not anything that required much skill

Serving: From what I understand everyone like the meal. I didn't eat till much after it was cooked because I had to go out, but I thought it tasted really good, and I'd add it to our rotation. The chicken was still moist from being finished in the sauce. The arugula bed soaked up a lot of the sauce and was really good as a salad. The Risotto was incredible, for what can be a heavy dish, the lemon kept it light and refreshing. I think of this as more of a summer or fall meal, but I was really very good.

Cost per serving/serving total

At $18.83 for a total of 6 servings (which could have realistically served 8) $3.13 Per Serving (could be $2.35)

I'd say this one passed for both tasty and Frugal!