cheap meal suggestion

Image by Zeetz Jones via Flickr

My current interest is making the budget of $150/week on groceries, which are primarily food. I have browsed many websites, particularly Birds Eye (formerly Recipe Finder) and Healthy Food, to stretch the dollar and to eat the healthiest meal possible.

I've found a few and have tried a couple, but I can't remember where I got this recipe I'm sharing. It's healthy and cheap. Unfortunately I'm not one to remember measurements because I've always relied on my own palette when it comes to spices and other little ingredients.

I'll call it Pasta with Parmesan and Garlic.

1. Cook pasta and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat butter, sauté garlic granules and a bit of dried basil. The amount of butter will depend on the amount of pasta you cook, but start with 1 tbsp. The aim is to coat the pasta with the sauteed garlic and basil. Try a teaspoon each for garlic and basil for a start and add a bit later as needed. By this time, you will be savoring the scent of lovely basil and garlic and butter together! Don't burn the garlic!
3. Stir in chicken or shrimp. I strongly suggest shrimp for better flavor, but left-over chicken (cut into tiny bits) will do. I'd say 1 cup should do it.
4. Add pasta when meat is cooked. Mix everything and make sure the pasta is coated well.
5. Set on a plate and top with grated Parmesan.

All I can say is that this recipe is very yummy!!! I prefer garlic granules than powder, but it's up to you, either should result to the same flavour and yummy scent of this meal. You could stir in spinach or broccoli or cauliflower if you like. That would be lovelier!

Because we all had the ingredients for this meal, this cost us nothing to make. But if I were to make some calculations, I'd say this is between $8 and $10 for 2-3 people. Not bad eh? :)

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