What do you think of this cheap meal?

[mrbassman03]

I boil half a box of rotini ($.99 a box) in some heavily salted water. Right when they finish up boiling, I heat up a skillet with some extra virgin olive oil ($4 a big bottle at Trader Joes). I very finely slice a clove of garlic ($very cheap) and put that in the hot oil. Count to 20 (Don't remember where I picked that up, but it cooks the garlic perfectly) then dump in a can of white meat chicken ($2.00) and a huge spoonful of pesto ($3 for a good sized tub, makes around 5-6 batches of the pasta). Salt and pepper to taste. Coat the chicken with most of the pesto/chicken then drain the pasta and dump it in the pan. You can stop here, or put in half a bag of italian shredded cheese ($2.39 a bag). Let the cheese melt and coat the pasta and you are done!

Total cost for two people: ~$5.00

[bearfan454]

1. Mmmmmmmmmmmm

That sounds good.

[BlueHandDuo]

2. Canned chicken is fast...

...but it'd be cheaper with fresh or frozen chicken bought on sale. I buy several whole chickens at a time and cook a bunch of it to freeze in recipe-size portions so that I'll have it on hand for similar creations.

[Frogtutor]

3. To heck with the price; it sounds easy and delicious!

THAT'S my kind of meal...

[Frogtutor]

4. I made it last night, AND made a great discovery!

It was a huge hit, even with the picky 12-year-old. I doubled the recipe and served it with parmesan cheese. Also, I used Classico brand pesto with basil, olive oil, garlic, Romano cheese, etc. I also bought a sun-dried tomato variety I'll try next time! It was REALLY easy, and fast...

Also, I discovered a low carb pasta that was really good! I'm not a "low-carb dieter", but I try to find healthy alternatives to the "bad" foods that we love. I try to get a lot of complex carbs as opposed to simple carbs, which means lots of fiber. I've bought the whole wheat pasta before, but my family didn't really care for the texture/color/taste combo. Well, this stuff (RF brand Rotini) had 1/2 the carbs, and TONS of fiber compared to regular pasta, and tasted really good (the skeptics didn't even KNOW it was not regular pasta). The calories were about the same, though.

Thanks so much for posting the recipe!

:toast:

[kaitykaity]

5. I tried it.

It would have been great -- excuse me, it was great after
I added some Newman's Balsamic vinegar dressing. (I had
forgotten that I don't like pesto. I thought maybe the
cheese and garlic would help. They didn't.)

[babylonsister]

6. That's the kind of dish that would be really good

with a big handful of cooked spinach thrown in so you get your veggies! Note to self: buy some pesto! Thanks!