Tonight I made one of the best and cheapest meals in a long time. I bought a box of Zatarain's Jambalaya at "Big Lots" for $1.00. The box says when cooked it makes six cups. I followed the directions, which were easy enough. Bring two and a half cups of water to a boil, add the ingredients from the box, bring that to a boil, add your meat (if desired) and lower the temp to a simmer for 25 minutes. I added a handful of shrimp and some cut up sausage. Ten minutes before it was done I fried up a pan of vegetables from my garden; onions, banana peppers, tomato, and green beans with a cut up chicken breast. When the 25 minutes was up I added the Jambalaya to the frying pan and stirred it all together and continued to cook the mixture for ten minutes.
Everything together cost less than $6.00 and it made five big servings. It certainly was not a typical Jambalaya but it sure tasted good, was very nutritious, and about as cheap as you can get. Having a decent garden helps but even if you bought the veggies it would still be a good deal.
Dollar stores can be a good source of base materials for good meals. I made a great Indian rice dish in much the same way a couple weeks ago but I have to admit I liked tonight's dish better.
