30 Dollar Challenge

Normally today we’d be posting a new video. But alas, my poor tired husband has been swamped with work and other stuff, so he couldn’t edit one for this week. So we decided to give him a break. Yes I know you’re devastated. But your heart will go on, and so must the show, so instead, we bring to you the $30 challenge.

It all began when my friend Jinnie told me that her sister Jina was following the blog and wanted to meet me. You may recognize Jinnie from her featured friday interview. She’s very creative and a big supporter of this blog, so she wanted to give me a challenge so that I’d have new interesting content for an entry.

We decided that Jina, Jinnie, and Isabella (Jinnie’s baby), would all come over my place and I’d cook lunch. But the catch was that they’d bring $30.00 with them and with that, I’d have to create a gourmet lunch for three, meaning $10.00 a head. In case you don’t know, I used to be a caterer. Stretching a buck is my THING. I will squeeze two quarters out of a dime. Yeah, that’s right. So I gladly took on the challenge and prepared lunch for my friend and my “fan.”

I wanted to make a good impression in front of Jina, who I’d be meeting for the first time, and I didn’t want to let her down… money restriction or not. But I also knew I couldn’t legitimately blog about this entry if I went over my budget, so I had to get creative.

Needless to say, I did stick to the budget, but I also took help from what was in my pantry. So really, I guess I cheated a little. I didn’t come up with a menu until the very last minute, because I took a spin around the grocery store and bought only the items that were in season or on sale, and then I based my menu around that. Here’s what I came up with:

With a $0.99 can of black beans, pureed in a food processor with garlic, chili, olive oil, and spices, I produced some zesty, robust spicy black bean dip. Hey you should whip some up tomorrow for Cinco de Mayo.

With some lavash bread baked in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder, I made crispy, crunchy savory crackers.

So we were able to enjoy an appetizer of freshly baked crackers and spicy dip while Jinnie watched the baby and Jina and I got the rest of the lunch on the table together.

Lunch was open-faced chicken caponata sandwiches. I made enough for everyone to be able to have two if we wanted.  I’ll post the process of how to make these sandwiches, as well as the recipe for them tomorrow.

And I served them with romaine lettuce salads with sprouts, one avocado, and home made dressing. I didn’t add more veggies to the salad for fear of going over budget. But there were enough veggies going on in the caponata anyways.

But I didn’t stop there. I also made some sparkling raspberry lemonade so we could celebrate and make a toast to our first get-together.

They loved everything. Jinnie has tasted my food before, but Jina was so expressive while eating and couldn’t stop exclaiming, “mmm… mmm!” We listened to some Frank Sinatra and Isabella helpfully slept through the whole thing, so that her mom could enjoy a nice relaxing lunch in peace.

And I even squeezed out the last drop of the $30.00 to make an easy dessert with help from store bought mini angel food cakes. Blackberries were surprisingly on sale, so I made a pureed blackberry sauce with lemon juice and sugar, and bought a small pint of heavy cream to make some fresh whipped cream right before serving.

So with the $30.00, or $10.00 a head, each person was able to enjoy:
1. an appetizer of freshly baked chips and home made dip
2. open faced chicken caponata sandwiches with avocado & sprout side salad
3. sparkling raspberry lemonade
4. angel food cake with blackberry sauce and fresh whipped cream

And as a bonus, later that evening, although Jina had to leave, Jinnie’s husband Daniel decided to come over after work and bring us all dinner. I decided to snap a family portrait of this cute little family.

And then Joe came home from work and we enjoyed a gourmet meal of Popeyes chicken together!  I made corn on the cob, mashed potatoes & gravy, and served leftover cold caponata like a salsa, to balance out the fried chicken.  And of course, I had to make some more sparkling raspberry lemonade.

The $30 challenge was a creative idea and it was fun for me. I recommend you trying to do this with you and your friends as an alternative for the next time you want to get together, do the same old thing, and go out to eat as usual. Why not take turns doing it and see who can come up with the best cheap gourmet meal?  Sometimes it’s good to be recessionistas and flex those creative and culinary muscles. If you decide to do it, let me know what you make and post your pics on the facebook fan page. I’d love to hear your story and see what you come up with. Thanks to Jinnie for the challenge, thanks to Jina for the lovely pink tulips that coincidentally matched my table setting, and thanks to Daniel for the fried chicken!