Deconstructing A Meal

I was recently interviewed by some college students about cancer (mine) and nutrition (also mine). They explored my food history from childhood forward (interesting, to say the least), whether I made major nutritional changes when I was diagnosed (no), and how I now approach food, cooking, and nutrition in general.

There were times when I had to explain to these young adults (20 and 21, for the most part) how much the overall food landscape, at least in central Ohio, had changed in the decades since I was young. Produce wasn't trucked in from all around the world back then (bananas being a major exception) and many of the things we take for granted at a grocery just weren't there. Oranges appeared only in the winter, usually starting at Thanksgiving and disappearing in early February. They were equally baffled about my early college years: they didn't understand how a no-choice dining hall worked (one student, who came from a military background, finally got it: "oh, a mess hall!"); they asked why I didn't eat at McDonald's (I had to explain Hyde Park pre-gentrification).

But what really threw not only them but also the professor was when I said that this year I was tracking my food expenses and aiming to spend $175.00 or less a month on groceries, including household items. That provoked questions. How did I do that? What did we eat? Did we skip meals? 

I discussed some of the food (and food spending) choices we made, then sent a link to one of my posts to give them a general overview. Their curiosity stuck with me. 

Last night, as I prepared supper for the two of us, I wondered more about the actual dollar and cents that went into the meal. What was this meal costing us? I sauteed onions and peppers, sauteed some chicken breast, made rice pilaf (out of a box), shredded some cheese, warmed up some tortillas. We then filled the tortillas, rolled them up, and ate them.

Here are my approximations (well, some of them are dead on) of the meal:
     1. We bought a 5 pound bag of sweet onions for $1.88. There were 14 onions in the bag, which comes to 13.5¢ an onion. We used 2, so 27¢. 
     2. There were frozen peppers, split and grilled from last summer, that I thawed and used. I thought they were sweet peppers from my dad's garden, which would have been free, but upon tasting, we realized they were poblanos, which we would have bought. Knowing us and seeing how they were prepped before freezing, I'm betting we bought a bag of several marked down by a produce manager because they were past their prime. I am generously saying $1.00 for what I cut up; that is probably high. 
    3. I cut off one side of a breast of a roasted chicken we had bought earlier in the week. The chicken, with coupon, cost $5.74. This was the third meal we had gotten from it; there is still a half breast (another meal) to go. A quarter of the cost of the chicken is $1.43. (I am not discounting further for the stock I will make from the carcass this weekend.)
     4. Rice pilaf from Aldi: $1.29 (end of season closeout).
     5. Torn-up lettuce: the whole head of red leaf lettuce cost 98¢. This was 2 leaves: maybe (maybe) 5% of the total head. 4.5¢.
     6. Grated cheddar cheese: 3 ounces (it was the end of a block and I threw it on a kitchen scale to see what I had). The block costs $1.79 for 8 ounces (Aldi again), or about 22¢ an ounce. 67¢ total.
     7. A bag of 8 flour tortillas (Kroger): $1.49; we had one each. 37¢.
     8. About two-fifths of a 13 ounce bag of tortilla chips (Aldi): I'm guessing here. I think the bag of chips runs about $1.29, but I'm going to go higher with $1.69 (I know it is no more than that): 68¢.
     9. About one-fifth of a jar of salsa (also Aldi, but a more "upscale" salsa, which means it was probably $1.59 instead of 99¢): 32¢.

Grand total? $6.08 for two of us. But wait: there are leftovers: chicken, pilaf, cheese, and onions/peppers. So if we do it again tonight, as we likely will, we'd only be looking at the tortillas (37¢), chips and salsa ( $1.00 but even less because there is less salsa left). So tonight's meal would be $1.37 because I've already counted the costs of the leftovers into last night's meal.

I don't do this every single time we eat. Sometimes I do a light tally in my head so we can laugh about it.

But it is fun to see where the meal pennies go!

*******
After posting this, we went to Aldi for some shopping and I got to check a few prices. Bag of chips? 89¢, not $1.29 as I speculated. So the cost of the chips was 36¢, not 68¢. And although I attributed the entire cost of the rice pilaf to this meal, it probably would have been more realistic to cost out about 1/3 of it, or 43¢.

Still cheap no matter how you slice the pennies!