Slow toasted pork tenderloin, instant potatoes, corn and pepper sauce. All store bought, cook and serve. The pork was roasted in foil for 90 minutes at 275f and then opened up and broiled until crispy.
It’s expensive but it’s also bland, minimal dishes, minimal thought.
But two good things came out of it.
- first time I have had whole tissue meat in a bit. Much needed after weeks of cheap.
- my wife has said that she is all in favor slow roasted pork thinly sliced on sandwichs. Which is awesome because pork tenderloin is about 30% the cost of decent lunch meat but without the Boarshead listeria risk.
Cost per person $4.15
I normally make my mashed potatoes from scratch but sometimes you just want to do it in 10 minutes and it’s more about calories than nutrition so if I can instant on sale for a $1.25 I pick them up.
And I always leave the skins on when I make them from scratch.
Pork is generally cheaper than beef but it’s about how much pork you have to buy. A tenderloin you can buy in a 1 lb unit. A shoulder roast is 6 lb or more. When you’re cooking on a budget for just two people, you either have to plan to eat the same thing six times and have the money up front or you go with the least expensive right now option.
I get that. We use instant as a thickener in recipes if we see it as a too cheap to pass up sale. My wife hates eating leftovers to so I have to eat like twice as much of them as her although with meat we cut it up and freeze.