GOURMET MEALS FOR $5 OR UNDER: MEAL 4 OF 25

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN BREAST
W/ A SIDE OF MASHED SWEET POTATOES & STEAMED VEGETABLES

Total Cost: $4.99/serving

Total Preparation Time: 40 min

To say that today was an off-day would be a gross understatement. It started last night, when Marcus adopted a new rather unsavory habit of standing up in his crib and crying for no apparent reason. Fully awake, he demanded the freedom to crawl around the room, thoroughly inspecting every low-hanging drawer, the plug-in night light and, of course, electric cords. The latter forged the desire to lay the little Magellan back in his crib and run- run as fast as I could, lest his expression of utter frustration reached my sensitive ears...

As the night wore off and the morning sun peeked into the kitchen window, I was upbeat and eager to make the most out of another warm autumn day. I had half a toasted cinnamon bagel, covered with a thick layer of home-made sugarless cherry jam, and brewed a cup of vanilla hazelnut coffee. Life was good... Until the little hands banging on the edge of the crib brought me back to earth. I walked into the room- and there he was standing, clutching the bed railing like his life depended on it, big blue eyes peeking just above it. My heart melted...

As the day went on, it became very clear that few, if any, of my grandiose plans would be fulfilled. And I was right. Beside a clean floor, a done trip to the book store and two bags of groceries, little was accomplished. Between running up to Marcus to prevent another fall to convincing Bob to ease off his bed, which he has been violently assaulting throughout the day, I struggled to organize and weigh the ingredients for another gourmet dinner, destined to be eaten cold and in a hurried fashion.

BUT just as my son was determined to walk, I was determined to write another blog post, daydreaming of a large following I just could not afford to let down. I therefore present the new affordable dish: a bacon wrapped chicken breast with a side of mashed sweet potatoes and steamed vegetables. 

MEASURE	WEIGHT (g)	INGREDIENT	COST PER PACKAGE ($)	TOTAL COST ($)	COST PER SERVING ($)
1	185	Chicken breast	12.88/kg	2.38
3 strips	60	Bacon	4.92/lb	0.65
N/A	45	Goat cheese	5.98/300g	0.90
½ cup	3	Fresh basil	3.99/pot	0.08
½ cup	12	Curly parsley	0.77/bunch	0.10
TOTAL				4.11	4.11

To be completely honest, the original recipe calls for prosciutto (dry cured ham) instead of bacon and demands a touch more goat cheese, but in order to keep the cost down, I made a few minor changes (also excluding half-a-teaspoon of buckwheat honey and tarragon for stuffing). But not to worry! By the time your nose catches that heavenly smell of bacon simmering in the oven, you will suffer a temporary memory loss and forget all about what I just said. 

The side of mashed sweet potatoes and steamed vegetables looks as follows:

MEASURE	WEIGHT (g)	INGREDIENT	COST PER PACKAGE ($)	TOTAL COST ($)	COST PER SERVING ($)
1	198	Sweet potato, small	0.57/lb	0.25
N/A	45	Broccoli	4.14/kg	0.19
N/A	70	Cauliflower	3.26/kg	0.23
½ cup	30	Brussel sprouts	5.47/kg	0.16
N/A	12	Butter	4.47/lb	0.05
TOTAL				0.88	0.88

Since cauliflower is the second least expensive vegetable out of the four, I made sure to include more of that in this meal recipe. The price of vegetables would be irrelevant, however, had the price of meat been lower. That can be accomplished with a chicken breast that has skin and a bone still attached. The pricing is significantly lower and filleting it is not an overly complicated task- it might just require an extra minute of your time.

	TOTAL COST ($)	COST PER SERVING ($)
GRAND TOTAL	4.99	4.99

At the end of this mad day, I managed to keep the cost down, although not without effort. Please accept my apologies for a less than stellar presentation- the chicken could have been arranged more eloquently, but I was rushing to feed the hungry hairy-head...