Hi there!

Once more I made a chicken dinner thingy. (Big surprise, right?)

This one took a bit of time to prepare. As in, I marinated the chicken all day. So, plan on that, if you wish.

Other Things

Spinach

Ingredients

1. A handful of spinach. More than you think you want, and it’ll still be less. I used probably about $0.20 worth of fresh spinach.
2. 1 Tbsp Onion (negligible cost)
3. About 1/2 tbsp butter (my roommate has non-stick pans that I get to use. 🙂 The butter is for flavor.) (about $0.05).

Directions

1. Cook onions in butter until onions are tender
2. Put the spinach in until cooked and heated.

Easy, right?

Rice

Cook according to directions. Add a bit of salt to the water, and then after it’s done, add about 1 tsp of butter. Probably about $0.25. This is a totally and completely random guess, though, and probably waaay overestimated.

Pita

I used this recipe. Use a bit less salt than it calls for, though. By probably 1/8-1/4. (I made it according to a half-recipe, and baked it in the oven.) According to my rough calculations, the pita cost about $0.15. Probably a bit less.

Chicken

Ingredients

1. About 1/4 LB chicken, or one chicken piece like the one shown above. (About $0.55)
2. Almost 1/2 cup milk (about $0.15)
3. 1/2 TBSP lemon juice, plus a little extra for later (negligible cost.)
4. 2 cloves garlic (I really don’t know… I misplaced how much the bulbs cost. Probably quite negligible, though.)
5. 1/2 tsp Salt + a bit. (Negligible.)
6. Parsley, Basil, Oregano (Negligible)
7. 1/2 TBSP Oil (negligible)

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together the milk and 1/2 TBSP lemon juice. Let stand for at least 5 minutes. This makes fake buttermilk.

Then, combine the fake buttermilk with the salt, garlic, parsley, basil, and oregano. I used more parsley than basil, and more basil than oregano. Basically, until it looks seasoned…

Next put the chicken into the marinade and coat it. Sprinkle a little more salt on. (I’d heard that it helps pull the marinade/stuff in. And it seemed to work!) Let it sit in the refrigerator for the day.

If you can, you might want to turn it occasionally throughout the day and re-coat. I happened to come home early today, so it worked for me, but it shouldn’t be necessary.

When you’re ready to cook the chicken:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 f.
2. Transfer chicken (and about 1TBSP of the extra marinade) to a small casserole dish to cook in.
3. Put the 1/2 TBSP oil into the pan, drizzling it over the chicken, and then into the excess marinade.
4. Turn the chicken a couple of times to coat.
5. Bake for about 12 minutes. Check the readiness, and (in theory) turn over the chicken. (I forgot to turn it over… I knew there was a reason I underdid the amount of time! Oh well…)
6. Bake for about another 7 minutes. However, because of the moisture you’ve pulled into the chicken, an extra minute or two won’t hurt it. At least, it didn’t hurt mine, so yours should be good.

There you go!

Total cost of the meal: $0.70 for the chicken, $0.15 for the bread, no more than $0.25 for the rice, and about $0.25 for the spinach. Total cost: $1.35. Maximum. Not bad, right?