Dinner is ready! ....$2.02

Tonight's menu is chicken parmesan. It is quite possibly one of the easiest dinners to put together. The cost breakdown will list 2 prices...first, the price I paid by stockpiling when things went on sale. The 2nd it the price that would be paid by purchasing ingredients at a discount store like Walmart or Aldi's

2 chicken breast, butterflied-1.16 /1.16

1/3 bottle of Italian Dressing- Free/.42

Allow this to marinade all day in a ziploc bag in the fridge.

In an old parmesan cheese shaker combine

.
1/2 cup parm-.56/.56

2/3 cup bread crumbs-.10/.10

1 teas paprika- .01/.01

1 teas sugar -.01/.01

1 teas kosher salt-.01/.01

1 teas black pepper-.01/.01

I keep this mixture, in the shaker, in the fridge. I can make 4 dinners from it.

Mixture cost=.70 or .18 cents per dinner

1 cup marinara sauce-.Free/.37

Layer breaded chicken on marinara sauce in a prepared ( with cooking spray) baking dish.

Bake at 350, uncovered for 1 hour.

Add some...

Pasta( 1 lb) -FREE/.58 cents

Sauce (about 1/2 jar) -FREE/.62 cents

1/4 loaf of store bought garlic bread- .25/.25

1/3 bag of salad -.43/.43
Dressing-FREE/.16


TOTAL COST- $2.02/$4.17

AND guess what!!! This dinner can be frozen. Prepare it as above in a plastic wrap lined baking dish. Pop the dish in the freezer. About an hour or 2 later, pull out the chicken from the dish, and wrap it with a 2nd layer of plastice wrap. Lastly, one layer of tin foil.

When you are ready for it, take the frozen dish from the freezer, take the wrap off (while still frozen) and place it in the baking dish, left in the fridge all day. Then cook as above.

If you forgot to defrost it, that's ok, it will just take about 15-20 mins longer to cook. Bake until the internal temp is 165.