Sometimes money gets tight. Almost all of us have to deal with that for various periods of time. Those who don't can suck a dick: this one goes out for all the normal folks. My fridge was almost bare, so I had to go grocery shopping. Having just paid for some car repairs, my budget was quite limited, but I managed to pick up a few veggies for under $25, and I've still got a little chicken, steak, and pasta left from last week (hooray, freezer!). A box of mushrooms, a box of spinach, some cherry tomatoes, a bag of radishes, a couple bell peppers, and a few heads of garlic for under $25? Sure, I can work with that.
I used just about every veggie I had: a radish, 3 mushrooms, some of the yellow bell pepper, some of my last green onion, a handful of tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, and a handful of spinach leaves (not pictured). Also, I had chicken thighs thawed, so that was my meat du jour.
I diced some of the pepper and sliced the radish (blue bowl), sliced the mushrooms fairly thinly (left bowl), halved the tomatoes and sliced the thick part of the green onion (right bowl), and minced the garlic (bottom bowl). The spinach leaves I kept whole, like I typically do.
After the veggies were prepped, I deboned the chicken thighs. I seasoned the bones (and the little bit of meat still clinging to them) with a little salt, and went with salt and cracked black pepper on the meat. Side note: if you can lift the skin up some, season under the skin. You're welcome.
I went ahead and heated up the pot I was going to use for my pasta, poured in a bit of extra virgin olive oil, and dropped the bones in to brown. I turned them a few times to scorch them all over some, then added in a bit of water to make a quick broth.
I let the pot boil uncovered for about 10 minutes until the water had some color and flavor, then removed the bones and dropped my fettucine in.
While the broth was cooking, I went ahead and pan fried my thigh meat in a bit more extra virgin olive oil (no pictures because I was busy). The important thing, though, is that I got some good browning, as well as plenty of shit on the bottom of the pan by the time the chicken was done. If you'll recall, this shit is known as "flavor."
I lowered my heat a little bit and dumped in my minced garlic, then let that cook for just a minute before pouring in some white wine (Josh Cellars chardonnay is what has been sitting in my fridge lately). I just used a flat tipped wooden spatula to rub the flavor shit off the bottom of the pan and get it all mixed in with the wine and garlic.
After the wine had cooked down, I added in the blue bowl and, once the radish started to soften a little, I dumped in the mushrooms as well. I tossed everything around to get it coated with what little liquid remained in the pan before I added in the rest of the veggies. It was at this point I noticed that there was almost no liquid left in the pot between evaporation and mushrooms absorbing the fuck out of anything nearby. Luckily, I have plenty of oil left in my jug, so I poured some in.
Maybe I poured too much. I don't know; ain't nobody got time for measuring shit. What I did have time for, however, was letting everything cook in that beautiful golden oil. Once the spinach had shriveled down and the tomato halves started to wrinkle, I poured in maybe a quarter cup or so of cream, mixed everything up, and boom: sauce.
After the sauce was sauce, it was just a matter of dumping my cooked and drained noodles in and tossing them enough to get them covered in sauce and full of veggies. Killed the heat, and it was time to plate.
I kept things very simple this time: pasta on the left, topped with some shredded parmesan and fresh cracked black pepper, and chicken on the right. For those keeping track at home: the whole chicken cost a little over $8, the whole package of pasta cost about $5, the full veggies cost $24, the full bottle of cream cost about $5, the jug of olive oil cost about $20 maybe (those things a while, and I've forgotten), and the bottle of wine cost $12. So yeah, you can say this meal cost $70 or so, but only if you're a jackass. I really made two meals with this (I'm eating the other half for lunch while typing this up), so you can say these meals cost $35 apiece, but, once again, only if you're a jackass. Between all the parts of the chicken, I'll be getting 10 meals (and the veggies, oil, cream, and wine will be part of more than those), so we're really looking at about $4 per meal at the most, and that's still a *teeny* bit jackassy. Cook at home. Keep it simple. Eat well. Enjoy your food. Save money. It's how we get by.
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