The $30 Project – Day Two – Hay, Good Cookin’! February 25, 2009

 Day Two was actually a great day, I have to say. I woke up with great coffee (free!) and one of the sweetest oranges ($.79 a pound = 2 = $.40) I've ever eaten. It put me in a great mood and set the tone for the rest of my day. Having food in the house made a huge difference today…but I didn't have any preconceived recipes or ideas of what I was going to cook. I realized I had provisions to make a tortilla, which I made at lunch. Even in a small aluminum pan, it made enough for two good size portions – you can see the inside and all the goodies in it here.

For dinner, I made a mushroom gratin that I ate with 5 1/2" slices off my baguette. I will post the gratin tomorrow on the blog but my math puts its somewhere around $2 for the whole meal – and it made enough to use as a creamy pasta sauce for a quick lunch meal! I've broken down the math on the tortilla and the cost of it is SHOCKING – in a good way. From my totals, my food cost yesterday was $2.93.

Everyone else that is taking part in the challenge seems to have kept a handle on things, too. Make sure you go check out their blog posts and Twitter feeds to keep tabs on them!

• Molly aka GrabMol, the author of the awesome blog Disposable Income (oh the irony!)
• Dave of the super funny blog Extraface
• Paul has created a blog inspired by this challenge at The Seven Day Project
  
• Mike who invites you to follow his Twitter feed and his Flickr posts about the challenge. He has also started a blog especially to document this challenge, which you can see here.
• Alain, who doesn't blog but you can see his healthy Yelping here and you can email him directly about the challenge.
• Tessa, who has a faaaabulous music/socializing/everything awesome about Atlanta blog called Drive A Faster Car, was one of the first to show interest and is taking part, as well!

Pea, Prosciutto and Potato Tortilla – serves 4 with a side salad (which would cost extra, of course) or 2 as a main meal

• 2 eggs from 1/2 dozen that cost $.75 = $.125 per egg = $.25
• 3/4 cup of fresh frozen peas from a $2.89 bag = 6 servings per bag = $.48
• 2 small slices of prosciutto deparma from $1.71 sale package with 12 slices in it = $.14
• 1/2 medium potato – peeled and diced -  from a pack of 3 that cost $.89 = $.14
• 1 tbsp. chopped Italian parsley from $.39 bunch of Italian parsley = about 1/8 of herbs = $.05
• salt, pepper and red chili flakes, to taste (the only that was previously existing in my kitchen – a pinch from the YDFM container that cost $.61= negligible)

– Preheat oven to 450. Peel and dice potato and boil into fork tender, about 6 minutes depending on the size of your dice. About halfway through the boiling process, throw peas in and cook with the potatoes. Drain the peas and potatoes and set aside.
– While potatoes and peas are cooking, crack 2 eggs into a bowl with 1 tbsp. of water. Whisk thoroughly. Throw in chopped parsley, chili flakes, pepper and salt (be careful with the salt because you have the salt from the prosciutto!!)
– In a small skillet, gently fry prosciutto until it is cooked but not chewy. Cook until the tortilla is set on the sides and bottom, about 3 minutes. When the edges are cooked, put tortilla in the oven until the top and middle are set – about another 4 minutes. I used a toothpick to check the middle. Serve immediately.

Total = $1.06 for the entire 5" wide and 1" deep tortilla – and it made two meals! Each meal cost $.53!

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