One of the big jokes in our family is that whenever we don't know what to have for dinner, the plan is steak. Then coming as no surprise, when I told the kids we had all manner of food at home (see giant shopping trip) and asked what they wanted for dinner, the answer was steak!
Well how can I turn down such a crowd pleaser? Before the financials, the cooking methods.
First, you take a couple of potatoes (washed) and run them through a mandolin. [If you don't have one, you can just cut them by hand.] Then you want to soak the fries.
Preheat the oven to 450 (convection if you have it) and place your pan inside to heat it. Take the fries and toss them with olive oil. Spray the pan with Pam and put the fries on your hot pan and bake until crispy and delicious. Salt the hot, fully coked fries at will. Personally, I am a huge salt fan but feel free to season less as needed.
And then the main event - steak. Luckily, it was nice today so I was able to grill. Preheat the grill to hot as you can get it. Salt your steaks liberally (or less if you hate flavor) and place on hot grill. I tend to sear one side with cross hatch marks and then flip. After flipping, I turn off the front and middle burners and cook with indirect heat to 122 internal temperature. [If you don't have a probe thermometer, get ye to Target directly and purchase this critical device.] Result: the yummy, yummy fallback meal!
While I know this is not what one might expect from a blog self described as frugal, the kids all ate really well (including Eion, who hates dinner.) And now the cost (complete with rounding, always up.)
Steak: (I cooked 3 out of 4 from the package) $14.40
Potatoes: I cooked about a pound from a bag we already had which was 10 lbs @ $3.79. Tonight's cost was $0.40.
Throwing in a bit for salt and olive oil, we're at $15. Or three bucks each. Maybe not our cheapest meal, but well received across the board!
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