Day 3 - January 3, 2014: Over-Stuffed Baked Potatoes

I was very excited to find really good-looking strip steak on sale for $5.99/pound and asparagus for $2.99/pound.  However, steaming or roasting the asparagus and serving 3 strip steaks (the kids always split one) alongside baked potatoes, would have added up to... umm, to..., well, more than $10.  Am I a math genius or what?

So, I just combined all those ingredients in one item.  Et voilà, this is how the over-stuffed baked potatoes landed on our plates tonight!

The list of ingredients:
4 russet potatoes: $0.28 (a couple of weeks ago, I bought the bag of about 20 russet potatoes at Aldi for $1.39)
1 strip steak: $3.95
1/2 of the bundle of asparagus: $1.47
1 oz Vermont white cheddar cheese: $0.65
2 green onions: $0.30
Total: $6.65

Recipe:
After washing and scrubbing the potatoes thoroughly, I lightly coated them in rapeseed oil (canola, vegetable, or olive oil will work just the same, but I have to use my rapeseed oil before it expires).  Then I baked them in a 400 degree F oven for 50 minutes.  In the last 10 minutes, I sautéed the asparagus (cut up into pieces) in a pan, added in the meat in the last 5 minutes (I cut it into chunks before), and then tossed the whole thing with the green onion rings and s+p.  I placed one potato on each plate, cut a piece out of each potato, added some of the cheese and a pat of butter and spooned the asparagus/steak/onion mixture on top of the butter, letting the steak and asparagus spill over onto the plate.  The piece that I had cut out was placed back on.

Verdict:
This was delicious, although my husband wasn't truly sated until he had finished off our children's plates after they were done.  Since there was plenty left in the budget tonight, I probably should have made an extra potato for him :o(
But I did serve everyone dessert tonight (yeah!): Stonyfield Vanilla Yoghurt ($4.and change for a big container - I used about 1/4 on dessert tonight) over fresh blueberries which I got at Aldi for $1.19.  So, that makes for a 2-course meal right around $9.00.

Tomorrow night will be Apricot chicken thighs - manager's special for $0.99/pound, as they had a sell-by date of the day I bought them.  I took them out of the freezer last night, so they should be ready to go into the slow cooker tomorrow morning :o)