I have taught my girls to cook! probably too well. Georgia is my current supper cook. I believe a girl ought to know how to cook before she’s 10, by 12 ought to be able to bake bread from scratch, by 13 make jam and can it, by 14 cook a full thanksgiving meal, by 15 prepare a weeks menu, and by 16 figure out how to make the cheapest meal a gourmet feast.

Georgia’s favorite food is Mexican and since we originally come from Southern California, mexican food is a specialty around here. Here is one of our budget feasts with $$ amounts, now mind you we are feeding 8 people, all with good appetites and one of them is Beau who eats enough for 3 grown men (I am not joking) but he works hard so we accomadate him. All that to say adjust your own amounts. I would have taken a picture but it was too good to go get a camera.

 89 cents rice

$3.19 gal can pinto beans

$2 bag of shredded mexican style cheese

$1.50 sour cream

tomatoes from garden, diced

79 cents small can green sauce, (salsa verde)

$5    3 bags tortilla chips (ours were 3/$5)

79 cents large onion, chopped

2 hot peppers from the garden, chopped

cook rice, set aside, 

then take pinto beans, 1/2 onion chopped and a tablespoon of chili powder and mix, mash or process well, and heat in skillet until hot and thickened (this is refried beans!)

place serving of rice on plate, flatten out, then place serving of beans on top, then cheese, then in the middle,  green sauce, then sour cream, then chopped onions, hot peppers and diced tomatoes, make it pretty! you could also add some chopped cilantro if you have it in the garden,  the idea is that it is layered, then instead of serving with utensils serve with chips and eat like a dip!

this would easily feed 10 normal folks and works out to be about $1.40 each! the trick is to work with what is reasonably priced in your area. if avocados were on sale we might add guacamole, or some days we might add shredded chicken, if you make it really colorful and pretty it adds a lot of flair! If we make this again in the next few days I will try to control myself long enough to get a picture before diving in!