Broccoli Bite Casserole

Hey look, two in a week. Maybe I'll actually get back to this all the time. Anyhow, My wife and I both loved Bennigan's Broccoli Bites when there was a Bennigan's near us. They closed a few months back and we were missing the broccoli bites. I developed a low cost recipe that makes something with a similar flavor but healthier, as opposed to deep fried it's baked.

Ingredients:
1 medium to large head of broccoli ($0.50-$0.75) I frequently find broccoli on sale for between $0.99 and $1.49 a pound.
4-5 piece of bacon, cooked then shredded (or an equivalent amount of bacon bits) ($0.50 if purchased on sale)
4 ounces bread crumbs (if purchased and not made about $0.75)
1/4 cup shredded cheese (or equivalent in thin sliced with each slice cut into 4) ($0.50 - $1.00)
black pepper (to taste)
onion salt (to taste) (or diced onion, about 1/8 cup) ($0.25 if using diced)

Cut broccoli into small slices (stems) and florets. Steam these pieces for 10 minutes. (Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F while you steam.) Arrange these pieces to cover as much of the bottom of a circular 9 inch pie pan as possible. Add cheese on top of the broccoli, toss in oven to melt cheese. while cheese melts mix your other ingredients together in a pan (bread crumbs, bacon, black pepper to taste and onion salt (or diced onion) to taste). Pull the pan back out and pour the bread crumb mixture in on top of the broccoli and melted cheese. Shake it around to even out the coverage of the bread crumb mixture. Cover with aluminum foil (reflective side down) and place in the 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. While the Broccoli Bite Casserole cooks you may want to toss together some honey-mustard sauce to pour over the servings, equal parts honey and table mustard, stir well.

Serves 3-4
Cost: $2.50 - $3.25 (or $0.63 to $1.09 per serving) not including honey mustard sauce

Enjoy...
Thralen

Spagheani

Been a long time but I just hadn't developed any new really inexpensive recipes the past year or so. I just made this one by puttering around in the kitchen this evening. Had a couple of small steaks to use up, my wife wanted kidney beans and I didn't have time to bake potatoes to go with them. I'm pretty sure this isn't an original recipe but I haven't seen it elsewhere before, so:
(all prices are estimates based on my most recent shopping trip)

Spagheani:
Ingredients:
1 can beans (kidney, black, pinto, or even pork and beans){about $0.70-$0.80 on sale}
1 heaping teaspoon garlic {$0.05, if that}
1/8 of a medium onion, diced {$0.12 if you pick up your onions on sale}
Black pepper (to taste) {$0.01}
1 handful thin spaghetti (enough to make 3-4 servings) {$0.17-$0.20}
1 half stick margarine (4 teaspoons) {$0.13}
1/4 pound beef (ground beef, low end steak, etc...) {$0.65 for ground beef}

Put beans (including juice) in pot, simmer on med-low heat on stove. Add heaping teaspoon garlic and diced onion, stir. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

While bean mix simmers, cook your beef. Set aside to cool slightly.

Start the water heating to boil your pasta.

Add butter and pepper to bean mixture. Slice the beef into small chunks (or crumble to small chunks for ground beef) and add into bean mixture, stir. Recover and simmer for 15 minutes.


While the bean and beef mixture simmers, add pasta to water (should be a medium boil or higher).

Drain water from pasta, place on plates, spoon beef-bean mixture over the pasta, garnish with Parmesan cheese if desired and serve.

Serves 3-4
Cost: $1.83 - $2.00 (or $0.46 - $0.67 per serving)

Very tasty dish, very filling and quite good for you.

Enjoy...
Thralen

quick green bean casserole

Needed to make a fancy vegetable dish to go with Christmas dinner. Came up with this one on the spur of the moment. It is similar to the classic one with the dried onions but less expensive.

Ingredients:
1 can green beans
2 slices cooked, crumbled bacon
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/8 of a medium onion - grated

Drain green beans thoroughly then place them in a medium sized, oven safe bowl.
Grate onion onto green beans, mix together thoroughly.
add crumbled bacon, mix thoroughly
add half the cheese and mix in, use the rest of the cheese to form a layer across the top.

Cover bowl with aluminum foil (reflective side facing down) and place in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove and serve.

Price:
green beans: $0.50- $0.75
bacon - $0.20 - $0.30
cheddar - $0.30 - $0.50
onion - $0.15 $0.25

total: $1.15 - $1.80

Creamy garlic, blue cheese dip

Great for prime rib roasts, other beef, chicken or just on crackers:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sour cream
2-3 ounces blue cheese salad dressing (amount depends on personal taste)
1 strip bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (with juice)

Take all ingredients and mix together. Using a double boiler arrangement warm the mix over low heat until it gets smooth. Remove from heat and let cool. Serve as dip for beef, crackers, chicken, etc...

Cost:
sour cream(1/2 of 1 cup container) - $1.00
blue cheese dressing (1/8 of a 16 ounce container, so 2 ounces) - $0.50
bacon - $0.10
minced garlic - $0.10

Total: $1.70

Pasta Toss

I haven't updated here in a long time but here is a nice little dish I came up with off the top of my head tonight. Relatively inexpensive, very tasty and filling.

Pasta Toss:

1 cup of egg noodles per serving
1/5 pound of sausage per serving (type depends on how spicy you want the dish)
1/4 pound of fresh vegetables per serving (recommend: carrots,snap peas, green beans)
Butter/margarine
Pepper
Creamy Caeser salad dressing
Parmesan cheese

Start the vegetables cooking in butter (season the melted butter with pepper), with my recommended vegetables start the carrots first, 5 minutes later add the green beans, 5 minutes later add the peas and 5 minutes later remove from heat.

While the vegetables are cooking: cook the sauage, drain the grease, and brown the sausage. Chop the sausage into small pieces, slightly larger than peas.

While everything else is cooking, boil the egg noodles to desired tenderness. I recommend they be cooked al dente, about a minute less than recommended cooking time.

Drain the noodles and portion them out onto plates, adding a touch of butter to the noodles. Add the drained, browned sausage on top of the noodles. Add the vegetables on top of the sausage. Toss the noodles, sausage and vegetables together. Add Caeser dressing and parmesan on top, toss again to mix these in.

Cost:
Noodles, approx $0.15 per serving
Sausage: approx $0.33 per serving (you can reduce this cost by using ground turkey instead of sausage)
Vegetables: approx $0.35 per serving (this will vary depending on what is in season, price can be kept lower by using carrots as the main vegetable and the others in minimal quantities)
Dressing, Parmesan, Butter, Pepper: approx $0.15 per serving

Total cost: Approx $0.98 per serving. As mentioned the pricing can vary depending on what is in season and if you buy bulk, etc...

Alternate ingredients:
Many meats can be substituted for the sausage: bacon, diced cold cut grade turkey or ham, ground turkey, or diced pork. I'd recommend avoiding beef on this one but I think any pork, chicken or turkey meats should do fine.

Egg noodles can be substituted out with elbow noodles or any other of the thicker noodles.

Vegetables: you can keep costs down by focusing on inexpensive vegetables like carrots, using the others more as a garnish than a main ingredient. You can also spice the dish up by using peppers, onions or garlic in addition to the carrots and in place of the beans and peas.

Other dressings can be substituted for the Creamy Ceaser although I recommend staying with the creamier dressings.

Parmesan: Romano or any other dry gratable cheese can be substituted for it.

Hope you enjoy...

Tom...

shopping savings

Well, haven't posted here in a bit but a recent thing I've started doing could save you a couple of dollars a week. If your grocery store carries grade 'B' eggs I highly recommend replacing whatever eggs you normally use with these. I can get a dozen grade 'B' eggs for about $0.60, so far I've had absolutely no problem with them. The sizes are a little irregular from what you may be used to but only in that they aren't sorted by size. Here is a link detailing the differences between grade 'A' and grade 'B'. From what I read the difference is primarily cosmetic.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/howtobuy/eggs.htm

Now with egg prices the way I've been seeing them recently I am saving from $1-$1.50 per dozen (depending on what sales are going on). It doesn't sound like a lot but assume going through a dozen eggs per week and saving $1.25 per dozen (the average savings). That is $65 per year or very nearly the amount I spend in a week on groceries for myself, my wife and my daughter. Every little bit helps and I've yet to have a quality problem with them.

Tom...

Casserole

Nice little casserole I dsicovered for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:
1 box stuffing (turkey)
1 pound dark meat chicken
1/4 pound breakfast sausage
1 can green beans
Parmesan
black pepper
margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare stuffing according to box. Cook chicken thoroughly. Cook sausage thoroughly. Dice chicken and sausge and mix into stuffing. Open and drain green beans, pour into stuffing. Mix everything together. Place into 13 X9 pan and then sprinkle parmesan and black pepper to taste. Add 4 tablespoons margarine on top of the mixture int he pan, slice it into small chunks and spread it out. Put in 350 degree oven and cook for 30 minutes, remove and serve.

6-8 servings, approximate cost for entire dish approximately $6.00
Tom...

honey almond rice

This is a very expensive tasting dish that is relatively inexpensive to make.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup white rice
1 cup water
12 almonds (shelled, whole)
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon honey

Cook the rice according to the instructions on whatever variety you have. While the rice cooks, take the almonds and chop them up, slivers are best (if you prefer to purchase them prepared slivered almonds will do fine). Melt the butter over low heat and stir in the honey. You should get a sauce that is thicker than melted butter alone but still thin enough to pour. If necessary you can add additional butter to the mixture. Your rice should call for the end time to sit, not on heat, and finish up. Before you place the cover on it, after fluffing with fork, add the almond silvers on top of the rice. Serve on plates and drizzle the honey-butter sauce over the rice.
When I serve this dish I normally serve it with steamed carrots and potstickers. The potstickers I buy frozen and prepare while the rice cooks.

Serves 2-4 depending on serving size of rice.
Cost (rice only) - minimal, estimating about $0.40 per serving maximum.
Cost (rice, steamed carrots and potstickers) - Depending on prices for the frozen potstickers in your area this will probably run between $1.00 and $1.75 per serving (including 3 potstickers per serving)

Alternate preparation: You can cook and sliver chicken to add at the same point as the almonds. Pork works acceptably as well. I do not recommend beef for this alternate preparation.

Tom...

Ribs

This recipe will work on either pork or beef ribs:

Ingredients: Ribs (pork or beef) - 2 pounds
Barbecue sauce - 1 cup
water
Pepper
Garlic powder or essence

Take the ribs and place them in a crockpot with enough water to cover them. Put crockpot on low. Add most of the barbecue sauce, leaving out just enough to put a light coating on the ribs when they come out. Add 1/2 teaspoon garlic essence (or powder). Let simmer for 8-10 hours. Remove ribs and place on plate, spoon barbecue sauce in a light coating on the ribs and pepper to taste. If these ribs are too moist for you you can also place them in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes after removing and saucing them. This will dry them out some.

Alternate method of preparing recipe.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Make sure ribs are thawed and place them in a 13 X 9 pan (deep). Cover halfway with water and add most of the barbecue sauce. add garlic essence or powder (1/2 tsp). Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 90-120 minutes. Remove ribs from oven and place on plate. Cover ribs with a light coating of barbecue sauce, pepper to taste, serve. Once again with this recipe if the ribs are too moist for you you can place them back in the oven without the water and aluminum foil for 30 minutes to dry them some.

Alternate spicings:
Increase garlic essence or powder to 1 tbsp and skip barbecue sauce for garlic ribs.
Replace barbecue sauce with your choice of hot sauce for spicy ribs. In this case you may wish to reduce the overall amount used from 1 cup to 1/2 cup

Makes 4 servings
Pricing per serving: I frequently get pork ribs for 99 cents a pound or cheaper, beef ribs are slightly more expensive on average but figuring on a 1/2 pound serving of ribs pricing is as follows:
beef - $1.00 - $1.50 per serving
pork -$0.75 - $1.00 per serving

Tom...

substitution tip

In any recipe that calls for boneless, skinless chicken breast: If you don't mind (or like) dark meat you can make most of these recipes with the boneless, skinless thigh meat which is normally right next to the breast meat at the supermarket. They are normally priced at about 1/4 of the cost of the breastmeat.
Tom...

Shopping tips #2

Sorry for the slightly late post here, 10th wedding anniversary is Sep 21st and we've been doing some early celebration so...

This shopping tip is about product placement in the stores. Remember, the end caps may be on sale but that doesn't mean that there isn't an equivalent item for cheaper in the normal row. Also, the space between mid thigh and eye level is not always the best place to look for groceries. Some suppliers actually pay the store an additional fee to have their items placed there. Remember to look on all levels of shelves in the area that holds what you are looking for. You might find you're saving a bit more that way. I realize that lots of these tips are only going to save you 10-20 cents per item (non-perishable type items), but say it does on 25 items a week. That is $2.50-$5.00 per week. Multiply that times 52 and you get $130-$260 over the course of an average year. Meat savings (covered in my first shopping tips post) will be significantly higher than that, normally the cents off packages of meat I purchase are marked down from $1.00-$2.00 plus they are normally on salebefore the markdown. It really does add up to a lot more than it sounds.
Tom...

Breaded Pork Chops

Breaded Pork Chops:
Getting this dish done truly cheap involves a bit of savvy shopping. Catch the pork chops on sale and then as described in my first shopping tips post here buy some on 'special for today' or with 'cents off coupons'.

Ingredients:
Bread crumbs
1 egg
pork chops
optional spices: black pepper, garlic essence (or powder), onion salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Break egg into medium sized bowl; you want the egg (after being beaten) to be about 1/4-1/2" depth in the bottom of the bowl.
Beat egg until it starts to get fluffy. If using garlic essence, mix it into the egg at this point.
Using a second medium sized bowl, pour in 1/8 cup of breadcrumbs(per chop), if using black pepper, garlic powder or onion salt mix it into the bread crumbs at this point.
Get a baking pan ready for the chops, I normally use 13X9 for two to three chops.

Take your pork chop and drag it through the beaten egg, being sure to wet all parts of the chop with egg. Then drag the pork chop through the bread crumbs, once again being sure to get all parts of the chop covered. The egg batter will cause the breadcrumbs to adhere to the chop. Place the pork chop in the pan.
Repeat until all your chops are ready then cover the pan with aluminum foil. (The shinier side of the foil should face the interior of the pan.)
Bake for 35 minutes then remove the aluminum foil, bake another 25 minutes without the foil. Remove pan from oven, remove chops from pan and serve. I normally serve these with a baked potato and either steamed carrots, steamed broccoli or simmered green beans.

Serves 1 person per pork chop.
Estimated cost for chops (using the price of the pork chops I got today when shopping) is:
$0.90 per chop; when served with baked potato and fresh vegetable estimated cost per portion of the meal is: $1.35-$1.50 per person.

Alternative options: This dish is also good with a spicier version. When beating the egg add Cholula or Tabasco or your other favorite liquid spice.
Another alternative for the full meal described above is to replace the potatoes with egg noodles in a garlic butter sauce, or replace the potatoes and vegetables with Burkha (noodle dish described in another post to this blog).

Tom...

Beef Stew

Beef Stew is a classic dish but can be prepared cheaply. This is my recipe for a rather hearty version.

Ingredients:
Beef, 1 pound cubed (can use inexpensive cuts)
Potatoes, 6 small-medium, cubed (can leave peels on or peel them)
Vegetables, 1 pound (carrots, onions, green pepper, peas, etc... almost any vegetable you want)
Black pepper
quick oats
water - 8 cups
4 beef bullion cubes
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Cook the cubed beef and drain grease. Boil water; when water boils add in bullion cubes and oil. When bullion cubes have dissolved add in beef, potatoes and vegetables. Bring to low boil and boil for 2 hours. Add black pepper to taste and 1/2 cup quick oats (for thickening stew). Simmer until right before serving. This dish can easily be stored in tupperware overnight, taken to work as a lunch (if a microwave is available there) in a small tupperware container, etc...
Stir thoroughly after all additions to the stew.

Alternate options:
For a spicier stew you can add Tabasco, Cholula or other spicy liquid to taste.
add 1 cup of water and noodles of your choice for another variety.
substitute chicken for part or all of the beef for another variety.
For an additional depth to flavor grate medium or sharp cheddar cheese over each serving after portioning out.

makes 8 servings
Estimated cost: $5-$8 dollars depending on local pricing. Works out to approximately $0.65 - $1.00 per serving

Tom...

Italian tomato soup

Italian Tomato Soup:
ingredients:
1 can tomato soup
1/2 pound ground italian sausage(or links sliced into small piece)
1/4 of a green pepper
milk

Fix the tomato soup according to the can's directions for 'cream of tomato soup' (in most cases this is mixing one can of tomato soup with one can of milk, stirring frequently as it warms). Set it on low heat.
Cook italian sausage. While sausage cooks, dice the green pepper. When the sausage is fully cooked, drain the grease and add the diced green pepper to the sausage, mix them together and allow to cook for another 5 minutes (if you get more grease here drain it off before the next step). When your tomato soup is fully mixed together (milk and tomato combined instead of separate) pour in the sausage-green pepper mix. Allow to simmer for 15-30 minutes to allow the flavors to mix. Serve.

Alternate methods:
For those who prefer non-meat dishes, this dish can be prepared using additional green peppers, other peppers or onions substituting for the sausage.
Other spicy meats can be used in place of the italian sausage if preferred

3-4 servings

Estimated cost: $2.00-$3.25 depending on local pricing.

Tom...

Baked, stuffed potatoes

Baked Stuffed potatoes:
Ingredients:
1 medium potato per serving being made.
1 tbsp butter per serving
1 large pinch cheese, grated or sliced into strips , per serving
Spices as desired ( I use black pepper mainly here)
meats or fresh vegetables as desired

Bake your potato(es), I recommend 90 minutes at 350 degrees for medium sized potatoes. When the potato is baked cut it in two lengthwise. Scoop the potato meat out from inside the skin, transfer to bowl. In bowl, mix butter and cheese into the potato meat. Spice as desired.

If using optional meats or fresh vegetables, cook meats or saute vegetables while potatoes bake. When mixing in butter and cheese mix in your meats or vegetables (diced down to bite size). I recommend no more than 2 ounces of these additional fillings per potato. For meats I recommend a good breakfast sausage (not link style, patty style chopped up), for vegetables I recommend peppers(sauteed), onions(sauteed) or broccoli(steamed).

Take your potato stuffing you have just mixed and spoon it back into the potato skins. This will leave a moounded top over the potato skin as you've added to what originally filled it. Place potato skins on cookie sheet and place back in 350 degree oven for 15-30 minutes. The stuffing you placed in the skins should be browning, with cheese and butter totally melted, when you remove them.

Estimated cost: Depending on fillings (and potato prices in your area)this dish costs between $0.40 and $1.00 per serving

Tom...

Shopping Tips

My wife recommended that I do some shopping tips on here as well, since eating on a budget is easier when you spend less on groceries. So I figure every 5th post will be shopping tips until such time as I can't think of any to drop in there.

Shopping tip #1: Never shop when hungry! Shopping when hungry leads to impulse buying which can throw your grocery budget way out of whack.

Shopping tip#2: Stock up when possible. If you have some item on your grocery list that isn't perishable that you use frequently. Stock up on it when it is on a good sale. For example, if you use canned vegetables a lot when you find them on sale 4/$1.00, buy as many as you can keep in your cupboard if you can fit it into your budget. I find that this is a good way to stop impule shopping as well, if I stretch my budget to stock up I am much less likely to buy a package of cookies or something of the sort.

Shopping tip #3: Meats - If you have the freezer space available, stock up when the good sales are running. Holidays are a good time for pricing on hams and turkeys, if you have the freezer space you can stock up on them at that time.
Also, many stores will run 'special of the day' or 'cents off stickers' on meat that is within a day or two of its sell-by date. I normally look for the cents off stickers on the meat types that are already on sale, I've gotten pork chops for $0.50/pound that way. Low-grade beef cuts for under $1.00 a pound and things like rib-eyes for about $3.00 per pound with the cents off stickers. When shopping the cents off stickers, look for the smaller packages, this leads to a lower per pound price since most places only have certain amounts for the stickers to be used. $0.50 off a half pound cut of beef equals $1.00 off per pound whereas the same $0.50 off on a pound package is only $0.50 off per pound. The 'special of the day' tends to drop $1.00 or $2.00 off per pound from the lower-end cuts and as much as $5.00 off per pound on the higher end cuts. In both cases, the meat should either be used quickly or frozen since it is close to its date. Make sure to not purchase meats on these specials when they are heavily discolored (my own preference but doing it my way I've yet to buy a cut that wasn't still good).

Enough tips for now, I'll try to note more down when I do my shopping next week and post some more them.
Tom...

Beef stroganoff on a budget

Ingredients:
Low-grade cut of beef, 1 pound.
(recommend the least expensive you can get with no bones that isn't overly fatty)
4 beef-bullion cubes
water
1 can mushrooms (recommend the pieces and stems type as they are cheaper)
8 ounces cream or whole milk
1/4 onion (sliced into long thin strips)
2 tsp black pepper
egg noodles
2 tsp flour
butter

Slice the beef into small strips and cook (with enough water to cover the beef by at least 1/2 inch and the bullion cubes) overnight in a crock-pot on low.
First thing in the morning, add the mushrooms, the 1/4 onion and the black pepper to the crock-pot. One hour before serving add the milk/cream to the crock pot. 15 minutes before serving start the noodles cooking as the package directs. Mix the flour with 2 ounces of cool water, making sure the water and flour mix thoroughly, adding more water if necessary. Add the water-flour mixture into the crock pot and stir thoroughly. Once the flour and water mixture has been thoroughly stirred in turn the crockpot off and let it set until the noodles are done. Place the noodles on a plate, butter them and ladle the mix from the crock pot over them, making sure to get pieces of the beef and onions included on each plate. Add additional pepper to taste if necessary and let set for several minutes for serving (this will give the sauce a chance to thicken).

Estimated cost: $6-$10 depending on the cut of beef used and local pricing. This dish will serve quite a few people or can be stored and rewarmed to be eaten as left-overs. Using the crock pot on the beef overnight allows for even the lowest cuts of beef to be very tender and flavorful.

Tom...

Burkha (A spicey noodle dish)

Ingredients:
Egg Noodles
Salsa (your choice of spiciness)
Butter
Beef, Pork or Chicken (2 ounces per serving, optional)

Cook the egg noodles according to the instructions on the package. Warm the salsa in a saucepan. If adding meat cut the meat into stir fry sized strips and cook them in a skillet, when cooked add to salsa in saucepan.
When noodles are done, drain them and place on plate. Butter to taste. Pour salsa over noodles. Serve.

Alternate options: Instead of salsa use the gravy of your choice.

Estimated cost: $0.50 - $1.50 per serving. Depending on sauce used and whether or not meat is used.

Sheperd's Pie

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef (or diced ham, or diced pork)
8 medium size potatoes (russet)
1 can cream-style corn
onion salt
black pepper
4 tbsp butter
splash of milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Peel potatoes and slice them into 1 inch cubes. Boil the cubes for 30-45 minutes (until the potatoes are tender. Drain the potatoe cubes and place them in an oven-safe mixing bowl, add the butter. Mix potatoes and butter on low until butter is melted and potatoes are broken down. Add the splash of milk and turn the mixer to high to thoroughly whip them. The potatos should get fluffy during this step. Add the cream-style corn and continue mixing on low.
Cook your meat until it is thoroughly done. Add the meat into your potato and corn mix. Spice to taste.
Place mixing bowl into 350 degree oven and leave until the potatoes begin to brown on top. (30-45 minutes)

Alternate options:
If using ham, then diced/crushed pineapple goes well in this dish, skip the onion salt with this option.
If using pork you can add a couple of cloves of garlic into the potato mix.
For any of the meats, grate cheddar cheese over the top before placing in the oven to brown.

Estimated cost: from $3.00 to $6.50) depending on meats used and extra ingredients added.

Meatloaf

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef (any grade)
6 ounce can of tomato paste
(may also substitute: spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce or barbecue sauce)
15 saltines
(may also substitue bread crumbs, potato chips or other crackers)
1 egg
onion salt and black pepper (to taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Transfer the results into a full size bread pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

recommended alterations:
I use the buttery ritz crackers instead of saltines, it leads to an underlying butter flavor in the meatloaf.
Add chopped mushrooms, green peppers, or onions to alter the flavor and spice up the meatloaf.

Approximate cost: $2.00 - $5.00 depending on the grade of beef used and whether you add the fresh vegetables.

Tom...