1. Pan-Fried Tofu on Caesar Salad

Tofu Motivation:

• Complete protein!
• ~$1/Pound!
• Vegan!
• Tasty!

Frog Skin Breakdown: About $3.00

• 1 dabble of olive oil = (note previous post)
• 14 oz. extra firm tofu = $1.00
• Salt n' peppa
• 1 heart of romaine lettuce = $1.50
• 2 T Ralph's brand light caesar dressing ($1.50/bottle)

Pan-frying tofu for the first time.  I didn't follow much of a recipe here.  Ended up pretty good but could definitely be improved upon.

 Cubed 14 oz. extra firm tofu.

2ish T Olive Oil on high heat

... added the tofu

6 - 7 minutes cooking each side-ish.

Done?

I haven't had much fried tofu in my life.  It was pretty good and satisfied the "gimme chicken!" appetite, but seemed kind of rubbery.  Is it always or did I cook it too long/too short?

Overall, the salad meal was about 400 calories, 32 grams of protein, and plenty of roughage/fiber from the lettuce - and around $3!

Budget Challenge Basics

I have found the certain initial investments are essential for successful low-budget-finger-lickin'-good-homecookin'.  Some rack up the frog skins quicker than I'd like but they are real deal breakers.

• Big bottle of extra virgin olive oil (economy size!) ~ $10 - $15
• Bulk spices like curry, chili powder, cinnamon, etc.
• Extracts like vanilla and almond 

This is just a starter list but I'm bringing it up at the beginning of this blog because I plan to reference "a dash of this, a dabble of that" but may not go into detail on these items when analyzing how successfully the budget was followed.

The challenges begin!

The Big Idea

I'm going to see how creatively, healthfully, and scrumptiously I can cook recipes under the following simple conditions:

• 1 frying pan, 1 saucepan, 2 good knives, and a bamboo cutting board
• 1 very tight budget
• 1,000,000 adventurous tastebuds
• 1 hungry boyfriend

More to follow...