You Can Serve Dinner for a Dollar

Cheap, easy, nutritious and delicious!

Believe it or not, these ingredients come together for a very inexpensive and nutritious meal. (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

I have to admit, this turns out to be even cheaper than I thought it would be.

I just did the math for my Black Bean Loaf, one of many recipes I’ve devised over about 19 years of marriage to a really picky vegetarian, and the total cost of this dish is $2.97 for six servings!

That’s less than a dollar per hearty serving. Actually, it’s more like 50 cents unless you’re a really big eater, but I’ll say a buck because you’ll probably also want a side dish.

I usually roast some Brussels sprouts to go with this. They cost me $2.29 for a 1-lb. bag, so $1.15 each plus a few cents worth of olive oil. Google claims a pound of Brussels sprouts is actually four to five servings, but the two of us always finish it off.

I roast Brussels sprouts in a big cast iron skillet. I start them on the stove to caramelize them, and then finish them off in the oven. (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

Your exact cost will vary; this is what I’m paying for ingredients at a central Illinois Aldi.

It started as burgers

However, I did not like having to fry the bean burgers in all that olive oil. So I decided instead of pattying them out, I’d press the mixture into a casserole dish and bake it meatloaf-style.

When it’s just two of us at dinner, we always have leftovers. I like to put about half a serving into a tortilla with taco fixings.

You should use this recipe as a starting point and vary it to your taste. I’ve sometimes added finely chopped spinach. I think it would be delicious with some shredded cheese stirred in, but for some crazy reason my husband dislikes cheese, so I don’t.

As the recipe is written, it’s quite nutrient dense with lots of protein and fiber. I do not believe in eating cheap food just because it’s cheap (unless that’s truly all you can manage, of course, and I get that because I’ve been there). I don’t see the empty calories of a cheap packet of ramen noodles as a good deal.

Looks like meatloaf, but it’s bean loaf. (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

Here are the ingredients, including the cost:

2 cans black beans (2 @ .85)

½ cup oatmeal (15 cents)

1 sweet potato, cooked (50 cents)

1 onion, chopped (50 cents)

2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed mixed with 6 tablespoons of water OR two eggs (12 cents for flaxseed; who’s splurging on eggs these days?)

Seasoning as desired – I usually use a taco blend (your price will vary)

Optional about ¼ cup ketchup mixed with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar for glaze (negligible)

Cooking directions:

First, wash and prick a sweet potato and microwave it until done. Let it cool enough to handle and remove the skin. Mix your ground flaxseed and water in a mixing bowl if you’re using it, or use one or two lightly beaten eggs.

Note that mixing ground flaxseed with water results in a gel-like mixture. Flaxseed is pretty nutritious. Some people refer to this mixture as “flax eggs” and use it in any dish that needs the binding properties of eggs. Before eggs began costing about a thousand bucks a carton, I used eggs sometimes. I can’t tell a difference in taste or texture.

Open two cans of black beans. Drain and dump into the bowl. (If you really want to take this to the next level, start with dried beans and save even more!) Chop an onion and add it to the bowl. Add seasonings and oatmeal. Next, add the sweet potato and use a potato masher to mix and roughly mash the mixture. You don’t want your beans to be mush – you want to mash them just slightly so everything holds together.

Place mixture in a casserole dish and smooth the top. I hate to admit that this is what I do next, but trust me, it makes the dish: Use the same old meatloaf glaze your mom probably used on real meatloaf. I squirt some ketchup on top and sprinkle some brown sugar over that, and then use a spatula to smooth it over the top. Yes, I know. Haute cuisine it is not.

Bake it for about an hour to an hour and a half at 350 degrees. When it first comes out of the oven, don’t expect it to be as firm as meatloaf. Let it cool slightly and it will be easier to neatly slice.

If you try this, let me know what you think!

About Michelle Teheux

I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here and on Medium. My new book is Strapped: Fighting for the soul of the American working class. And yes, those are my husband’s actual boots on the cover! My most recent novel is The Trailer Park Rules. If you prefer to give a one-time tip, I accept Ko-fi.

Did you know that originally the term “bootstrapping” was used sarcastically to describe an impossible task? Yet now, the meaning has morphed into the opposite.

I invite you to give it a try. Reach back, grab your bootstraps and pull with all your might. How did that work out for you?

There’s a reason we tell people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps even though we know it can’t be done. It’s one of the ways people in power keep the rest of us from complaining that we’re being screwed. We keep trying and trying and blaming ourselves when we have trouble. Of course we blame ourselves. Who else can we blame?

This is not a self-help book because you cannot single-handedly fix what’s wrong with the system by working harder or working smarter. There’s a good possibility that some of your problems are out of your hands.

This book was not written for the top 10 percent or for anyone who had life handed to them on a silver platter.

Instead, this book is for every working-class, lower-class and even middle-class person who has done everything right but still feels strapped.