You Had me at Half Price

I went out gathering the elements for dinner last night and decided I would shop Aldi.  My goal was to see what was there in either meat, poultry or fish, and then build a meal around it.  It was a surprise to find Icelandic  Halibut with a half-off sticker.  These days I try to shop every couple of days so I can avoid the weekend crowds.  My goal is to buy fresh and what we need.  Actually, my goal is to buy cheap -- so if I find anything like this marked half price, I know what I am going to build the meal around!

 The three pound bag of potatoes was $2.49 and the bag of  baby carrots cost a buck.  Bagged baby carrots are what I consider a convenience food and they are an easy side.  Since they are already peeled and cut, all you need to do is toss them in oil, spices and something a little sweet.  They were baked with the potatoes -- which I cut in half and let sit in salted water for about an hour.

I like to pan-fry halibut. It seems to keep it moist.  The light breading was made from a combination of my beer bread and crushed up Asian salad topping -- crunchy Chinese noodles and almonds.  Since the halibut was only five bucks (it's normally ten bucks a pound), our portions were approximately six dollars each. We did not use all of the potatoes and a third of the carrots weren't eaten either.  The leftover carrots went to Teddy as her bedtime snack.  A few leftover bits of taters will be mixed with a breakfast scramble tomorrow.

The best way that I know of to create a frugal meal, is either to use something left from a bigger/previous meal, or find the main portion marked down.  A half price package of fish, poultry or meat is just what I need!