Tags
Asparagus, Bargain Meal of the Week, Egg salad, eggs, Frugal Hausfrau, hard-boiled eggs, leftover Easter Eggs, Marinaded Asparagus, Super Easy Meal, Super Fast Meal, Vegetable Side
When putting together this post for my Bargain Meal of the Week, $5.00 more or less, I was, thrilled to see the egg prices. Hot, humid July days scream for a nearly no cook meal, especially one that’s chilly and refreshing. A side of marinated asparagus completes the meal and makes a beautiful presentation. Put four generous servings on the table for well under $5.00 – the total comes to $4.09.
Classic Combo – Egg Salad & Marinated Asparagus
- 6 eggs, hard-boiled
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons minced onion
- ½ stalk celery, minced fine
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 grinds black pepper
Directions: Dice hard-boiled eggs. Mix all other ingredients together and add to eggs. Mix gently. Serve on plain or toasted bread with thin slices of red onion, if desired.
Recipe: Marinated Asparagus
- 1 pound asparagus (choose thick stalks if possible.)
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon oregano
Directions: Cook asparagus in simmering water 4 – 6 minutes till tender crisp. Place in bowl and run cold water over until cool, or use an ice bath. Mix lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano in a small bowl and pour over asparagus. Refrigerate from two to four hours to overnight.
Money & Time Saving Strategies:
For pricing, remember to use your coupon matching sites for your local stores. My favorite is Pocket Your Dollars in my area, but every store has a group of enthusiastic couponers who can point you to the best bargains. Don’t be discouraged if your prices are higher at first – just keep shopping the best sales and follow the strategies and you’ll get there! Check under Saving on Basic Ingredients for more detailed information on pricing and storage hints.
- Eggs: On sale this week for 68 cents a dozen, limit 2. Eggs keep 4 to 6 weeks or longer, so pick up plenty. The cost for this recipe is $.34 cents. To perfectly hard boil, place in a large pan, cover with two inches of cold water and bring to a boil. Immediately cover and turn off the heat. After 13 minutes put in the sink and fill with cold running water until chilled. (I find this much easier than messing with an ice bath, but you could do that instead. Refrigerate. I’ll cook the night before with the asparagus, and will boil up an extra dozen just to have hard boiled eggs on sale for snacking, salads or lunches. Think about Egg Salad, too, after Easter – especially if you have leftover Easter eggs!
- Mayonnaise: Watch for sales and coupons and you can find it for just pennies. I buy the jars rather than the squirt bottles – while they’re often the same price, the jars are larger and their is less waste. 19 cents.
- Olive Oil: I pay around 8 cents an ounce – watch for specials and use coupons and the best deals will be the smaller bottles. 16 cents.
- Lemons: $.99 each. Our cost is $.50.
- Asparagus: A bit of a splurge at $1.99 a pound, but so good, and so good for you. $1.99
- Bread: Buy on sale and freeze – I double wrap and thaw in the fridge overnight. This is Brownberries wide-pan Oatmeal. There are coupons now and then that coincide with sales. Cost for bread $1.99, eight slices are 88 cents.
- Celery: $1.29 for about 14 stalks. Our cost is about 4 cents.
- Rest of Ingredients: negligible.
Nutrition for Egg Salad (including bread):
Per Serving: 378 Calories; 22g Fat (50.7% calories from fat); 15g Protein; 33g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 323mg Cholesterol; 614mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
Put your Spin on it:
- You can make the egg salad classic by leaving out the celery and red onion, and using mustard powder instead of Dijon, about 3/4 teaspoon. I like to use green onion or chives in place of minced onion.
- Try the egg salad curried: Just add 1 ½ teaspoons of curry powder to the ingredients.
- You can always shake up how you serve egg salad – on a bun, in a pita, or even inside a tomato half.
- The marinated Asparagus can take a different spin with red wine vinegar instead of the lemon juice and a teaspoon of dijon.
My Payoff: A quick, simple dinner without heating up the house, and I’ll have extra hard-boiled eggs in the fridge for later.
Classic Egg Salad made July 2010
Related articles
- Healthier Egg Salad Sandwich (fitnessandhealthylivingtips.com)
- Death by Hard Boiled Eggs (thesavingsmomma.com)
- What To Do With Leftover Easter Eggs (forthemommas.com)
