Meals Under $3: Beans and Cornbread

Nothing like beans and cornbread on a Saturday night, eh?



Louis Jordan must have known that beans and cornbread together make a complete protein, right?

Savory Baked Lima Beans

(from the More With Less Cookbook; serves 6-8 adults)

1 lb dried baby lima beans
6 cups water
2 diced, unpeeled tart apples (you may want to peel them if you don't like apple skins in your beans!)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup molasses
2 t salt
1 t dry mustard
1/4 pound salt pork or slab bacon (I use bacon)

Wash the beans and soak overnight in the 6 cups of water.  Drain the beans and reserve 2 cups of the soaking water.  In a 2 quart casserole, combine beans with remaining ingredients and stir well.  (If using salt pork, bury the pork deep in the center of the beans.)  Cover and bake 5 hours at 300.

(I always do ours in the crockpot... 8-10 hours on low.)

(Before)

(After)

And now... my favorite cornbread recipe!  We made this every year at my elementary school when we had "Homespun Day"-- we all dressed as pioneers and participated in activities that children would have done in those days.

"Homespun Day" Sweet Cornbread

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup sugar

1 T baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 egg, well beaten

1 cup milk

5 T oil

Grease a 9x9 pan and set oven at 425.  Mix the dry ingredients, then add egg, milk and oil.  Bake 20 minutes.

(It's amazing what a loaf of this cornbread will do to spruce up a meal for my kids.  They love it!)

Total Cost of this Meal: About $2.80 (this doesn't include the cornbread, but I consider that a minimal cost since I always have those ingredients in my pantry and rarely have to buy them)... about 35 cents per serving.  It makes LOTS of leftovers... often I'll freeze what we don't eat and pull it out a few weeks later-- new meal!