Take Christian to school, head on over to Kroger and head straight for the produce section. They have arugula, nice and pre-packaged for your convenience, but much like a department store that keeps certain items locked on the shelves and rods, the arugula I desperately needed was locked on the rod. None of the other herbs were. Basil was free to roam around, sage was free to slide off the rod and into a cart at any given moment, but arugula was a prisoner. So I fidgeted with it for a minute because I wanted to make sure I wasn't having some early morning, still tired, hallucination. But I wasn't. And as embarrassing as it felt to ask a clerk to unlock the arugula, I asked the produce guy. His response was, "I've never seen this before. Maybe we aren't supposed to sell it."
Well, I would have thrown a fit and told him that the arugula was on display with a price tag shown so obviously they were supposed to sell it and if they'd stocked it on the rod then obviously there was a way OFF the rod, but I was too embarrassed to make a fuss. Instead, I go looking for my other ingredients. Apparently, our neighborhood Kroger is a little less than well stocked when it comes to anything other than chips, soda, and frozen ready to heat foods. No Panko crumbs and no bread crumbs at all. I checked the bread aisle, where the stuffing crumbs were and although well stocked on stuffing, no Panko. So I checked the ethnic foods aisle and no bread crumbs or Panko. I checked the baking aisle, none there either. I thought I might at least get the prosciutto, but nope, none of that either.
I left Kroger with a measly pack of basil, but figured Marsh was just down the street so I'd try there.
Well, as I pulled into the choppy, cracked, disarrayed parking lot with faded paint lines, I remembered why it is I never shop at Marsh. I went inside to the produce aisle and guess what, no arugula, Panko crumbs, or prosciutto. So I decide, rather angrily, to head to Wal-Mart. After all, it's a much bigger store so they have to have these things, right??
Get to Wal-Mart, peruse the produce aisle and guess what ... apparently Kroger was right to bolt down their arugula supply because Wal-Mart had none to offer either. I had no idea fresh arugula was such a hot commodity. (Should I be talking to a stockbroker about this and transfering my 401k?) Anyways, I just settled for the basil and headed to the deli. They had prosciutto and Panko crumbs. So I bought it, and thanked my lucky stars I only had to waste $974,286 in gas getting the ingredients for a cheap knock off dinner.
I'll come back after dinner with pics and turn this into randomrecipeswithpicsblog.
These are the ingredients for dinner tonight, minus the flour, eggs, and seasoning.
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts ... $4.31
Pesto sauce mix ... $0.58
Basil ... $1.89
Panko Crumbs ... $1.58
Pasta (estimation per serving) ... $0.90
Prosciutto ... $3.98
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Estimated Total Cost ... $13.24
Estimated Total Cost per serving ... $4.42 (3 servings, one for each piece of chicken)
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