Anywho... I know it might sound dumb but I must've spent at LEAST an hour in that store just to pick up my 15 items. I'm so unfamiliar with all of the cooking aisles and ingredients that it took me FOREVER to find them and decide which ones to get.
The Creamy Zucchini Fettuccine recipe calls for:
1/2lb of fettuccine
4 tbsp butter
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp chili flakes
2 small zucchini, diced
1 lemon, zested
1/4 cup of cream
1/2 cup of parmesan
Salt and Pepper
Basil, finely chopped
I already had the butter and lemon but needed to buy all of the other stuff. It came to a grand total of $15.22.
Now I know that is DEFINITELY more than $4 but I ended up buying several things that can be used multiple times in multiple recipes. The cookbook discusses this and suggests for those on a tight budget to buy these things a little at a time when they can afford to. When doing the calculations, this meal which serves 3, comes to a total of $5.58. That ends up being $1.86 per serving so not too bad.