Mmmmmm, a cheap, easy, and healthy dinner? Sign me up! (But Amy don't read this)

Bacon pierogi bake from Cooking Light - yummers!  But mine sure didn't look that pretty.

Ingredients


1 (16-ounce) package frozen potato and onion pierogies (such as Mrs. T's)
Cooking spray
2 center-cut bacon slices, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup (3 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup thinly diagonally sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped seeded plum tomato
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Preparation


1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Arrange the pierogies in an 11 x 7-inch glass baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cook bacon in a saucepan over medium heat until crisp; remove from pan. Set aside.


3. Add garlic to drippings in pan, and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add 1/3 cup cream cheese to pan, and cook for 1 minute or until cream cheese begins to melt, stirring frequently. Gradually add chicken broth to pan, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over pierogies. Top evenly with 1/2 cup cheddar cheese. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until bubbly and thoroughly heated. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with bacon, green onions, tomato, and pepper.


Cooking Light put this at $1.84 a serving.  Let's do the math for mine.  Note, I doubled the recipe because we always take leftovers for lunch the next day.

2 boxes Pierogies - $5.50 (will do my best to find these on sale next time!)
Organic cream cheese - $2.50 for a box, and I used 2/3 so $1.87
Organic Chicken broth - $.20 (maybe)
Cheese - already had this, so maybe $.25
Organic Green onions - 1 bunch was $1.20 and I used them for 3 meals this week, so $.40 for this meal
Organic tomato - $.85
Garlic - free gift with our last CSA box!
Bacon - I get my bacon from a local butcher who makes it himself from his own piggies.  It's $5.99 a lb, but nitrate and hormone free.  And freaking awesome.  The package I had was $4.73 and had 12 slices.  I used 4 for the dish and the other 8 went in my mouth vanished.  So that's $1.57 worth of bacon for this recipe.

That comes out to $10.64 for the meal.  Because I doubled it, we got 6 servings (I'm still counting that even though Troy will eat 2 servings worth for lunch today!) so that is $1.77 per serving!  I beat Cooking Light's estimate using as many organic ingredients as possible.

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