Ribeye Meal for under $6

For health and budget reasons, I don't think you should eat steak every night, but sometimes it just sounds delicious! As I've droned on about before, Americans eat WAY too much meat. Health recommendations are usually around 3 ounces per meal (and some groups say only 2-4 ounces per day.) Here is what I recommend instead of going out to a restaurant.

On the menu:

8 ounce Ribeye
Garlic smashed potatoes
California blend vegetables
Crusty French bread

To eat this at:
Fancy steakhouse, at least $30
Mid range steakhouse about $20
Low price/quality restaurant minimum of $15
(Plus you would need to add any beverages and gratuity)

HOME ---- $5.46 !!!

Here's the proof:

I bought two ribeyes for $18.50 which totaled 1.97 pounds. This is just about average from any grocery store. You can get a nice cut of meat for around $9/pound pretty regularly. (We actually got about 6 servings, but for the restaurant comparison, I went with 4.)

A 10 pound bag of russet potatoes is $3.99 which is roughly 30 potatoes

12-16 ounce bags of frozen California blend vegetables are always about $1.

A package of green onions has about 12 stalks for $.89, I used one for the potatoes.

The loaf of bread was $1.29 and I used a little more than half (I am a big bread eater!)

I also used Janes Krazy Salt, 4 cloves of garlic, about 4 ounces of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. which is a total of about $1.15

Per serving cost:
Meat: 4.63
Potatoes: .13
Vegetables: .25
Bread: .16
Oil and seasonings: .29
TOTAL: $5.46

Making the meal is pretty easy, just dice and boil 4 potatoes until they are pretty soft, but not mushy. Drain and add 3-4 cloves of garlic, 3-4 ounces of olive oil, and seasonings to taste.

Preheat oven to 400* Generously salt both sides of the steak and let them come to room temperature. Lightly oil both sides. In a very hot cast iron skillet sear the steaks on each side for about 3 minutes then put whole skillet in oven until it is your desired level of doneness (about 8 minutes depending on thickness.)

You could make a sauce for the steak, but I don't think it is at all necessary. You could do anything from a simple deglazing of the pan with a flavorful liquid to a bleu cheese sauce to a sauteed mushroom and onion topping and it wouldn't add more than $1 per serving.

The vegetables were steamed in the bag and tossed with a bit of olive oil and Janes Krazy Salt (my all time favorite seasoning!)

The bread was thrown in the oven along with the steaks to crisp the outside and warm it.