Mike has given me a challenge. The challenge came from 2 necessities: one: we were on a tight budget, two, I needed a motive to give me a good start on the blog and create/make recipes.
The challenge came from our daily needs adapting to the month’s limitations. We’re both on vacation, we both have to depend on ourselves, I have a new food blog that I have create material for, aaaand we’ve spent (some) money in the past days that we had to consider giving this month’s limit a good place and use.

The challenge was, as the title hints, to create meals for 2 persons over 5 days for 40$.

The first thing I did, as I do with any creative challenge, was research. I looked for recipes with ingredients that are affordable and in season. I looked through cookbooks, food blogs and my own mental archive and repertoire of recipes and came up with a list. Mike and I discussed the list and decided upon the menu for the upcoming 5 days.

While searching for recipes, I kept in mind, easy yet new, new yet affordable, and affordable yet healthy. I tried using everyday ingredients and those that can be found in any pantry. On other days, I allowed ourselves have a little more fancy thing. Just a little. But within the budget.

Along with the challenge, I was experimenting with bread. So the bread in the following 5 recipes (when used) is fresh home-baked bread.

 

Classical Potato Salad with Tuna Salad Boats

Ingredients

For the Salad:

• 2 boiled potatoes (cut into big chunks)
• 2 large red tomatoes (cut into wedges or bug chunks)
• 3 cucumbers (cut into circles)
• 2 tbsp olives (preferably green and cut into rounds)
• 1 tbsp roughly chopped cilantro

For the dressing:

• 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 4 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard (optional)

For the Tuna salad boats:

• 4 pieces Baguette bread (cut lengthwise)
• 1 can of tuna in water (drained)
• 2 cups chopped lettuce
• 1/4 cup chopped gherkin
•  2 full tbsp mustard
• 4 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 whole lemon for topping (washed well)

Procedure

Potato salad:

1. In a large bowl, mix chunks of boiled potatoes with chunks of tomatoes and cucumbers. Add olives and chopped cilantro
2. In a separate bowl whisk balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and salt. Slowly add olive oil til it thickens. Drizzle over the salad and toss to coat
3. Keep in the cooler or serve when the potatoes are still warm

Tuna Salad Boats:

1. Warm the open baguette on a baking sheet in the oven (few minutes)
2. In a bowl, flake the tune and toss with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well
3. Arrange the salad on the bread boats
4. Cut the lemon in half and slice into medium slices
5. Top the boats with 2 lemon slices each
6. Serve immediately with the potato salad