Lately, I have been using Indian side dishes, packed in foil pouches, and stored in the pantry to compliment mixed frozen vegetables. Each of those boxes cost 2 dollars for 2 servings. And the Indian grocery store/restaurant that I go to, Teji’s, has a selection of more than twenty of them.

At H.E.B., I buy bags of four frozen vegetables for around a dollar a piece: green peas, sweet corn, crinkle cut carrots, and broccoli & cauliflower. I can get 7 or 8 servings from them.

$12.50 for 8 meals is pretty darn cheap. There are 143 calories from the vegetables and an average of 145 calories from the side dish (a low of 80 to a high of 208).