Frugal Living: I splurged this weekend; frugal does not always mean cheap

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A lot of what I do is very quick cooking. Today, I decided to do something a bit different. It was also a lot more expensive than I typically spend for my meals. But I did get the lamb shanks for a reduced price. So, even though this is not a cheap meal, it is still frugal. I used the electric pressure cooker to cook this meal, because lamb shanks really need to be stewed. The pressure cooker cuts that time way down. My ingredients for the main dish: Three lamb shanks $7.50 2 Tbsp olive oil $1.00 3 carrots $0.30 1 onion $0.30 1 c. red wine (given to me by a friend) 1 c. balsamic vinegar (I use inexpensive brand for cooking) $2.00 4 c. Beef broth (I used water and four teaspoons of "Better than Bouillon®" ) $0.35 Bay leaf, cinnamon stick, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, and other spices $Unk Chopped parsley $0.15 Cornstarch to thicken For under $12, I made this pot of wonderful food. If I were to take the meat off of the shanks, this would easily have served six, though I actually ate one shank by myself tonight. (The gravy was all of the liquid, carrots and onions blended up with my immersion blender and thickened with cornstarch.) This would have been a perfect meal to have served with rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles. I ate mine with mashed sweet potato and cooked cauliflower. I spent approximately $5 or $6 on my dinner tonight, which would have easily cost me four to five times this amount had I ordered something comparable in a restaurant. My plans for my leftovers (two shanks, and all this luscious gravy/juice): I cut the meat off the bones, added the meat back into the pot, and I have roughly six cups of meat and gravy. I can use part of it as a base for a stew by adding root vegetables. Or I could add mushrooms and onions to a portion of it to serve over rice or noodles. By doing this, I'm actually stretching this meal far beyond a six-serving meal. I enjoy cooking wonderful meals for myself and others, using some of the frugal practices that I try to employ regularly. They aren't always cheap, but they are always a bargain. Photos and collage are my own.