A Flavor Packed 5 Star Meal for Under $3 Per Serving

Yes, it’s official.  My absolute favorite breakfast meal in the universe is New Orlean's style Shrimp and Grits.  However, with at least 39 grams of fat, it’s not really an ideal dish to enjoy more than once in a calendar year.  So I googled for a low fat recipe and came across Bobby’s Lighter Shrimp and Grits recipe.  Bobby Deen is son to Paula Deen.  If you have ever watched Paula Deen, then you know that she packs her meals with fat most times.  So I was pretty skeptical and excited about the prospect of a shrimp and grits breakfast that would not break the calorie and fat bank in one meal.   

Assuming you have to purchase shrimp, Canadian bacon, grits, cooking white wine, and canned diced tomatoes, your investment in ingredients will total approximately $16 at Walmart.  The meal itself will feed four comfortably.  However when we look at the per serving cost, you will feed each person for $2.53 and you will have half and half, grits, Canadian bacon, and cooking wine for other meals.

For less than $3.00 per plate, you get a very flavorful and satisfying meal.  I did make a few modifications when I prepared this dish.  I used white cooking wine, no salt canned tomatoes, reduced salt Canadian bacon, Hot Hungarian paprika, and cooking spray instead of olive oil.  I am sure by eliminating the olive oil in favor of spray the fat content was reduced in this meal but even prepared as it is the total fat number is not bad.  However, the amount of sodium listed in this meal as is high for one meal, so I purchased ingredients with lower salt contents to reduce the amount.  It’s still full of flavor and delicious. 

By substituting the reduced and no salt products, you can eliminate the amount of sodium in your meals significantly.  Diced tomatoes can have almost 300 mg of sodium per serving in comparison to the no salt canned.  Tabasco sauce has 30 mg while Paprika has about 2 mg of sodium.  Dry white wine has about 4 mg sodium which is not bad, but white cooking wine has no sodium.  By using cooking spray instead of olive oil, the fat content decreases as well from 14 grams per tablespoon in olive oil to zero in cooking spray.  I think you get the idea here.  If you prepare this meal as is, it contains 1,293 mg of salt.  After substituting the ingredients, I was able to reduce the salt content to 392 and maintain the flavor in the recipe.

Calories:

293

Fat:

5

Fiber:

2

Sodium:

392