Bargain Meals: Pesto Tofu Pasta

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a fun New Years Eve.  We stayed in, recorded a song and talked about 2013.  It was so nice. As promised, I'm sharing with you my first ever bargain meal.  In 2012, our family started saving all of Dan's income and living off of just what I make.  It has not been easy.  I shared some of our budgeting tips in a post back in October that got a lot of responses from our readers and friends on Facebook.  Eating at home is an important part of this budgeting process.  Dan always tells me that I am good at whipping together meals and I thought I'd try and share some of my super affordable, yummy family meals with all of you!  Because even if you dont have to be a on a budget, sometimes it's nice to know you're saving money.  Right?

1. I started with Trader Joe's Garlic Basil Linguine.  It's $1.99 for two but I only used one packet and even that is a bit more expensive than most other pastas.  You can use whole wheat penne, spaghetti, whatever you've got!  Get the water boiling and cook according to the directions on the package.  
2. Cut up some green, leafy veggies.  I used rainbow chard but you could use spinach or collard greens.  You can get a bushel for about $1. With the amount of garlic and olive oil in this meal I think you could get even the pickiest eaters to eat their green veggies.  
3. Cut up half a brick of extra firm tofu.  Tofu is about $2/package.  
4. Sautee the veggies and tofu in about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a cast iron skillet.
5. Once the pasta is ready, drain it and toss with the veggies and tofu.  
6. Blend in a few tablespoons of pesto.  The cheapest (and yummiest) pesto we've found is from Costco.  It was about $7 for this HUGE jar so we used about 50 cents worth of pesto in this meal.  I left the pesto off of BB's bowl (mostly because I didn't feel like cleaning up the mess) but I think he would have liked the taste!
7. Optional: Sprinkle with a little Romano or Parmesan cheese.  I got a container of this cheese from Grocery Outlet for $2.  I think at most grocers it's about $5.  I only used a sprinkle; about 25 cents worth.

There you have it!  Lindsy's Pesto Tofu Pasta.  Total cost to feed all three of us was about $4 and it was sooooo good!  We all loved it. Bon appétit!