My cooking club theme this month was cooking on a budget. We each had to spend less than $5 on ingredients to make our dish. However, you could also use whatever staples you had in the house. Since we are a creative bunch (and have staples such as pine nuts), we had quite a feast: stuffed shells, stuffed peppers, green beans with pine nuts, and even a trifle for dessert!

My contribution was a pot roast, which I purchased on sale for $1.79/lb. That used up most of the $5, so I used garlic powder, thyme, and black pepper from my cabinet and rubbed the spices on the roast. I cooked the beef in the crockpot, with some beef broth made from a bouillon cube.

The roast was moist when I first took it out of the crockpot, but seemed to dry out fairly quickly. I liked the mix of spices, and would definitely use the same combination again, but next time I will make some kind of gravy or sauce to serve on the side.