gourmet on a budget

If you're like most of my readers, or most of the people I know, you get awfully tired of finding new and creative ways to stretch that grocery dime. Here's something I ran across on the Net a while back, and modified it to fit my personal needs and tastes. I haven't run the numbers, but I think this could be made for a family of five or six for under .50 a serving... and the best part is that it's extremely yummy.

tomato-basil pasta

1. boil some pasta
2. dice 1 to 2 tomatoes, depending on how many you need to feed. For dinner tonight I used 1.5 tomatoes, and there were three people with leftovers.
3. to the diced tomatoes, add a handful of fresh basil, chopped.
4. if you put steps 2 and 3 in a plastic bowl, you can then add 2 Tbsp olive oil, and 2Tbsp red wine vinegar, snap on the lid, and shake vigorously.

you could probably do step 4 in a large ziploc bag as well...

then spoon the results over your cooked pasta, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and eat.

If anybody tries this at home, let me know how it worked for you.