This lunch cost $1. Recipes in post.

Ham salad sandwich on rosemary bread, sprouty potato salad, half a navel orange, and green tea with brown sugar (not pictured).

Here's a breakdown.

We bought whole ham on loss leader special at Christmas for $1.49/lb. Bread flour was a 25 lb bulk purchase and yeast was a 1 lb bulk purchase. Got the eggs on a $0.99/dozen special (the price is back down in our area). Russet potatoes were sold in a 3 lb bag.

With the exception of rosemary, the herbs and spices for this were bulk bin purchases at Winco. Rosemary was fresh from our kitchen garden (anyone who has a sunny window can grow rosemary). The ham salad uses alfalfa sprouts (which we raised from seed) and the potato salad uses a three sprout combination of lentil, broccoli, and radish (also raised from seed). Plain yogurt is substituted for mayonnaise in the ham salad and the potato salad, and we DIY the yogurt. The rosemary bread was mixed and kneaded in a bread machine, then baked in a Pullman pan. The orange is from our backyard tree (for treeless frugalites, the local WInco is selling 8 lb bags of navel oranges for $7).

The following components can be cooked/prepped in advance:

Ham salad (2 servings)

• 3 oz ham
• 1 large hard boiled egg
• 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard powder
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic granules
• 1/3 cup alfalfa sprouts

Cut the ham into small cubes and slice the egg. Place them in a mixing bowl and add mustard powder, yogurt, black pepper, and garlic. Mix well and crush the egg into smaller pieces with a fork. Then add sprouts and stir again until mixed. Refrigerate any unused portion; keeps for three days.

Sprouty potato salad (4 servings)

• 2 medium russet potatoes
• 2 large hard boiled eggs
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard powder
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup of mixed lentil, broccoli, and radish sprouts

Clean the potatoes and remove the eyes but keep the skin, boil until soft and let cool to room temperature. Save the potato water for bread (see below). Place potatoes in a mixing bowl and add all ingredients except sprouts. Mix with a fork, crushing the potatoes . Then add sprouts and stir again until mixed. Refrigerate any unused portion; keeps for three days.

Homemade rosemary bread (whole loaf of about 2 lbs)

(for bread machine)

• 1 cup potato water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons bread yeast

(for baking)

• nonstick cooking spray
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon wheat bran
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Chop the rosemary leaves into small pieces. Add ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order written. Use the Knead setting on the machine. After the cycle completes, spray the inside of a Pullman loaf pan with nonstick, add the bread dough, cover, and set a timer of 1 hour for dough to rise. Then set oven to 375 F. While the oven heats up, mix egg yolk with water in a small bowl and brush onto the top of the dough with a pastry brush. Then sprinkle wheat bran and parmesan cheese. Bake for 45 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing. Freeze what doesn't get used the day of baking (this bread doesn't have preservatives). Keeps in freezer up to 3 months.

Homemade yogurt

• 1 quart of milk (we use whole milk but skim milk works as well)
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
• 1/2 cup heirloom yogurt, or 1 package of heirloom yogurt culture

Whisk the milk together with the dry milk in a 3 quart saucepan. Use a candy thermometer or a cooking thermometer to measure temperature. Heat the milk mixuture on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches 150 F. Then remove the saucepan from heat, cover, and wait for the milk to cool down to 100 F (no hotter!) Then add the heirloom yogurt or yogurt culture and stir. Transfer to a yogurt maker (or an Instant Pot that has a yogurt setting) and follow the machine's instructions. Keeps in a sealed, refrigerated container for one week.

This sub's wiki includes A frugal guide to sprouts and microgreens and A frugal guide to bread machines. Basically, DIY sprouts can be grown on a dark countertop and are ready for harvest in half a week. Maintaining sprouts takes about 2 minutes a day. Frugality of DIY bread depends on sourcing flour and yeast in bulk, and on the cost of energy in your area. In general, the savings of DIY vs. store bought are better on premium/specialty breads. Store bought yogurt can also be recultured, but heirloom cultures tend to be more stable. Free heirloom yogurt starter might be available by request through the local Freecycle or Buy Nothing group. Otherwise dry stabilized starter can be ordered online (and recultured indefinitely).

This meal seems worth sharing because an apartment dweller could grow the sprouts and the rosemary. Yes, there's a bit of prep involved–but most of this prep can be done in advance once or twice a week. People who have bigger appetites might want larger portions; at this price it's still pretty frugal to serve seconds.

We've found sprouts are a frugal and relatively easy way to broaden our intake of vegetables on moderate food budget. Note to fellow homeowners: it hasn't been worth our while to grow our own potatoes (we've tried). We've found it more efficient to buy the low cost vegetables and to focus our gardening on premium items.