I just started cooking on a regular basis for the first time in my life (yes, I am deeply in debt. Working on it!). To pay down my stupid debt and learn how to SAVE money thereafter, I'm finally eating in.
Anywho, I live in China and don't want to handle raw meat, so for now, I'm using tofu. I bought the smoked kind off Taobao (our Amazon/eBay hybrid) for $4 for 10 blocks and used two, which I froze per instructions. Then I cut it up and grilled it. After that, I did a foil packet of cubed sweet potato, caramelized onions (leftovers), and BBQ sauce. At the end, I stuck it in taco shells and added shredded cheese.
It's what I had at home and a combo of a bunch of recipes. The tofu was firm and I tasted more of the BBQ sauce and sweet potatoes than anything else.
Sweet potatoes cost only 10 yuan for 2.5 kilos, and I used one, so it was probably 1 yuan (about 14 cents). On the other hand, the cheese is very expensive, about $7 a bag, so the portion I used probably cost around 50 cents. The amount of onions was one quarter of one onion, and the onions cost 14.5 yuan for about 20, making the cost less maybe 3-5 cents apiece. Finally, the taco shells are pricey, too, at around $6. So the two I used were about 50 cents. The barbecue sauce was six yuan and I used half, at around 43 cents.
So the total cost was 0.8 (tofu) +0.14 + 0.5+0.05 +0.5+.43= $2.42. That's higher than I thought... thanks for the exercise!