Last night Robert and I cooked one of his favorite dishes. The recipe was originally braised oxtail. We like oxtail, but it is expensive for the amount of meat so we have modified the recipe to use short ribs, which we cut into bite size pieces.  This recipe is for a large pot that will feed 4 really hungry people. I don't actually measure stuff.

In a deep pan, melt about 3/4 stick  of butter. Use the real stuff, don't try to use crappy margerine!
Add 1 chopped onion, a few baby carrots, a a few diced turnips if they are small, or a nice big one, 1 stalk celery chopped.  I added about 6 small potatoes. It stretches it nicely and cheaply. When nicely transluscent, add 2 or even 4 Tblspoons flour and blend well. Then for a broth - I dumped in 3 cups of water and 3 beef bullion cubes. This is cheaper than buying beef broth.
Have your butcher cut the 2 oxtails into 2-3 inch pieces. Or just buy short ribs and cut them up yourself. I bought two pounds, oh and for petes sake, buy your meat from a butcher, don't even ruin my recipes with Walmart meat!  Add these to the pan, with salt, pepper and two cloves. I used 2 t of ground cloves since I didn't have any whole ones. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, reduce heat, simmer 2 hours. Or until the potatoes are done, if you are standing there starving.

Robert and I ate like little piggys,(a teenage boy is a bottomless pit!) and I filled a gallon freezer bag for a future meal. The meat was over $3 per pound but I had the rest of the items except the turnips already. So let's call it $10 for a dinner that could have fed 6 if I had fleshed it out with some bread. Since we don't eat bread we probably ate more than a normal serving size.  Still more cost effective than eating out, healthier, and tastes much better, using vegetables from our local co-op.