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another picture of the meal

The Meal
Chicken:

• 4 chicken thighs
  
• Basil
  
• Cherry Tomatoes
  
• Black and White Beans (from a can)
  
  
  Mashed Potatoes:
  
• 3 Idaho Potatoes
  
• 2 Yams (sweet potatoes)
  
• 1 Large yellow (sweet) onion
  
• 3 cloves of garlic
  
• cream/milk/somethinglikethat
  
• sugar
  
  Special Tools:
  
• potato masher thing like here or here i know it's not a 2 dollar item, but you'll only need one for the rest of your life if it's a metal one
  
  
  
  
  Directions: i'm going to assume you have basics like olive oil, salt and pepper. from this point ill stop assuming anything
  
  Ill start with the chicken because that took no time at all. Spread beans over tinfoil'd pan. on that bed of beans lay down the chicken. It's up to you if you want to leave the skins on the thighs, i kept one but it's a lot of fat. pepper and salt dat chicken. scatter torn basil on top and cherry tomatoes. Pop into oven at 325º. keep in there until outside of chicken is brown. after about 35 minutes i take one pice out with a fork and cut into it to see how done it is. if it's pink, but it back in (that's what she said).
  
  mashed potatoes:
  
  this is like my favorite thing to cook.
  
  cut up potatoes and yams into about 3-4 equal pieces each. put into pot of water that completely covers all the potatoes/yams and bring to boil. keep em rolling around but you may want to turn down the heat. after about 15 minutes take one out with a fork and slice in half. knife should go cleanly through really easily. if not, put back in pot and keep boiling.
  
  
  dice onion and garlic and over tiny pan let them simmer. salt and stir. sugar and stir. i do about 2 extremely generous pinches of sugar. you want more than you think an onion needs. stir. let it keep cooking. keep stirring once in a while. you want to cook these until the opinion kind of changes colors and becomes soft. taste test when you think it's done. when it no longer has any bite (unless you're into that), take off heat and put aside.
  
  When potatoes reach good consistency: drain water. use potato masher to bash into submission. add some milk/cream. keep mashing. you don't want it watery. i do it to taste. add onion/garlic mix.
  
  
  eat like a champ
  
  notes: this made enough for 3 full meals for me and i eat a lot. ~2800+ calories a day. the chicken thighs were on sale for 2 dollars and something cents, i'm still adding basil and tomatoes to my breakfast eggs, and the beans were about a dollar a can. i think this entire meal aggregated cost about $4 and i got 3 meals out of it.