Month: June 2017

Lunch

The return trip from Chicago also involved airport food, and the breakfast English muffin sandwich was probably the worst airport food I’ve ever had. Muffin not toasted and dry, an overcooked egg, spare overcooked bacon and boring cheese does not make for a satisfying meal for $6.53 with tax.

Dinner

Home again and back to real food, with a pork scallopini piccata based on a chicken version served with buttered spinach and white rice (to soak up all that delicious piccata sauce).

• The pork scallopini was $11.19 or $5.60 per serve
• Baby spinach was $2.69 but we used half, or 68c per serve
• Rice adds 33c per serve
• A bag of Meyer lemons out $3.99 and we used half, or $1.00 per serve
• Chicken stock adds 14c per serve
• Add 10c for capers and parsley
• Cultured salted butter is $2.99 per 8oz block, and six tablespoons is half the block or 75c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was very tasty, particularly because of the piccata sauce, and cost $8.60 per serve.

Lunch

More lunch sandwich variations: Avocado and Sardine, Neufchatel and Pickled onions.

• The sprouted wholemeal is $3.49 a loaf with 18 slices, or 39c per two slice sandwich
• A can of sardines in water is $1.99 or $1.00 per serve
• The avocado was $1.50 or 75c per serve
• The neufchâtel cheese is $1.49 for the pack, and we used less than half, or 38c per serve

Lunch today cost $2.52 per serve

Dinner

The potsticker stir fry recipe is a new one for us, and quite intriguing: could a potsticker replace a protein?

Yes it can. In fact the potstickers were definitely the best part of this otherwise quite dull dish, which made three serves

• The potstickers were $2.99 or $1.00 per serve
• Sliced criminal mushrooms were $2.29 or 77c per serve
• A tray of asparagus was $3.69 or $1.23 per serve
• Organic baby carrots were $1.69 for the pack, of which we used half, or 43c per serve
• Green onions (scallions) were $1.29 and 1/2 went into the recipe, or 22c per serve
• Ginger adds another 25c per serve
• Add 35c for seasonings per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was okay with the potstickers being the best part, for $4.25 per serve.

Lunch

Burbank Monday time so another trip to In and Out Burger for a Double Double animal style, $4.08.

Dinner

Time to finish last week’s supermarket chicken, although this one from Jon’s is a cut above those from Ralph’s! We paired it with a BBQ Ranch salad kit from Ralph’s for a quick and easy Monday night meal.

•  The chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) is $1.75 per serve
• The salad kit is $3.50 but makes four serves, or 88c per serve.

Tonight’s meal was on the table in under five minutes and the salad was pretty tasty. All in all a good Monday night meal for $2.63 per serve.

 

Lunch

What is Sunday brunch without eggs? Put them on a ‘quesadilla’ and they’re especially good. Today we used quesadilla cheese, but it didn’t seem to make much difference to the taste.

• One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve
• Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 26c
• A generous splash of spicy sauce is 15c per serve
• Quesadilla cheese is $2.69 for 8oz and we used 2oz, split between two is 34c per serve
• Two eggs each adds $1.00 per serve.

Lunch today was satisfying for $2.25 per serve

Dinner

Our meat box once again had a Boston Butt included so pulled pork it is! Paired with Esquites (Mexican corn salad) and white rice to absorb the run-off from the pork. Yum.

• At $20.32 for just over 2 lbs it makes at least six good serves, or $3.37 per serve
• Onion and garlic for the pork adds 25c per serve
• Chicken stock adds 14c per serve
• White rice adds 35c per serve
• For the corn we used Trader Joes Fire Roasted frozen corn to get grill flavor, which cost $2.49 for a pound, and we used half a packet for three serves, or 42c per serve
• Cotija cheese is probably the most important ingredient in the esquites and fortunately this time we found some at our local Ralph’s supermarket for $3.99 for 8oz, and we used about 1/4 or 33c per serve.
• 1 lb of limes we $1.29 and we used 1/6 or 5c per serve
• Add 30c for seasoning and oil
• Add 30c for the pickled onion.

Dinner tonight was excellent for $5.16. The esquites were definitely better with cotija and perfect with the pulled pork and rice.

Lunch

Today’s sandwiches use up the last of the egg mix and finish the pastrami.

• The sprouted wholemeal is $3.49 a loaf with 18 slices, or 39c per two slice sandwich
• The sliced pastrami is $4.99 per pack, but we’ll get three sandwiches from that, or 83c per serve
• The sliced yoghurt cheese is $4.79 a pack of 12 slices, or 80c per slice or 40c per serve
• The tomato chutney was made by Philip’s brother in Australia
• Pastured eggs are 50c each and we used labné instead of mayonnaise to create enough to make two sandwiches, or 25c per serve
• Watercress adds 5c per serve.

The sandwiches today were interesting, although we overdid the labné in the egg a little. Lunch today cost $1.92 with good variety.

Dinner

Although the recipe uses beef, we opted to use ground pork instead, which worked really well. Pork Larb is a new recipe for us, but definitely one we’ll repeat.

There are four serves in the dish, particularly when you use 1lb of pork, instead of half that in the recipe.

• The ground pork was $8.36 or $2.09 per serve
• Allowing 50c per serve for the remaining ingredients would be generous
• Cucumber adds 50c per serve
• Bean sprouts add 14c per serve
• Organic baby carrots were $1.69 for the pack, of which we used half, or 43c per serve
• Radishes were 99c or 25c per serve.

The Larb is very good, along with the fresh vegetables make a perfect hot weather meal for $3.91 per serve.

Lunch

Foodie Greg picked up a baguette from Jon’s, along with some liverwurst, an avocado and a roast chicken. Add some cheddar from the fridge and we have a feast!

• The baguette was $2.69 and we used about half for lunch, or 68c per serve
• BBQ chicken was $6.99  or 88c per serve
• The avocado was 99c or 50c per serve
• Liverwurst runs at $4.61 and we used 1/3 for lunch or 77c per serve
• Irish cheddar is $3.99 but we used under 1/4 or 50c per serve.

Lunch today was varied: chicken and avocado; cheese and tomato relish; liverwurst and cost $3.33 per serve.

Dinner

We pulled out our last steak from this month’s Prather Ranch delivery, and served the NY Strip with a garden salad, mostly from ingredients we still had in the cupboard or refrigerator.

• The dry aged NY Stip was $20.49 or $10.25 per serve
• Tomatoes were $2.79 and we used about half, or 70c per serve
• The pecans cost $3.99 and we used half, or $1.00 per serve
• Blue cheese crumbles are $3.49 for the pack but we used about 1/4 or 44c per serve.
• Lettuce adds 15c per serve.

Dinner tonight was a typical steak and salad dinner: tasty and nutritious without being ‘amazing’ for $12.54 per serve.