Fresh ingredients, simple techniques and great food.
Lunch
On a cold day a warm meat pie fits the bill perfectly, so we heated two Trader Joe’s Steak and Stout Pies for $3.25 per serve.
Dinner
Being Thursday night we had a NY Strip Steak with Sweet Potato Halloumi Bake.
We sous vidé the Steak to a perfect medium rare, then seared briefly in a very hot pan. A very good meal for $11.43 per serve.
Lunch
Temporarily out of Brioche Bagels we used two Egg Bagels we had, topped with Garlic Spread, Ham, Kumato and melted Swiss.
Another great Bagel sandwich for $2.32. There is a definite quality difference between these, and the Brioche (Premium) Bagels.
Dinner
Foodie Greg had added some Lamb Stew Meat to our Keller Crafted delivery, and we simmered it with a Rogen Josh sauce and served with Brown Rice. Simple, but very tasty.
The Sauce turned out to be well spiced, without being ‘hot’ spiced. The Lamb had a definite flavor and together they worked well for an enjoyable meal for $12.28 per serve.
Lunch
Yesterday’s Bagel was so good, that we repeated it to finish the Corned Beef.
A very good sandwich for $2.78 per serve.
Dinner
For today’s Meatless Monday we reheated two serves of the very good Soy Chorizo Chili from a week ago, for $2.24 per serve including the Avocado and Labné.
Lunch
We have been enjoying some Brioche Bagels from Aldi. On today’s Bagel we spread Cocktail Sauce on one side and Garlic Spread (together imitating a Russian Dressing). We melted the Swiss on to the top and packed the Bagel with sliced Corned Beef and Sauerkraut.
A very good sandwich for $2.78 per serve.
Dinner
To finish the Chicken Legs from our Roast Chicken we served them on top of a Chicken Vegetable Velouté, which is basically the filling from a Chicken Pot Pie, without the Chicken.
A truly deconstructed Chicken Pot Pie, which turned out really well for $4.56 per serve.
Lunch
We took the remaining Chicken Breast and heated it while the Panini Rolls were finishing. Spread with Garlic Spread and paired with Kumato, it was a very tasty lunch.
Fortunately the Chicken reheated without drying in a good sandwich for $2.61 per serve.
Dinner
It’s been a while since we last had Corned Beef Top Round, a.k.a. Silverside, so we pressure cooked one we’d put away, and finished with boiled Cabbage and Carrots.
A really good meal for $6.40 per serve.
Lunch
We had some spinach remaining, and – in the absence of Feta – some Halloumi which we fried up in a Frittata.
Feta would have definitely bought more flavor, but it was still pretty good for $3.54 per serve.
Dinner
Tonight we finished the Cottage Pie for $4.07 per serve, and as tasty as it was, it still didn’t photograph well!
Lunch
For today’s lunch we picked up Heuvos Rancheros from our La Fiesta nearby, for $10.00 per serve, with tax and tip.
Dinner
The heart of tonight’s meal was a frozen Fish Korma from Trader Joes for $3.69 per serve. It was flavorsome and certainly not bland with a definite spiced heat to it. We paired with Sugar Snap Peas for 44c extra, or $4.13 per serve.
Lunch
An essential shopping trip took us to Jon’s market where we always pick up a Baguette and Roast Chicken. Fortunately both were available this trip. Along with a Kumato and some Garlic Spread this is a great sandwich.
As always, simple, but great ingredients make a great sandwich for $2.83 per serve.
Dinner
Our Keller Crafted Meat Box last month included two 10oz, bone-in Heritage Pork Chops, which we sous vidé to a perfect medium rare, then fried off in Butter for a little crust. The Heritage Pork has a lot more fat marbling the meat.
We’ve had this salad before, but always left out the Honey from the dressing recipe in the past. As we had some unfiltered Honey we decided to follow the recipe, added the Honey and it was a definite improvement to an already good salad.
We probably cannot rave enough about tonight’s Pork Chops. The Pork from Keller Crafted is usually pretty good, but tonight Chops were exceptional. They were well marbled with fat, which melted perfectly in the sous vidé process. The quick Butter fry gave us a little tasty crust and a hint of butter.
The Salad was the perfect, sharp balance to counter the fat, culminating in one of the best meals we’ve had in a long time. Definitely the best Pork ever, for $10.99 per serve.
Lunch
As much as we don’t want to be out of the house, we also want to support local restaurants so they stay in business. Today we picked up a Bahn Mi from Pho Saigon 1, for $10.00 with tax and tip.
Dinner
A Cottage Pie – the beef version of a Shepherd’s Pie – is a warm, filling dish, but it sure makes a lot of dirty dishes! We get four serves from the ‘pie.’
It was definitely warming and filling for $4.07 per serve. Image coming at the second serving, because they present better!
During March we not only continued the home renovation, although without having to leave home, had Foodie Greg’s niece stay with us for a week, just as Los Angeles County headed into lockdown due to the Vovid-19 virus.
Instead of dining in at our favorite local restaurants, she got to experience them as take away. It’s also pretty clear that there are some meals that are best eaten quickly after being prepared.
Also due to the lockdown there were no meetings this month, but we did eat down near LAX when collecting said niece. The other “not prepared at home” meals not prepared at home were left over Gyros we’d over ordered at lunch.
The averages for this month:
Our lunches at home average in a fairly narrow band and this month’s average is almost exactly the same as last mont.
We ate 12 of the 64 meals in the month that were prepared outside the home (all but two were lunch).
Our most expensive meal for the month was lunch from The Country Deli (take out) at $22.16 per serve.
Our most expensive (and only) meal out was at Truxton’s, where the Foodies had some very good Poke and the meal averaged $24.24 per serve.
This month, lunches at home cost 27% of the cost of eating lunches prepared outside the home. Dinners at home cost 37% of those prepared outside the home, although the true number should be 24% if we exclude the Gyros.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $283.03 per person in January. We actually spent $46.55 for lunches at home plus $109.57 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $156.12 in total.
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $491.97 per person. We actually spent $169.13 for dinners at home and $31.74 for dinners out, or $200.87 in total.
This month’s savings from preparing most of our food at home is $424.01 and we had a lot more control over what we eat.
Over the month we prepared 22 different recipes for evening meals.
