Author: Philip

Lunch

Time to finish the Popeye’s chicken – after reheating in the oven – by pairing it with a salad kit from Ralph’s.

• 10 pieces of dark and spicy chicken is $15.25 or $3.05 a serve with tax
• The kale, cabbage and dried cranberry salad kit was $2.99 and we used half for this meal, or 75c per serve.

Lunch today cost $3.80.

Dinner

Although the weather is hot, our new North Terrace – our only outdoor living area – catches the breeze well and is cool enough for soup! The Dutch Mustard Soup was a hit last time we had it, so it was tonight’s choice again.

Like a creamy, mustard version of French onion soup, this recipe is outstanding. The lardons of bacon on top give it a meaty flavor and texture, without dominating the dish. The onion and leek add sweetness, offset by the sharpness of the mustard, with the sour cream (in our version) moderating the flavors.

• Bacon ends and pieces cost $3.99 or 50c per serve
• Yellow onions were $2.79 for 2 lb, or 23c per serve
• The leek was $1.38 or 35c per serve
• Add 10c for butter
• Garlic adds 5c per serve
• Sour cream adds 50c per serve
• Mustard adds 25c per serve
• Add 20c for the remaining seasoning
• The par baked roll was $2.99 normally, but this one was on run-out special for 99c, or 25c per serve.

Dinner tonight was easy to prepare, delicious and only $2.43 with the bread!

Lunch

As we were planning on stopping at (the closing-this-week) Chatsworth Nursery Topanga location to buy plants for our new North Terrace, we first went past that location to The Country Deli for lunch.

Foodie Philip had the marinated skirt steak with eggs and home fries, while Greg had the Pastrami on Rye with fries, although half the sandwich was retained for dinner.

Lunch cost an average of $21.52 per serve with tax and tip.

Dinner

After such generous serves at lunch we felt something simpler and lighter would be good for dinner. Foodie Greg put together a simple salad of butter lettuce, pickled beets and shaved parmesan cheese, which was pretty good.

The remaining half pastrami sandwich was quartered and served as the protein, with the cost included in lunch.

• Lettuce adds 25c per serve
• Beets in vinaigrette were $1.69 and we used 1/3, or 28c per serve
• Shaved parmesan comes in a $5.49 pack, and we used 1/4 or 46c per serve.

Dinner added another 99c per serve to the day’s food bill, and was an appropriate meal for the day.

Lunch

To both get out of the house for a while, and to have a little food adventure, we drove to downtown Los Angeles to Bronzed Aussie for an Australian meat pie and sausage roll.

While a lamb pie is not highly tradition this one, with Minced lamb braised in Madeira sauce, potatoes, carrots & peas, flavored with rosemary & garlic was particularly tasty for $10.90 or $11.81 with tax.

We paired it with a homemade seasoned pork sausage rolled in very good puff pastry for $4.90 with tax.

While not a cheap lunch at $16.71 per serve, they were excellent examples of their kind, and both pie and sausage roll had better pastry and more flavorsome interiors than any pie or sausage roll we could find in Australia last December.

Dinner

Before we went out for lunch, Greg started the bolognese sauce, which ultimately simmered for about six hours. We served with simple penne and shaved parmesan cheese for a simple, but fully flavored, dish.

The sauce makes six good servings.

With a dish like this the secret is to get great tomatoes and found low sodium Italian tomatoes at Trader Joe’s that bought real tomato flavor. The ground beef is from dry aged primals via our Prather Ranch meat delivery.

• The ground beef was $17.12 for two pounds, or $2.85 per serve
• We used half a pint of half & half, or 13c per serve
• One cup of red wine adds15c per serve
• Onion, celery and garlic add 22c per serve
• Tomato paste comes in a 90c can, but we used 1/8 or 3c per serve
• Two large cans of San Marzano tomatoes were $7.98 or $1.33 per serve
• Seasonings add 34c per serve
• Brown rice penne was $1.99 or 67c between the three servings for this meal
• Shaved parmesan comes in a $5.49 pack, and we used 1/4 or 46c per serve.

Tonight was an excellent example of a simple, but fully flavored bolognese sauce over penne with shaved parmesan for $6.18.

It also marked the first night where the new ‘North Terrace’ was fully operational and ready for our first guest.

 

Lunch

More sandwich experiments. The silverside (corned beef top round) was paired with spicy labné, which sounds unusual but was very tasty. For the other sandwich we opened a pouch of Thai style tuna and complemented it with some watercress. Both sandwiches were very successful and will be repeated.

• Two slices of bread are 39c
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• Add 10c for watercress
• The corned beef top round – a.k.a. silverside – was $8.03 but we used only 1/8 or 50c per serve
• The tuna pouch is $1.50 o r 75c per serve.

Lunch today cost $1.86 per serve.

Dinner

With the hot weather continuing, the focus remains on cold salads. Since it was so successful last time, we returned to the Greek style tuna salad the we enjoyed last month.

Tonight was also the first night the Foodies ate on the new outside terrace.

• A can of yellowfin tuna costs $2.29 and we averaged one each serve
• Persian cucumber cost 35c or 17c per serve
• A bell pepper is 99c or 50c per serve
• Tomatoes were $2.79 and we used about half, or 70c per serve
• Pitted olives come in $2.99 jars and one quarter was used, or 25c per serve
• 1 lb of limes we $1.29 and we used 1/4 or 17c per serve
• Add 25c for the seasonings.

This salad exceeded our expectations. It was much more tasty than the simple ingredients would suggest and it comes in at $4.33 per serve.

Lunch

More sandwich experiments. Today we shared a Corned Beef & Sauerkraut sandwich and a Ham, Tomato & Watercress Sandwich. The corned beef and sauerkraut was a little salty but the ham, tomato and mayonnaise was pretty good.

• Two slices of bread are 39c
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• A tomato is 60c or 30c per serve
• The turkey breast was $8.99 and we used about 1/6 or 75c per serve
• Add 15c for the mustard aioli and watercress
• The corned beef top round – a.k.a. silverside – was $8.03 but we used only 1/8 or 50c per serve
• The Trader Joe’s sauerkraut is $3.99 and we used less than 1/8th of the jar, or 25c per serve.

Lunch today had nice variety, but the ham and tomato was definitely our favorite for $2.56 per serve.

Dinner

Prather Ranch offered a special purchase on bone in rib eye from another supplier, so we added two to our monthly meat box. Beautifully marbled with fat dictated a medium rare – rather than blué as we’d normally prepare rib eye – so that the fat softened and melted into the meat.

We paired it with steamed broccolini and crash hot potatoes seasoned with fresh rosemary from our garden.

• The special buy price dropped the cost of the 1 lb bone in rib eye to $25.47, or $12.74 per serve
• We served all the $2.69 broccolini, or $1.35 per serve
• Potatoes add 30c per serve.

Dinner tonight was every bit the equal of a $50.00 steakhouse meal. The meat was very ‘beefy’ tasting, which could be a little strong for some, but we found it very satisfying. The broccolini and crash hot potatoes added good texture and flavor variation for a total of $14.39 per serve.

Lunch

Our trip to Jon’s to procure liverwurst, pork and a baguette as the foundation for a bahn mi were less than successful! The liverwurst was procured but ultimately we had to settle for sliced turkey breast, and a very inferior ‘baguette’ (from La Brea bakery) that was chewy and just not very good.

• The baguette was $2.49, and we used half for lunch, or 63c per serve
• Three Persian cucumbers were 51c and we shared one, or 9c per serve
• Jalapeno pepper was 5c and we shared it, or 3c per serve
• The liverwurst was $4.70 and we used 1/4 or 59c per serve
• The turkey breast was $8.99 and we used about 1/4 or $1.13 per serve.

The bahn mi was great for $2.47, but the baguette was a disappointment.

Dinner

Cross rip steak still in the freezer from our meat delivery, so  beef massaman curry even though the weather is anything but cold! We use a curry base we buy from Amazon for this simple, quick meal for three.

• The cross rib steak was $6.02 or $3.01 per serve
• The curry is $3.38 per can or $1.69 per serve
• Coconut milk is $1.69 per can or 85c per serve
• Peanuts were $2.99 but we only used half, or 75c per serve
• Potato adds 25c per serve
• Baby carrots were $1.49 and we used 1/4 or 19c per serve
• Onion (not pearl) adds 15c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was $6.89 per serve and very tasty, as always. We were going to use the remaining baguette as a dunking bread, but it would not absorb any liquid and was extremely chewy and dense, so we threw it out instead.

Lunch

Our quest for interesting sandwiches continues. Today we finished the beefsteak tomato in a sandwich with vegan ‘mayonnaise’ and paired it with a shared ham, cheese and mustard sandwich. Both on sprouted rye bread.

• Two slices of bread are 39c
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• A tomato is 60c or 30c per serve
• 12 slices of ham are $3.69, we shared two or 31c per serve
• 12 slices of yoghurt cheese are $4.79 and we shared one or 20c per serve
• Add 15c for the mustard aioli.

Lunch today cost $1.47 per serve. The tomato sandwich was our favorite of today’s.

Dinner

A new recipe – Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Soy Sauce and Butter – was paired with shrimp in the stir fry and served on a bed of rice noodles.

• 1 lb of shrimp is $6.99 (on special), but we only used half, or $1.75 per serve
• The pack of bok choy is $1.99 but we’d used half, or 50c per serve
• Butter is $3.99 for 8 oz and there is half an ounce in a tablespoon, or 13c per serve
• Add 25c for soy and oyster sauces
• Rice noodles are $3.56 per 14oz box, we used about 1/2 of the box, or 90c per serve.

The butter-soy combination is hard to beat as a sauce and with the bok choy and shrimp it all worked very well to create a salty, buttery meal with perfectly cooked shrimp for $3.53 per serve.

Lunch

Time to finish the last of the pulled pork from this batch? Let’s warm it and put it in a hot bread roll fresh from the oven. So we did.

• Par-baked roll is 63c
• We shared one serve of the pulled pork, or $1.90 per serve
• Add 5c for ceviche onion.

Lunch today, as it always is with this combination, was delicious for $2.36 per serve.

Dinner

Another summer salad that doesn’t involve ‘leafy greens’: Feta and Eggplant pasta salad. Roasting the eggplant reduces it to almost an ‘essence’: without the water there’s not much to an eggplant!

Two of the three diners loved this dish. One felt the balance of pasta to eggplant was wrong, even though we used only 3/4 of the recipe’s amount of pasta. The creamy feta ‘sauce’ had great flavor thanks to the Valpresso feta generously applied.

• The feta in brine was $6.50 and 1/4 went into dinner, or 41c per serve
• The pasta was $1.29 or 33c per serve
• Eggplant was 99c or 25c per serve
• Organic parsley was $1.49 and 1/2 went into this recipe or 19c per serve.

A very tasty, meat-free meal for $1.18 per serve. Foodie Philip thought it would be better with more eggplant, less pasta and perhaps anchovies added to the dressing for more umami.