Author: Philip

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.

Lunch

For lunch today we tried something different: two different sandwiches split between us to provide more variety. We did a curry pickles and cheddar on one, and chicken breast, sun dried tomato and greens on the other.

• The sprouted wholemeal is $3.49 a loaf with 18 slices, or 39c per two slice sandwich
• Wildbrine Madras Curry Pickles add 35c per serve
• The cheddar is $5.99 per block and we used 1/4 or 75c per serve
• Chicken breast adds 63c per serve
• Sun dried tomatoes $3.99 for the jar and we used less than 1/5 of the jar or  50c per serve
• Add 10c for the leafy green mix
• Eggless mayo add another 15c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.87 per serve and both sandwiches were very good.

Dinner

Another hot day, another salad, but at least this one doesn’t have strawberries, although there is still 1/3 of the punnet waiting! We’ve had another corn and black bean salad before, and both it, and this version, are great salads.

We paired with some frozen shrimp, lightly fried. The salad made three serves. We dropped the cilantro as neither of us like it, and replaced it with lemon balm from our garden.

• 1 lb of shrimp is $6.99 (on special), but we only used half, or $1.75 per serve
• The fire roasted corn is $2.49 per pound but we used half, or 42c per serve
• The bell pepper is 99c or 33c per serve
• Canned black beans, Cuban style, are 99c or 33c per serve
• A large shallot and seasonings add 30c per serve.

Dinner tonight was fresh, light and tasty for $3.13 per serve.

Lunch

We experimented to see if a Trader Joe’s frozen Quiche Lorraine would make a cold lunch. It does not. It’s not terrible but the texture isn’t right. Trader Joe’s instructions say to serve warm, so it was on ourselves.

We served with the remaining bacon and blue cheese salad kit.

• The quiche is $5.49 or $2.75 per serve.
• We picked up a bacon and blue cheese salad kit from the supermarket for $3.99 or $1.00 per serve.

Lunch today would have been better warm, and was $3.75 per serve.

Dinner

The legs and thighs of the supermarket chicken provided the protein. As we still have a lot of strawberries, Foodie Greg found a recipe for a different strawberry salad. This one with blue cheese crumbles (instead of gorgonzola), sweet and spicy pecans (instead of the walnuts) and mint from our garden.

• The chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) is $2.50 per serve
• We bought a huge punnet of strawberries for $2.49 and used about 1/3, or 43c per serve
• Blue cheese crumbles were $3.99 but we used so little, it comes to 65c a serve
• The pecans cost $3.99 and we used half, or $1.00 per serve
• Mint came from our garden.

Dinner tonight cost $4.58 with a really good salad and okay protein.