Author: Philip

Lunch

It’s the Sunday of a long weekend, so let’s indulge a little.

• Smoked salmon $5.99 for the 4oz pack or $3.00 a serve
• The pack of six onion bagels is $1.99 or 33c per serve
• The neufchâtel cheese is $1.49 for the pack, and we used 1/3 or 25c per serve
• A Persian cucumber is 50c or 25c per serve
• Add 15c for capers and shallot.

Lunch today cost $3.98 a serve.

Dinner

With the hot weather we’ve been having, it was a welcome return to a favorite: Nigel Lawson’s watermelon, feta and black olive salad. It’s a summer regular and very, very good.

We made three serves from a small watermelon.

• We were given the watermelon
• Feta comes in a $6.49 tub and we used half, or about $1.08 per serve
• Pitted olives come in $2.99 jars and one quarter was used, or 25c per serve
• The red onion is 52c or 13c per serve (there is left over onion)
• Mint came from our garden
• Olive oil and seasonings add another 20c per serve.

Dinner tonight (with a lunch for Greg on Tuesday) cost $1.66 per serve. It’s an excellent dish and every time we serve it for someone, they want the recipe.

Lunch

It happens that The Country Deli is between Home Depot or Lowes and home. What else could we do but stop in for lunch. Foodie Philip continued with the marinated skirt steak, home fries and eggs, while Greg had a pastrami sandwich with steak fries.

Lunch at The Country Deli (without drinks) always runs around $21.50 per serve with tax and tip.

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 $5.66 or $2.83 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
• Onion (not pearl) adds 15c per serve
• Rice adds 30c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was $6.82 per serve and very tasty, as always. The beef softened to a beautiful texture with unctuous fat.

Lunch

For lunch we went back to our gyro/yeros meat in a wrap.

• The fully cooked sliced gyro/yeros meat is $3.99 per 10oz pack, or $1.00 per serve.
• The flatbread is 50c per serve
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve
• We served 1/4 of the tabouli salad or 67c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.50.

Dinner

Our plan for massaman curry was postponed for a day, so we used what we had on hand, and created an “English” breakfast for dinner: bratwurst, baked beans, and pastured eggs on rye bread. Yum.

• The bratwurst are $3.49 for the pack, or $1.75 per serve
• The Trader Joe’s Organic Baked Beans are a little sweet for our taste, but otherwise 75c per serve
• Pastured Eggs are 50c each, so two adds $1.00 per serve.
• We used approximately 1/4 of the $1.99 rye bread or 33c per serve

Dinner tonight was pretty tasty for $3.83 per serve.

Lunch

For variety we decided to go simple: tomato and melted cheese on an onion bagel.

• The bagel is 50c
• We used one kumato or 29c
• The sliced yoghurt cheese is $4.79 a pack of 12 slices, or 80c per serve.

Lunch today was a nice variation for $1.69 per serve

Dinner

The best thing about the heritage pork we get from Prather Ranch is that they raise traditional breeds, breeds with fat in them that melts and lubricates the meat. They were seared on the griddle to perfection: a nice surface crust, and perfect medium rare inside.

This is our third attempt at a bean mash. Yes, it’s another “pork and bean” night! Neither of the earlier versions were great. In fact, barely edible. This Serious Eats recipe is pretty good. The combination of beans, greens and cheese is pretty tasty and the egg forms a rich sauce.

The bean skins get in the way of perfect texture, so we think we might need to process them in the Cuisinart rather than just mash the beans.

• The pork chops were $10.74 or $5.37 per serve
• A can of “store beans” was $1.00 or 50c per serve
• Instead of heavy cream we substituted sour cream at $2.99 for the container, of which we used about 1/5 or 30c per serve
• Green onions were 50c or 13c per serve
•  Parmesan cost $5.75 but we used about 1/2 for this dish, or $1.43 per serve
• We used an organic salad mix instead of just kale for $1.98 and used half, or 50c per serve
• A pastured egg is 50c
• Add 10c for seasoning.

Tonight’s dinner was excellent: perfect pork chop, tasty mash and greens with an egg as the crowning glory, for $8.83 per serve.

Lunch

For lunch we went back to our gyro/yeros meat in a wrap.

• The fully cooked sliced gyro/yeros meat is $3.99 per 10oz pack. There are really four serves, so each serve is very slightly cheaper than the chicken, at $1.00 per serve.
• The flatbread is 50c per serve
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve
• We served 1/4 of the tabouli salad or 67c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.50.

Dinner

A return to a favorite:  Crunchy Thai Salad. We simplified a little, leaving out the bock choy and cilantro and nuts.

In the past we’ve topped the salad with seared tuna, or rare steak, but tonight we tried some thinly sliced beef jerky from our Prather Ranch source. Sliced thin across the grain so it wasn’t ‘chewy’ in the salad.

• 3 oz of spicy beef jerky is $6.40 or $3.20 per serve.
• Snow peas are $3.99 and we used half, or $1.00 per serve
• Mint came from our garden
• An organic bell pepper was $1.63 and we used half, or 41c per serve
• Mung beans sprouts are 79c and we used a tiny fraction, or 10c per serve
• A Persian cucumber is 97c, or 24c per serve
• Green onions cost 79c for the bunch and we used about 1/3 or 14c per serve
• Add 30c for the dressing ingredients.

This is an amazing salad, and the beef jerk added an interesting texture and beef flavor to the dish. Dinner tonight cost $5.39.

Lunch

A change in Monday’s schedule had both foodies at home for lunch, so it was time to finish the Popeye’s chicken, and use up the last of the Vietnamese salad from last night.

• 10 pieces of dark and spicy chicken is $16.99 or $3.54 a serve with tax
• The salad is 96c per serve, but we shared one or 48c per meal.

Lunch today was $4.02.

Dinner

With asparagus and roast chicken legs in the refrigerator Greg decided to prepare En papillote: in paper. A cream sauce of mustard, labné, and white wine based on Serious Eats Mustardy Salmon provides a moist environment for the asparagus to cook and the chicken to reheat.

• The chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) cost $2.75 per serve
• The asparagus was $4.07 but we used half, or $1.02 per serve
• Labné, wine and mustard add 45c per serve
• Wild rice blend ads 35c per serve.

Another advantage of cooking in a paper parcel: no washing up!

Dinner tonight was quick and easy and cost $4.57 per serve.

Lunch

For some variety on our chicken wrap, we swapped to an onion bagel sandwich with tomato.

• The onion bagel is 50c per serve
• The roast chicken is $9.99 for the bird, but we used 1/2 one breast, or 63c per serve
• We used one kumato, or 29c per serve
• Add 10c for vegan mayo.

Lunch today cost $1.52 per serve and a nice variation.

Dinner

This month’s Prather Ranch meat delivery included three 6oz NY Strip steaks, and since we had a guest for dinner, we kept all three whole and cooked them on the griddle.

We served with Nigella Lawson’s Vietnamese Chicken Salad without the chicken!

• The steak was an average of $9.53 per serve
• The shredded green cabbage was $1.29 for the pack, or 33c per serve
• The ingredients for the sauce add another 35c per serve
• Organic mint came from our garden
• The bunch of carrots was 89c but we used half in this dish, or 15c per serve
• The limes for the dressing were 19c each (bargain) and we used four, but only about half the juice was used, leaving the rest for a later Gin and Tonic – 13c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $10.49 per serve and was very good.

Lunch

The chicken, avocado, blue cheese and bacon wrap was so good, we repeated it, but without bacon because we ran out!

• The flatbread is 50c per serve
• The roast chicken is $9.99 for the bird, but we used 1/2 one breast, or 63c per serve
• The avocado was $1.50 or 75c per serve
• Blue cheese crumbles are $3.49 for the pack but we used only a fraction or 12c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.00 per serve and was still a great wrap without the bacon.

Dinner

Greg has been wanting to try this Braised Beef and Mushroom recipe for more than a week, from back when the weather was more suitable for stews, unlike today’s hot temperature.

The original recipe uses four pounds of beef, while we had about 3/4 pound. Mushrooms were also reduced, but other elements stayed the same for a flavor packed meal. Served with cheesy grits and asparagus spears.

Counter-intuitively asparagus is more tender when the spears are thick and these were excellent, simply steamed.

• The cross rib steak cost $6.64, or $3.32 per serve
• Shitake mushrooms are $2.99 or $1.50 per serve
• The carton of beef broth was $2.49 and we used half, or 63c per serve
• Add 50c for onion, garlic and seasonings
• The asparagus was $4.07 but we used half, or $1.02 per serve
• The 10 grain ‘hot cereal’ is $5.99 for a 25oz pack, but we used about 1/4 or 75c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $7.72 and was delicious. The cereal alternative to grits isn’t as sweet, which we prefer. The asparagus was steamed to perfection with great flavor and exactly the right texture.