Author: Philip

Lunch

Since we were nearby we stopped in at our new favorite take-out shop: Skewers Halal. Philip had the beef wrap; Greg the chicken. These are like a gyro/yeros but in a naan bread split open (pita pocket style) and both were delicious.

Today’s pockets were $9.60 each with tax.

Dinner

Greg has been wanting to try this for some time and tonight was the night for Soutzoukakia, which are Greek meatballs! Authentically they’d be lamb, but we found a recipe that matched the ground beef we had in the freezer.

We made a half batch based on the 1lb of beef that we had (and were only serving two people).

• Dry aged 85/15 ground beef $8.69 or $4.35 per serve
• An egg is 50c or 25c per serve
• 8 oz Panko breadcrumbs are $2.99 and we used half, or 67c per serve
• Shaved Parmesan blend cost $2.99 but we used about 1/8  for this salad, or 19c per serve
• 1/4 cup and a tablespoon of red wine – halved – is 51c per serve
• Canned crushed tomatoes were $1.25 for the can, or 63c per serve
• Onions, shallot and garlic adds 35c per serve
• Parsley was $1.49 for the bunch, but we only used 1/4 or 19c per serve
• Fresh mint came from our garden
• Tomato paste comes in a 90c can, but we used 1/8 or 5c per serve
• Add 40c for the spices
• Rice adds 50c per serve
• The cucumber for the salad was 46c or 23c per serve
• The olives add another 40c per serve
• Add 30c per serve for lemon.

Dinner tonight was excellent and cost $8.95. We’ll be repeating this one regularly as another use for our monthly ground beef delivery.

Lunch

A nice sunny so we toasted an onion bagel each, and filled it with kumato, shallot, capers and smoked salmon. Delicious.

• An onion bagel is 50c
• Salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 a serve
• Add 25c for  labne, shallot and capers.

Lunch today was generous and delicious for $3.75 per serve.

Dinner

A new recipe for us: Pasta Risotto with Peas and Pancetta featuring orzo – a pasta shaped like rice.

• 6 oz. of cubed pancetta cost $3.29 or $1.65 per serve
• The peas are 99c per pack, but we used half or 25c per serve
• The orzo is $1.42 for a 1 lb box, but only half was used for our two serves, or 25c per serve
• Shaved Parmesan blend cost $2.99 but we used about 1/2 for this salad, or 75c per serve.
• Add 45c for the oil, butter and seasonings.

The recipe tastes good, and costs $3.35 per serve.

Lunch

Foodie Philip was presenting at another conference, so his lunch was covered by the conference organizers. Greg had a bagel.

Lunch was $1.00.

Dinner

Thursday night is traditionally our steak night. Combined with warm weather, steak and salad seemed to fit the bill. A NY strip steak from our freeze and a fresh arugula, beet and parmesan salad was a tasty accompaniment.

• The NY Strip Steak was $19.96 or $9.98 per serve
• The arugula was $2.29 for the pack, but we used 1/3 or 38c per serve
• The baby peeled beets were $1.99, or $1.00 per serve
• Shaved Parmesan blend cost $2.99 but we used about 1/2 for this salad, or 75c per serve.
• Add 20c for seasoning and dressing.

Dinner tonight was delicious and cost $12.31 per serve.

Lunch

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

• 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 that we haven’t had since last May:2 Frogmore Stew. Think southern boil with potatoes, shrimp, corn, etc, but where the stewing liquid is turned into a sauce.

The recipe serves six (at least). We keep the shrimp out of the soupy mix until each meal, cooking only enough for that meal to prevent the shrimp over-cooking when reheating.

• Leaks cost $2.00 or 33c per serve
• A pack of arugula is $3.50 or 58c per serve
• Two cans of tomato juice instead of tomatoes and juice, $3.79 or 63c per serve
• The fish stock was $3.99 or 67c per serve
• A cup of white wine is about 80c or 15c per serve
• We used about half of the $3.99 pack of potatoes, or 33c per serve
• The corn cost $2.99 or 50c per serve
• Andouille sausage cost $4.99 or 83c per serve
• Shrimp cost $3.00 per very, very generous serve
• We served with a par-baked garlic bread – $3.99 for the loaf (expensive for bread but delicious) or 67c per serve
• Other ingredients add another 25c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost us $7.94 per serve.

Lunch

Since it was a cool day, we decided to have something warm out of what was in the refrigerator. Ham and cheese scrambled eggs on an English Muffin was the result.

• An English Muffin is 50c
• Pastured eggs are 50c each and we had 2.5 per person, or $1.25 per serve
• Cubed ham was $2.50 or $1.25 per serve
• The packet of parmesan cost $6.99 but we used about 1/5 for three servings, or 47c per serve

Lunch today was delicious and cost $3.47 per serve.

Dinner

A cool night leads to thoughts of stews and soups, so tonight we enjoyed a charcroute garni with pork spare ribs, and Bavarian bratwurst as the meats.

• The pork spare ribs were $9.70 or $3.23 per serve
• The bratwurst are $3.49 for the pack, or $1.17 per serve
• A bag of potatoes is $3.99, but we used only half, or 67c per serve
• Carrots cost 62c or 21c per serve
• The sauerkraut cost $7.29 or $2.43 per serve
• Garlic and onion add 18c per serve
• Juniper berries add another 20c per serve.

Dinner tonight was excellent. The spare ribs were perfect and the whole meal was full of flavor for $8.09 per serve.

Lunch

For no other reason than we wanted burrito’s for lunch we drove down and picked up two breakfast burritos from our favorite place.

A burrito is now $7.20 with tax.

Dinner

In every box of Prather Ranch meat, we get “fajita” beef: a quick cook, stir fry meat. We frequently do a stir fry with broccoli, but tonight Greg found a new recipe to try: Stir-Fried Beef With Snap Peas and Oyster Sauce.

We made the recipe for two, but putting in the full amount of oyster sauce in the sauce made the result a little salty. We should have balanced the sauce component to match the reduced amounts of meat and peas. WE substituted snow peas for sugar snap.

• The ‘fajita’ beef cost $10.07 or $5.04 per serve
• Snow peas add $1.00 per serve
• The various sauce and marinade ingredients add $1.00 per serve
• Rice adds 50c per serve.

Dinner tonight was good, but less oyster sauce would have been better balanced. Dinner cost $7.54 per serve.

Lunch

A nice sunny so we toasted an onion bagel each, and filled it with kumato, shallot, capers and smoked salmon. Delicious.

• An onion bagel is 50c
• Salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 a serve
• Add 25c for  labne, shallot and capers.

Lunch today was generous and delicious for $3.75 per serve.

Dinner

A return to a favorite:  Crunchy Thai Salad. We simplified a little, leaving out the bock choy and cilantro, but added Chili Lime Cashews for a little extra crunch.

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
• The arugula was $2.29 for the pack, but we used 1/3 or 38c per serve
• Add 30c for the dressing ingredients
• We used about 1/4 of the $6.99 pack of Chili Lime Cashews, or $1.17 per serve.

This is an amazing salad, and the beef jerk added an interesting texture and beef flavor to the dish. Dinner tonight cost $6.94.