Author: Philip

Lunch

With rain pending and a generally gray day, a warming meat pie seemed to fit the bill well.

Trader Joe’s Steak and Stout pies are $6.49 for two or $3.25 per serve.

Dinner

Our plans changed at the last minute and we ultimately created a variation on the Lemon Chicken Orzo soup recipe. We had no lemon so substituted some labne – a fresh yoghurt cheese, rather like sour cream – to add some tartness. We served with a toasted slice of the sprouted multigrain bread.

• Carrots cost 25c or 7c per serve
• Celery, thyme, oil and garlic adds 15c per serve
• Chicken broth cost 40c per serve
• The store-bought rotisserie chicken breast is $2.50 each per quarter, and we used the last half breast, or 42c per serve.
• The orzo is $1.42 for a 1 lb box, but only half was used for our three serves, or 24c per serve
• Add in 12 c for the other seasonings, etc.
• A slice of the sprouted multigrain bread is 20c.

The soup was good and the toast a perfect accompaniment for $1.60 per serve.

Lunch

The lettuce was a little soggy, so what we had went to our worm farm and we had the bacon and tomato part on a very nice sprouted multigrain bread from Trader Joe’s.

• The sprouted wholemeal is $3.49 a loaf with 18 slices, or 39c per two slice sandwich
• The bacon was $6.99 for 12 slices, and we used two per serve, or $1.68
• We used one kumato per serve or 58c
• Eggless mayo add another 15c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.80 and was pretty good.

Dinner

Thursday night is ‘steak night’ so tonight we had dry aged NY Strip steak with butter-soy broccoli and red rice, which was new to us.

Despite more than 30 minutes on the stove, we felt the rice was a little undercooked, but it had a nice nutty taste.

• The dry aged NY Strip Strip cost $19.70 for 12oz or $9.85 per serve
• 12oz of broccoli florets were $2.29 or $1.15 per serve
• Rice adds 50c per serve
• Add 30c for soy and butter.

The Prather Ranch steak was, as always, excellent. The butter soy broccoli is always tasty but the undercooked rice let the meal down a little. Overall a decent meal for $11.80 per serve.

Lunch

We modified our usual lunch to use our second flatbread. We’re really enjoying the Stonefire Artisan Flatbread from Ralph’s (Kroger).

• The flatbread is 63c per serve (on special)
• Chicken is $1.25 per serve (half a breast shared)
• Hummus is 33c per serve
• We served 1/4 of the tabouli salad or 67c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.88 per serve.

Dinner

With ground beef in the freezer, and a black bean mix we weren’t entirely happy with, the two magically became bacon and black bean chili! The recipe makes six serves

• There were four serves of black bean left for a total cost of $5.48 or 92c per serve
• The dry aged ground beef was $8.69 or $1.45 per serve
• Chipotle adds another 20c per serve
• Green onions add 20c per serve
• An avocado shared cost 89c per serve
• We substituted labne for the sour cream at 28c per serve
• A little cheddar cheese adds 50c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was pretty good as it’s hard to screw up chili, for just $4.44 per serve.

Lunch

A combination shopping and hardware store trip put us right past our favorite Mexican place on the way home, so that’s what we ate. Philip went for an Asada Burrito while Greg was more adventurous and went with their home-made menudo. Foodie Philip has tried to like menudo, but does not!

The average for lunch was $6.80.

Dinner

With pork spare ribs in our freezer from the meat delivery, we thought we’d revisit the smoker and pair it with some black beans and rice. Although dried the black beans were cooked from dry in the pressure cooker.

Word of warning. The recipe calls for way too much liquid. One quart (32 oz) is plenty. We ended up with a very thin soup, that needed some rapid boiling to reduce, and ultimately a little thickening. This killed the subtle orange flavor original present, so keep the liquid to half what’s recommended.

Even so, it makes at least six serves.

• The pork spare ribs were a serve, although truth be told, Philip ate most of them were $9.82 or $4.91 per serve.
• Black beans, $1.69 or 28c per serve
• Chicken broth $1.59 or 27c per serve
• The orange was 52c or 9c per serve
• The sausage was $3.79 or 63c per serve
• Basmati rice $1.69 and we used half tonight, or 43c per serve
• Add 10c for onion and garlic, and other seasonings.

Dinner tonight cost $6.71 per serve, but wasn’t our best. The beans lost most of the flavorings and, while the ribs were tasty, they did not become tender in the smoking.

Lunch

Since we had asparagus left over from last night’s gnocchi, we gently steamed it for a couple of minutes, then wrapped it with thinly sliced roast chicken breast, on a smear of mayo.

• The wrap is 50c
• The asparagus is $1.00 per serve
• Chicken is 63c per serve from the ‘giant’ $9.99 roast
• Add 10c for the vegan alternate mayo.

Lunch today cost $2.23 and was pretty good.

Dinner

A quick meal to put together by serving a chicken leg with the remaining two serves of the gorgonzola gnocchi.

A little Siracha on the otherwise bland chicken finished this quick, but tasty, meal.

• Each serve was a $2.50 quarter of the roast chicken
• The gnocchi was $2.84 per serve
• Add 10c for the Siracha sauce.

Dinner tonight was $5.34 and quick to get on the table, and the siracha sauce works nicely with the gorgonzola gnocchi.

Lunch

While it wasn’t the naan that we planned to have with our coconut fish curry, we did like the artisan crispbread we had in its place. It turned out to be a perfect foundation for smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers and thinly sliced shallots.

• Two pieces of artisan flat bread cost $2.50 or 63c per serve
• Salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 a serve
• The avocado was 35c per serve
• Add 1oc for capers and shallots.

  Lunch today was generous and delicious for $4.05 per serve

  Dinner

Thursday night is our ‘steak’ night, although we interpret that pretty loosely. Tonight we paired dry aged NY Strip Steak with Gorgonzola Gnocchi: asparagus, peas and shallot in a cream and gorgonzola sauce.

The gnocchi makes four serves so we have two left over for a repeat.

• 12 oz of dry aged NY Strip steak was $20.22 or $10.11 per serve
• Onion and seasonings add 25c per serve
• The gnocchi was $1.69 from Trader Joes, or 42c per serve
• Chopped and trimmed asparagus was $3.99 or $1.00 per serve
• Peas were $1.29 but we only used half, or 17c per serve
• Trader Joe’s crumbled Gorgonzola is $3.49 and we used the whole tub or 88c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $12.94, was delicious with a much bigger serve of gnocchi than would have come as a steakhouse side, and way better value than going out to a steakhouse where this meal would have been closer to $50.00 per serve with tax and tip.

Lunch

A business meeting took us back to The Country Deli. Average meal with tax and tip is $21.00.

Dinner

After beef for lunch, a coconut fish curry seemed like a good choice. It was quite good. Instead of rice, we planned to serve with Naan bread, but none could be found in the supermarket and we substituted a crisp bread instead.

We made up a half batch of the recipe, since there are only two of us.

• We buy the cod filets frozen: 7 pieces for $11.99 or $1.71 per piece/serve
• Organic coconut milk cost $1.69 or 85c per serve
• For ginger, onion and garlic add 23c per serve
• The baby cherry tomatoes were $3.99. We used 1/3 or 67c per serve
• An organic bell pepper was $1.63 or 82c per serve
• For lemon and other seasonings add another 20c per serve
• Two pieces of artisan flat bread cost $2.50 or 63c per serve.

This soup is really worth it. It has a great balance of sour and sweet and a lot of flavor from the curry seasonings for $5.11 per serve.