Author: Philip

Lunch

• The flatbread is 50c per serve
• The roast chicken is $9.99 for the bird, but we used .75 of a breast, or 94c per serve
• Deli rice salad salad is $2.69 or 67c per serve
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve

Lunch today cost $2.44 per serve.

Dinner

Tonight we did a variation on Pioneer Woman’s Easy Chilli Rellenos.  In this iteration we substituted butternut squash, bacon and smokey cheese for the basics in Pioneer Woman’s recipe.

Once again, we purchased butternut squash pre-cut. The biggest hassle with using it as an ingredient is the peeling and chopping. Buying pre-cut eliminates the issue. Baked ahead of the casserole, it should be just soft when going into the oven.

Bacon and smokey cheese are always a good combination. We decided the bacon could be cooked a little longer, until just crisp, to add more texture.

• The pre-cut butternut squash was $1.99 for a 12oz pack or $1 per serve
• We used half the $2.84 pack of ‘Dutch smoked cheese’ (not Gouda!) or 71c per serve
• Eggs are 50c each or $1.25 per serve
• We used bacon ends and pieces where the pack was $3.49 but we used about 1/3 or 58c per serve
• A pint of half and half is $1.49 and half was used or 37c per serve
• Add 5c for seasoning.

Tonight’s dinner cost $3.96 per serve. The squash, bacon and cheese is an excellent combination.

Lunch

Time for the second meal from our Popeye’s purchase, but with salad instead.

• Eight pieces, dark and spicy – of which we eat 2 per serve – is $10.89 with tax, or $2.73 per serve.
• Chickpea Balela salad from Trader Joe’s $2.69 or $1.35 per serve.

Lunch today cost $4.08 per serve.

Dinner

There is an enormous amount of Chioppino and even taking out the balance of the fish, shrimp and mussels there’s at least four serves of ‘soup’ left.

Dinner tonight cost $9.78 a serve with even more of the tasty solids than last time because we hadn’t divided evenly. There’s still a lot of flavorsome liquid left that will likely become a lunch time soup.

Lunch

Smoked salmon scrambled eggs on an onion bagel is a perfect Sunday lunch indulgence.

With scrambled eggs it’s important to anticipate when the eggs will be cooked, because they continue cooking on during service and on the plate. If you leave them in the pan until they appear cooked, they will be over-done on the plate.

• Five pastured eggs went into the scramble, or $1.25 per serve
• An onion bagel is 50c
• The wild caught smoked salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 per serve.

Lunch today cost $4.75 and was exceptionally good.

Dinner

Cottage pie is the beef version of shepherd’s pie (made with ground lamb). The recipe makes four serves.

• The Prather Range aged ground beef is $8.95 or $2.24 per serve
• The carrots were 50c or 13c per serve
• An onion adds 8c per serve
• Potato add 53c per serve
• Add 30c for seasonings, mostly Trader Joe’s 21 spice mix in the meat.

Tonight’s meal cost $3.28 per serve and was delicious and warming.

Lunch

Chicken wrap time again using the last of the remaining of the $4.00 cold chicken. We got three lunches from two very large breasts.

• The flatbread is 50c per serve
• The roast chicken is $4.00 for the bird, but we used .75 of a breast, or 34c per serve
• Deli rice salad salad is $2.22 or 56c per serve
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve

Lunch today cost $1.73 per serve.

Dinner

We last had cioppino in March because it’s more a cold weather meal and we’re back to colder weather after a very long summer. It’s a simple seafood stew that’s extremely tasty, but also very easy to make and it makes a lot – at least six serves.

We cooked the base and then added shrimp, mussels and cod for tonight’s meal. They were extracted from the stew and served with a generous amount of the broth. The balance of the broth mix will be used to cook up some more seafood later.

• Olive oil – less than 3c serve
• Fennel bulb at $2 makes for 33c serve
• Onion at 50c makes it 9c a serve
• Four large garlic cloves are about 1/4 of the 50c garlic – 7c serve
• Tomato paste 90c can but only half was used, for 8c serve
• Diced tomatoes in juice – $3.99 or 67c serve
• 1.5 cups dry white wine – about $1 or 16c serve
• 5 cups fish stock $6.20 or $1.03 serve
• 16 oz of White Wine and Garlic Mussels are $4.00 or $2.00 for each very generous serve
• For the firm fleshed fish, Greg used Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod. The 40 oz pack costs $16.89 but only 8 oz was used (two filets). $1.69 a serve.
• The pack of peeled, uncooked shrimp was $5.99 or $3 a serve
• Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $2.50 for the loaf (on special). We used half or 63c per serve

Dinner tonight cost $9.78 a serve with a very generous amount of broth left to cook up the next meal and much more generous servings of shrimp and fish than a more expensive restaurant meal.

Lunch

We took the remaining serve of the Shanghai noodles and reheated them before spreading on a wrap with a little siracha hot sauce.

• The flatbread is 50c
• The noodles were $3.51 per serve but we halved that, or $1.76 per serve
• Add 10c for the siracha sauce.

Lunch today cost $2.36 per serve.

Dinner

Thursday night is ‘steak night’ and tonight we experimented with a chuck eye steak from our Prather Ranch delivery. The chuck eye is the end steak of the primal normally cut into rib eye. They have a little more of a mix of muscles, unlike rib eye’s “eye and cap” combination, but flavor and texture wise they’re very like rib eye, but cheaper.

We also revisited an old favorite we haven’t tried all year: an onion, cream and blue cheese sauce. Three simple ingredients: an amazing package of flavor. The sweetness of the onion balances out the earthiness of the blue cheese, while the cream blends it together.

• The chuck eye steak was $11.33 or $5.67 per serve
• Two onions add 30c per serve
• The whipping cream was $1.79 or 90c per serve
• The crumbled blue was $3.49 for the container. We used 1/4 or 44c per serve
• The pack of potatoes was $3.99 but we used about 1/8 of the pack or 25c per serve.
• The broccoli slaw was $1.69 for 12 oz, but we used only 1/4 or 21c per serve

The crash hot potatoes provided crunchy deliciousness while the broccoli slaw added a little freshness, but the star was – without a doubt – the onion blue cheese sauce. All up $7.77 per serve.