Author: Philip

Lunch

We opted to buy in lunch so we hopped down to our favorite Mexican place Carnitas Michoacan for a pair of burritos: chicken for Foodie Greg; Asada for Foodie Philip.

Lunch cost $5.50 per serve with tax.

Dinner

The best way to enjoy sauerkraut is definitely in a Choucroute Garnie: sauerkraut, potatoes, carrot slow simmered with your choice of porky products. We paired it with Trader Joe’s Oktoberfest Bratwurst.

We have a lot of choucroute left, as the recipe makes four portions.

• The bratwurst are $3.49 for the pack, or $1.75 per serve
• The sauerkraut is $2.99 a pack or 75c per serve
• The carrots were 50c or 13c per serve
• Potatoes add 53c per serve
• The onion, garlic, bay leaf and juniper berries add another 26c per serve
• White wine adds another 54c per serve.

Dinner tonight was tasty, warming and filling for just $3.96 per serve.

Lunch

For variety we decided on a tuna melt on an onion bagel. We contemplated adding avocado, but our previous experience was that avocado and cheese is a little too match fat for one meal, so we dropped the avocado.

• The can of skipjack tuna in water was $1.49 or 75c per serve
• The vegan dressing (not mayo!) is $2.29 a jar but we used about 15c worth each serve
• An onion bagel is 50c
• Cheese was 55c per serve
• Add 30c for the spring onion and celery per serve.

Lunch was $2.25 per serve and delicious.

Dinner

For dinner we had tickets for a Pop-up with Saga in nearby Porter Ranch. Saga cooked up a delicious variety of modern Arabic-inspired cuisine, as you can see from the menu used as today’s key image. (Sadly, my food pictures did not do the food justice.

Our favorites were the butternut squash hummus which has the hummus flavor you’d expect (tahini, garlic, cumin) but with a puree of roasted butternut squash instead of pureed garbanzo beans. A really flavorsome take on hummus. The tradition hummus was an excellent example, but we strongly preferred the butternut squash version. (We might have even taken some home! Shhh, don’t tell anyone.)

Another favorite was the Seasoned Beef Kebabs, of which Foodie Philip ate five, and the Cool and Creamy yoghurt and cucumber mint salad was a perfect accompaniment to it.

There wasn’t a bad dish on the table. Foodie Philip is not the fan of Brussels Sprouts but he went back for seconds of the Roasted Yams with Brussels Sprouts and for the non-traditional Fatoush salad.

The popup meal included wine and beer and dessert and was very fairly priced at $64.00 per person.

 

Lunch

For lunch we finished the third serve of French Onion Soup, split between us, with a par baked roll, but no gruyere.

• Four onions for $2.49 is 42c per serve
• Add in another 14c for butter, garlic, seasonings & Worcestershire sauce per serve
• Dry vermouth works out at 13c per serve
• The carton of beef broth was $2.49 or 42c per serve
• Six par baked rustic rolls were $3.29 or 55c per serve.

Lunch today cost just $1.66.

Dinner

Foodie Greg was determined to have ‘breakfast for dinner’ – specifically a traditional English breakfast, reduced to sensible portions. Trader Joe’s organic baked beans, on an English muffin, topped with a pastured egg along with smoked bacon.

Yes, we smoked some thick cut bacon as an experiment, that turned out to be quite successful. We decided it could have gone a little more hot, but smoked bacon like this is never going to crisp up the way most Americans like their bacon.

• Bacon adds 60c per serve
• The Trader Joe’s Organic Baked Beans are a little sweet for our taste, but otherwise 75c per serve
• An English Muffin is 50c per serve
• Pastured Eggs are 50c each, so two adds $1.00 per serve.

Dinner tonight was definitely better than your typical British breakfast for just $2.85. We’ll be smoking bacon again, at a slightly higher temperature next time.

Lunch

We went back to the sliced ham wrap with a mix-up salad from Ralph’s and sour cream for the sealant layer. Unfortunately the ham does not separate well, so we won’t be repeating this combination.

• The wholemeal wrap is 50c
• The $3.99 salad kit will do six serves, or 67c per serve
• The ham was also $3.99 and will do four serves, or $1.00 per serve
• 16oz of sour cream are $3.79 but we used about 1oz per serve, or 24c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.41 per serve.

Dinner

Thursday night is traditionally our steak night, although we’ve not been very strict about observing it, so it was time to defrost a Prather Ranch aged New York Strip Steak and pair it with crash hot potatoes and creamed spinach.

It’s been a bit of a Pioneer Woman week: the crash hot potato recipe came from her as did last night’s French Onion Soup!

• 12 oz of aged NY Strip Steak is $20.22 or $10.11 per serve.
• The pack of baby spinach was $1.99 or $1.00 per serve
• The whipping cream was $1.79 or 90c per serve
• The pack of potatoes was $3.99 but we used about 1/8 of the pack or 25c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $12.26 per serve, and was every bit the equivalent of a $40 steakhouse meal.

Lunch

The morning fog had barely lifted by lunch time, so a Trader Joe’s Steak and Ale Pie hit the spot perfectly.

• The two pack is $6.49 or $3.25 per serve.

Dinner

Since it remained cool, we decided soup would be perfect for dinner, so French Onion it was, with par baked sourdough rolls topped with melted gruyere cheese. The cheese was the most expensive part of this really delicious meal.

French onion soup has an amazing flavor payback, for relatively little effort. Half of Pioneer Woman’s recipe still made three good size serves.

• Four onions for $2.49 is 83c per serve
• Add in another 27c for butter, garlic, seasonings & Worcestershire sauce per serve
• Dry vermouth works out at 17c per serve
• The carton of beef broth was $2.49 or 83c per serve
• 8oz of Swiss gruyere was $6.90 and we used half, or $1.73 per serve
• Six par baked rustic rolls were $3.29 or 55c per serve.

Dinner tonight was exceptionally tasty for just $4.38. The combination of freshly finished roll with melted gruyere dipped into the french onion soup is an amazing bite.

Lunch

For some variety we created a new wrap featuring sliced ham, with a mix-up salad from Ralph’s and sour cream for the sealant layer. It was pretty good. We’ll have it tomorrow as well!

• The wholemeal wrap is 50c
• The $3.99 salad kit will do six serves, or 67c per serve
• The ham was also $3.99 and will do four serves, or $1.00 per serve
• 16oz of sour cream are $3.79 but we used about 1oz per serve, or 24c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.41 per serve.

Dinner

With cooler weather upon us, and some stew meat from our Prather Ranch delivery, a Massaman curry really hit the spot. We got four serves from today’s recipe

• The cross rib steaks were $6.64 each or $3.32 per serve
• The can of massaman curry mix is $4.30 or $1.08 per serve
• Plain peanuts are in limited supply in this part of the world, with a jar costing $2.99, of which we used around 1/5, or 20c per serve
• Three small potatoes each cost 55c per serve
• Coconut cream is $1.49 per can, or 38c per serve
• A packet of frozen pearl onions is $1.69 for a 16oz pack, but we used the last quarter, or 21c per serve
• Rice adds another 50c per serve.

Tonight’s delicious and warming Massaman curry cost $6.24 per serve.

Lunch

Another Burbank Monday, although lunch came late to Foodie Philip.

An In and Out Burger Double Double Animal Style is $4.03 with tax.

Dinner

Time to finish off the Popeye’s Fried Chicken from last Friday, paired with some red beans that had been in the fridge since our pork spare rib!

• Eight pieces of dark and spicy chicken are $9.99 plus tax, or $2.72 per serve
• Onion, oil and garlic and seasonings about 15c per serve
• Each can of organic beans was 99c and we used three, or 50c per serve
• Instead of andouille sausage, we used diced ham for $2.79 or 47c a serve
• Chicken broth $2.29 or 38c a serve
• And the rice: 33c a serve.

Dinner tonight was $4.55 and on the table with minimal effort, which was just as well as Foodie Philip was late home!

Lunch

Since we were out doing some quick grocery shopping, we stopped in at our favorite Mexican ‘hole in the wall’ and picked up a burrito on the way home.

• Today’s lunch was $5.50 with tax.

Dinner

Time to use some thick cut pork chops from our Prather Ranch delivery. As we usually do, we Sous Vide the chops ahead of a quick fry off for color and crust. Tonight’s pork chops were cooked to perfection.

Naturally we paired it with a Waldorf Salad!

• 12oz (about double a typical restaurant portion) of pork chop cost an average of $9.38
• A small pack of pecans is $1.59 or 80c per serve
• The celery was 50c but we used about 1/3 or 10c per serve
• An Envy apple was $1.40 or 70c per serve
• Add 15c for mayonnaise and sour cream for the dressing.

Dinner tonight was excellent: every bit as good as a restaurant version at $30-$40 a serve, but cost us only $11.13.