Category: Daily recipe

Lunch

Today we stuck with the tried and true: cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches! In this case, kumato and Swiss.

• Two slices of bread are 32c per serve
• Five kumato were $3.49 and we used one, or 35c per serve
• Swiss slices are 12 for $3.99 or 17c per serve
• Add 20c for mayo.

Toasted crisp they were delicious for $1.04 per serve.

Dinner

Thursday night steak night was our deconstructed satay: grill top sirloin with satay sauce, black rice and a Vietnamese inspired slaw.

• The top sirloin from the Prather Ranch delivery was $11.99 or $6.00 per serve
• The peanut butter was $3.99 and we used about 1/8,  or 25c a serve
• Other seasonings in the satay sauce add 35c per serve
• The remainder of the organic green cabbage was  63c per serve
• Carrot adds 30c per serve
• Salad seasonings add 20c
• Mint came from our garden
• Black rice adds 40c per serve.

Even though thin, the steaks were perfectly cooked, the satay sauce bought umami, sour and salt to the party and the black rice was a nutty carrier for the other flavors. The Vietnamese/Thai inspired salad contrasted with a sharp sour, but fresh, bite.  A good meal for $8.13 per serve.

Lunch

For lunch we sliced up some of the corned beef and built it on top of a wrap smeared with mayo and shrimp sauce (for a fake Russian dressing) and topped with sliced Swiss cheese. We stuffed the wrap too full, but otherwise they were excellent.

• The quesadilla tortillas were $1.99 for a pack of six, or 34c per serve
• The corned beef serve is $3.54 and we used about ¾ of a serve in each wrap, or $2.65 per serve
• Gouda slices are 12 for $3.99 or 17c per serve
• The Bubbies (natural) Sauerkraut is expensive at $6.99 or 22c per serve, but it is a very superior sauerkraut without the bad odor of most sauerkraut
• Add 20c for mayo and shrimp sauce.

A tasty wrap for $3.58 per serve.

Dinner

The combination of cooler weather, and thin pork chops, made pan frying a better choice. We served with more of the Japanese Ratatouille from a couple of nights ago.

• The pork chops were $6.22 per serve
• The ratatouille is $2.02 per serve.

A filling and satisfying meal with a good meat/vegetable balance for $8.24 per serve.

Lunch

Shopping for dinner required a trip to Whole Foods, so some sushi was on the agenda for lunch.

Spicy tuna rolls and Firecracker rolls averaged $9.19 per serve.

Dinner

Foodie Greg’s birthday tradition has been top round corned beef – what we call silverside in Australia – with a traditional boiled dinner: potatoes and cabbage.

A simple New England Boiled Dinner, it is very tasty. We served with an onion horseradish white sauce.

• The corned beef was $28.31 and we’ll get eight serves, or $3.54 per serve
• Russet potatoes were 75c or 38c per serve
• An organic green cabbage was $2.49 but only used half for this meal, or 63c per serve
• Heavy cream was $1.79 and we used half or 45c per serve
• Add 40c for horseradish,  flour and butter.

A very satisfying, comforting meal for $5.40 per serve.

Lunch

A gray, rainy day is obviously a pie day, and today we enjoyed Trader Joe’s Steak and Stout Pies again, for $3.25 per serve.

Dinner

A pound of ground pork always comes in our Prather Ranch meat delivery, and we’ve been honing a few favorite ways to use it, including tonight’s Turmeric Coconut Curry with Pork.

We substituted bok choy for the cabbage because we have it (and it tastes better).

• The pork came from our Prather Ranch meat delivery – 1 lb of ground pork cost $8.31 or $$2.08 per serve
• Add 45c for onion, ginger and turmeric
• Coconut milk was $1.89 or 48c per serve
• Bok Choy was $1.29 and we used half, or 65c per serve
• Almond flakes were $2.49 but we used only 1/5 or 25c per serve
• Add 44c per serve for black rice.

Dinner tonight had a good balance of heat. The bok choy provided a nice textural alternative to the pork and rice. A decent meal for $4.35 per serve.

Lunch

We ended up at The Country Deli for lunch where Philip had his usual marinated skirt steak with eggs, while Foodie Greg had a pastrami on rye with fries.

Lunch at The Country Deli runs $21.62 per person (average) with tax and tip.

Dinner

After the meat heavy lunch, we went meat-light for dinner with a new recipe: Creamy Chickpeas and Prosciutto. We opted to not serve with any bread because we didn’t need the extra food.

There was some discussion on the recipe’s page about the calorie count for the meal. The two calorie heavy components are the flat bread and chickpeas. Most cans of chickpeas do run 12-1300 calories, but the Simple Truth brand (Kroger/Ralph’s) we got comes in at 450 calories for the can, reducing the overall calorie count to around 780.

Foodie Philip had two eggs, while Greg had one.

• Pastured eggs are 50c each or 75c average per serve
• The beans were $1.00 or 50c per serve
• The prosciutto was $5.99 but we used ⅔ or $2.00 per serve
• Heavy cream was $1.79 and we used half or 45c per serve
• Add 30c for tomato paste and smoked paprika.

Dinner tonight was better than expected! It could have used  more tomato paste, and perhaps a little chopped tomatoes for a little acid, but overall, it is a good dish and well worth the $4.00 per serve it cost.

 

Lunch

A ripe avocado has to be eaten almost immediately so we decided to mix with some boneless, skinless sardines and sprinkle heavily with chili lime seasoning before toasting.

• Two slices of bread are 32c per serve
• The avocado was 89c or 45c per serve
• The sardines are $1.99 a can or $1.00 per serve
• Add 35c for butter and chili lime.

Without the chili lime ‘salt’ this would have been very boring, but the hint of acid works well, creating a decent sandwich for $2.12 per serve.

Dinner

We had some pork cutlets in our Prather Ranch meat box, so we decided on a stir fry with eggplant, bell pepper, bok choy and a Trader Joe’s green chili simmer sauce.

The recipe was Foodie Greg’s invention and made four good serves.

• The pork was $15.53 or $3.88 per serve
• Bok Choy was $2.77 and we used 2/3 or 46c per serve
• The eggplant was $1.05, or 26c per serve
• The bell pepper was $1.25, or 32c per serve
• The simmer sauce was $1.99 or 50c per serve
• Add 33c for brown rice.

The simmer sauce was disappointing as it lacked any real spice or flavor, so overall the meal was okay, without being great, for $5.75 per serve. We’ve added some fish sauce to the remainder to amp up the flavor.

Lunch

After buying some more tabouli, we were ready to use the balance of the gyros meat. Today we finished baking a Trader Joe’s par baked panini rustic roll each and stuffed it with the meat and tabouli. It was pretty tasty.

• The fully cooked sliced gyro/yeros meat is $3.99 per 10 oz pack. There are really four serves, so $1.00 per serve
• We served 1/2 of the tabouli salad or 67c per serve
• The  par baked rustic roll is 63c per serve.

Lunch today was pretty good for $2.30 per serve.

Dinner

A simple dinner of brined and roasted pork loin, roast kabocha squash and a kale salad with lemon dressing. The pork loin was drizzled with a little balsamic reduction.

The pork loin came from our Prather Ranch meat delivery. Like almost all pork and poultry that we cook, we brined the pork loin for just over two hours. Brining makes the meat juicier and protects against over cooking.

We cooked the pork loin to 135 F and rested it for 15 minutes before carving.

• The pork loin was $14.73 or $7.37 per serve
• The salad kit was $3.00 or $1.50 per serve
• The kabocha squash was $1.98 and we used half, or 50c per serve
• Add 25c for seasoning.

Dinner was a good balance between the salad, squash and pork. We like the skin crispy on the squash because it gives a good texture contrast with the more starchy squash. The slightly tart lemon dressing worked well with the squash, as did the pork. Each component worked well alone, or in any combination. A winning meal for $9.62 per serve.

Lunch

Another cold and dreary day so we decided to finish the split pea soup and serve with ‘fry bread’ (a buttered piece of bread in the panini press).

• The soup cost $0.68 per serve
• The bread (with butter) is 16c per serve
• Add 25c for butter.

Lunch today was a good call on a rainy day for $1.10 per serve.

Dinner

We still had two serves of the Horseradish Sweet Potato mash, so Greg decided on “bangers and mash,” or in this case Trader Joe’s excellent bratwurst with the sweet potato mash and onion gravy.

• The bratwurst are $3.49 for the pack, or $1.75 per serve
• The sweet potato mash was 59c per serve
• The onions were 22c or 11c per serve
• Butter adds 20c per serve
• Chicken stock adds 50c per serve
• Add 15c for seasoning.

We expected the bratwurst and mash to be good, but the star of this meal was definitely that onion gravy. A simple, but good, meal for $3.30 per serve.