Aug 14: Double Double; Beef Massaman Curry

Lunch

Back to Burbank Mondays so Philip had his usual In and Out Double Double Animal Style for $4.26.

Dinner

Beef Chuck steak still in the freezer from our meat delivery, so  beef massaman curry even though the weather is anything but cold! We use a curry base we buy from Amazon for this simple, quick meal for two.

  • The cross rib steak was $6.17 or $3.09 per serve
  • The curry is $3.38 per can or $1.69 per serve
  • Coconut milk is $1.69 per can or 85c per serve
  • Peanuts were $2.99 but we only used half, or 75c per serve
  • Potato adds 25c per serve
  • Peal onion adds 20c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was $7.08 per serve and very tasty, as always.

Aug 13: Airport Restaurant; Bratwurst and Zucchini Soup

Lunch

Our tradition on the way home from Colorado is to stop at the Timberline restaurant in Concourse C of Denver International. Foodie Philip had elk medallions, which were very good and served with “seasonal vegetables” that were grilled and therefore had more flavor than boiled or steamed vegetables. The meal was finished with a very generous serve of garlic mashed potato.

Foodie Greg had an excellent chicken, apple and brie sandwich that he very much enjoyed. Both servings were more than we could eat for $25.15 per serve including tax and tip.

Dinner

After travel we looked to the freezer for inspiration, and left over bratwurst and zucchini soup jumped out at us. As it was last Sunday, the soup cost $1.73 per serve.

Aug 12: Steak, Grilled Zuccini on Potato Salad; Chicken Pot Stickers

Lunch

In search of the right food brunch became  lunch, in Breckenridge CO, at The Canteen. Foodie Greg was still recovering from his turn at the food poisoning, so only Philip ate.

My order of a 10 oz sirloin was cooked as ordered and well seasoned. The zuccini was grilled on skewers over an open flame and had good flavor. All served on a generous bed of a superior potato salad.

More food than I could eat for $30.64 with tax and tip.

Dinner

With uncertain appetites we stopped in at a supermarket and picked up frozen meals for dinner, with the Foodies’ choice a chicken potsticker meal for $2.95 each with tax.

 

Aug 9: Heuvos Rancheros; Burgers

Lunch

We were out exploring the local area and settled on lunch at the Log Cabin Cafe in Frisco, CO, where we had some pretty good heuvos rancheros for $11.40 per serve with tax and tips.

Dinner

We walked locally to a burger place in Keystone, that will remain unnamed for reasons that will become obvious.

Foodie Greg had an excellent lamb and feta burger while Philip explored a poutine burger with crispy duck skin, duck gravy and cheese curds.

Unfortunately, something went wrong and Philip was violently ill with food poisoning all through the night, and well into the next day!

The meal cost $19.49 per serve, and tasted good.

Aug 8: Breakfast Burrito; Pub Food

Lunch

The Foodies are traveling for a short vacation and decided to eat at Burbank airport for an early brunch.

With very low expectations we decided on a breakfast burrito for $11.97 per serve, and were presently surprised: it was pretty good.

Dinner

After settling in to our accommodation we went exploring and ended up at a local Irish pub for dinner. Foodie Philip had a decent, but not outstanding, fish and chips, while Foodie Greg had a very good lamb burger with goats cheese.

On average our meals were $14.98 per serve.

Aug 7: Double Double; Bratwurst and Zucchini Soup

Lunch

Burbank Monday sees foodie Philip at In and Out Burger for a Double Double, Animal Style for $4.26.

Dinner

A new recipe to use up some zucchini a friend had given us: Bratwurst and Zucchini Soup.

  • The bratwurst are $3.49 for the pack, or 75c per serve
  • The zucchini cost nothing
  • Stock adds 50c per serve
  • Rice adds 33c per serve
  • Add 15c for the other ingredients.

This soup was really good, not because of the recipe, but with the addition of a little more seasoning, it stopped being bland and became delicious for $1.73 per serve.

Aug 6: Smoked Salmon on Rustic Roll; Chuck Eye Steak with Caesar Salad

Lunch

Smoked salmon on a rustic roll, baked to perfection, with neufschatel, capers, shallot and cucumber for Sunday lunch? Why yes please.

The rolls come par baked and frozen but cook up to a good crisp crust with a soft crumb inside.

  • Smoked salmon $5.99 for the 4oz pack or $3.00 a serve
  • Par-baked roll is 63c
  • The soft cheese of choice was Neufschatel at $2.99 for the block, of which we used 1/4 or 38c
  • A Persian cucumber is 40c or 20c per serve
  • Add 15c for capers and shallot.

Lunch today cost $4.36 a serve and was worthy of Sunday lunch.

Dinner

We received a cross rib eye steak in our Prather Ranch meat box, so we grilled it medium rare and pared it with a Caesar Salad.

The cross rib eye if one steak further on from rib eye, so it is almost as good, but not quite, as a rib eye. There are a lot of different muscle groups so it tended to fall apart and need careful trimming, but we agree: not quite as good as rib eye.

Tonight’s variation on the Caesar was to grill halloumi as the “crouton” component. The halloumi tended to melt or burn on the grill and we can’t say it was entirely successful.

  • The cross rib eye was $12.23, quite a lot less than the approximately $20.00 rib eye from the same source, or $6.12 per serve
  • An egg in the dressing is 55c or 28c per serve
  • Organic romaine lettuce was $1.99 or $1.00 per serve
  • Halloumi $3.64 or $1.82 a serve
  • Add 50c for the other dressing ingredients.

All up a very decent meal. Good steak and a great Caesar salad: what more could you want for $9.72 per serve.

Aug 5: Pork Larb and Vietnamese Salad Wrap; Meat Pie with “Aussie” Salad

Lunch

For lunch we reheated the remaining serve(s) of pork larb and combined it with the last bit of the Vietnamese salad in a wrap. It was pretty good.

  • The pork larb was $2.54 per serve
  • The Vietnamese salad was 70c per full serve, or 35c per wrap
  • The wraps are $3.99 for six or 67c each.

Lunch freed up a lot of space in the fridge and cost $3.56 per serve.

Dinner

Another meal celebrating our cultural heritage: meat pies and an Australian style salad! The meat pies came from Bronzed Aussie and are among the best meat pies we’ve ever eaten. Certainly we could not find their equal in Australia last year!

We paired the reheated frozen meat pies with an Australian influenced salad, with a caramelized onion cheddar cubed into the salad, cherry tomatoes, – although to be authentic it should have been quarters of tasteless tomato – pickled beetroot, and iceberg lettuce.

  • At $9.90 each the pies are not cheap but they have a near perfect crust, and a tasty chunky beef stew filling
  • The cheddar was $4.41 or $1.47 per serve as we had three at dinner
  • The beets in vinaigrette were $1.69 and we used about 1/3 or 28c per serve
  • The lettuce was 99c and we used about half tonight, or 17c per serve.
  • Tomatoes were $2.99 and we used about half, or 50c per serve.

Dinner tonight was a perfect reminder of Australia, and because of the quality of ingredients, a really tasty meal, even if it was a slightly indulgent $12.32 per serve.

Aug 4: Vietnamese; Greek Style Tuna Salad

Lunch

Another hardware store trip, so another opportunity to stop for lunch on the way back. Instead of our usual trip to The Country Deli we stopped in at the Vietnamese restaurant where we obtained the bahn mi a few days ago.

Philip had a seafood fried rice, while Greg had the fried pork with rice and salad. Both were good examples of their kind, but we feel there are better options at this restaurant, so we’ll explore further.

Lunch today was $16.62 per serve with tax and tip.

Dinner

Tonight we returned to the Greek style tuna salad the we enjoyed last month. We had a last minute guest for dinner, so we added some garbanzo beans

  • A can of yellowfin tuna costs $3.49, or $2.33 per serve
  • Persian cucumber cost 40c or 13c per serve
  • A bell pepper is 99c or 33c per serve
  • Tomatoes were $2.99 and we used about half, or 50c per serve
  • Pitted olives come in $2.99 jars and one quarter was used, or 25c per serve
  • 1 lb of limes we $1.29 and we used 1/4 or 11c per serve
  • The organic garbanzo beans were $1.00 or 33c per serve
  • Add 25c for the seasonings.

This salad exceeded our expectations. It was much more tasty than the simple ingredients would suggest and it comes in at $4.23 per serve.