Category: Daily recipe

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.

Lunch

Another Burbank Monday and Philip had his usual In and Out Burger Double Double for $4.08.

Dinner

After the pork last night, it’s time to revisit the Cioppino by adding a pound of shrimp to the mix and gently bringing it to temperature.

• 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
• The pack of shrimp cost $6.99 or $3.50 per serve
• Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $3.49 for the loaf . We used about 2/3 for the meal, or 78c per serve

The shrimp was perfectly cooked and the meal cost $6.74 per serve.

Lunch

Is there a better sandwich than a BLT? The smoke and salt from the bacon, as well as that meaty umami, a little acid from the tomato, a wet crunch from the lettuce and a little mayonnaise to keep the bread dry and add a little creaminess. On a par-baked roll right out of the oven, it was a great lunch. We served two rolls each.

• The par baked rolls are 63c each
• 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
• Lettuce and eggless mayo add another 25c per serve.

Lunch today was a big serve for $3.14 each.

Dinner

Two thin cut pork chops from our Prather Ranch delivery had been dry brining overnight. Tonight we smoked them and paired with caramelized pearl onions and apple, braised in apple cider. To offset some of the sweetness of the cider we swapped 1/4 for apple cider vinegar, which definitely offset the sweetness!

Because they were thin cut, we didn’t want to risk over-cooking by frying them off for a better appearance. The result of the salty brine and smokey preparation was very hammy and delicious.

• The 12.7 oz of pork chops were $9.95 or $4.98 per serve
• An Envy apple was $1.08 or 54c per serve
• The frozen pearl onions were $1.69 or 85c per serve
• The sparkling cider was $2.89 for the bottle, but we needed 1/3 of that for the recipe (a little less because we offset with the apple cider vinegar) or 48c per serve
• A little fresh rosemary came from our herb garden.

Tonight’s restaurant-worthy meal cost just $6.85 and a little prep time and was a great meal. The pearl onion and apple worked really well as a variation on the “apple and pork” cliche.

Lunch

For lunch we added a burrito stop to our shopping trip.

Lunch today was $6.00 per serve – a slight increase.

Dinner

Dinner at home with a friend, so we cooked the cioppino base and then added mussels, scallops 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 $1.33 for each very generous serve
• The pack of frozen scallops was $8.99 or $3.00 per 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.
• Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $3.49 for the loaf . We used about 2/3 for the meal, or 78c per serve

Dinner tonight cost $9.26 a serve with a very generous amount of broth left to cook up the next meal and much more generous servings of mussels, scallop and fish than a more expensive restaurant meal.

Lunch

A cold and somewhat windy day so we went for a soup option: Progresso Manhattan Island Clam Chowder – a clam chowder without dairy. This is a simple ‘heat and serve’ soup without adding water or dairy.

One $2.00 can makes one serve.

Dinner

A nice warming beef  beef massaman curry seemed appropriate and we used for the cold evening, and to use beef chuck eye steak from our Prather Ranch meat bounty! While this would normally be done with stewing meat we sliced the raw beef and gently simmered it to temperature in the curry at the end.

Beef massaman is warming without being too spicy. We use a curry base we buy from Amazon for this simple, quick meal.

• 19 oz of aged chuck eye steak was $11.33 or $5.67 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
• The bunch of carrots was 89c but we used half in this dish, or 23c per serve.

Dinner tonight was perfect for the weather: delicious and warming but a little expensive at $9.45.

Lunch

A nice sunny day before the wind kicked in, so we toasted an onion bagel each, and filled it with avocado, capers and smoked salmon. Delicious.

• An onion bagel is 50c
• Salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 a serve
• The avocado was 35c per serve
• Add 5c for capers.

Lunch today was generous and delicious for $3.90 per serve, but would have been better with a little thinly sliced shallot.

Dinner

Once again we had Emeril Lagasse’s Stir Fried Beef and Broccoli but sliced up a top sirloin for the beef and used udon noodles. This is a very simple dish, but very tasty. We upped the garlic and ginger in the sauce and replaced the honey with sweet chili sauce. We don’t mind a bit of spicy heat!

• The broccoli florets where $3.49 or $1.75 a serve.
• The top sirloin came from our farm-direct meat delivery for $11.43 or $5.72 per serve.
• The ginger and garlic was 38c or 19c per serve
• The noodles were $1.99 for the pack, or $1.00 per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $8.66 per serve.