Category: Daily recipe

Lunch

We were in Burbank. We were buying something at Ikea. Having lunch there was inevitable!

Swedish Meatball lunch, with soup and drink, is $9.30 with tax.

Dinner

As an antidote to meatball overload, we opted for Ratatouille for dinner. It probably breaks a French law but we cooked in duck fat, not olive oil. I’m good with breaking that law!

We scaled the recipe down, and used many of the leftovers from our kebabs. The recipe makes about six serves.

• Two bell peppers were $2.63 but we used only one, or 22c per serve
• Baby bella mushrooms were $2.49 but we used the second half or 21c per serve
• The eggplant was $3.06 and we used the remaining 3/4, or 25c per serve
• .46 lb of roma tomatoes cost $1.76, or 30c per serve
• Zucchini squash was 69c or 12c per serve
• Organic eggs are 50c each. Foodie Philip had two, Greg one, or an average of 75c per serve
• Add 45c for garlic, onion and herbs
• An English muffin is 50c.

Tonight’s dinner was delicious, although a little salt was needed that wasn’t included in the recipe. At $2.80 it’s a great way to feed a crowd.

Lunch

We were shooting another Lunch with Philip and Greg and our guest chose Sushi Roku in Pasadena. The atmosphere was appropriate, and the food – especially the eggplant in our bento boxes – was excellent.

Lunch was $19.60 per serve, with tax and tip.

Dinner

We had some cross-rib steaks in our freezer and decided to make a ‘beef and burgundy’ style casserole. It was partially successful, but lacked a lot of the depth of a real beef and burgundy.

• The .69 lb cross rib steak was $5.98, or $2.99 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
• We used the second half of the baby bella mushrooms from the kebabs: $2.49 or 63c per serve
• One cup of red wine is around $1.33 or 67c a serve
• Egg noodles are $1.99 for the pack, but we only used half, or 50c per serve.

Dinner tonight could have had a bit more flavor. It was okay, but lacking excitement, for $5.00 per serve.

Lunch

With no advance planning, we decided on our take on a quesadilla for lunch.

• One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve
• Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 26c
• A very generous serve of salsa is 20c per serve
• 2 oz of cheddar split between two is 50c per serve

Lunch today cost $1.46 per serve.

Dinner

We decided on a meat free meal, and chose a Chowhound recipe for Grilled Halloumi and Vegetable Kebabs, except we dropped the tomato sauce in favor of one made of hummus and lemon juice.

While the flavors were there, this was pretty much a disaster of a cooking method. We felt that the recipe had been created without being tested, as the unevenness of cooking on the vegetables, combined with halloumi’s inability to stay skewered left us with fried halloumi separate from the grilled vegetables. This fried halloumi was better than the two pieces that remained in the kebab that were only cooked on the edge.

The hummus and lemon sauce worked really well with the vegetables. Next time we try this recipe, we won’t do the skewers: instead we’ll cook the vegetables and cheese directly on the grill plate.

A side rant: supermarket receipts from Smart and Final and Ralph’s are terrible. Smart and Final put the measure ahead of the item identification making it seem like the wrong item; Ralph’s (Kroger) abbreviate the item names so much it’s often impossible to identify what item is being referred to. Thankfully Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have readable receipts.

• Two bell peppers were $2.63 but we used only one, or 66c per serve
• Baby bella mushrooms were $2.49 but we used only half or 63c per serve
• The eggplant was $3.06 but we used only about 1/4 or 38c per serve
• A lemon for the sauce was 79c or 40c per serve
• Hummus for the sauce was 33c per serve
• Halloumi $3.99 or $1 a serve
• And the rice: 33c a serve.

Dinner tonight tasted great despite the cooking challenges, and cost $3.73 per serve.

 

Lunch

Although it was a Burbank Monday, various scheduling changes made it necessary to ‘brown bag’ it. Why not a smoked salmon bagel?

• Smoked salmon $5.99 for the 4oz pack or $3 a serve
• The pack of six onion bagels is $1.99 or 33c per serve
• Cream cheese is about 60c a serve
• 1 lb of Persian cucumbers was $1.99, of which one went into this meal, or 12c per serve
• Add 5c for capers.

Lunch today cost $4.10 per serve.

Dinner

When your meat delivery from last month still includes ground beef, why not meatloaf? This time paired with Gnocchi in a cream and gorgonzola sauce, with asparagus and peas. We substituted blue cheese for gorgonzola because we had it available.

The meatloaf and gnocchi will do two meals: four serves in total.

• 2 lbs of dry aged ground beef were $18.08 or $4.52 per serve.
• Onion and seasonings add 25c per serve
• The gnocchi was $1.68 from Trader Joes, or 42c per serve
• Chopped and trimmed asparagus was $3.99 or $1.00 per serve
• Peas were $1.39 or 35c per serve
• Blue cheese comes in a $6.99 tub, but we used so little, it comes to 22c a serve.

Dinner tonight cost $6.34 a serve.

Lunch

Finishing up in Burbank at lunch time, not far from Popeye’s led to the inevitable: fried chicken take out. It’s only 20 minutes home.

• Eight pieces of chicken were $9.99, but that makes four serves in all, making each serve $2.50
• The large Red beans and rice was $3.99 and we shared that for $2 a serve.

Lunch was $4.50 a serve.

Dinner

Top sirloin with a Thai salad. Foodie Greg had been wanting to try this Thai  Sweet Chili Dressing, which we paired with a variation on Jamie Oliver’s Crunch Thai Salad. Mostly we just left stuff out of the salad, and even then it made four very generous serves, two of which are waiting to be eaten.

• 0.8lb of Top Sirloin is $11.43 or $5.72 per serve. Because it is dry aged, we – once again – cooked to blue.
• Sugar snap peas are $2.49 and we used half, or 63c per serve
• Mint is $1.79 or 30c per serve
• An organic bell pepper was $1.63 and we used half, or 41c per serve
• Mung beans sprints are $1.49 and we used a tiny fraction, or 10c per serve
• A Persian cucumber is 30c, or 15c per serve
• Green onions cost 79c for the bunch and we used about 1/3 or 14c per serve
• Add 45c for the dressing ingredients
• We used about 1/4 of the $6.99 pack of Chili Lime Cashews, or $1.17 per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $8.47, and was way too much tasty food for us.