Category: Daily recipe

Lunch

Another Burbank Monday and foodie Philip once again goes for the Double Double Animal Style at In & Out Burger.

• Double Double is $4.03 with tax

Dinner

A second adventure with a Reuben casserole. Truth be told, we got the corned beef with this in mind, as it was so good last time.

It was every bit as good this time as it was back on March 15.

The recipe makes six good size serves. We did try serving it as if it were four serves, but neither of us ate more than the smaller portion.

• Six slices of rye bread are roughly half the $1.99 loaf, or 17c per serve
• The other half of the corned beef is $12.90, or $2.15 per serve
• Trader Joe’s have a Sauerkraut with Persian Cucumbers which combines two ingredients for $3.99 a jar, or 67c per serve.
• Packaged, shredded Swiss Gryere $4.99 or 83c per serve. Although we used the full packet, it was probably closer to three cups than four.
• A pint of half and half is $1.49 and half was used or 13c per serve.
• Organic eggs are 50c each or 25c per serve.
• Greg made “thousand island” dressing with a mix of mayonnaise and shrimp sauce, for about 20c per serve
• We skipped the caraway seeds for taste reasons but the mustard adds another 15c per serve.

This dish is a great way to reuse corned beef, or to have a reason to get a corned beef should in the first place. Dinner tonight cost us $4.55.

Lunch

For lunch today we had wild caught smoked salmon and avocado on an English muffin.

• The wild caught smoked salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 a serve
• An English Muffin is 50c
• The avocado works out to 50c per serve.

Today’s gourmet lunch cost $4.00 per serve.

Dinner

Tonight’s dinner is a play on the traditional ‘Irish’ boiled dinner of corned beef, boiled cabbage and boiled potatoes. Except we’re swapping out the boiled potatoes for Crash Hot Potatoes, and substituting a beet sauerkraut for the cabbage.

Technically we’re staying within the original: potatoes are boiled before being baked, and sauerkraut is cabbage.

Because the corned beef is organic, it has not been treated with sodium nitrate, so it has a more gray appearance than meat treated with nitrates.

• The corned beef came from Whole Foods and was $25.80. We used half for this meal, or $6.45 a serve
• I allowed 55c for potatoes
• Cream, butter and flour run another 50c per serve
• The Wildbrine Red Beet and Red Cabbage salad is $6.99 for the container. We used half or $1.75 a serve.

Tonight’s dinner was a great riff on the standard boiled meal and cost us $9.25 per serve.

Lunch

For lunch we resisted a favorite: our take on a quesadilla now that we have access to the flatbread again. Today we tried Trader Joe’s Refried Black Beans with Jalappeno Peppers and it was very good. It made up for the lack of Fontera salsa

• One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve
• Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 26c
• Fontera salsa is expensive (and tasty) at $4.69 a jar, but sadly it was almost empty so 5c per serve
• 2 oz of cheddar split between two is 50c per serve

Lunch today cost $1.30 per serve and came together in about 10 minutes. Frying in bacon fat is recommended.

Dinner

The Lemon Chicken Orzo soup is close to being our most-cooked dinner. It’s a great dish as it take little time to prepare because it uses pre-cooked chicken. The meyer lemon is again perfect for this dish because it lacks the extreme sourness of most lemon. The recipe made four serves.

For the observant, this is basically just a grown up version of chicken noodle soup!

We served with a par-baked Roast Garlic Bread. And, since it was National Gin and Tonic Day, a G&T with meyer lemon was the perfect pairing. Even when it’s not national G&T day!

• Carrots cost 25c or 8c per serve
• Celery, thyme, oil and garlic adds 20c per serve
• Chicken broth cost 40c per serve
• The store-bought rotisserie chicken breast is $2.25 each leg and thigh, or $1.13 per serve
• The orzo is $1.42 for a 1 lb box, but only half was used for our three serves, or 24c per serve
• Add in 15 c for the other seasonings, etc.
• Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $3.99 for the loaf (expensive for bread but delicious) or $1.33 per serve

Dinner tonight cost $3.53 per serve!

Lunch

Back to our chicken wraps.

• Split four ways, the $9.99 chicken is $2.50 per serve, or $1.25 today.
• One quarter of the $2.74 salad is 69c
• The flatbread is 50c
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve

Lunch today: $2.77 per serve

Dinner

Tonight we decided on a beef massaman curry based on the eggplant version of a few days ago. Like the eggplant version, this makes four serves.

Again our beef comes from out Prather Ranch monthly meat delivery. While this means we certainly pay more than minimum for our meat, we know we are supporting small farmers, and that the animals have a decent life instead of the concentrated farming operations that allow for the extremely cheap meat in the US.

• One pound of ‘Beef for Stew’ cost us $9.79 or $2.45 per serve
• Red potatoes – 38c or 9c per serve
• A can if coconut milk is $1.59 or 40c per serve
• The organic broccoli was $3.49 or 87c per serve
• The pack of peanuts was $3.29 but we only used 1/4 of the pack, or 41c per serve
• Add 15c for fish sauce and other seasonings
• The sprouted brown rice was 66c per serve

Dinner tonight cost us $4.94 per serve.

Lunch

Finally we’ve found a local source for wraps for our lunch! Back to our routine of supermarket chicken and salad in a wrap.

• We chose a more expensive chicken, largely because all the $6.99 chickens were overcooked. Split four ways, the $9.99 chicken is $2.50 per serve, or $1.25 today.
• One quarter of the $2.74 salad is 69c
• The flatbread is 50c
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve

Lunch today: $2.77 per serve

Dinner

Nigel Lawson’s watermelon, feta and black olive salad is absolutely amazing. It’s a summer regular and very, very good.

• At $4.99 the mini watermelon is more than enough for four serves, or $1.25 per serve
• Feta comes in a $6.99 tub and we used the balance, or about $1.00 per serve
• Pitted olives come in $2.99 jars and one quarter was used, or 38c per serve
• The red onion is 52c or 13c per serve
• About $1 of the $1.29 pack of mint was used, or 25c per serve
• Olive oil and seasonings add another 20c per serve.

Dinner tonight (and tomorrow night) cost $3.21 per serve. It’s an excellent dish and every time we serve it for someone, they want the recipe.

Lunch

Being Burbank Monday, foodie Philip had an In and Out Burger Double Double.

• Double Double $4.03 including tax.

Dinner

Roast Cauliflower with Creamy Brie Mushroom Sauce seems like it should be a winner, but it was strangely disappointing. Pairing the sauce with the roast cauliflower was probably a bad choice: it would pair better with a fairly plain pasta.

We amped up the amount and type of mushroom, and dropped the cream because it was forgotten. There are four serves of the sauce, but only two of the cauliflower.

• The cauliflower was $1.61 or 80c per serve
• The brie was $5.84 but only half was used, or  73c per serve
• Sliced crimini mushrooms $2.29 or 58c per serve
• Shitake mushrooms (don’t use the stems) $2.99 or 75c per serve
• Add 20c for onion, garlic and herbs
• We only used a small amount of parmesan; about 15c per serve

Dinner tonight cost $3.21 per serve, but wasn’t our best dish to date. The cauliflower, which is delicious baked, conflicted with the cheesy mushroom sauce rather than complement it.

Lunch

It’s been a while but it was time to try out our nearest Popeye’s chicken. Unfortunately the order was wrong and we got a mix of dark and white meat, not all dark as ordered! With that in mind and an inconvenient location, we probably won’t go back.

• Red Beans and Rice is $3.99 or $2 a serve
• The chicken is $4.00 per serve due to a combination of the wrong order, and higher prices at this location.

Lunch today was $6.00 per serve. We’ve heard of a more local “southern” food place, so we’ll most likely check that out as an alternative.

Dinner

And interesting mix of a Greek-focused potato salad with feta and olives, and a quintessential Australian dish: rissoles. For the uninitiated these are small, individual portioned meatloaves.

Rissoles are a simple recipe and very Australian. The recipe makes eight rissoles, or in our house, two serves! Rissoles are fried, not baked and the dusting of flour helps form a crust, which we all know is the best part of a meatloaf!

The Red Potato, olive, feta and mint salad is a great accompaniment.

The ground beef came direct from the farm in our Prather Ranch meat delivery. The potatoes came direct from farm via our friend’s CSA box. We sometime inherit vegetables when she has to leave town on various business trips.

• Dry aged 85/15 ground beef $8.57 or $4.29 per serve
• 8 oz Panko breadcrumbs are $2.99 and we used half, or 75c per serve
• A pastured egg is 50c or 25c per serve
• The onion is 6c per serve.
• The potatoes came free, but would normally add 30c per serve
• Feta comes in a $6.99 tub, but we used so little, it comes to 22c a serve
• Pitted olives come in $2.99 jars and one quarter was used, or 38c per serve.

The perfect sauce is my brother’s home-made tomato relish, another Australian tradition.

Although the photo shows a serving of three, foodie Philip managed to finish the others before the end of the night! Dinner tonight was $6.25 and very nostalgic.