The semiSerious Foodies

Lunch

Finish a par-baked panini roll and the stuff it with home made pulled pork and top with pickled onion!

• Par-baked roll is 55c
• A serve of pulled pork is $3.89 or $1.95 per serve
• Pickled onion or bread and butter pickles adds 20c per serve.

Lunch today was tasty and cost $2.70 per serve.

Dinner

It’s been a long time since we’ve had Jambalaya – either at home or out – and this recipe avoids the “stuck to the bottom” problem a lot of jambalaya suffers from, by cooking in the oven.

We dropped the chicken, but used a chicken andouille sausage and fresh shrimp, which is added fresh for each meal. It turned out well.

We made a half batch, which makes four serves

• 1 lb of shrimp is $6.99, but we only used half, or $1.75 per serve
• Instead of andouille sausage, we used an Applegate Farm sausage from Whole Foods for $8.99 or $1.13 per serve
• Canned fire roasted tomatoes cost $1.69 or 43c per serve
• Bell pepper was $1.00 or 25c per serve
• Scallions, onion, garlic  and herbs adds 35c per serve
• Tomato paste adds 12c per serve
• Rice adds 35c per serve.

A satisfying, if a little hot in this iteration, meal with perfectly cooked shrimp, which was achieved by waiting until the meal was ready, then adding the peeled shrimp to the top and back in the over for 5 minutes. Not bad for $4.38 per serve.

Lunch

It was back to Burbank Mondays, so Philip had his usual In and Out Double Double, animal style for $4.08.

Dinner

We have pulled pork pulling on our taste buds, so a simple quesadilla made with flatbread, topped with a fried egg or two makes a great tasting, but simple, meal.

• The flatbreads add 50c per serve
• Pastured eggs are 50c each or $1.00 per serve
• Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 26c
• A serve of pulled pork is $3.89 or $1.95 per serve
• A smear of siracusa and roasted garlic BBQ sauce adds 15c per serve
• 2 oz of cheddar split between two is 50c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was definitely one of the better ‘quesadillas’ that we’ve made, for $4.36 per serve.

Lunch

Sunday lunch deserves to be special, and eggs are associated with breakfast, so smoked salmon scrambled eggs on rye toast completely met the brief!

• Smoked salmon $5.99 for the 4oz pack or $3.00 a serve
• Pastured eggs are 50c each, or $1.00 per serve
• A shallot adds 10c per serve
• The rye toast adds 33c per serve.

Lunch was delicious and cost $4.43 per serve.

Dinner

After an extravagant lunch, a simple dinner of the remaining chicken legs steamed over brown rice pilaf perfectly fit the bill.

• The thigh and drumstick from the supermarket roast chicken are $2.00 per serve
• Brown rice is 50c per serve
• Shelled edamame was $1.29 or 65c per serve
• We used water instead of broth
• The left over esquites was a single serve split between us, or 73c per serve.

Dinner tonight was a simple, but tasty meal for $3.88 per serve.

Lunch

With a chicken breast still remaining, we reverted to chicken wraps for lunch.

• The flatbread is 50c per serve
• The roast chicken is $7.99 for the bird, which works out at $1.00 per serve
• We served 1/4 of the tabouli salad or 67c per serve
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.50 per serve.

Dinner

Our meat box had a Boston Butt included so pulled pork it is! Paired with Esquites (Mexican corn salad) and white rice to absorb the run-off from the pork. Yum.

• At $21.04 for just over 2 lbs it makes six good serves, or $3.50 per serve
• Onion and garlic for the pork adds 25c per serve
• Chicken stock adds 14c per serve
• White rice adds 35c per serve
• For the corn we used Trader Joes Fire Roasted frozen corn to get grill flavor, which cost $2.49 for a pound, and made four serves, or 63c per serve
• Unfortunately we couldn’t find cotija cheese, so we settled for a different Mexican cheese, without as much flavor for $2.79, of which we used about 1/3 or 23c per serve
• 1 lb of limes we $1.29 and we used 1/6 or 5c per serve
• Add 30c for seasoning and oil
• Add 30c for the pickled onion.

Dinner tonight was excellent for $5.75. The esquites would have been better with cotija but it was still really good.

Lunch

Uncertain of what to have for lunch, we decided on smoked salmon on an onion bagel.

• Smoked salmon $5.99 for the 4oz pack or $3.00 a serve
• The pack of six onion bagels is $1.99 or 33c per serve
• Instead of soft cheese we used a kefir dip with shallot that is $5.49 for the tub, but we used only 1/10 per serve or 55c
• A Persian cucumber is 65c or 33c per serve
• Add 15c for capers and shallot.

Lunch today cost $4.36 a serve.

Dinner

Think cut heritage pork chops just taste better, as the fat hasn’t been bred out of the heritage breeds. Paired with a melon, cucumber and feta salad they make a very satisfying meal, although we’re still somewhat skeptical that a honeydew melon makes a good salad ingredient.

• The pork chops were $10.19 or $5.10 per serve
• The honeydew melon was $5.00 or $2.50 per serve
• The cucumber was 65c or 33c per serve
• The feta in brine was $6.50 and 1/4 went into this salad, or 82c per serve
• The mint came from our garden.

The pork chops were perfectly cooked on our griddle and the whole meal came to $8.85 per serve.

Lunch

Seeking some variation on our short list of lunch ideas, we changed it up using our supermarket roast chicken with guacamole and tabouli.

• This time only the smaller $7.99 chickens were available so each quarter is $2.00, or $1.00 per serve of half a chicken breast
• The baguette was 89c or 45c per serve
• Tabouli is $2.69 for the container, and we serve 1/4 each, or 68c per serve
• The guacamole was $3.49 and we used 1/4 or 44c.

Lunch today was pretty good for $2.57, although we’ve had better baguettes.

Dinner

Our Prather Ranch meat box arrived and we immediately pulled out a very thick cut dry aged NY strip steak that we seared on the griddle (over our induction cooktop).

Served with a salad of mixed greens that included beet leaves, smoked beets and a soft cheese.

• The NY Strip Steak was $19.99 or $10 per serve
• The salad green mix was $1.69 or 85c per serve
• Smokey BBQ beets were $2.50 (on special) or $1.25 per serve (and worth is on special)
• We were hoping for cotija cheese but had to settle for a different Mexican cheese, without as much flavor for $2.79, of which we used about 1/3 or 47c per serve.

Dinner tonight was good, and would have been better if we’d found cotija cheese, for $12.57 per serve.

Lunch

As we still had some Popeyes chicken, we reheated that and served with a homemade coleslaw.

• 10 pieces of dark and spicy chicken is $16.99 or $3.54 a serve with tax
• Shredded cabbage was $1.29 or 65c per serve
• The carrots adds 22c per serve
• Add 15c for dressing ingredients.

The chicken reheats well, and coleslaw is a traditional partner, for $4.56 per serve.

Dinner

A new recipe for us: Roasted Eggplant and Brown Rice Bowl with Turmeric Tahini.

• The eggplant was $2.22 or $1.11 per serve
• Brown rice adds 35c per serve
• Pomegranate jewels cost 99c for the pack, but we used only 1/3 or 17c per serve
• Shelled edamame was $1.29 but we used only 1/8 or or about 10c per serve
• Add 50c for sauce ingredients.

Dinner tonight was tasty and satisfying, and a nice no meat balance to a fried chicken lunch, for $2.23. It was certainly colorful!

Lunch

Foodie Philip was in Burbank and had lunch with a friend at a Japanese restaurant, where the ‘Sushi and Sashimi’ lunch special was the choice. Lunch was $23.48 with tax and tip.

Foodie Greg’s lunch cost $1.66.

Dinner

This is a great ‘recipe’ to use when you have lots of left-over vegetables from other dishes. The givens in this version are the yakisoba noodles and ground pork. We had carrot, snap peas and cabbage remaining, so that’s what went in.

We used the flavor pouch from the noodles, but it was a serious disappointment. I think we should have put together an Asian style dressing of our own.

• One pound of ground pork from our Prather Ranch delivery cost $7.99 or a generous half pound of pork per serve for $4.00
• The pack of baby spinach was $1.99 or 50c per serve from what was remaining
• The shredded green cabbage was $1.29 for the pack, or 33c per serve
• The bunch of carrots was 89c but we used half in this dish, or 22c per serve
• Left over sugar snap peas or 50c per serve
• The noodles are $3.19 for the pack, or $1.60 per serve.

Dinner tonight needed a little more ‘zing’ to the sauce, as I’d hope for a little better for $7.19 a serve.