Month: January 2016

Jan 20: Quesadilla; Southern sausage beans and rice (repeat)

Lunch

We did this quesadilla for dinner on January 11th. Today’s version has no eggs, and we just used cheddar, so it’s a bit cheaper.

  • One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve
  • Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 33c
  • Fontera salsa is expensive (and tasty) at $4.69 a jar, but it breaks down to 16c a serve
  • 2 oz of cheddar split between two is 50c per serve

Lunch today cost $1.49 per serve and came together in about 10 minutes. We recommend frying in a little bacon fat. (You do save left over bacon fat for these times, don’t you?)

Dinner

Tonight we’re having the third and fourth serves of last night’s Southwest sausage, beans and rice.

Tonight’s dinner (again) cost $3.08 a serve. Being a repeat there is very little effort involved.

There are no healthy foods!

There are nutritionally valuable foods but health is a state of being.

A recent Washington Post article No food is healthy. Not even Kale. has a slightly clickbait headline (as does this post). The point of the article is that no food is – in and of itself – healthy. Eat only one food and you will not remain healthy. We need a balance of nutrition from a variety of food.

What is important is the nutritional value of the food. Our philosophy is to eat a variety of real food, minimally processed.

Jan 19: Chicken wrap; Southern sausage, beans and rice

Lunch

Back to our routine weekday lunch: chicken wraps. This week an Edamame & Bean salad.

  • Roast chicken:$6.99 split four ways and into two serves today: 87c
  • One quarter of the $2.74 salad is 69c
  • The flatbread is 50c
  • Add some hummus at 30c

Lunch today: $2.36 per serve

Dinner

A long term favorite of ours, back when we had a certain pattern to our weekly meals, us Southern sausage, beens and rice. Tuesday was generally a bean dish of some kind. It’s surprising how many cultures have some kind of bean and rice dish: not coincidentally that combined rice and beans have all the amino acids needed for the body to create protein and grow muscle.

The recipe makes four serves and it basically just involves cutting up stuff, opening a couple of cans, and cooking some rice!

  • The Andouille Sausage is the most expensive component at $1.10 per serve. Greg purchased carefully and got a double pack (8 sausages) for the price of a single pack elsewhere. Tonight’s dish only used half the purchase.
  • Bell pepper: 20c per serve
  • Onion: 20c per serve
  • Fire roasted diced tomato (canned): 37c per serve
  • We used kidney beans instead of pinto because they taste better: 40c a serve
  • For the herbs, 15c a serve
  • And the rice: 66c a serve

Dinner tonight cost $3.08 a serve. It’s a very tasty, warming stew with a little heat from the andouille.

Jan 18: Toasted baguette; Dinner out

Lunch

A rather simple lunch using the leftover baguette from yesterday, toasted. Add some cream cheese, tomato and salami for a tasty lunch.

  • 1/4 of the $2.69 baguette went to each serve or 68c
  • One tomato was divided in half for 29c a serve
  • 1/6 of the pack of salami went into a serve: 92c
  • The tub of cream cheese is $3.99, or about 67c a serve

Lunch today was okay, and cost $2.56 a serve.

Dinner

The first time eating out this month: Gordon Birsch for our regular get together with a friend over beers. Tonight we were in the mood for a burger – the first burger of the year:

Gastro Pub

Bacon jam, housemade bleu cheese sauce, mixed greens, tomato, gorgonzola cheese and caramelized onions atop our fresh steakburger

It was a little messy, but really very good. $12.25 on the menu, but with tip and tax closer to $16. We’re still enjoying the festbier – one of our favorite seasonal beers there.

Our all time favorite burger has no steak, substituting a portobello mushroom for the protein. We should make it for you some time.

Jan 17: “Grazing” lunch; Lamb chop with double potato and halloumi bake

Lunch

We had, what we call a ‘grazing lunch’. Various things you can top a slice of baguette with: tomato, cheddar or liverwurst. Serve yourself as you want, what you want.

  • 1/4 of the $2.69 baguette went to each serve or 68c
  • One tomato was divided in half for 40c a serve
  • We used about half the $4 block of cheese, or $1 a serve
  • We used about 1/3 of the $3.20 liverwurst, or 55c a serve

Lunch today cost $2.63 a serve. We rediscovered our love of liverwurst when in Munich last September.

Dinner

The protein tonight is two small Lamb shoulder chops which were grilled outdoors. After last night’s large meat serve, tonight we have about 4.5 oz each. Almost ‘meat light!’ A fairly fast grill over high heat for lamb.

With that is an old favorite from Nigella Lawson: chopped vegetables roasted and finished with halloumi cheese. This makes four good serves. Halloumi is used because it’s not a ‘melty’ cheese. It takes heat and retains structure. It’s normally a mix of goat and sheep’s milk cheese, but the one we got for this dish had some cow milk as well.

  • The lamb chops cost $5.09 or $2.55 each.
  • Halloumi $3.99 or $1 a serve
  • A whole head of garlic was used: 12c or 3c a serve (I feel the labor involved in peeling was worth more!)
  • The whole red onion was roasted: 86c or 22c a serve
  • Orange bell pepper four ways is 50c a serve
  • Yam/Sweet potato was $1.03 or 26c a serve.

Dinner tonight cost us $4.56 per serve. Unfortunately I forgot to put the SD card back in the camera so there is no photo.

Jan 16: Baked beans; Sous vide pork chops with Waldorf salad

Lunch

The leftover baked beans from January 9th were calling to be eaten. So we did. Served on an English muffin with two organic eggs. That’s just $2.38 a serve.

Dinner

We had extra thick cut pork loin chops in this month’s meat order, and sous vide, followed by a quick sear, is the best way to cook pork to perfection.

  • 12 oz pork chop $9.50 each/per serve. Bone in so the meat is about 10 oz – a generous serve.

For the salad:

  • Celery 99c or 50c a serve
  • Apple $1.10 or 55c a serve
  • Walnut pieces $2.00 or $1.00 a serve
  • Mayo – let’s say 1/5 th of the container, 50c or 25c each
  • Labne – to mix with the mayo – again 1/5 of the container, 50c or 25c each

Dinner tonight cost $9.50 for a very generous serve of farm raised heritage pork and $2.55 for the salad each.

Without a doubt this was the best pork chop I’ve ever had. Way better cooked than at Gallagher’s New York New York in Las Vegas, where it would be $36 for the chop, plus sides. This is the benefit of cooking: the best quality food without breaking the bank.

About sous vide: The times we cook this way we use a very large cast iron pot filled with water. This provides enough thermal inertia to keep the temperature relatively stable. This time round, Greg tried the (to us new) induction cooktop. Temperature mode on the cooktop proved to be quite stable and excellent for the sous vide.

Jan 15: Smoked salmon and eggs; Lemon soup with lamb


Lunch

Another indulgent Friday: wild caught smoked salmon on an English muffin with a poached egg on top. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to fake a ‘hollandaise’ taste with the egg and it was delicious.

  • Smoked salmon – normally $6.99 but Greg bought it for $5.99 on special or $3.00 a serve
  • The English muffin is 50c a serve
  • Our organic eggs are 50c each, and we had two for $1 per serve.
Wild caught smoked salmon with organic eggs on an english muffin.
Wild caught smoked salmon with organic eggs on an english muffin.

Lunch cost $4.50 a serve for smoked salmon.

Dinner

We went back to a recipe we haven’t had for about two years: Lemon soup with Lamb. Initially we tried this soup because of the unusual way it is thickened: with eggs.

Greg used meyer lemons – give to us by a friend – instead of regular lemons and they are perfect for this recipe. The slight sweetness and reduced tartness of the meyer lemon really works in the recipe. We also used spinach off the balcony garden which was sliced and placed in the bottom of the bowl. We also used orzo instead of larger pasta and dropped the cream. It’s not needed.

  • Lamb shoulder $8.57 or $4.29 a serve
  • Onion, carrot and celery about 30c a serve
  • Organic chicken stock $2.30 or $1.15 a serve
  • Lemons and spinach – zero
  • Orzo pasta is $2 a 16 oz box, and 1/4 was used or 25c a serve
  • Three large organic eggs are $1.50 or 75c a serve
  • Add 10c a serve for herbs.

Tonight’s dinner cost $5.75 a serve.

The dish comes from a cookbook we brought with us from Australia: Reader’s Digest One-Dish Meals, the easy way. ©1995

Jan 14: Sushi; Marinated steak, wild rice and bok choy

Lunch

Grabbing lunch between a Home Depot visit and going to do some yard work on our house, we picked up sushi again. $6.50 a serve, but convenient.

Dinner

Filipino-style marinated steak, wild rice mix and bok choy. We’re starting with a cross-rib steak so marinating and a fast cook, will be the secret to getting the best from this piece of meat.

The interplay of salty, sweet, and sour is pure Filipino, and the lemon rind adds an intense blast of citrus flavor.

  •  The cross-rib steaks are part of our monthly meat delivery: 10.4 oz each – $5.85 per serve
  • The bok choy cost $1.08 or 54c a serve
  • The country rice blend was $2.63 for the packet but that will make four serves, so 66c serve.

Dinner tonight cost $7.05. While that’s not the absolute best cut of beef, it is tasty, enhanced by the marinade and the beef we’re getting in our meat box has a more ‘beefy’ flavor than more conventional beef.

Jan 13: Chicken Wrap; Cioppino

Lunch

A repeat of yesterday’s roast chicken breast and salad wraps.

  • For lunch a breast was divided for 87c each serve.
  • Hummus adds around 30c;
  • Tabouli salad 79c a serve
  • A flatbread is 50c.

Today’s lunch wrap cost us $2.46 a serve.

Dinner

We first encountered cioppino at Gordon Birsch, but it’s off the menu now! (That happens to pretty much all our favorites there.) It’s a simple seafood stew that’s extremely tasty but also very easy to make.

We left our the shrimp because our dinner guest is allergic. Tonight’s meal served three with several cups of the stock left as a snack or the basis of something else later.

  • Olive oil – less than 5c serve
  • Fennel bulb at $2 makes for 67c serve
  • Onion at 50c makes it 17c serve
  • Four large garlic cloves are about 1/4 of the 50c garlic – 17c serve
  • Tomato paste 90c can but only half was used, for 15c serve
  • Diced tomatoes in juice – $3.99 or $1.33 serve
  • 1.5 cups dry white wine – about $1 or 33c serve
  • 5 cups fish stock $6.20 or $2.07 serve
  • 16 oz of White Wine and Garlic Mussels are $4 or $1.33 serve
  • For the firm fleshed fish, Greg used Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod. The 40z pack costs $16.89 but only 8 oz was used (two filets). $1.13 a serve.

Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $3.99 for the loaf (expensive for bread but delicious) or $1.33 per serve.

Total for tonight’s dinner: $8.60. When it was at Gordon Birsch it was $16.99 but with tax and tip that would be closer to a $22 meal out.

Healthyish and the value of home-cooked meals.

A couple of blog posts that caught our eye – because we mostly agree with them!

From the Huffington Post: The Undeniable Health And Social Benefits Of Eating Home-Cooked Meals which is one huge infograph on the benefits of home cooking and how to go about making it happen for yourself.

The other article that caught our eye was In Defense of Food and the Rise of ‘Healthy-ish’ which summarizes a new PBS documentary and Bon Appetit’s January issue which tackle the question of “healthy eating.” That’s essentially our approach: real food (minimally processed), a good variety of food and not worrying too much.