Month: March 2016

Lunch

An Everything bagel with wild caught smoked salmon and avocado.

• The bagel was 79c each
• An avocado is 99c or 50c per serve
• The wild caught smoked salmon is $5.99 or $3.00 a serve

Lunch today cost $4.39 per serve.

Dinner

We last had cioppino on January 13. It’s a simple seafood stew that’s extremely tasty, but also very easy to make.

We cooked the base and then added shrimp, mussels 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 $2.00 for each very generous 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.
• The pack of peeled, uncooked shrimp was $5.99 or $3 a serve
• Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $2.50 for the loaf (on special). We used half or 63c per serve

Dinner tonight cost $9.78 a serve with a very generous amount of broth left to cook up the next meal. This dish, when it was still on the menu at Gordon Birsch coast just over $20 with tax and tip, but they serve exactly three mussels and three shrimp. We had very, very much more than that!

Lunch

Foreboding rain and a relatively cold day had us turning to Trader Joe’s Steak and Ale pies for lunch.

• The two pack is $6.49 or $3.25 per serve.

Dinner

A hearty soup was what the weather indicated, so we decided on Mushroom Barley soup. We made a half batch and used all crimini mushrooms for four serves.

• Sliced crimini mushrooms $2.29 for the bag, or 58c per serve
• Onion and garlic around 15c per serve
• Celery is $2.29 a bunch or around 15c per serve
• Carrots we 69c for the bunch, or 9c per serve
• The bunch of parsley was $1.19, but only half was used, or 15c per serve
• The pearl barley is $4.89 for a 28 oz bag, or 61c per serve
• Dry vermouth instead of sherry works out at 17c per serve
• The carton of beef broth was $2.49 or 63c per serve
• We served with a par-baked roast garlic bread at $2.50 for the loaf, or 63c per serve

Dinner tonight cost $3.01 per serve including the bread.

Lunch

Today we put together a quesadilla using actual tortilla’s instead of our usual flatbread.

• The eight-pack of tortilla cost $3.29 or 41c per 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 $1.40 per serve.

Dinner

Once again, our Prather Ranch meat box included two bone-in pork chops, so once again we Sous Vide them before a final fry off in some butter for color and maillard flavors.

• The 12 oz pork chops were $9.44 each serve
• Apple $2.06 or $1.03 per serve
• Celery bunch $2.29 or $1.15 per serve
• The packet of walnuts was $4.93 and about half was used, or $1.23 per serve

Dinner tonight cost $12.85 for a serve twice the size of normal restaurant protein size, at a fraction of the cost of ordering in a restaurant.

Lunch

Feeling lazy today we heated a Trader Joe’s Tarte à l’mignon, or Alsatian Style Onion Tart. Following the reheat instructions in a convection oven rendered the result slightly undercooked. This is probably one of those times when a conventional oven heating from the bottom, will do the better job cooking.

• The tart was $3.99 or $2 a serve.

Dinner

Tonight’s dish is one we used to cook regularly, and then the supply of chile powder ran out! Red Chile Chicken and Rice with Black Beans packs a great fiber load. We skipped the green onions or cilantro, substituting avocado. The recipe makes four serves.

It’s a good basic dish, but the addition of Rick Bayless’ All Natural fonder Gourmet Mexican Salso – Chipotle roasted tomatillo and garlic, adds a great kick, and the avocado adds a flavor and texture contrast.

This time, the chicken tenders remained very tender because Greg barely fried them off, then let them steam over the dish for 10 minutes. They were just cooked, retaining all the tenderness the cut is known for.

• Organic chicken tenders $9.35 or $2.34 a serve
• Large onion, oil and garlic, around 15c per serve
• The can of black beans was 99c or 25c a serve
• Chicken broth is $1.99 or 50c per serve
• One cup of rice is about 1/3 of the $2.99 pack of short brown rice or 50c per serve
• Four avocados were $2.76 and we shared one at 35c per serve
• The salsa is $3.99 for a jar and we used about 1/4 or 50c per serve

Dinner tonight cost us $4.69 a serve.

Lunch

Another Burbank Monday, so another In and Out Double Double for foodie Philip. $4.02 with tax.

Dinner

Time to use up the last of our January meet order from Prather Ranch. We skipped February’s delivery because of the move, and we’re well stocked again with the March delivery.

We last had the Beef Cross Rib Steak as a Filipino Style marinated steak but, given that Los Angeles is having what it pretends is “Winter”, the weather dictated something warming: Pioneer Woman’s Pot Roast.

This is not a great cut of meat so marinating or slow braising in a pot roast is a great way to get the best from the protein. We had two individual steaks about 9.5 oz each.

• The steaks were $6.20 per serve
• Onions are 20c per serve
• The carrots were 69c or 35c per serve
• One cup of red wine is around $1.33 or 67c a serve
• Two cups of broth is half a $1.99 carton or 50c per serve
• The mushrooms were $1.99 or $1 a serve
• The Rosemary came from our own plant
• Add another 15c for oil, seasoning and Thyme.

Tonight’s dinner cost $9.07 for the pot roast, which we served with the other half of Sunday’s baguette, for a total of $9.74 per serve.

 

Lunch

Today we were at the FCPeXchange event where lunch was supplied. Subway-style sandwich platters, but for us, lunch was free.

Dinner

The plan was to reheat the left-over Eggplant, sausage and ziti casserole from yesterday, but a group from the seminar went to Gordon Biersch so we had the Gastro Pub burger, again.

With tax and tip, that runs out at $16.02 per serve.

Lunch

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

• The muffin is 50c
• The smoke salmon was $5.99 from Whole Foods or $3.00 a serve
• The avocado was 99c or 50c per serve.

Lunch today cost $4.004 a serve.

Dinner

Eggplant, sausage and ziti casserole: from a hybrid of recipes. The basic inspiration is from an Emeril recipe from Food Network. When we’ve cooked this in the past we found the recipe to hav41$e too much oil, so we grill the eggplant.

Instead of Emeril’s meat sauce we used a metacook recipe. The béchamel sauce stayed untouched, although made with half-n-half.

• The meat came from our meat box and was somewhat expensive at $8.83 lb for the beef, or $2.21 per serve.
• Onion works out at 15c per serve
• Carrot is 17c per serve
• Celery is 11c per serve
• Bacon cost $4.99 for the container, but this recipe used about 1/4 of that, or 31c per serve
• A glass of wine is 20c per serve
• A half pint of heavy cream (for the meat sauce) is $1.99 and it was all used in the meat sauce or 50c per serve
• A pint of half & half is $1.49 and half is used in the béchamel, or 19c per serve
• The eggplant cost $1.92 or 48c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost us $4.32 per serve. We have left-overs for Saturday night, as we expect to be home later than usual.