Month: June 2016

Lunch

Back to our standby lunch: chicken wraps, but with avocado instead of hummus today.

• The $10.99 chicken is broken into quarters, and one breast is shared for lunch wraps, or $1.37 a serve.
• The flatbread is 50c
• The avocado was 99c or 50c per serve
• The edamame side salad is $2.46 for four serves, or 62c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.99.

Dinner

Jamie Oliver’s Crunchy Thai Salad was a favorite of ours a few years back, but we haven’t had it for a while, largely because it makes too much salad!  We simplified a little, leaving out the bock choy and cilantro, but added Chili Lime Cashews for a little extra crunch.

We added pan seared Ahi Tuna on top.

• 12oz of frozen Ahi Tuna $6.15 for two filets. We shared one filet which works out to $1.54 per serve
• Sugar snap peas are $2.49 and we used half, or 63c per serve
• Mint is $1.79 or 30c per serve
• Soba noodles – yes Japanese noodles in a Thai dish, don’t be hating – are $3.59 per pack, and we used half, or 90c 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
• A Napa cabbage is $1.54. We halved it, but served less than 1/4 of what was shredded so our worm farm got a good feed, or 10c per serve
• Add 30c for the dressing ingredients
• We used about 1/4 of the $6.99 pack of Chili Lime Cashews, or $1.17 per serve.

This is an amazing salad, and the tuna was good quality for the price. Dinner tonight cost $5.74. It’s a huge meal and neither of us completely finished the serving.

• Lunch
• Another Burbank Monday; another In and Out Double Double.
• Lunch today cost $4.03.

Dinner

Time for the remainder of the Beef Stroganoff. We added a little more sour cream as liquid had been absorbed by the noodles. We also added a few peas for some textural variety and to have some vegetable in the dish, as we had finished the asparagus.

• The Beef Strognaoff, without the asparagus, is $3.36 per serve
• Frozen peas are $2.79 per pack and we used about 1/4 or 35c per serve

Dinner tonight cost $3.71 per serve.

Lunch

Although it was Sunday we decided to get a chicken and do wraps for lunch.

• The $10.99 chicken is broken into quarters, and one breast is shared for lunch wraps, or $1.37 a serve.
• The flatbread is 50c
• Hummus is $3.99 per container and we used about 1/6 or 33c per serve
• The edamame side salad is $2.46 for four serves, or 62c per serve.

Lunch today cost $2.82.

Dinner

On a hot summer night, it’s hard to find a combination that’s tasty and doesn’t generate too much heat. Pan seared scallops with a butter ponzu sauce accompanied by a tasty Avocado, Mango and Arugula salad , seemed like it might fit the bill.

• The pack of frozen scallops was $14.99 or $7.50 per serve
• Two mangos were 99c or 50c per serve
• Two avocados were $1.98 or 99c per serve
• Add 25c for butter and ponzu.

Dinner tonight was, as this dish always is, extremely tasty and cost $9.24 per serve.

Lunch

Take some bacon and fry it to taste, which for us is somewhat less crispy than seems to be standard in the US. Spread some guacamole on a wholemeal roll, add tomatoes, baby greens and the bacon. Yum!

• A kumato tomato was 80c or 40c per serve
• The wholemeal roll was 50c each
• A sprinkling of baby greens adds about 10c per serve
• Bacon ends and pieces are $3.49 but we used only 1/5 or the pack, or 35c per serve
• The spicy guacamole was on special for $1.99 for 8oz. Each serve was about one ounce, so 25c per serve.

Lunch today was delicious and cost $1.60 per serve.

Dinner

Time for a reprise of the Beef Stroganoff using the misnamed ‘fajita beef’ from Prather Ranch, first cooked on Jun 15.

Every month’s Prather Ranch meat delivery has ‘fajita beef’ included. Tonight we continued the tradition of using it for anything but fajitas!

Again we dropped the beef broth. This time we ramped up the mustard (french, of course) and some how ended up with four serves instead of two!

• .7lb (just over 11 oz) of fajita beef is $9.79 or $2.45 per serve
• Crimini mushrooms where on special for 89c for each of two punnets or 45c per serve
• An onion is 5c per serve
• The sour cream is $4.99 per pack, but we used about 1/8 or 16c per serve
• Egg noodles are $1.99 for the pack, but we only used half, or 25c per serve
• The other half of the asparagus from last night was 50c per serve.

Dinner tonight cost $3.86 per serve.

Lunch

With no chicken this week, and not wanting the gyro meat wrap two days in a row, we opted for smoked salmon on an onion bagel, with capers, tomato and cucumber as a closed sandwich. The tomato makes it a little wet, so we’ll likely drop that in the future.

• 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
• We split 1/6 of the $3.99 pack of kumato tomatoes, or 33c per 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 $4.43 per serve.

Dinner

Thursday night steak night! Tonight a Prather Ranch Rib Eye with a Creamy Gorgonzola Gnocchi, although we substituted Trader Joe’s Crumbled Blue Cheese for the Gorgonzola, because we couldn’t buy any at the regular outlets today.

The Rib Eye was grilled to perfection (well, blue for us) on our cast iron griddle on the induction cooktop. That’s a perfect combination.

The creamy blue cheese sauce with asparagus and peas was pretty damned good!

• The Rib Eye was $18.79  or $9.35 a serve
• The gnocchi was $1.69 or 57c per serve
• The half pint of cream is $1.99 or 67c per serve
• The asparagus was $2.99 but we only used half, or 50c per serve
• The crumbled blue was $3.49 for the container. We used half or 58c per serve.

Dinner tonight was definitely restaurant worthy and cost $11.67 per serve.

Lunch

Another serving of sushi from Whole Foods, who seem to have changed provider since our last visit.

• Spicy Tuna Roll: $8.69 or $4.35 per serve
• Cucumber Roll: $6.39 or $3.20 per serve

Lunch today cost $7.55 per serve.

Dinner

With the hot weather we’ve been having, it was a welcome return to a favorite: Nigel Lawson’s watermelon, feta and black olive salad. It’s a summer regular and very, very good.

• At $4.99 the watermelon is more than enough for about eight serves, or 63c per serve
• Feta comes in a $6.99 tub and we used half, or about 70c 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 $2.33 per serve. It’s an excellent dish and every time we serve it for someone, they want the recipe.