Month: March 2017

Lunch

For lunch we decided to go for an English ‘fry up’ breakfast: bacon, baked beans and fried egg on toast. It really hit the spot.

• The toast is 50c per serve
• Trader Joes Giant Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce cost $1.99 or $1.00 per serve
• Four eggs at 50c were $2.00 or $1.00 per serve
• The bacon was $6.99 for 12 slices, and we used 3 per serve, or $1.75 per serve

Lunch today was delicious and cost $4.25 per serve.

Dinner

The apple soy braised pork ribs is a new recipe for us, but after the success with braised ribs last time, there will be no more smoking them for us.

• The baby back ribs were $9.64 or $4.82 per serve
• Two granny smith apples cost $2.12 or $1.06 per serve
• Onion and ginger adds 15c per serve
• Organic baby carrots add $1.99 for the pack or 50c per serve
• 3/4 cup apple ginger juice adds 50c per serve
• Add 65c for the seasonings
• The bok choy was $1.99 but we used half, or 50c per serve
• Rice adds 50c per serve.

Dinner tonight was really good: great flavor and the ribs were very tender, and cost $8.68 per serve.

Lunch

For no other reason than it was Friday, we went to The Country Deli for lunch. Philip had his usual marinated skirt steak, and Greg a reuben sandwich. Both meals lived up to the expectation that’s been set.

Lunch cost $22.00 per serve with tax and tip.

Dinner

You can’t have a reuben sandwich for lunch, and a reuben casserole for dinner, so the final serves of the casserole will wait while we have a muffuletta pasta salad. This is a recipe we’ve done before.

Rather than add pasta and then cheese Greg decided to experiment with cheese filled tortellini, which worked very well.  We generally do a half recipe and go easier on the meats.

Neither of us could finish the meal at the one sitting.

• The tortellini cos $3.99 or $2.00 per serve
• The salami was also $3.99 but only half was used in the salad, or $1.00 per serve
• Black olives cost $2.40 or 60c per serve
• Green olives cost $2.40 or 60c per serve
• The bunch of organic parsley was $1.49, but we only used 1/6 or around 10c per serve
• An organic bell pepper was $1.63 or 41c per serve
• Add 25c per serve for seasoning and oil.

There was definitely a third serving available, but based on two serves, tonight’s meal cost $4.96 per serve, and provides a good blend of flavor and texture where almost every bite is a different combination. The tortellini worked exceptionally well as a combination cheese and pasta substitute.

Lunch

Even though we had it only a few days ago, we toasted an onion bagel each, and filled it with kumato, shallot, capers and smoked salmon. Delicious.

• An onion bagel is 50c
• Salmon was $5.99 or $3.00 a serve
• Add 25c for  labne, shallot and capers.

Lunch today was generous and delicious for $3.75 per serve.

Dinner

We had two thick cut pork chops from our Prather Ranch meat box so we decided to souse vide them and serve with Nigella Lawson’s White Bean Mash. We gave the pork chops a quick fry off in a very hot pan with some ghee before serving.

• The pork chops were $9.69 each
• A can of “store beans” was $1.00: two went into the recipe so $1.00 per serve
• The bubbie’s tomato is 20c per serve
• Add 10c for garlic and seasoning.

The pork chop was, as always, perfectly tender on the inside with a nice cut on the outside, but the white bean mash was disappointing. It looked nothing like Nigella’s version even though we followed the recipe closely. We think she missed something from the instructions, but the flavor is good, so next time we’ll try pushing the beans through a potato ricer. Tonight’s dinner cost $10.99 per serve.

Lunch

Since Philip was in Burbank without time to eat between appointments, lunch was delayed until later, with Popeyes purchased on the way home. For some reason, the same order at Popeyes in Burbank is about $2.50 less than in Canoga Park or Simi Valley. Go figure.

• Two pieces of fried chicken at $2.50 each is $5.48 with tax
• Half the Large Red Beans and Rice is $2.19 with tax, per serve.

Lunch today cost $7.67 and is a favorite of Greg’s on his birthday.

Dinner

Since we only used half of the large corned beef, another 1/4 went to this Reuben casserole, which makes six generous serves.

• Six slices of rye bread are roughly half the $1.99 loaf, or 17c per serve
• The 4+ lbs of corned beef was $38.30 but we used about 1/4 for tonight’s dish, or $1.60 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.
• We skipped the caraway seeds for taste reasons but the mustard adds another 15c per serve.

Tonight’s delicious meal was $3.80 per serve.

Lunch

Poor planning, and another supermarket trip, took us near our (now formerly) favorite Mexican place in Chatsworth. Unfortunately this time the woman behind the counter refused to serve us grilled onion because “it took too much time in the kitchen.” This despite having had burritos with grilled onions from there at least 30 times in the recent past, with a different person at the counter.

Save a minute in the kitchen, lose two customers for life? Anyway, lunch today cost $6.60 per serve.

Dinner

While not exactly Foodie Greg’s birthday, we enjoyed his traditional birthday dinner: corned beef, cabbage, potato, carrots and an onion sauce, all cooked in the pressure cooker.

Tonight’s corned beef was definitely the best we’ve ever had, in an annual tradition going back at least 20 years. It came from Wellshire Farms via Whole Foods. It was amazingly tender.

And leftovers will contribute to a reprise of the Reuben Casserole.

• The 4+ lbs of corned beef was $38.30 but we used about half between tonight’s three meal serves and a little late snack for two, or $6.38 per serve
• An organic cabbage was $2.18, which was quartered for 55c per serve
• Organic baby carrots were $1.69 for the pack, of which we used half, or 28c per serve
• Two onions – one for the pot, one for the sauce – add 30c per serve
• Two small potatoes add 15c per serve
• A pint of milk was $1.19, we used half or 20c per serve
• Two teaspoons of horseradish add 10c per serve.

Dinner tonight was a perfect rendition of the dish for $7.96. It would be possible to get cheaper corned beef, and non-organic cabbage and carrot, but these all go together to contribute to the dish.

Lunch

Since we were nearby we stopped in at our new favorite take-out shop: Skewers Halal. Philip had the beef wrap; Greg the chicken. These are like a gyro/yeros but in a naan bread split open (pita pocket style) and both were delicious.

Today’s pockets were $9.60 each with tax.

Dinner

Greg has been wanting to try this for some time and tonight was the night for Soutzoukakia, which are Greek meatballs! Authentically they’d be lamb, but we found a recipe that matched the ground beef we had in the freezer.

We made a half batch based on the 1lb of beef that we had (and were only serving two people).

• Dry aged 85/15 ground beef $8.69 or $4.35 per serve
• An egg is 50c or 25c per serve
• 8 oz Panko breadcrumbs are $2.99 and we used half, or 67c per serve
• Shaved Parmesan blend cost $2.99 but we used about 1/8  for this salad, or 19c per serve
• 1/4 cup and a tablespoon of red wine – halved – is 51c per serve
• Canned crushed tomatoes were $1.25 for the can, or 63c per serve
• Onions, shallot and garlic adds 35c per serve
• Parsley was $1.49 for the bunch, but we only used 1/4 or 19c per serve
• Fresh mint came from our garden
• Tomato paste comes in a 90c can, but we used 1/8 or 5c per serve
• Add 40c for the spices
• Rice adds 50c per serve
• The cucumber for the salad was 46c or 23c per serve
• The olives add another 40c per serve
• Add 30c per serve for lemon.

Dinner tonight was excellent and cost $8.95. We’ll be repeating this one regularly as another use for our monthly ground beef delivery.