Month: July 2017

Lunch

More sandwich experiments. Today we shared a Corned Beef & Sauerkraut sandwich and a Ham, Tomato & Watercress Sandwich. The corned beef and sauerkraut was a little salty but the ham, tomato and mayonnaise was pretty good.

• Two slices of bread are 39c
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• A tomato is 60c or 30c per serve
• The turkey breast was $8.99 and we used about 1/6 or 75c per serve
• Add 15c for the mustard aioli and watercress
• The corned beef top round – a.k.a. silverside – was $8.03 but we used only 1/8 or 50c per serve
• The Trader Joe’s sauerkraut is $3.99 and we used less than 1/8th of the jar, or 25c per serve.

Lunch today had nice variety, but the ham and tomato was definitely our favorite for $2.56 per serve.

Dinner

Prather Ranch offered a special purchase on bone in rib eye from another supplier, so we added two to our monthly meat box. Beautifully marbled with fat dictated a medium rare – rather than blué as we’d normally prepare rib eye – so that the fat softened and melted into the meat.

We paired it with steamed broccolini and crash hot potatoes seasoned with fresh rosemary from our garden.

• The special buy price dropped the cost of the 1 lb bone in rib eye to $25.47, or $12.74 per serve
• We served all the $2.69 broccolini, or $1.35 per serve
• Potatoes add 30c per serve.

Dinner tonight was every bit the equal of a $50.00 steakhouse meal. The meat was very ‘beefy’ tasting, which could be a little strong for some, but we found it very satisfying. The broccolini and crash hot potatoes added good texture and flavor variation for a total of $14.39 per serve.

Lunch

Our trip to Jon’s to procure liverwurst, pork and a baguette as the foundation for a bahn mi were less than successful! The liverwurst was procured but ultimately we had to settle for sliced turkey breast, and a very inferior ‘baguette’ (from La Brea bakery) that was chewy and just not very good.

• The baguette was $2.49, and we used half for lunch, or 63c per serve
• Three Persian cucumbers were 51c and we shared one, or 9c per serve
• Jalapeno pepper was 5c and we shared it, or 3c per serve
• The liverwurst was $4.70 and we used 1/4 or 59c per serve
• The turkey breast was $8.99 and we used about 1/4 or $1.13 per serve.

The bahn mi was great for $2.47, but the baguette was a disappointment.

Dinner

Cross rip steak still in the freezer from our meat delivery, so  beef massaman curry even though the weather is anything but cold! We use a curry base we buy from Amazon for this simple, quick meal for three.

• The cross rib steak was $6.02 or $3.01 per serve
• The curry is $3.38 per can or $1.69 per serve
• Coconut milk is $1.69 per can or 85c per serve
• Peanuts were $2.99 but we only used half, or 75c per serve
• Potato adds 25c per serve
• Baby carrots were $1.49 and we used 1/4 or 19c per serve
• Onion (not pearl) adds 15c per serve.

Tonight’s dinner was $6.89 per serve and very tasty, as always. We were going to use the remaining baguette as a dunking bread, but it would not absorb any liquid and was extremely chewy and dense, so we threw it out instead.

Lunch

Our quest for interesting sandwiches continues. Today we finished the beefsteak tomato in a sandwich with vegan ‘mayonnaise’ and paired it with a shared ham, cheese and mustard sandwich. Both on sprouted rye bread.

• Two slices of bread are 39c
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• A tomato is 60c or 30c per serve
• 12 slices of ham are $3.69, we shared two or 31c per serve
• 12 slices of yoghurt cheese are $4.79 and we shared one or 20c per serve
• Add 15c for the mustard aioli.

Lunch today cost $1.47 per serve. The tomato sandwich was our favorite of today’s.

Dinner

A new recipe – Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Soy Sauce and Butter – was paired with shrimp in the stir fry and served on a bed of rice noodles.

• 1 lb of shrimp is $6.99 (on special), but we only used half, or $1.75 per serve
• The pack of bok choy is $1.99 but we’d used half, or 50c per serve
• Butter is $3.99 for 8 oz and there is half an ounce in a tablespoon, or 13c per serve
• Add 25c for soy and oyster sauces
• Rice noodles are $3.56 per 14oz box, we used about 1/2 of the box, or 90c per serve.

The butter-soy combination is hard to beat as a sauce and with the bok choy and shrimp it all worked very well to create a salty, buttery meal with perfectly cooked shrimp for $3.53 per serve.

Lunch

Time to finish the last of the pulled pork from this batch? Let’s warm it and put it in a hot bread roll fresh from the oven. So we did.

• Par-baked roll is 63c
• We shared one serve of the pulled pork, or $1.90 per serve
• Add 5c for ceviche onion.

Lunch today, as it always is with this combination, was delicious for $2.36 per serve.

Dinner

Another summer salad that doesn’t involve ‘leafy greens’: Feta and Eggplant pasta salad. Roasting the eggplant reduces it to almost an ‘essence’: without the water there’s not much to an eggplant!

Two of the three diners loved this dish. One felt the balance of pasta to eggplant was wrong, even though we used only 3/4 of the recipe’s amount of pasta. The creamy feta ‘sauce’ had great flavor thanks to the Valpresso feta generously applied.

• The feta in brine was $6.50 and 1/4 went into dinner, or 41c per serve
• The pasta was $1.29 or 33c per serve
• Eggplant was 99c or 25c per serve
• Organic parsley was $1.49 and 1/2 went into this recipe or 19c per serve.

A very tasty, meat-free meal for $1.18 per serve. Foodie Philip thought it would be better with more eggplant, less pasta and perhaps anchovies added to the dressing for more umami.

 

Lunch

We were on our way back from a home improvement store trip, so we stopped in at The Country Deli for lunch. Philip had his usual marinated skirt steak, eggs over easy and home fries, while Greg had a pastrami on rye with steak fries.

The minimum wage improvement put prices up a fraction, so the average was $21.57 per serve.

Dinner

Because we’d had such a generous lunch, we decided to swap out day around and have “lunch for dinner,” i.e. mixed sandwiches.

We had half the pastrami on rye to share (included in the lunch costing) and added a heirloom tomato and mayonnaise sandwich, and a egg salad with watercress sandwich that we shared.

• The sprouted rye bread is are 39c per two slice serve
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• The heirloom tomato was $3.59 and the sandwich took about 1/3, or 60c per serve
• Egg salad – two eggs and mayonnaise – costs $1.12 but we only used half, or 56c per serve
• Watercress adds 20c or 10c per serve.

Dinner tonight was satisfying, with a nice variety of flavor between the sandwiches, and cost $1.77 per serve.

Lunch

We needed to go to IKEA to pick up some tiles for our latest outdoor project, so naturally we made a food ‘adventure’ out of it and shared lunch there with a friend, who paid for our meal.

Dinner

Who’d have thought that roasted eggplant with a red pepper relish would be so delicious. The eggplant was buttery smooth inside, and the relish added a piquant and flavorful note to the meal, especially since we used half an heirloom tomato as the base. The relish would also be good on fish. An orange pepper substituted for the red, as there were no red available.

We ended up throwing out a third serve.

• The eggplant was $2.04 pr $1.02 per serve
• The – rather large – heirloom tomato was $3.59 or 90c per serve
• The bell pepper was 99c or 50c per serve
• Add 25c for chia, onion and red wine vinegar
• Brown rice vermicelli was $2.49 for the pack and we used under half or 63c per serve.

Dinner tonight was very tasty, had a good combination of texture and taste for $3.30.

Lunch

Another pair of mixed sandwiches. Today we took a (sadly not heirloom) tomato with mayo to make a sandwich with the other being cream cheese, capers, shallot and smoked salmon. Both were good, although the regular tomato lacked flavor. The smoked salmon worked well on a sandwich.

• Smoked salmon $5.99 for the 4oz pack or $3.00 a serve
• Two slices of bread are 39c
• The cream cheese is $2.99 for the 8oz block and we shared 2 oz, or 38c peer serve
• Add 15c for capers and shallot.
• Mayonnaise dressing is $2.29 or 12c per serve
• A tomato is 60c or 30c per serve.

Today’s sandwiches cost $4.04 per serve and was worth every penny.

Dinner

A rib eye from our Prather Ranch delivery, combined with Caesar salad is probably a perfect steak dinner. Instead of croutons we used Trader Joe’s baked cheese bites, which provide the crunch needed from the crouton, as well as meeting the need for cheese in a Caesar. It’s a good combination.

The Caesar dressing uses a hard boiled egg and has never failed to emulsify correctly with the stick blender.

• The steak was $20.99 or $10.50 per serve
• The cheese bites were $2.49 or $1.25 per serve
• An egg in the dressing is 50c or 25c per serve
• Organic romaine lettuce was $1.99 or $1.00 per serve
• Add 50c for the other dressing ingredients.

Tonight’s meal was a relatively expensive $13.50 per serve, but was the equivalent of a much more expensive meal in a steakhouse. Tonight’s steak was cooked a little further than our normal ‘bleu’ because the rib eye was nicely marbled and I wanted to make sure that the fat liquified to lubricate the meat.

Lunch

We had a new ‘sardines in oil’ to try, and an almost perfect avocado, so we made sardine and avocado sandwiches, which worked way better than when we used to put the same combination on an English muffin. The sprouted wholemeal bread seemed to blend better.

• Two slices of bread are 39c
• Smokey sardines in oil is $1.69 per can or 85c per serve
• The avocado was $1.29 or 65c per serve.

Lunch today cost $1.89 per serve.

Dinner

Time to finish the Popeye’s fried chicken from Monday, along with some canned Cuban beans and white rice.

• 10 pieces of dark and spicy chicken is $15.25 or $3.05 a serve
• Canned Cuban beans we 99c or 50c per serve
• White rice adds 30c per serve.

Dinner tonight was satisfactory for $3.85 per serve. The Cuban beans were quite tasty, although next time we’ll probably add some Worcestershire sauce to add umami and a little acid.

Lunch

We still have pulled pork? Let’s warm it and put it in a hot bread roll fresh from the oven. So we did.

• Par-baked roll is 63c
• We shared one serve of the pulled pork, or $1.90 per serve
• Add 5c for ceviche onion.

Lunch today, as it always is with this combination, was delicious for $2.36 per serve.

Dinner

A little while back we had a pot sticker stir fry, where the store-bought dumplings were the best part of that meal. Greg decided to create a soup version so the pot stickers wouldn’t stick!

Take some chicken broth, add some soy sauce, bok choy, rice wine vinegar, garlic and other seasonings and heat the pork dumplings. A combination that allowed the dumplings to shine, with a flavorful background in the broth.

• The dumplings were $2.99 or $1.50 per serve
• Organic chicken broth was $1.99 and we used half, or $1.00 per serve
• Baby bok choy is $1.99 and we used 1/3 or 33c per serve
• Add 15c for other seasonings.

Dinner tonight had good flavor from both the broth and dumplings, for just $2.98 per serve.