Fresh ingredients, simple techniques and great food.
Lunch
Foodie Philip was in Burbank doing some recording and enjoyed Pad Thai with a friend, who paid for the meal.
Dinner
We decided to cube up a little ham and mix it into the Japanese Ratatouille we had left over, and serve with some brown rice.
The ratatouille was even better a day later.
Dinner tonight was a very satisfactory do-over for $1.98 per serve.
Lunch
A revisit to a couple of toasted sandwiches: Kumato & Mayo – a favorite if the tomato is good, and a Pastrami, Sauerkraut & Cheddar.
The sandwiches were satisfactory for $1.94 per serve.
Dinner
As it was our 27th Anniversary together we decided to bake the ham that’s been in the refrigerator all year. We wanted to find a fresh side than the “baked seasonal vegetables” that we have gone with in the past. Foodie Greg found this Japanese Ratatouille Recipe and we cooked that.
Making four sides, this was exceptionally good. The dry baking of the vegetables intensified their flavor, while the dressing added another layer of flavor. Definitely will cook this again, and probably do a vegetarian meal with this ratatouille and brown rice.
The ham – purchased as a Christmas loss leader – is ridiculously cheap. It probably does not come from great providence for farmer or animal.
It turns out we got six meals from the Japanese Ratatouille.
A very good celebratory meal for $2.o1 per serve, leaving us more for the champagne to celebrate!
Lunch
Burbank Monday had Philip at In and Out Burger for a Double Double Animal Style for $4.27. Foodie Greg had the final serve of Côte d’Azur soup for $2.48.
Dinner
Being the first Monday of the month we were at Gordon Biersch to meet up with some fellow developers.
We both had the Smoked Chicken Tostadas, which were excellent. They’re on the “lighter side” menu, but they’re my new favorite choice at Gordon Biersch.
The Tostadas were $12.99 per serve, but with tax and tip $17.07 each.
Lunch
The avocados we’ve been buying come in packs of five, so we have bursts of avocado centric dishes. Since one avocado makes two sandwiches, we had to find some variety in the other ingredients: bacon fried off in the panini press on one, and Lemon Pepper Salmon (pouch) on the other.
Both were great, but the bacon got the nod.
Two good sandwiches for $2.81 per serve.
Dinner
Although we’ve enjoyed it out several times, we’ve never cooked Tom Ka Gai ourselves. We’ve done Tom Ka Moo – the pork version – but not with chicken.
This soup is a great way to use cooked chicken, which adds to the meatiness of the mushrooms – the two kind of blend. A good meal for $5.09 per serve.
Lunch
We used the second chicken breast to make two chicken, tomato and mayo toasted sandwiches.
Lunch today was good for $2.10 per serve
Dinner
Tonight we had a simple steak and salad. NY Strip steak from our Prather Ranch meat delivery, and a salad of ingredients already in the refrigerator.
A perfectly cooked and tender steak along with a great salad? What’s not to like for $13.12 per serve.
Lunch
The best supermarket BBQ chicken comes from Jon’s Market. Unfortunately the most convenient one closed, so our visits are less frequent, but today was the day. Jon’s also have great baguette’s!
Lunch today was one of our favorites, and costs $2.48 per serve.
Dinner
Foodie Philip seems to be suffering from a low grade infection, so Foodie Greg thought the Côte d’Azur or Cure-All Soup would be appropriate. Garlic and chicken stock thickened with egg yolks it tastes a lot more interesting than the picture above.
The recipe made three serves.
Although we forgot the oil for serving, this was amazingly delicious for just $4.05 per serve.
Lunch
Time to finish the Popeye’s Chicken, which we reheated, and serve with an Asian Salad kit.
While we didn’t finish the salad with this meal, we didn’t reuse it, so the cost per serve was $3.73 per serve. That’s still half what most take out would cost.
Dinner
We loved the satay sauce last time we had it, and serving the steak whole seems to suit us better than the skewer approach that’s more normal for satay.
Black rice and bok choy round out the meal.
The peanut sauce was excellent, the meat perfectly cooked with noticeable beef flavor, and the bok choy and black rice make good accompaniments. A great meal for $8.06 per serve.
January was largely free of major events, and we spent the month at home.
The averages for this month:
The averages are fairly consistent with previous months, with some averages slightly higher, some lower. There has been a slow trend for our evening meals to be a little more expensive on average, partly because we use mostly Prather Ranch dry aged meat, which is definitely more expensive than supermarket, although comparable to dry aged meat at Whole Foods.
Our most expensive meal was the night at Little Dom’s at around $28.00 per serve. Our most expensive at home meal was the NY Strip Steak with Halloumi and Beet salad at $14.26.
Lunches at home cost just 35% of the cost of eating food prepared outside the home, while dinners average about the same this month.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $209.87 per person in January. We actually spent $50.50 for lunches at home plus $67.85 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $118.15 in total.
Had we purchased every evening meal out and prepared none at home, it would have cost us $471.20. We actually spent $150.99 for dinners at home and $60.79 for dinners out: $211.78 in total.
We saved $351.14 by preparing and eating most meals at home, plus we have better control over what we eat.
Over the month we prepared 22 (again) different recipes for evening meals.
Lunch
We had the leftover smokey cheese and pumpkin quiche, which was also good cold, for $2.34 per serve.
Dinner
With another month’s meat delivery pending, we chose some boneless pork chops and pan fried them in butter, serving with a little Apple-Bacon Slaw.
To be honest, the slaw is better than the pork chops, particularly when the slaw is made with endive instead of cabbage!
Dinner tonight was a great meal for $7.65 per serve. The pork chop was perfectly medium rare, and the salad had a great balance of acid, sweetness, salt and fat!
