Fresh ingredients, simple techniques and great food.
Lunch
For lunch we purchased Heuvos Rancheros from La Fiesta for $10.54 per serve, with tax and tip.
Dinner
Tonight we sous video some Argentinean Shrimp and placed it atop some Japanese Fried Rice.
A tasty and satisfying meal with almost no effort, for $4.40 per serve.
Lunch
We drove down to New York Chicken and Gyro for one of our favorite lunches: the Lamb Gyro for $8.17 per serve with tax and tip.
Dinner
While we were returning to our Asian inspired Duck, this time we were testing Duck Breasts from Aldi, instead of our regular supply from Whole Foods. The Aldi Duck is a 16oz pack vs around 12oz from Whole Foods, but at around half the price per ounce.
The Aldi Duck was every bit as tender as the Whole Foods version, but had more flavor in the Foodies’ opinion. Excellent value and a pity that it’s not a regular buy (or that we didn’t buy more when they were available). A great meal for our 30th Anniversary, costing just $6.00 per serve.
Lunch
A trip to Jon’s market always gives us a fresh Baguette and a very good BBQ Chicken, which makes one of our favorite lunch sandwiches.
The Garlic Spread brings this together into a really tasty sandwich for $2.67 per serve.
Dinner
We finished the Smoked Trout Chowder from last week, for $3.42 per serve.
Lunch
We took the remaining Garlic Naan, preheated it then topped with Neufchatel, Capers & Shallot before finishing it in the oven, then topping with Smoked Salmon.
The Naan was much easier than working with Pizza dough on the grill, but it doesn’t come close to matching texture & flavor. This was still very tasty and enjoyable for $5.05 per serve.
Dinner
It was time to ‘hack’ the Bento Box from our local Japanese Restaurant by searing, and serving, some Ahi Tuna (Tataki) with it.
A flavorsome, filling and indulgent meal for $20.44 per serve.
Lunch
We had Hebrew Temptation remaining for $3.14 per serve.
Dinner
We reheated our Roast Chicken Legs in the remaining Tomatillo Salsa – the sauce from last night’s Chili – and served with a Southwest Chopped Salad from Aldi.
A very tasty, and minimal effort, meal for $3.00 per serve.
Lunch
We made a pilgrimage to Jon’s and picked up a BBQ Chicken, Fresh Baguette and a Tomato, which makes one of our favorite sandwiches.
We had to substitute another Tomato as the one we bought wasn’t yet ripe, but other wise a great sandwich for $3.28 per serve.
Dinner
Green Pork Chili is a perfect way to use the last “cubed pork” from our Keller Crafted meat box.
This was better than the quick Green Chili we’ve had before, but kind of expensive because of the Keller Crafted meat. Still a decent meal for $6.79 per serve.
Lunch
Two sandwiches to finish off our Leg Ham: one with the remaining Coleslaw from Mr Fish & Chips, the other with tomato.
Both sandwiches were pretty good, for $1.57 per serve.
Dinner
We prepared another batch of soup from a 13 Bean Mix found at Whole Foods and a stock made this afternoon from the last Ham Bone.
The Ham Stock was very rich and contributed to a very tasty soup, for 94c per serve.
Since we dropped (at least for the moment) our meat box delivery, the average evening meal cost has dropped about 20%, without appreciable drop in quality of meat.
This month we did four take out lunches and three take out dinners: Japanese Bento Box, Chapli Kebab Meal and The Country Deli Skirt Steak Dinner.
The averages for this month:
Normally the monthly variations are small, but this month, evening meals are down about 20%, largely attributable to the move away from the Keller Crafted Meat Box.
Our most expensive meal of the month was the Bento Box and Ahi Tuna at $20.44 per serve.
This month, lunches at home cost 27% of the cost of eating lunches prepared outside the home. Our evening meals prepared in the home are 26% of the cost take-out meals.
Had we purchased every lunch and prepared none it would have cost us $268.77 per person in January. We actually spent $62.14 for lunches at home plus $34.56 for lunches purchased or eaten out: $96.80 in total.
If every evening meal cost us the same as our one this month, it would be $533.20 We actually spent $130.45 for dinners at home and $51.61 for dinners out, or $182.06 in total.
We saved about $520 by mostly eating at home, and we have a lot more control over what we eat.
Lunch
We reheated half the remains Baked Beans and covered a slice of Toast, then topped with Bacon and Fried Egg(s).
A pretty decent and tasty lunch for $2.44 per serve.
Dinner
Although it hasn’t been four weeks, we returned to the sous vide Rack of Lamb, but served with a Raspberry Feta Salad.
We’ve got the Rack of Lamb down to a science, so it turns out perfectly every time. Served with a Raspberry Feta salad, it was a very tasty and enjoyable meal for $9.35 per serve.
