Lunch
For our “quesadilla” we stuck with Trader Joe’s Refried Black Beans with Jalappeno Peppers. Because the Fontera salsa was not available at our local store, Greg substituted Casa Martinez Chipotle Fire Roased Salsa. We’re pretty sure this is the same salsa as the Fontera without the celebrity endorsement, and only $3.99 a jar instead of $4.69. Guess which we will be choosing in the future!
- One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve
- Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 26c
- A very generous serve of salsa is 20c per serve
- 2 oz of cheddar split between two is 50c per serve
Lunch today cost $1.46 per serve and came together in about 10 minutes. Today we fried in ghee (clarified butter) but bacon fat is tastier.
Dinner
Thursday night is traditionally ‘steak night’ although we interpret that fairly liberally, but tonight it was an aged NY Strip Steak from the Prather Ranch delivery.
We grilled it very rare on the flat side of the griddle on the induction heater. While we generally prefer beef rare to medium rare, we have discovered that a NY strip steak toughens as it cooks. Even medium rare is quite tough. We had blamed the cut but it turns out that blue is best.
Blue means the exterior is seared while the interior is warmed, but not significantly cooked. That this is dry aged and pasture fed beef gave a really beefy flavor, and if you don’t want that, why eat beef?
- We buy Prather Ranch meat because of the quality, no price so 12.8oz for $19.74 is definitely not the cheapest NY Strip you can buy, but I doubt you’d find better meat for $9.87 per serve
- A pastured egg is 50c or 25c per serve.
- Seasonings ran about 45c per serve
- An organic lettuce cost $1.99 or $1 a serve
- The packet of parmesan cost $6.99 but we used about 1/8 for this salad, or 44c per serve.
- Instead of croutons, Greg fried off some haloumi cheese – a cheese that will not melt – at $4.00 for the pack, or $2.00 per serve.
Tonight’s steakhouse quality meal was $13.01 per serve. The steak was exceptionally tender with a great beef flavor.