Category: Daily recipe

Lunch

Busy day, all over the place today, so we stopped in again at the Country Deli in Chatsworth (near our ‘new’ home) before heading up to that home to clean the yard and supervise a plumber.

With an Arnold Palmer, tax and tip my $14.50 marinated skirt steak was just over $20. But it was very good. 10 oz of really good skirt steak cooked perfectly, three good eggs and crisp home fries. And a bagel.

Dinner

Because we weren’t sure what time we’d be back from the house, we planned on an easy ‘reheat’ dinner: the double potato halloumi bake from Jan 17, and the thighs and drumsticks from this week’s roast chicken.

• The chicken was $1.73 a serve
• Halloumi $3.99 or $1 a serve
• A whole head of garlic was used: 12c or 3c a serve (I feel the labor involved in peeling was worth more!)
• The whole red onion was roasted: 86c or 22c a serve
• Orange bell pepper four ways is 50c a serve
• Yam/Sweet potato was $1.03 or 26c a serve.

Tonight’s reheat dinner cost $3.74 and very little time.

Lunch

Because we needed to shop, it was easy to pick up some fresh sushi from Ralph’s at the same time. $6.39 a serve today.

Dinner

The Lemon Chicken Orzo soup is a great mid-week dish as it take little time to prepare because it uses pre-cooked chicken. The meyer lemon is again perfect for this dish because it lacks the extreme sourness of most lemon. The recipe made three very generous serves, even with less chicken than the recipe called for.

Not only is it easy to cook, but it is amazingly delicious for the tiny amount of work it takes.

We served with a par-baked Roast Garlic Bread.

Orzo is a small pasta shaped like rice, but a little bigger.

• Carrots cost 25c or 8c per serve
• Celery, thyme, oil and garlic adds 20c per serve
• Chicken broth cost 40c per serve
• The store-bought rotisserie chicken breast is $1.74 for a breast, divided into three serves makes 58c per serve.
• The orzo is $1.42 for a 1 lb box, but only half was used for our three serves, or 24c per serve
• Add in 15 c for the other seasonings, etc.
• Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $3.99 for the loaf (expensive for bread but delicious) or $1.33 per serve

Dinner tonight cost $1.65 per serve!

Lunch

Back to our routine weekday lunch: chicken wraps. This week an Edamame & Bean salad.

• Roast chicken:$6.99 split four ways and into two serves today: 87c
• One quarter of the $2.74 salad is 69c
• The flatbread is 50c
• Add some hummus at 30c

Lunch today: $2.36 per serve

Dinner

A long term favorite of ours, back when we had a certain pattern to our weekly meals, us Southern sausage, beens and rice. Tuesday was generally a bean dish of some kind. It’s surprising how many cultures have some kind of bean and rice dish: not coincidentally that combined rice and beans have all the amino acids needed for the body to create protein and grow muscle.

The recipe makes four serves and it basically just involves cutting up stuff, opening a couple of cans, and cooking some rice!

• The Andouille Sausage is the most expensive component at $1.10 per serve. Greg purchased carefully and got a double pack (8 sausages) for the price of a single pack elsewhere. Tonight’s dish only used half the purchase.
• Bell pepper: 20c per serve
• Onion: 20c per serve
• Fire roasted diced tomato (canned): 37c per serve
• We used kidney beans instead of pinto because they taste better: 40c a serve
• For the herbs, 15c a serve
• And the rice: 66c a serve

Dinner tonight cost $3.08 a serve. It’s a very tasty, warming stew with a little heat from the andouille.

Lunch

A rather simple lunch using the leftover baguette from yesterday, toasted. Add some cream cheese, tomato and salami for a tasty lunch.

• 1/4 of the $2.69 baguette went to each serve or 68c
• One tomato was divided in half for 29c a serve
• 1/6 of the pack of salami went into a serve: 92c
• The tub of cream cheese is $3.99, or about 67c a serve

Lunch today was okay, and cost $2.56 a serve.

Dinner

The first time eating out this month: Gordon Birsch for our regular get together with a friend over beers. Tonight we were in the mood for a burger – the first burger of the year:

Gastro Pub

Bacon jam, housemade bleu cheese sauce, mixed greens, tomato, gorgonzola cheese and caramelized onions atop our fresh steakburger

It was a little messy, but really very good. $12.25 on the menu, but with tip and tax closer to $16. We’re still enjoying the festbier – one of our favorite seasonal beers there.

Our all time favorite burger has no steak, substituting a portobello mushroom for the protein. We should make it for you some time.

Lunch

The leftover baked beans from January 9th were calling to be eaten. So we did. Served on an English muffin with two organic eggs. That’s just $2.38 a serve.

Dinner

We had extra thick cut pork loin chops in this month’s meat order, and sous vide, followed by a quick sear, is the best way to cook pork to perfection.

• 12 oz pork chop $9.50 each/per serve. Bone in so the meat is about 10 oz – a generous serve.

For the salad:

• Celery 99c or 50c a serve
• Apple $1.10 or 55c a serve
• Walnut pieces $2.00 or $1.00 a serve
• Mayo – let’s say 1/5 th of the container, 50c or 25c each
• Labne – to mix with the mayo – again 1/5 of the container, 50c or 25c each

Dinner tonight cost $9.50 for a very generous serve of farm raised heritage pork and $2.55 for the salad each.

Without a doubt this was the best pork chop I’ve ever had. Way better cooked than at Gallagher’s New York New York in Las Vegas, where it would be $36 for the chop, plus sides. This is the benefit of cooking: the best quality food without breaking the bank.

About sous vide: The times we cook this way we use a very large cast iron pot filled with water. This provides enough thermal inertia to keep the temperature relatively stable. This time round, Greg tried the (to us new) induction cooktop. Temperature mode on the cooktop proved to be quite stable and excellent for the sous vide.

Lunch

Grabbing lunch between a Home Depot visit and going to do some yard work on our house, we picked up sushi again. $6.50 a serve, but convenient.

Dinner

Filipino-style marinated steak, wild rice mix and bok choy. We’re starting with a cross-rib steak so marinating and a fast cook, will be the secret to getting the best from this piece of meat.

The interplay of salty, sweet, and sour is pure Filipino, and the lemon rind adds an intense blast of citrus flavor.

•  The cross-rib steaks are part of our monthly meat delivery: 10.4 oz each – $5.85 per serve
• The bok choy cost $1.08 or 54c a serve
• The country rice blend was $2.63 for the packet but that will make four serves, so 66c serve.

Dinner tonight cost $7.05. While that’s not the absolute best cut of beef, it is tasty, enhanced by the marinade and the beef we’re getting in our meat box has a more ‘beefy’ flavor than more conventional beef.

Lunch

A repeat of yesterday’s roast chicken breast and salad wraps.

• For lunch a breast was divided for 87c each serve.
• Hummus adds around 30c;
• Tabouli salad 79c a serve
• A flatbread is 50c.

Today’s lunch wrap cost us $2.46 a serve.

Dinner

We first encountered cioppino at Gordon Birsch, but it’s off the menu now! (That happens to pretty much all our favorites there.) It’s a simple seafood stew that’s extremely tasty but also very easy to make.

We left our the shrimp because our dinner guest is allergic. Tonight’s meal served three with several cups of the stock left as a snack or the basis of something else later.

• Olive oil – less than 5c serve
• Fennel bulb at $2 makes for 67c serve
• Onion at 50c makes it 17c serve
• Four large garlic cloves are about 1/4 of the 50c garlic – 17c serve
• Tomato paste 90c can but only half was used, for 15c serve
• Diced tomatoes in juice – $3.99 or $1.33 serve
• 1.5 cups dry white wine – about $1 or 33c serve
• 5 cups fish stock $6.20 or $2.07 serve
• 16 oz of White Wine and Garlic Mussels are $4 or $1.33 serve
• For the firm fleshed fish, Greg used Kroger Wild Caught Pacific Cod. The 40z pack costs $16.89 but only 8 oz was used (two filets). $1.13 a serve.

Served with Simple Truth Ready to bake garlic bread – $3.99 for the loaf (expensive for bread but delicious) or $1.33 per serve.

Total for tonight’s dinner: $8.60. When it was at Gordon Birsch it was $16.99 but with tax and tip that would be closer to a $22 meal out.

Lunch

A return to one of our regular lunch meals: store bought, roast chicken breast wraps.

• Today’s chicken was $6.99 and I divide it by 4 for $1.75 a serve for two breasts and two legs. For lunch a breast was divided for 87c each serve.
• Hummus adds around 30c;
• Tabouli salad 79c a serve
• A flatbread is 50c.

Today’s lunch wrap cost us $2.46 a serve.

Dinner

• The chicken legs (thigh and drumstick) are from the roast chicken , so $1.75 a serve

Tonight’s roasted cauliflower recipe comes from Rouxbe.com – one of my favorite cooking school sites. Roasting cauliflower completely changes the flavor and texture. It was really good.

• Just over 1 lb of cauliflower cost $2.13 and we used it all over two serves: $1.07 each.
• The arugula, meyer lemon, capers (a Greg addition to the recipe), and seasonings might run 75c per serve.

Total cost for dinner: $3.57 per serve.

 

Lunch

Even after four serves there was Scotch Broth left over: enough for two very large cups today. So, because I’d apportioned all the cost to four serves, today’s lunch is free!

Dinner

Is it a Quesadilla? Is it a grilled cheese sandwich? Not really Huevos Rancheros… Here’s the original recipe, and here’s what we did:

Take a flatbread and spread with refried black beans. Cover with grated cheese: ours is a mix of about 3 oz gouda and 1 oz of parmesan. A little organic salsa – frontera chipotle salsa – and fry in a little bacon fat (or oil if you don’t keep bacon fat.)

When in the pan lay another flatbread across and wait until the bottom flatbread is cooked, and the cheese has started to soft.

Flip – I find getting the flipper under the long axis of the flatbread and flipping sideways works for me.

While it rests for five minutes, fry two eggs a serve and top with a little more salsa.

Not every day has to be a gourmet adventure, but it does have to taste good.

• One flatbread (half of two) costs 50c a serve
• Half a can of refried beans, shared across two halves: 33c
• Fontera salsa is expensive (and tasty) at $4.69 a jar, but it breaks down to 16c a serve inside, and the same drizzled on top
• The mix of cheese is about 78c per serve
• Each egg adds 50c or $1 per serve

Dinner tonight cost $2.93.