Taco salad

Will type up this recipe shortly - for now just noting that it costs about $3.18 plus pantry staples per serving.

Ginger salmon

A recipe of my mom's and a perennial favourite around here for its flavour and dead-easiness. About $3.73 per serving, plus pantry staples.

Ingredients:
Salmon filet (skin on or off)
Lots of ginger, cut into matchsticks
Dark soy sauce (about 1/2c)
Splash of olive oil

Salmon filet goes in baking dish; add splash of oil, cover with ginger matchsticks, and douse all in soy sauce. Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 till thickest part of the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 1/2h.

Week 4 - FINAL TALLY

Numbers for the week:

$$ on groceries: $210
$$ on takeout etc: $75

GRAND TOTAL:
$$ on groceries: $1270
$$ on takeout etc: $190
                        -----------
                          $1460

Previous eating-out-constantly-in-October numbers, revised with some info from Corey:

$$ on groceries: $700
$$ on takeout etc: $700
                           --------
                            $1400

...well, that's depressing. I guess it made for better eating than donuts, pierogies and coffee-shop sandwiches, but it sure was a shit ton of work.

Corey proposes that we do another round and track economics too ($$ per meal, etc.) so we have a better idea of whether this is just the cost of real food or the cost of the ingredients I've been using. So: a week off, and then BACK AT IT.

Ugh.

Week 3

More cheating on the takeout front this week, thanks to socializing (and one restaurant breakfast requested by Rose).

$$ for the week:

$270 on groceries
$85 on takeout

Freezer contents: None new

Fridge contents:
*Fixings for squash soup, which I didn't get around to making
*Beets

Ugh. I am feeling very low on energy for this whole endeavour right now. Squash soup, orangey beets, some beef bourguignon from the freezer and some pulled pork again ought to do for this week, or at least get us through the first half of it. Oh, and some chocolate chip banana bread for breakfasts.

Strategizing

To make this week:

* bean and veggie pitas
* braised italian chicken w tomatoes and green beans
* squash and bacon risotto
* probably some squash soup to use up the leftovers from the recipe above
* pear upside down muffins

Week 2

This week I have roller-coastered between despair at the amount of work this is requiring and VICTORIOUS TRIUMPH at kicking the ass of said work. And victory is, in fact, still ours: our one concession was pizza while visiting with friends (which they very kindly covered, but still.)

$$ for the week:

$450 on groceries (yikes!)
$15 on pizza

Freezer contents:
* 3-4 servings beef bourguignon
* 1 serving lemon olive chicken
* 3-4 servings tomato feta chicken
* 2 loaves challah
* potful of chicken stock

Fridge contents:
* 2-3 servings ginger salmon
* 2-3 servings leftover chicken and mashed potatoes

Strategizing for the coming week to follow, but it will involve chicken stock and beets. Considering the hair-raising state of the grocery tally so far, maybe I will fall back on some of the freezer contents for myself and just cook for Corey.

Chocolate chip raspberry muffins

From a Fine Cooking holiday baking cookbook; online here.

Big, poofy, soft and delicious. Best on the first day, but I ate them for breakfast all week.

Swedish meatballs

From the little Canadian slow cooker cookbook; online here.

I overdid the pepper by accident, but these were still pretty good. Mixing the flour with the sour cream didn't really work, though; my sauce was very lumpy. Adding some of the cooking liquid when stirring them up together might have worked better.

Pulled pork

From the Canadian Living slow-cooker cookbook; online here.

Not a huge fan of pork, personally, but this was easy to make and Corey and Heather both tell me it was delicious. Hard on Corey in quantity, because holy grease, batman, but a little bit is doable.

Gluten free if served over, say, potatoes instead of on a bun.

Orange and avocado salad

From Canadian Living, January 2004 (green binder) - online here.

Rare to get two "holy crap" dishes in one meal, but I managed it tonight! Getting the sections out of the oranges (I used navel oranges; might try moro next time) is a right pain in the ass, but the resulting mix of textures and flavours is pure genius. The pomegranate seeds are a particularly nice touch; I had expected to find them kind of seedy, but in a salad they're just pleasantly crunchy.

Roast chicken with rosemary-lemon salt

Fine Cooking's chicken cookbook 2012 - p. 100. Online here.

Holy crap was this delicious. Salty (natch - but just enough), moist, flavourful. Definitely a keeper. Recipe is for two birds with one to be used as leftovers; awesomeness of leftovers to be tested this weekend.

Week One

Highly successful! I caved once, but that was to go out with a friend, since logistics didn't allow me to eat beforehand.

$$ stats for the week:

$340 on groceries
$15 on dinner to go with bellinis

In the freezer:
* 3-4 servings beef bourguignon
* 1 serving lemon olive chicken
* 3-4 servings tomato feta chicken

Planned for this week:
* Swedish meatballs
* Beet & vegetable borscht
* Raspberry chocolate muffins
* Pulled pork
* Taco salad
* Pork & green bean stirfry

Beef bourguignon

From Canadian Living's Slow Cooker cookbook - available online here.

This is pretty labour-intensive for a slow-cooker recipe, but SO WORTH IT. I didn't bother draining the fat after cooking the bacon and just fried the beef in that. ZOMG perfection. And I do bother with the pearl onions and button mushrooms (vs. chopped bigger onions and mushrooms) for this one.

Gluten free if you substitute corn starch for the flour as the thickening agent.

Rhubarb muffins

From the Canadian Living website here.

Soooooo delicious. Buttermilk pancakes or the texas chocolate sheet cake in the Joy of Cooking are good ways to use up the rest of a carton of buttermilk.

Tomato feta chicken with orzo

I originally got this from allrecipes.com and at first thought it had vanished from the internets, but lo and behold, it is still available here.

I use chopped onion instead of the pearl onions and chopped boneless, skinless chicken thighs in place of the chicken pieces; I don't usually bother with the cilantro. Don't skimp on the feta!

Gluten-free if served over rice instead of orzo.

Lemon and olive chicken

Canadian Living slow cooker book - online here.

Made this with rice and froze half - results of that to follow. Have not tasted it, as olives are not my favourite ever, but Corey reports it is delicious.

Gluten-free if thickened with corn starch instead of flour.

It liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiives

Reviving this blog, since I'm reviving the resolution that prompted it. PH34R MY DETERMINATION.

Adding some tracking of numbers, too, in hopes of motivating myself.

So as a baseline, in 4 weeks of eating out for almost every single meal and breakfasting almost entirely on donuts, I spent:

$400 on assorted takeout
$500 on groceries

I hereby vow that am going to spend the NEXT 4 weeks eating nothing but groceries and home-cooked food - recipes to be documented here - and then I will check in on November 24 to tally up the billz.