E-Co$t Debut

Nope, I didn't forget about the new E-Co$t feature of this site. Last week we spent $131 on groceries. We bought a lot of stuff and mostly it was food related. But amazingly enough, only a total of $74.44 was for food for dinner prep—and that includes the $14.99 for a 44-fluid ounce bottle of extra virgin olive oil. The organic baby spinach at $3.79 per 6-ounce "box" (evil plastic) was also a big chunk of the bill since we bought three of them (the spinach and the olive oil totaled $26.36). The other expensive items were non-dinner related (sparkling water, organic cereal bars, yogurt, and coffee beans). I have several ideas for cutting down those costs, which I'll post about eventually.

Here's the totals (approximate) for the meals for the Menu 5/31/08 to 6/6/08:

• Turkey meatloaf: $10.81 for loaf ($1.08 for each serving)
• Smashed potatoes: $3.15 ($0.52 for each serving)
• Lemon-herb roasted chicken: $10.55 for entire roast ($2.63 per serving; however, the carcass meat does get recycled into stock and other meals)
• Fri-ta-toe: $1.68 ($0.42 per serving)
• Chicken-Spinach Faux Casserole: $12.46 ($2.49 per serving)
• Prosciutto Pasta: $6.65 ($3.33 per serving)

I'll have to probably refine this feature of the blog as some of the costs can be misleading. For example, the chicken-spinach faux casserole: the total includes the costs associated with the first chicken meal (lemon-herb roasted chicken) from which the faux casserole is derived. So, it can be argued that the costs are more accurate this way, but for a true idea of how much we are actually spending, the cost for that initial chicken meal would have to be excluded (because I didn't really go out and buy more food). In other words, all the ingredients for the casserole (including those for making 2 servings of the lemon-herb chicken) totaled $12.46. But because I already paid for those 2 servings of lemon-herb roasted chicken ($2.63 x 2 = $5.27), the outlay for the second "left-over" meal was really $7.19 ($1.44 per serving). The same is true of the fri-ta-toe; the only new ingredients were red pepper, onion, olive oil, egg, and salt and pepper.

Menu a la Week: 6/7/08 - 6/13/08

Deviating from the usual plan, we have three or four new meals planned for this week (instead of the usual two to three). Today, spinach pie. With it, I plan to use up some ingredients that have been in the refrigerator for a while: the chopped onions I had left over from the turkey meatloaf, scallions from the mashed potatoes, fresh baby spinach that we haven't used yet, and the heavy cream I had laying around from the asparagus soup recipe.

The one big puzzle: What to do with the "fri-ta-toe" in the fridge from Wednesday and a bunch of smashed potatoes. That'll have to be tomorrow's lunch or I'll have to use the potatoes with the turkey sausage instead of pasta. I wish I had frozen some of the potatoes, but I had no idea that the smashed would stretch so far. That's a good lesson: If in doubt, freeze. It doesn't hurt to have a backlog of meals in the refrigerator, especially during the summer when hot days and the opportunities for fun abound.

Menu 6/7/08 - 6/13/08
Saturday June 7, 2008
Spinach pie

Sunday June 8, 2008
Turkey sausage with pasta

Monday June 9, 2008
Soup of the week and bread

Tuesday June 10, 2008
Turkey sausage with pasta

Wednesday June 11, 2008
Spinach pie and salad

Thursday June 12, 2008

Soup of the week with salad

Friday June 13, 2008

Fish day: Tuna wraps or other fresh fish

Meatloaf Sandwiches and Fri-ta-toe

Since the stars were aligned against us today (my husband was in a car accident this morning— he's okay, as is the driver who hit him), we didn't follow the menu and, instead, made something easier than the chicken rice "casserole" that was scheduled. And what could be easier than turkey meatloaf sandwiches? We finished up the last of the asparagus (blanched and topped with a bit of butter), and I also made a fried potato "pancake" with leftover smashed potatoes and some other ingredients. I don't know if the potato side dish I made can technically be called a frittata, so I'm calling it a fri-ta-toe (rhymes with po-ta-to). My only regret? That I hadn't added the asparagus to the fri-ta-toe.

Fri-Ta-Toe
Serves 4 to 6

Extra virgin olive oil
2 cups of smashed potatoes (from earlier in the week)
1/4 cup chopped onion (also in the refrigerator from the day the meatloaf was made)
1/2 red pepper, chopped small
1 egg, beaten
Kosher salt
Pepper

Directions
1. Heat olive oil up in a large frying pan (I use a Le Creuset pan on medium-low heat).
2. Mix all ingredients together in bowl.
3. With a large spoon form potato mixture into 4 to 6 "pancakes," placing each, one at a time into the heated oil.
4. Cook for about 5 to 6 minutes on one side and turn it over. Brown on the other side for another 5 to 6 minutes.
5. Remove pancakes from pan when mixture is golden brown on both sides and heated through.

Nutrition Information per Serving
Calories: ; Carbohydrates: ; Protein: ; Fat: ; Cals./g:
*Points: