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.

Bits and Pieces

Tonight was G&T (gin and tonic) night on the porch. We felt like cold drinks and a hot meal, but since it had been a warm day, we didn't want to heat up the kitchen too much. I had just the right recipe.

Last year, the New York Times published the quickie dinner list to end all quickie dinner lists: "Summer Express: 100 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes" by Mark "the Minimalist" Bittman. It's available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. If you can't access the entire article for free (which I seem to be able to do just by being a registered user), it's worth the price of a download ($3.95, I think).

Bittman had just the thing (#14 on his list of 101 dinners) for using up the rest of the prosciutto we had in the refrigerator (from those canapes we made). One warning though: Do NOT add any salt to this dish. Really. I'm not kidding.

Prosciutto Pasta
Serves 2

4 ounces of dried pasta (such as spaghetti or linguini)
3-4 slices prosciutto, chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 to 3 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 to 1/2 cup of bread crumbs (ours was with Italian seasonings)Pinch of red chili flakes
1/2 tablespoon of chopped flat leaf italian parsley (you can substitute dried parsley, but fresh is better)

Directions
1. Add pasta to a large pot of boiling water and let cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, add prosciutto , olive oil, garlic, and butter to a skillet over medium heat.
3. A minute later, toss in the bread crumbs and red chili flakes to taste (they're hot!!!). Mix together.
4. When pasta is finished, drain.
5. Serve prosciutto-bread crumb mixture over pasta with chopped parsley.

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

EXTRA! EXTRA! I'm so excited: I have some great plans for the Home Ec-o blog this weekend. I'm introducing a new feature: E-Co$t. That's right, in addition to calculating the nutritional values of each dish (I'll be updating that data for this week's recipes), we're tallying how much each meal costs too.

Menu a la Week: 5/31/08 - 6/6/08

Menu planning has got to be the hardest part of this whole enterprise. Okay, it's the menu planning and calculating the nutrition information (which, I know, I still haven't done for a good number of this past week's recipes) that stretch my brain a bit. Anyhow, here's the menu for the cooking week starting today, Saturday 5/31/08 and ending Friday 6/6/08. I reserve the right to switch around the appearance of any of the meals based on the week's activities and our mood (so just try and hold me to it!).

Dinner for tonight, Saturday, was just a bunch of snacks. Normally I would cook dinner (it should've been turkey meatloaf on Saturday and roast chicken on Sunday), but a lot's been going on, so considering my mindset, toast and tea seemed like a good dinner to me (neither of us was very hungry). I made the meatloaf, we just didn't eat it. So it's ready to go for dinner later this week.

Menu 5/31/08 - 6/6/08
Saturday May 31, 2008
Turkey meatloaf [prepared]

Sunday June 1, 2008
Roast chicken
Smashed potatoes
Asparagus

Monday, June 2, 2008
Turkey meatloaf
Brown rice
Spinach

Tuesday June 3, 2008
Asparagus Soup
Salad

Wednesday June 4, 2008
Chicken-Spinach-Rice "Casserole"

Thursday June 5, 2008
Turkey meatloaf sandwich
Fried potato cake (aka "fri-ta-toe")

Friday June 6, 2008
Prosciutto pasta (or some other quickie meal)