Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Eating for a week, take 1

Experiment #1: $52

That's how much my grocery bill was, at least -- and it did include a couple of sundries that aren't on the menu. But so far, so good, as far as ease and taste have gone:

Spent an hour of prep time and another hour of simmering time Monday night to fix Kitty's Tortilla Soup -- main time snags were dicing the garlic and onions, chopping the chicken (note: seems harder to remove all the fat once it's cooked) and frying the tortilla strips. (Do in bulk and freeze? Tortillas are certainly easy to purchase in bulk.) Result: 6 meals

Spent another 30 minutes Tuesday night making homemade meatballs and cooking spaghetti. (Also made a hamburger with some of the beef.) Result: 5 meals

If I succeed in fixing the lemon stir-fry beef tonight in an estimated 30 minutes prep time and get 3 meals out of it, my result will be:

14 meals -- $3.70 per meal -- 2 hours prep time (if you simmer while you chop).

14 is, plainly, enough to get you through a week -- even if you eat one meal on prep night, you might want to eat out for variety in the ensuing 7 days. Especially since having only three dishes means lots of repetition -- though, technically, I will probably have a steak from some of the stirfry fixings. I could well be sick of these meals by the end of the week. And -- importantly -- this includes no side dishes, which will ramp the time up.

So far, so good: Price is OK, flavor is excellent, yield is high. Wasn't hungry for spaghetti again today after having it last night, but spicy tortilla soup still sounds good for tonight! Need more veggies, and possibly variety.

For next week, perhaps quesadillas verdes? Could dovetail with this week's leftover tortillas if I had bought in greater bulk.

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