The FOOD, INC. $11 Dinner for Four Challenge: Day Four Meal
[NOTE: If you're new to my FOOD, INC. $11 Dinner for Four Challenge, I recommend you read Ground Rules and Day One Meal, as background before reading this entry.]
I discovered something important preparing day four’s meal – let the woman of the house do the shopping. She’ll be much more economical and efficient.
A couple of nights ago, Mackie came home from our usual Safeway at 16th and Potrero. She declared, “I have a meal for your family.” London broil, 3 1/2 lbs. of Safeway Ranchers Reserve, for $5.56, down from $13.38. She examined the meat and said it looked fine, said she eat it herself. She’s very fussy about meat so I’ll take that one to the bank. Fresh green beans, $0.99/lb., down from $2.49. Went for 1 1/2 lbs. for $1.50. Five ears of fresh, white corn, $2.00. All Club Card prices. Everybody drinks milk. This is a very hearty meal and has two fresh veggies, so we'll pass on fresh fruit for dessert to save some money.
Mackie's "shopping" took less than 10 minutes and was conducted on July 8, 2009. The price for the salt is based on my notes for the day two meal, dated July 1, 2009, 16th and Potrero Safeway.
We'll cook the London broil a la plancha, which is a fancy way of saying we'll pan fry it. Simply Recipes does a nice job of describing the technique. A few comments:
1) The part about letting the meat come to room temperature before cooking is important. Otherwise, you'll get a steak that's done outside but raw inside. The point about NOT doing this with ground meat is also important!
2) You don't need a cast iron skillet. Any skillet that does a reasonable job of distributing heat will do. However, you need to bring the skillet to temperature before adding the steak. Starting the steak in a cold skillet will not yield the desired result.
3) Instead of dry mustard, we'll prep our steak the way Mackie and I do at home, with garlic. We'll take the garlic we have left over from day three, crush the cloves and rub on both sides of the steak. For additional garlic flavor, I place the smashed cloves on top of the steak (don't get the garlic underneath the steak — if you do, some of the steak's surface won't heat) while it cooks.
4) So we can calculate nutritional information, we'll say that we use one tablespoon of better and 1/2 tsp. of salt in preparing the steak.
For healthy preparation, we'll blanch the green beans.
At risk of setting off a foodie fight, I either keep the corn in its husk or shuck it and wrap it in waxed paper, then throw it in the microwave to cook, 2 to 3 minutes per ear. Works just fine and you don't waste time and energy bringing a pot of water to boil. To prevent the family from having to split an ear into four pieces, we'll cut the kernels off of the cob before serving. Besides, it's Mackie's dinner and that's the way she likes her corn. For flavor, we'll add one tablespoon of better and 1/2 tsp. of salt to the corn.
Per person, this meal delivers 1165 calories, 28 g of total fat, 10 g of saturated fat, 924 mg of sodium and 11 g of fiber. Nutritional information for the green beans, corn and garlic, came from www.thedailyplate.com, for the London broil from www.nutritiondata.com. Data for salt came from www.safeway.com.
Adding it up, ingredients cost $9.95. Including day three's carryforward, we had $11.22 to spend. So, we'll carry a $1.25, our largest surplus yet, plus 6 oz. of butter, three large eggs, 5/12 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a half-gallon of milk into day five.
This meal is the first that exceeds the calorie goal. Since I'm not trying to make our family lose weight, I'm OK with going over today. We're a little high on fiber, which is also good. Not so good is being a bit over for total fat, saturated fat and sodium but we're better on these today than on day three so at least the trend is in the right direction. I continue to think I'm doing better than fast food burgers but my menus need additional tweaking. Click here if you want to see a JPG of the spreadsheet used to calculate the per person nutritional content for the meal. (Note: My calculations overstate the calories, fat, etc. from the London broil because I used the weight of an uncooked piece but the nutritional data based on cooked weight.)
Estimated prep time for the meal is about 20 minutes, not including the time the meat needs to sit at room temperature before cooking. "Shopping" took Mackie about 10 minutes at Safeway. She's much better than I am.
In addition to Mackie's shopping's efficiency and economy, the thing that struck me about this meal was how little sodium that we're supposed to have per government nutritional guidelines. The equivalent of 1 tsp. of salt. That is all!
Oh, and specials. If you can get your protein on special, you make getting everthing else while staying in budget MUCH easier.
On to day five. Mackie set a high bar. Gotta get crackin'!
[NOTE: Again, my posts for the seven days of the FOOD, INC. challenge will not appear on seven consecutive days. Real life makes me do things other than blog.]
I discovered something important preparing day four’s meal – let the woman of the house do the shopping. She’ll be much more economical and efficient.
A couple of nights ago, Mackie came home from our usual Safeway at 16th and Potrero. She declared, “I have a meal for your family.” London broil, 3 1/2 lbs. of Safeway Ranchers Reserve, for $5.56, down from $13.38. She examined the meat and said it looked fine, said she eat it herself. She’s very fussy about meat so I’ll take that one to the bank. Fresh green beans, $0.99/lb., down from $2.49. Went for 1 1/2 lbs. for $1.50. Five ears of fresh, white corn, $2.00. All Club Card prices. Everybody drinks milk. This is a very hearty meal and has two fresh veggies, so we'll pass on fresh fruit for dessert to save some money.
Mackie's "shopping" took less than 10 minutes and was conducted on July 8, 2009. The price for the salt is based on my notes for the day two meal, dated July 1, 2009, 16th and Potrero Safeway.
We'll cook the London broil a la plancha, which is a fancy way of saying we'll pan fry it. Simply Recipes does a nice job of describing the technique. A few comments:
1) The part about letting the meat come to room temperature before cooking is important. Otherwise, you'll get a steak that's done outside but raw inside. The point about NOT doing this with ground meat is also important!
2) You don't need a cast iron skillet. Any skillet that does a reasonable job of distributing heat will do. However, you need to bring the skillet to temperature before adding the steak. Starting the steak in a cold skillet will not yield the desired result.
3) Instead of dry mustard, we'll prep our steak the way Mackie and I do at home, with garlic. We'll take the garlic we have left over from day three, crush the cloves and rub on both sides of the steak. For additional garlic flavor, I place the smashed cloves on top of the steak (don't get the garlic underneath the steak — if you do, some of the steak's surface won't heat) while it cooks.
4) So we can calculate nutritional information, we'll say that we use one tablespoon of better and 1/2 tsp. of salt in preparing the steak.
For healthy preparation, we'll blanch the green beans.
At risk of setting off a foodie fight, I either keep the corn in its husk or shuck it and wrap it in waxed paper, then throw it in the microwave to cook, 2 to 3 minutes per ear. Works just fine and you don't waste time and energy bringing a pot of water to boil. To prevent the family from having to split an ear into four pieces, we'll cut the kernels off of the cob before serving. Besides, it's Mackie's dinner and that's the way she likes her corn. For flavor, we'll add one tablespoon of better and 1/2 tsp. of salt to the corn.
Per person, this meal delivers 1165 calories, 28 g of total fat, 10 g of saturated fat, 924 mg of sodium and 11 g of fiber. Nutritional information for the green beans, corn and garlic, came from www.thedailyplate.com, for the London broil from www.nutritiondata.com. Data for salt came from www.safeway.com.
Adding it up, ingredients cost $9.95. Including day three's carryforward, we had $11.22 to spend. So, we'll carry a $1.25, our largest surplus yet, plus 6 oz. of butter, three large eggs, 5/12 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a half-gallon of milk into day five.
This meal is the first that exceeds the calorie goal. Since I'm not trying to make our family lose weight, I'm OK with going over today. We're a little high on fiber, which is also good. Not so good is being a bit over for total fat, saturated fat and sodium but we're better on these today than on day three so at least the trend is in the right direction. I continue to think I'm doing better than fast food burgers but my menus need additional tweaking. Click here if you want to see a JPG of the spreadsheet used to calculate the per person nutritional content for the meal. (Note: My calculations overstate the calories, fat, etc. from the London broil because I used the weight of an uncooked piece but the nutritional data based on cooked weight.)
Estimated prep time for the meal is about 20 minutes, not including the time the meat needs to sit at room temperature before cooking. "Shopping" took Mackie about 10 minutes at Safeway. She's much better than I am.
In addition to Mackie's shopping's efficiency and economy, the thing that struck me about this meal was how little sodium that we're supposed to have per government nutritional guidelines. The equivalent of 1 tsp. of salt. That is all!
Oh, and specials. If you can get your protein on special, you make getting everthing else while staying in budget MUCH easier.
On to day five. Mackie set a high bar. Gotta get crackin'!
[NOTE: Again, my posts for the seven days of the FOOD, INC. challenge will not appear on seven consecutive days. Real life makes me do things other than blog.]
Loving your reports on the challenge!
When it's through (or now if you think it makes sense), I was wondering what you thought about shopping just once a week - making a list of the meals to prepare for the week (based off sale ads? or perhaps not) and getting everything at once.
It would save a lot of time and perhaps some things could be made in advance for a busy family.
Maybe that is another challenge?
I also wonder about fresh veggies versus frozen - we often resort to frozen because it is cheaper during some parts of the year. Are frozen veggies (with nothing added) acceptable?
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Mike, I plan to look at how having $77 for a week vs. $11/day for a weeks changes things at the end of the challenge. I'm sure it will help, e.g., I could afford a bottle of olive or vegetable oil. I did it the hard way first so I wouldn't be accused of cheating. If, for example, someone's income came from mostly tips, they might literally have $11 per day for the first few days after they paid their rent.
Looking at the weekly sale ads is a good idea. I didn't think of it because I don't shop that way. I'll include that aspect when I do the $77 for a week post.
As far as I'm concerned, frozen veggies are perfectly acceptable. The LOS gang may not agree but I don't care. I've been meaning check out the freezer section but forget every time I go to the store. Thanks for the reminder -- maybe it'll stick during my next jaunt to Safeway.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
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