Food Plan and Grocery List, 021311

This weekend, I've been ultra-motivated and have been too busy to think much about food.  I've managed to transfer the data from the old tower to the new one (turns out the old tower wasn't dead, the power button was sticking -- DOH!), fed the snakes and worms, got a hair cut, bought stuff to fix my leaking kitchen sink at Home Depot, scored a pepper grinder, and did some spur-of-the-moment food shopping.

The plan this week is to eat more fruit as my tendency of late is to let the fruit sit and turn into worm food in the fridge. I have some ribs leftover and intend to eat it with some different sides (brussel sprouts and salad), but I'll be cooking

• Chickpea, Sausage and Kale Pasta

I bought:

Grower's Direct

• fresh-cut cantaloupe: $1.21/1.53 lb
• fresh-cut pineapple: $1.76/2.23 lb
• fresh-cut maradol papaya: $1.36/1.53 lb
• honey tangerines: $2.10/2.12 lb
• red bell pepper: $1.17/0.39 lb
• small gala apples: $1.17/1.60 lb
• blood oranges: $0.50/0.63 lb
• brussel sprouts: $1.85/0.93 lb
• English cucumber: $1.49 ea
• garlic: $0.35/bulb
• kale: $0.99/bunch
• romaine lettuce: $1.59/head
• baby spinach: $1.99/6 oz
• TOTAL: $17.30

Ralph's

• Aidels Cajun-Style Andouille sausage: $5.99/12 oz
• TOTAL: $5.99

Stater Bros.

• Hunt's fire-roasted diced tomatoes: $1.69/14.5 oz
• Hunt's fire-roasted diced tomatoes: $1.69/14.5 oz
• TOTAL: $3.38

Grand Total: $26.67
Total for the year: $176.43

Cost of Take-Out Lunch, Week Ending 021111

• Monday: ribs, mashed potatoes, green beans


• Tuesday: ribs, mashed potatoes, green beans


• Wednesday: Schlotzky's large Combination Pizza: $9.99 + tax


• Thursday: Buffalo Wild Wings 12 Chipotle BBQ dry rubbed wings with celery: $10.21+$3 toke


• Friday: Sushi Plantation lunch with boss: $29.69+$6 toke

Total: $59.76.
Total for the year: $152.44. Ouch, the sushi place is killing me.

Bittman's Spareribs

Just an FYI, I made some more of these ribs.

Food Plan and Grocery List, 020611

This weekend, because of my old computer dying, I haven't spent much time considering what to eat this week.  What I know is that spareribs are on sale and I have a good portion of the 8 lbs of potatoes I bought last week.

Grower's Direct:

• fresh-cut honeydew: $1.51/2.19 lb
• fresh-cut pineapple: $1.78/2.25 lb
• green bell pepper: $0.44/0.44 lb
• braeburn apples: $1.77/1.79 lb
• green beans: $0.98/0.76 lb
• garlic bulb: $0.37/0.15 lb
• romaine lettuce: $1.29/head
• baby spinach: $1.99/6 oz
• TOTAL: $10.13

Stater Bros.:

• shrimp, frozen, 71-90 count: $8.99
• shrimp, frozen, 71-90 count: FREE
• whole milk: $1.09/pint
• spareribs: $15.93 @ $1.49/lb
• TOTAL: $26.01

Grand Total: $36.14

My Computer Died

Thursday night, I went to Best Buy on a computer eye-buying expedition just for kicks. Last night, after returning home from work, my computer would not turn on.

Today I bought a new computer, my first since September 2004. It's high-falutin' compared to the old one:

• Old
• MS XP
• Office 2003
• 3000 AMD Athlon processor
• 512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM memory
• 160 GB 7200 RPM Ultra DMA hard drive
• DVD+RW/CD-RW 8x with CD writer capacity
• CD-ROM 48x max speed
• 64 MG shared video memory
• front 9-in-1 card reader
• New
• MS Windows 7
• Office 2010
• AMD Phenom II 1045T Six-Core Processor
• 8 GB DDR3 memory
• 1 TB hard drive
• Blu-Ray player & SuperMulti DVD Burner w/ LightScribe Technology
• ATI Radeon HD 5570 Series graphics card with 1 GB DDR3 dedicated graphics memory, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort capabilities and support for Blu-Ray and MS DirectX 11
• Front panel 15-in-1 memory card reader

Bear with me as I get accustomed to this one and try to get the data (IMAGES!!!) from the past two months sucked off the old one.

The blog might suddenly skip a couple months depending on how this works out.

One thing I've noticed straight-away is how much nicer this monitor (purchased a couple years ago) works with this new computer vs. the old one. SO VIBRANT and websites actually look normal. There will be some change to Smells.

Cost of Take-Out Lunch, Week Ending 020411

Tuesday: Southwest Chicken Salad with Crispy Chicken, $5.39
Friday: Southwest Chicken Salad with Crispy Chicken, $5.39

Total: $10.78
Total for the year: $92.68.

Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

Back in December I received this recipe courtesy of All Recipes' Daily Dish email. As the expense to make this dish would be toward nil because I have a serious spice rack happening, I opted to give it a go. When I'd cut the leg quarters from two whole chickens to the AL Backwoods BBQ Chicken, I'd cut boneless skinless breasts from the birds for this recipe.

Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken

from All Recipes

3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried parsley
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp lime juice

In a small bowl, mix together salt, black pepper, cayenne, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and parsley.

Sprinkle spice mixture generously on both sides of chicken breasts.

Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat.

Saute chicken until golden brown, about 6 minutes on each side.

Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons garlic powder and lime juice. Cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently to coat evenly with sauce.

Allow chicken to rest 5 minutes and serve.



Wow, the chicken was looking and smelling great -- right until I sprinkled the garlic powder and lime all over it. OVERKILL in both departments. I scraped the excess garlic powder from the chicken breast just to make it palatable.

Maybe it would have helped if I spooned the pan juices over the chicken during the last few minutes of cooking instead of stirring and flipping it. Spooning the pan juices over the chicken might have served as a "rinsing" step.

Uh, you won't see me try it though. If I do try this recipe again, I'll skip the garlic and lime juice, making it Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken.

Cost:

• chicken breasts from two whole chickens: $3.65
• spices, oil and butter: $1, SWAG

Total: $4.65 or $1.16 for each of four servings.

Click for the printable