ODG Eats

If this is your first visit, check out this post to see why posts like these exist. Otherwise, carry on. I love pasta puttanesca. It's lovely, has a...strong aromatic presence, a tremendous flavor, and a glorious origin legend. Unfortunately, this is not that, but it's an interesting analog ($3 word for "copy"). For this meal, I used 1 pot, 1 colander, and 1 mixing spoon. Ingredient-wise, I only used half a can of cannellini beans ($0.50), a can of crushed tomatoes ($1.00), a quarter box of pasta ($0.50), a couple tablespoons of jarred garlic ($0.22), a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar ($0.04), a can of tuna ($1.17), and a teaspoon and a half of capers ($0.21) for a total of $3.64. This made two servings in about 15 minutes at $1.82 per bowl. You don't need a blow-by-blow for boiling noodles. I just used water and a pinch of salt this time instead of the veggie broth mix from last time. When they were done, I poured them into the colander, but managed to save a ...

 If this is your first visit, check out this post to see why posts like these exist. Otherwise, carry on. Tonight's dinner only uses 1 pot, 1 mixing spoon, 1 colander, 1small bowl, plus a couple other plates/bowls for holding ingredients along the way. As for the ingredients, I used a quarter carton of veggie broth ($0.40), a quarter box of Barilla Rotini ($0.50), a tablespoon of butter ($0.11), a can of chicken ($2.33), half a can of sweet peas ($0.50), half a can of sweet corn ($0.50), and a couple tablespoons of jarred garlic ($0.22) for a total of $4.56, and it only took a total of about 15 minutes to cook two servings of the whole dinner, so we're looking at $2.28 per serving. I started off by boiling the pasta in equal parts veggie broth and water. That helps dilute the salt from the broth (which, with the veggie broth, isn't too salty anyway, but still, gotta keep an eye on sodium when we're dealing with canned goods).  Since watching water boil is a shitty past...

 So I bitched a bit about Kroger in the last post, but I do have to give props where they're due: manager's special on meat can be a Godsend. I got a good-sized piece of top sirloin steak for $4.55, and I was able to turn that into 3 servings, so I'd call that a good deal. For tonight's meal, I used 1 pot, 1 pan, 1 cutting board, 1 knife, 1 strainer, 1 wooden spatula, 1 wooden spoon, and 1 tablespoon. Ingredient-wise, I used about 1/4 of my sweet onion (~$0.22), half a can of cannellini beans ($0.99/can, so ~$0.50), my leftover sweet peas and sweet corn (~$0.95), a cup of rice (20lb for $11.57, so ~$0.26), half a can of chicken broth (~$0.45) and the beef, so we're clocking in around $6.93 for 3 meals, or $2.31/plate. Yes, I'm excluding pricing staples like salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, etc. Sue me. Please don't sue me I don't have enough money for that. Anyway, the whole process took 28 minutes.  I started my pot on medium heat, and, while it heated...

 I went grocery shopping Saturday, and, I've gotta say, I got a little miffed at Kroger. And by "a little miffed," I mean really fucking pissed. I'm trying to find as good of a balance as possible among flavor, affordability, convenience, and nutrition. I really wanted some onions, and there were no canned onions. Then I realized I don't think I've ever seen canned onions, so I Googled it. Turns out, canned onions don't hold up well. And then I found myself in the produce section looking at onions when I saw a box, $5, EBT eligible, of julienned onions but no indication of how much onion was in the box, so I grabbed a box and threw it in the scale. About 0.6lb for $5. The same onion, whole, cost $1.39/lb. That means they're selling 83 cents of onion for $5. That's about a 500% markup. In more real world terms, if it takes you 5 minutes to slice an onion, spending $5 on that sliced onion is reasonable if you earn $50/hr. So, long story short, they...

 I used to drive a 1986 pickup truck that was a heap of trouble on wheels. Mind you, I learned to drive in 2002. That piece of shit loved to just, you know, die. In the middle of intersections. While turning onto side streets. While accelerating from a stop sign. While braking for a stop sign. While cranking. It just died whenever it felt like it. It had AM radio and hand crank windows. That's literally it. No FM, no AC or heat. There were seatbelts for 2 of the 3 seats. I fucking hated that truck. On the other hand, it was my truck. I drove it to church, to work, and to the library; that was as far as I was allowed to take it, and I took it all of those places. I remember the first time I got it to idle while parked. I remember singing "The Prayer" over its dying engine multiple times. I think my younger brother probably has some flashbacks of some of those moments. But, as old, beaten up, shitty, annoying, and objectively terrible as it was, it sure was nice to have it ...