Hi there Cheap Eaters - well, it’s Thanksgiving time already and I’m already running around starting the prep for the turkey (cooked Alton Brown style as usual) and other dishes. So, I don’t have much time to blog - in lieu of the usual wit and repartee, here are three different dish pics representing “eating out”, “buying prepared food and eating in” and “eating in from scratch”:

Ah yes, fish tacos. There’s a halfway decent place near us called Dorados that has fried fish tacos with cabbage, salsa, guacamole - $2 per taco (they used to be less). Not the cheapest, but we like these a lot as far as the fried fish tacos go.

Have you ever tried taking a pic by holding the camera in one hand and a wild, flopping half-eaten fish taco in the other? Not the easiest of things…

I often make a quick pit stop at Trader Joe’s… that is when there’s parking in the lot. For the longest time I was under the impression that this is a high-end foodie shop for those with wallets fatter than a Burger King Enormous Omelet Sandwich. However, there are certain products that are much cheaper at Trader Joe’s than in normal supermarkets. Things like mushrooms, Lactaid, arugula - I find they’re much cheaper (and more fresh) than the average supermarket.

Also, since I’m at the market anyway, I often pick up a package of their pre-made pasta thingies to cook at home for lunch - they have ravioli, tortellini, lasagna, and so-on. These Pesto Tortellini were very good, and I think the one package was about $2.25 or so. It was much more than I could eat as well. I figure an average Healthy Choice frozen dinner is $2, so why not go with the fresh stuff. Simple butter garlic sauce, with some grated parmesan on top.

Finally, this is supposed to be Chicken Chile Verde made from scratch, but it turns out I made it too salty so I had to keep diluting the heck out of it until it became Chicken Soup. It was pretty good, sort of like Tortilla Soup you get at restaurants. I often make Chile Verde Pork, but I had some chicken breast in the fridge so I decided to try that instead. On reflection, it looks an awful lot like Progresso Soup. The amount of effort I put into it versus opening a can of soup - I don’t want to talk about that. =) But I’ll try get a recipe up if I make it again.

In complete contrast to the previous post, I’m going to get right to the point in this review: I Like Fried Chicken. So a few weeks ago, weakened by hunger after grocery shopping at Albertsons near lunchtime (I believe they must purposely make items hard to find so you’ll work up an appetite while shopping and buy some of their deli food), I caved in an purchased their Chicken Dinner Deal.

I would first like to say that Fried Chicken is not exactly good for you - so please, all you nutritionists (and nutritional anthropologists) don’t write in to say how bad all that fat, trans-fat, mega-fat, uber-fat and fuggly-fat is for me. I don’t eat this every day. I would, but my health plan is pretty strict about the “One Fried Chicken Meal Per Quarter” clause. Read it, it’s in the fine print.

Here’s what this dinner contains: 1 whole fried chicken (8 pieces: 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts), 1 lb of your choice potato salad or macaroni salad, and 4 King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. Total price is $6.99. Sorry, this pic makes the chicken look darker than it actually is.

I’m going to confess that I don’t track the stock index price of FCMDX (Fried Chicken Meal Dinners Index), so I’m not sure what the average big meal goes for at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeye’s, Church’s or El Pollo Loco. But I’m pretty sure you could line up a deal similar to or better than the price of the Albertson’s meal. Here’s the thing - it’s convenient. I didn’t have to drive to another place to get it, and since we’re talking fast food here - why not get it at the grocery store where I’m shopping at anyhow?

Actually, my own argument is full of holes - there is an El Pollo Loco in the same plaza as the Albertsons, and KFC and Popeye’s is right down the street. So it’s no trouble. Ah, well. Just another reason I didn’t join the debate team.

Continue reading “Albertsons Chicken Dinner” …

Living in a world of convenience is sorta nice. That old saying “A chicken in every pot” which we take for granted today, was a far-off dream a few centuries ago. Nowadays, you can get chicken prepared Every Which Way But Loose. Uh, sorry Clint… those words just popped out.

Anyhow, the birds I’m talking about here are whole roasted chickens that you can buy in the deli dept of just about any supermarket. I know that you can get buckets of thighs, drumsticks, breasts and wings at KFC, Pollo Loco, etc. Probably even cheaper. But for some reason, I’m a sucker for these ready made and packaged roasted medium sized chickens. Just grab and go. Come on picnic peeps, there’s a fricken HANDLE for easy carrying - you have to like the handle.

Actually, the main reason I tend to pick these up is that when I hit the market, it’s usually right before eating lunch. I forget which Manifesto number that one is: Do Not Go To The Market On An Empty Stomach. I always ignore my own advice, though… and the deli just smells so good.

These chickens are actually very hit or miss. The one pictured above is from Albertson’s and is around $4-6 (I believe it used to be cheaper and/or varies in price). I’ve often got them at CostCo though I forget the price, and Ralph’s, Vons and other supermarkets.

Continue reading “Albertson’s Roast Chicken” …

Happy New Year. Wow. So, I’m still recovering from the overindulgence of food from the holidays. Some of the food was cheap, some of it was not. In any case, I’ve got a backlog of Cheap Eats items to write about. But until I get back into the swing of things again, here’s a few pics from the food on New Year’s Eve which is normally a big deal at my parent’s house. This time we had a lot less food than normal (if that can be believed).

A lot of the stuff is Japanese or Hawaiian cuisine. I’ve been meaning to also make a post about making Mochi which has been a tradition in our family for a long time, but for now I’ll just show a pic of the finished products. And yes, we use a mochi-making MACHINE not hammers… we’re not insane!

Mochi is basically cakes made out of pounded or kneaded sweet rice. The larger ones are generally ornamental (called Okasane)… you make a mochi snowman out of a large mochi, a smaller one on top of that and a tangerine or orange on top of that. Also, these aren’t “filled”… we also make some that have sweet beans on the inside.

Spam Musubi made by my wife. I think we made 3 batches of it this holiday season…

Continue reading “A New Cheap Eats Year” …

For years, tamales remained in the realm of the take-out, the lunch-cart and the taco truck. But then everyone from Mary Sue Milliken / Susan Feniger (the Two Hot Tamales) to Bobby Flay pushed it into the realm of gourmet restaurant food. Nowadays, you can’t get through a menu at an upscale Mexican restaurant without coming across “Blue Corn Tamales filled with Goat Cheese and Filet Mignon” or whatever.

I still favor the old school tamales, and if you play your cards right it can be Cheap Eats as well. Many places now sell bags of frozen tamales for fairly cheap. You can keep them in the freezer like frozen burritos and then pop them in the microwave for a snack.

But my favorite type are the freshly made ones that you can buy at a lot of smaller mom and pop restaurants. I guess I should get into what exactly a tamale is for those who haven’t had them. You probably want to have a look at the wikipedia entry. Basically, think of a wet corn meal muffin, elongate it, stuff it with meat, chili, sauce and/or cheese, wrap it in a corn husk, and steam it. Ok, it’s not exactly like that but that’s the general idea.

Here’s one I sliced in half:

Continue reading “Tamales” …