August 2008

One thing is bugging me a little bit. While I was guest blogging at Jessica’s blog, I wrote this about a lunch I had: “At $8.35, taxes included, it is not the cheapest lunch available in a food court…” (emphasis mine). Not sure about you out there but I set up a food budget and try to stick to it. Sure, twice a week and/or usually weekends, I allow some leeway but the general self-imposed rule is too cook most of my own food.

For the work week, I usually cook dinner and have enough for lunch the following day. I only have one criteria when preparing dinner: it must be something that can be put in a container, into the fridge and warmed the following day. In other words, quickly perishable food (liver), not really suitable (fish), raw dishes (too many to think of) or complicated recipes are out of the question. In a way, I favour roasting or stewing; however, since it is impractical to do two servings, I end up making a large enough batch for 4 (sometimes even 5) meals. Of course, it has a side effect: by the third meal, you get a little bit bored. Now, I have an alternative if I do not have enough time to cook (or some funny scenario): Roasted chicken from your favourite supermarket. Along with some vegetables and bread, you can fix dinner in a couple of minutes – with enough leftovers for lunch next day.

But, is it really worth cooking at home, instead of eating out? For that, I decided to keep track of how much I spent on groceries this last weekend:

• A pack of pork (don’t remember the name of the cut): $11
• Several spices/condiments/oil/sauces: $3 (this is a ball-park number as it is difficult to estimate)
• Zucchini: $2
• Tomato: $2
• Onion: $1
• Mushroom: $2
• Bread: $3
• Other costs: $3

With the zucchini, tomato, mushroom and onion, I made a ratatouille-like dish. For the pork, I mixed some dijon mustard, honey, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, pepper, coriander and cumin. Then, put the pork inside a big enough zip bag and pour the mix. Let it marinate for a couple of hours or, in my case, overnight. To cook it, I baked it at 375C for ~70 or so minutes. Overall, I had enough veggies for four meals and enough meat for six meals. Total cost? Around $27 or around $4.50/meal.

Had I used the roasted chicken method, the breakdown would have been:

• Roasted Chicken: ~$8 (depending on where you are buying it from)
• Broccoli: $1.50
• Carrot: $1.50
• Bread: $3
• Other ingredients/costs: $2

In this case, saute the carrots with a bit of oil/butter and a pinch of salt and pepper. Steam the broccoli. Cut the chicken in quarters and serve. Total cost: $16 or around $4/meal. (Note: I try not to “abuse” of this one, as it might be boring after a while).

Suddenly, that $8.35 I paid for lunch sounds a lot…

Of course, there are other factors you must keep in mind the main one being time. If I cook from scratch, it might take me anytime from 45 minutes to 90 minutes from prep-work to ready to serve (that is mainly because my stove top has only one big burner). But what about cleaning? Grocery shopping? That time I spent doing all that could have been time you could spend doing something important… Or simply relaxing.

So, what is your opinion? Do you cook at home or eat out most/all of the time? If you go out for lunch, what are your thresholds (i.e., damn cheap, regular priced, expensive)?