My Meals 12/21/2010: More Budget Primal

On Saturday night I used some of the leftover $1.97/lb cross rib roast to make a stir-fry.   I sliced onions, carrots, and collards into strips, and cut the beef into bite-sized chunks.  I heated leftover bacon fat in the pan, then stir-fried them successively, while I reheated the leftover mashed squash in the convection oven.  My portion looked like this:

On Sunday night I took another of those roasts and used Richard Nikoley's prime rib method to prepare it. I heated the oven to 500 degrees F, then put the ~3 lb. roast in for an intended 15 minutes, setting the timer.  However, Tracy and I decided to go out for a short walk, and I forgot the roast until we returned some time later to the timer buzzing.  I wasn't sure how long we had been gone.  I checked the roast and found the surface well-browned, but not burned, so I turned the heat down to 150 degrees (the lowest mark on my oven) and left it overnight.  Despite my mistake and the small size of the roast, it turned out with a great rind,  a medium rare center, and a texture like smoked meat.  I prefer it rare, but in this case I feel glad it didn't get well done.  I deglazed the pan with vegetable stock and made a gravy by thickening it with arrowroot powder. Some of it appears in a meal below.

As I heated the oven to 500 for the meat, I put in 4 large sweet potatoes that I purchased from Smart & Final for $0.50 per pound, half what we usually pay for sweets.  They were done by the time we got back from our walk. 

This past Friday we got a fantastic deal on locally produced Hickman's eggs at Sunflower market; $0.99 for 18 eggs (6 cents per egg!) marked down because they were near the pull date:

We keep our eyes open for these kinds of deals when shopping. Eggs keep for about a month after a pull date if kept in the refrigerator, but we will easily use 3 dozen eggs in two weeks.  I have already had a dozen of these eggs myself in just 3 days.

Today Tracy put some of those eggs to good use.  She took some leftover vegetables and potatoes and heated them in an omelet pan using olive oil and butter:

While the vegetables heated she beat 5 eggs then poured them over the vegetables:

She covered the pan let it cook on medium low heat until it was almost firmed up:

Meanwhile she set the oven on broil and when the eggs were almost ready, she removed the cover and put them under the broiler.  She then served it with some remaining leftover potatoes, and some of the slow-roasted meat covered with gravy.  Here's her plate:

And mine:

I put some salsa atop one wedge of the egg dish, and we both spread some sour cream on the eggs. I got the sour cream on sale at Sprouts market, 16 ounces for $1.99.  After finishing this plate I had another wedge of the egg dish, and a small bowl of pineapple, 3 prunes, and some walnuts.  I ate that at 10am after heavy strength training on an empty stomach; as I finish this post it is almost 4pm and I'm still satisfied, 6 hours later.