I recently bought a place, so I'm gonna have to pack lunch and cut out eating out for awhile.
That being said... My budget goal for food lunch this week was initially $20. Needless to say, I went over that goal ($80) and chalked it up to initial set up cost.
Groceries breakdown:
- Protein - 500g Pork belly - $11.22 (ground beef was about $12/150g... so yea, not happening.)
- Bell Peppers x 2 - 2.99
- Black Pepper grinder - $7.90
- Himalayan Salt grinder -$7.90
- Paprika - $4.09
- Condensed Beef Stock x 5 pack - $3.99
- Cherry Tomatoes - $5.99 (Couldn't find plum tomatoes, and didn't feel like buying canned tomatoes)
- 3 small onions and handful of green peppers - $2.00
- Kidney beans (canned) - $2.69 (I know, I know... the guy who won't buy canned tomatoes but buys canned beans...)
The Total : $ 48.77 ($77.67 if you include the stainless steel food jar I bought to carry around and keep my lunch warm)
Food Prep
So, since I couldn't afford to buy ground beef, I assumed I could just grind up my own pork in a blender. (My blender had a hard time, so I resorted to chopping up part of the batch by hand). And I had some ginger lying around drying up, so I just ground that up and mixed it with the pork. I have yet to find out if I will regret this decision.
Chopped up the veggies
Cooked in pot for on medium heat till the onions turned yellowish.
Threw in the pork and cooked till I wasn't sure if it was fully cooked.
Then I added the cherry tomatoes, that I halved... about 40 of em.
The recipe I referred to called for Chicken broth. Couldn't find anything resembling chicken broth in the Korean store. I settled for concentrated beef stock, which I have yet to find out if I will regret using. I mean what could go wrong?
Korean pepper flakes (gochugaru) so that we get that nice red orange color. Threw in Salt, Pepper, and Paprika. Simmered for 20 minutes.
All done.
The Taste Test
So all in all I did alright I guess.... The ginger was a nice touch, but I kinda over did it I guess. I had put a thumb sized chunk of ginger (a whole thumb, meaning like 2 notches) in there after all..
Didn't taste as rich as I'd thought it would. I'm contemplating putting in another packet of that beef stock... Meh I'm gonna do it...