FauxPseudo

Yellow squash hummus with homemade bread. I'm fighting through my squash surplus and the idea of hummus came up.

At first I was worried about the texture being too, well, you might know, but figured I'd give it a try. I didn't have any tahini but I figured if I did that peanut butter substitution it might work enough to figure out if I should buy some. But I only used half the amount.

The recipe I found called for two large yellow squash. I found that my garden and their imagination has two very different ideas on what large means. I ended up doubling the salt, lemon juice, cumin and olive oil. Recipe in comments.

Did it work? Definitely. It is amazing. As I was plating mine my wife made an exceptionally rare request for hot sauce. Just a tiny amount. It was perfect.

Definitely saving this recipe.

Bread home made. Cheese is some home smoked halloumi. Squish is home grown ass and baked with some home made herbs de provence except I didn't have lavender flowers.

Cost per person: $1 because at this point homegrown squish is basically free and the cheese was on clearance. If you have the ability to cold smoke cheese you never pass up clearance cheese.

We ended up with a lot of free romaine today. Too much. Like an impossible amount. So we gave some to our birds and delivered some to three other people with livestock because it was a crazy amount.

I took some and some kitchen leftovers and made salad. You can't see the hard boiled sliced duck eggs under the feta which is under the bacon and croutons. Because I suck at plating.

Cost per person: $4.50, mostly because of bacon and feta. Can you order this anywhere? Yes but no.

Smoked sausage sandwiches with provolone. Escabeche and pickled sweet peppers from last year when a neighbor gave me pounds of surplus peppers.

Cost per person: $6.03 not including any mustard or picked peppers. But, as you can see, this is an unreasonable serving size. One sausage per person with the commercial pasta salad would be $3.34 Can you get this anywhere? Maybe?

Cost per person $1

I pickled/canned about four pounds each of jalapenos and carrots. But I had some peppers left over. Also I had shredded cheese leftover from yesterday's burritos, and half a pound of bacon from yesterday's dinner.

Well that sounds like the start of a wonderful dinner. Poppers would have been too much work. I have a bag of potatoes... Oh. Let's do this. Jalapeno bacon potatoes au gratin.

Cost for pickled peppers: $1.30 per pint Cost per person for dinner: $3.40 (realistically I ate two full servings so this should really be $1.70 each for four people.)

The thing I made yesterday was escabeche. It is rich and deep in flavors. I made sure to properly clean out the jalapenos so there is no heat here, just flavor. The acid from the apple cider vinegar cuts the eggs and potatoes perfectly.

Cost per person: $4.50.

Meal prep. Except it's snack prep. I eat way too many Walmart mini microwave burritos. The 4 oz ones that come in a $4 pack of eight. Basically 11.9¢ per ounce

It's hard to make an exact clone at home because making tiny burritos is difficult due to the urge to over fill. These are larger so one instead of two for a snack. These aren't as cheap. 100 ounces of ingredients for $17.38 not including the seasoning. So let's say 19¢ per ounce but are more flavorful (homemade taco seasoning), better texture because they aren't 50% tortilla and a whole lot healthier.

So it's all trade offs. But the results are worth it.

These go into the chest freezer and then get bagged.

I've been on a quest to make better pizza. Now that I've got a happy crust I'm able to work on other parts. I got new pans so I can make two at a time. Which means I can have different toppings that cook at different times from my wife's toppings.

Her: under the cheese is banana peppers and olives. On top is pepperoni. Me: tomato, onion and sardines

This is part of my plan to be able use leftovers for fried rice and pizza. But toppings are insanely cheap. It's hard to put more than a dollar in toppings on a pizza unless you are buying really premium stuff.

Cost per person for no toppings besides cheese: $2.50. officially cheaper than mid grade freezer pizza. Can you order this anywhere? It's pizza

Handling some of my basil surplus before it bolts. A bit of basil, some 190 proof everclear that someone donated. This will sit in a dark space for a few months. Basil lemonade is definitely on the menu. Maybe a vodka sauce for pasta.