Friday, April 27, 2018

Friday Night Dinner

Our Friday night dinner splurge wasn't lobster -- but it was seafood.  We had scallops, made in the Sous Vide.  I had given up spending money on good scallops because I could never cook them just right.  That is not a problem with the Sous Vide.  The correct temperature is 125 degrees, and they need 25 minutes.  After that, just a quick pan sear in butter -- 20 seconds per side.

 It was a simple dinner over all.  We served the scallops over a thin linguine tossed with spaghetti squash.  On the side, spinach salad topped with avocado, red pepper, orange, red onion, mushrooms, and gorgonzola cheese.  I drank pinot grigio, but TBG wanted a cab.


Scallops are a treat.  The bag of eight was $9.99 --  but again, much less expensive than buying in a restaurant.  While I realize I do not cook with the same skill as a professional chef, we do OK fending for ourselves.  I tossed the pasta in EVOO, fresh lemon and a generous grating of Pecorino Romano cheese.  I had planned on adding garlic too -- but after a couple of pre-dinner glasses of PG, I just forgot!

 
Another splurge I like on Friday is a bouquet of flowers.  For $3.99, I get a bunch of blooms that I can appreciate through the weekend.  I picked one with some lily buds that should open over the next few days. 


I did my shopping at Aldi because I knew that I could get the scallops there as well as a package of grav lox -- which is my favorite Sunday morning breakfast.  I may be on my own as I think TBG will be going out to de-winterize the trailer, but that's OK.  

I honestly don't worry about a grocery budget. My goal is to buy good ingredients that I can make into healthy meals.  Because I shop at a variety of value-oriented stores, I don't over-spend on what I buy.  We do much better eating at home and if buying what we like means we are eating more meals at home, I consider that a good result from a financial perspective.

6 comments:

  1. Your meal looks great...living in the middle of "nowhere," good seafood is not an option. We do have wonderful walleye, though!

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    1. I am suspect here too, since we are hours from the nearest ocean! These were frozen, from Aldi. There is a really good fish market a few blocks from the house but the hours aren't great and it can be pricey -- but the quality is really good. There are Friday nights where we splurge in a fish fry as take out from there.

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  2. It looks absolutely delicious!
    J x

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    1. It tasted as good as it looked! The scallops really were perfect.

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  3. I'm intrigued - never heard of Sous Vide. I looked it up - you cook it in a plastic bag?!? Did you do a post on this already? Anyhow, I'm jealous about Aldi - we don't have them here.

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    1. It took me a couple of years to go to Aldi. Now I'm sorry I missed out on the value for so many years!

      We do use a zippy bag for the SV -- you must use a freezer quality bag so to avoide BPAs. I have posted about it before. The SV also cooks at a lower temperature than a crock pot, which is another reason I was willing to shell out money to buy it. A crock pot on low is about 200 degrees -- 75 degrees higher than the temperature for scallops and about 60 degrees higher than for chicken.

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