Yesterday's vegan dinner leftovers turned vegetarian with eggs and yeast.

The naan didn't come out right but it's still edible.

Eggs were free from the back yard.

Cost per person $1.50

The rice: lightly fry some cinnamon stick, green cardamom pods, cumin seeds, and cloves in olive oil. Add rinsed rice and stir it fast so it doesn't stick. Add the water, some tumeric and salt. Mix it all up and put the lid on. Turn to high or medium high, bring to a boil, reduce to low, check it in 10 minutes to see if it's done.

Once done the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and cloves should have floated to the top. Fish those out and discard them.

The veg: Julienne some carrots, dice some onions, pull out some frozen peas, grab some shelled sunflower seeds. Pull out your wok and add some oil. On high heat add the carrots, onions and some salt. Stir fry until the onions start to turn translucent. Add maybe half a cup of water the peas and put a lid on it. Once the water has mostly evaporated add some garam masala and the sunflower seeds. Stir fry until done.

Mix the two together.

Accidentally vegan. Cost per person: $1.12

Now with 200% more beef than restaurant made!

Home made semolina egg pasta made with back yard eggs. Sauce made from onion, back yard basil, diced tomatoes, olive oil and herbs and spices.

An error was made. I pulled one of my pre cut bags of meat from the freezer to thaw. I use these for pizza, fried rice, lo mein and what not. I thought I had pulled chicken thigh meat. But it was pork. Oh no. The meal was ever so slightly different from planned.

Cost per person $1.70

I hadn't made homemade pizza in a while. One edge got a little too done, but overall it was pretty good.

Premade dough from the supermarket, second proof for about 4 hours. Minimalist sauce: San Marzano tomatoes, EVOO, oregano, garlic, a little hot sauce. Three cheese blend, pepperoni, shrooms, fresh basil from my garden. A few minutes on the pizza steel and Bob's your uncle.

Take a baking sheet and flip it over. That's your pizza steel for this thin crust pizza. 425 for 8-12 minutes. And I definitely recommend a sprinkle of corn meal or semolina between the baking sheet and the pizza.

You may want to turn on the boiler for the last few minutes.

Cost per person before toppings is $1.60. And you'd be really pressed to put another dollar worth of toppings on a pizza this size.

I love these GoPro videos. This was a short one, but there are much longer ones to get the full feel of a chef shift, so to speak. Some were recorded at Michelin restaurants:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=POV%3A+What+it%27s+like+to+be+a+professional+chef+during+the+dinner+rush

Greek potatoes, tzaiki sauce, bacon, jalapeno slices.

I was looking at a cucumber, and jalapeno and trying to figure out what dinner was going to be.

Then I remembered some tortillas and a mostly full pack of bacon. I always have potatoes, yogurt, dill and lemon juice on hand.

I prepped all the ingredients in the morning after pulling weeds. At dinner time it was just heating the tortillas and assembly.

Cost per person, $4.25

My wife fell in love with the Tropical Heat smash burger at Sonic. This was my attempt to do it at home. It is, surprisingly, cheaper to make at home. I need to work on the pineapple jalapeno glaze a bit but it's a very solid burger.

Cost per person: $5.25 using 73/27 ground beef.

This is going to be hilarious.

Please comment with your favorite roadkill recipes. Racoon, bear, whale? Which is your favorite.

Had mine mashed on a bagel with sumac and toasted sesame seeds.

Black coffee and avocado on whole wheat toast with salt and pepper

Simple.
Classic.
Delicious.

i got some duck eggs at the farmer’s market with no plan on what to do with them. i thought i’d try them in the purest form to get a sense of the difference from chicken eggs.

• 3 duck eggs
• feta inside
• avocado on top
• generous with the butter
• thyme flaky salt to finish

my pan is too small for 3 eggs, but i haven’t made a French omelette in a while so i forgot.

the duck eggs were super rich compared to chicken eggs. salt and butter levels on point.

bavouse in full effect

Cost? No idea. 86¢ for a can of chickpeas. 86¢ for a cucumber. 50¢ for smoke cheddar. Beyond that I'm not sure.

Do you have a a lid to your blender that is a pain in the butt to clean because it's filled with nooks and crannies instead being a sealed flat surface?

8 inches of parchment paper is worth a gallon of water. Poppet down before putting the lid on and it will dramatically decrease cleaning effort to almost, if not, zero.

For a small blender like this ninja you might have to tear off one sheet that is way larger than you need. But the act of putting the motor on one of these top down blenders punctures that parchment paper. If you use just one half of the parchment paper for this trick. Then once you're done blending you can use the other half to fold back over and create a tighter seal when you put the lid back on.

That is especially handy when you're making things like hummus that will get heated up in the blending process and need to sit in the fridge for a little while. Not that there's anything wrong with warm hummus.

Also, if you're not making your own hummus, you're burning money. A store brand can of chickpeas is between $0.86 and $1.25. One clove of garlic, some lemon juice from a large straw brand bottle, a bit of salt, and your favorite olive oil and you have hummus for way less than the cost of buying it premium-made.

Of course making it yourself doesn't include tasty sauces like rusted, red pepper or honey hot. You can make honey hot for dirt cheap at home with some honey and them. Red pepper flakes. Depending on the cost of red bell peppers, it may not be cost effective to do that at home. But you can if you want.

It doesn't just look red, it's also made to authentic Sichuan spice levels.

I did cheat a little and used Chongqing hotpot roux for some of the spices.

Brussel sprouts, bacon fat, salt, sesame seed, 12 minutes in the air fryer.

Mac and cheese, per box instructions.

Cost per person $2.36

Extra chunky. I typically start with a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes and start the sauce at least 30 minutes before I start the pasta. Garlic, home grown dried basil, orega, star anise, red pepper flakes, a pinch of cayenne power, salt.

Cost per person: $4.25

I was looking at my images and realized I forgot to post this one.