I mentioned in yesterday's post something about how I was going to write to my daughter about my fabulous bargains and decided to post it instead. Well, it occurred to me a little earlier today that I had done just that this past Sunday--I sent her a fairly long email about food I'd saved money on--so, here it is, with just a few tiny edits to make it more readable for you:
I absolutely have to tell you. When I was a Grocery Outlet I saw a bag of sweet potato fries and decided I had to have them. What was I thinking? First of all, if I’m going to have fries, I’m NOT going to bake them. They were never intended to be baked. Secondly, I can’t even imagine the sweet potato ones baked—I just can’t—so that means I had to deep fry them. It’s been a very long time since I deep fried anything but I did remember it wasn’t exactly rocket science, just messy. I think the last time I did that was when a friend and I made fried zucchini, mushrooms, onion rings, and cheese curd. We only did it a few times because of the mess but it was so very good. Anyway, I did that last night.
I also had a chicken patty on a bun. Those are also from Grocery Outlet and they have to be fried but they don’t have to be deep fried—I can just put 1/8” or so of oil in the tiniest skillet I have and turn it after a few minutes. That works great—it could be deep fried but this works and I wouldn’t want the fries oil to taste like chicken.
The fries were amazing! They might even have been better than the ones I have in restaurants. I was trying to remember what I dipped them in—I knew it wouldn’t have been anything like ketchup or Ranch but I didn't really have time to think of something else because they cooked so fast. I don’t think it was anything because they were just way too good just the way they were with a little salt on them.
Now I’m hooked and I’ll have to make them more often. I refrigerated the oil so I can use it for the whole bag I bought before I have to throw it out so the whole thing (I think it will end up being 8-10 servings of fries) will cost under $0.75 an "order." That cost includes the cost of the bottle of oil which I know I won't use up but I'll need to dispose of the rest of it just as restaurants must--it will be old. That's more than I normally spend on a side dish but this is so far over the average side dish that I couldn’t resist. The chicken part of the meal was $0.60 so that’s still less than $1.50 for a $6.00 fast food meal—actually, it would be $1.75 when you add in the soft drink because the $6.00 would be the cost for a whole meal, not the individual items. The soft drink would be larger but you can't get the sweet potato fries at any fast food place I've seen so I think that makes up for the smaller soda. That makes me happy.
Do you know anyone else who could write half a page about sweet potato fries and the cost of a homemade fast food meal?
Oh, and I’ve fallen in love with the Allouette cheese spread. They have a spinach artichoke one that is to die for but it’s $5 or $6 at the grocery store! And that’s for something like 6-8 oz. Fortunately they have it at the Grocery Outlet for $2. It makes it an acceptable splurge. (See yesterday's blog post about getting Allouette for $0.99.)
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