Sausage and Peppers and Onions oh my! (P)

Eva and I are back and better than ever this week with creative lunching! We were talking today about our separate but equal approaches to efficient grocery shopping - stocking up once every couple of weeks and seeing what you can make with what you have or planning what you want to make and buying in small doses regularly to accomplish it.

I'm more of a weekly budget-er, so I tend toward the latter, but whatever approach makes you cook more lunches is a winner by me.

I've discovered another couple of gems of markets on 9th Avenue. Big Apple Meat Market at 41st Street next to Stiles is the kind of place that doesn't win a lot of points for ambiance, but is great for buying staples and canned goods (like butter and chicken stock) for dirt cheap. A little further south is an international market that sells flours and spices in bulk! I get excited when I have the opportunity to buy a tablespoon of something fresh rather than a whole jar that I won't use much in a year. I'll report back more specifically when I've actually patronized them, but I think I may have freaked out the owner by stopping in one morning and expressing my excitement at his very existence and then not buying anything.

So, here's a little lunch ditty that packs a lot of punch, both in cost effectiveness and in culinary delightful-ness:

Italian Street Food: Sausage, Peppers, and Onion Sandwiches
2 Hot Italian Sausages: $.87
1/2 Spanish Onion: $.23
Red Bell Pepper: $.65
Hero Semolina roll: $.89

TOTAL: $2.64 (See how even the heavens shine down on Italian sausage sammies?)

And some long-awaited info about the World-Rocking quesadillas that accompanied Eva's squash soup with apple salsa:

Quesadillas to Rock Worlds with:
2 10-inch flour tortillas: $.70
3 oz Havarti Dill Cheese: $1.85
1 Plum tomato: $.45
1/2 yellow onion (carmelized for your pleasure): $.23
TOTAL: $3.23 I'm at work this weekend so I'll have some other lunches to report.

Happy Friday,
P