FREE – Sehr Gut!

Every once in a while Safeway has a coupon for a fairly expensive item that they are offering for free to entice the shopper to repeat buy. I took advantage of this the other day and accepted a package of cheese-filled ravioli. There were about twenty of these little pillows in the package, and at $6.00 (regular price), that makes them about thirty cents each. Considering the amount of work that goes into making one’s own ravioli, I didn’t think that was too exorbitant a price. The taste was pleasant enough, but not what I would call memorable. The cheese filling was very bland. But it was a fun experience overall.

I cooked nine of them for dinner, but each of us ate only three, so three were leftover and made a welcomed appearance in some soup later on, adding a very nice interest to some mushroom soup. I’ll try to get a post up about that soup because it was beyond delicious in its first iteration, and the raviolis really made the second time around seem like an entirely different offering.

When we are eating our meals – lunch and dinner – I try to figure out just what the cost was of the ingredients involved for my plate. For this particular dinner, shown above, the cost came to $2.40, which is about twice the usual amount. But I was counting the ravioli as a cost, so in reality, the actual cost to me was more like $1.50, and more in line with the usual amount.

The items on my plate in addition to the ravioli, are a boneless chicken thigh, sautéed in ghee, fresh spinach, fresh red peppers, and fresh Brussels sprouts. All of these items were purchased at sale prices, and I make my own ghee.

The red sauce is from a jar of Classico Spicy Red Pepper pasta sauce. They are frequently on sale for two dollars a jar, and I use this sauce in many things to add a bit of a “glow” to foods, especially soups, without producing an in-your-face smack of tomato. It comes in a very nice jar and stays fresh in the refrigerator for quite a long while, so you can just keep it around and brighten up many dishes with its color and flavor.

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