I went looking for a new place to eat to break the monotony of my routine. My lunch normal routine is Wendys, Bi-Lo, Piggly Wiggly, McDonalds and Taco Bell. Occasionally I’ll go to Arbys, Moes Southwest Grill or bring lunch from home. The occasional places usually break my normal routine, but the other day I just wanted something new, and ended up at Mozzo Deli in Mount Pleasant, SC.

Mozzos isn’t the place to go if you are looking for budget meal or a fast eats – look to Mozzos for a good lunch meal! I ate at Mozzos two days in a row and had a Chicken Caprese sandwich with deli-style pasta salad and a drink on Monday. Tuesday I went back and got a Roma sandwich with red potatoes, some chips I took back to the office and a drink. Each day was about $14, and the sandwiches (both on ciabatta bread) and sides were great!

The drama between Avengers team members, the Avengers and their opponents and the humor that can be found in and around all of that makes for a fantastic movie! If you liked any of the movies linked above then I think you really will LOVE The Avengers.

Thumbs up! One of this year’s “Must See” movies.

Publix had a larger selection than Bi-Lo, and the menus are more complex. I didn’t intend to get into menus, but on the subject the Bi-Lo menus were easier to read, in part due to fewer choices. Also, the Bi-Lo menu seemed to focus on selling a meal.The Publix menus (there were several) required more reading, looking around and comparing to get the best value. There were meals and by-the-pound prices for many food items.

Here’s the Bi-Lo lunch description from the Bi-Lo post for comparison:

Bi-Lo (and other grocery stores) sell hot lunch entrees like fried chicken, meat loaf and chicken tenders. Plus you get a choice of side items & veggies like mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rice, carrots and the like depending on the day’s menu. Add your favorite 20-24 oz. beverage of choice and you are looking at about $7-$8.00 with tax.

Publix similarly sells hot entrees with a choices of two sides, and as seen above I got the 3 Chicken Tender meal with western fries and collard greens. I also added a honey mustard sauce and got a 20 oz Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea (on sale $0.99).

The food was as good as Bi-Lo’s and maybe a little better, although I’ve never had collard greens at Bi-Lo. The whole deal set me back about $9.00, and I’m not convinced Publix tastes better or is any healthier to justify the extra cost.

For today’s lunch I packed a sandwich, grabbed some Maruchan Yakisoba Roasted Chicken noodles, and packed them away in a bag. That just left a drink to add, which could be a bottle of water or, in my case, diet coke. Today’s lunch was probably under $4, and that’s pretty good.  The added benefits of a healthy, fresh and tasty meal only add to the cost and time savings!

Maybe you wanted something more out-of-the-ordinary, or you were looking for a recipe. Try these Crunchy Spicy Hummus Wraps from HuffingtonPost Food. Want more lunch-time reading? Try The Brown Bag Brigade: Your One-Stop Shop for Work Lunch Ideas for good brown bagging tips and idea sources!

So, the meal was $1 for the Yakisoba, about $0.49 for the Ritz Crackers, and maybe $0.45 for the diet green tea. Total is about $1.94 plus cost of the various condiments I used which probably brings the grand total to maybe $2.10 at the most.

Time spent? Most of the time was trying different combinations on the crackers as I ate, so I’d say 5 minutes preparation (since the tea was prepared the day before) plus eating time.

However, you need to watch out for those calories because there are 10 per 8 fluid ounces, not 10 per package (we had a 2-liter!).

Taste – thumbs up!

Packaging – thumbs up!

Advertising 10 calories per 8 oz – thumbs down.

Why the hullabaloo? Dr Pepper TEN is aimed at men, specifically at men who didn’t find Diet Dr Pepper very palatable. One advertisement read “All 23 Flavors. Just 10 Manly Calories. It’s Not For Women.” So guys, you have a new Dr Pepper. Gals, you do, too – its just a marketing gimmick.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More Dr Pepper TEN info

Here’s another idea though, Bi-Lo (and other grocery stores) sell hot lunch entrees like fried chicken, meat loaf and chicken tenders. Plus you get a choice of side items & veggies like mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rice, carrots and the like depending on the day’s menu. Add your favorite 20-24 oz. beverage of choice and you are looking at about $7-$8.00 with tax.

So here’s the trade off …you want to save the cash, but you want something healthier without going to a sit-down restaurant. The sit-down restaurants (Red Lobster, Applebees, Captain D’s and others in price ranges in between) will blowing your budget (lunch at a sit-down restaurant is about $9-$20.00, ranging from lunch specials and regular fare) and your lunch time may run late waiting for your meal to arrive, then eating and paying for it. Hot lunch at a local grocery store may be just what you need, so why not shop around the places you lunch and see who’s got a good mix of good food and prices and give it a shot?

After I had my hand at French Vanilla chilled coffee (hot brewed, then chilled overnight), I did some more reading for ideas to try out. That’s when I ran across the idea of cold brewing coffee on this National Coffee Association of the USA page about Cold Brewed Coffee. Cold brewed coffee is smoother, has less caffeine and is less acidic. For me that means I need to find a way to boost the caffeine in the cold brew because I drink coffee partly because the the taste and partly for caffeine’s nootropic and stimulant effects. I also read plenty of other articles on the subject and now I’ve done a poor cold brew. Let me explain.

In typically excited fashion, I ran off to the kitchen and tried it out before doing much reading. The worse mistake I made this time was to use our tap water. Its not that I’m some elitist preferring bottled water because my wallet is just overflowing with $$$, its that out tap water is really horrible. Normally, the only way I will drink our tap water is if its in brewed coffee – our tap water really is THAT bad.

COLD-BREWED COFFEE BENEFITS

• just leave it in the refrigerator to brew (some recipes)
• smoother flavor than regular brewed coffee
• less acidic than regular coffee

DIY COLD BREWED COFFEE BENEFITS

• just leave it in the refrigerator to brew (some recipes)
• save money (compared to regular brewed coffee or commercial iced coffees)
• save money (wow, I like that one!)

So now its time for me to look for some very reasonable way to either filter our water (Brita, etc) or buy better tap water at the store. Plus I’ve done some more reading about cold brew preparation since I haven’t settled on using a french coffee press, a Toddy Coffee maker, I’ll probably be using a pitcher, plus something to filter the grounds out like cheese cloth.

MAKE YOUR OWN ICED COFFEE

I decided to give DIY iced coffee a try and my first shot was pretty good. You’ll need these common ingredients you probably already have around your home if you are a coffee drinker:

INGREDIENTS LIST
brewed coffee (cold or hot)
french vanilla creamer
sweetener

You can use any brands of the above that you like but I used Folgers Classic Roast, Coffee-Mate Sugar Free French Vanilla, and store brand Sweet-n-Low (saccharin). If your coffee is cold, or cold and old its okay because we’re going to heat it up anyway.

So, if your coffee is cold heat it up in your microwave, or if you prefer on your stovetop. Pour your hot coffee into your favorite coffee mug. Add your creamer and sweetener to taste then stir well using the heat of the coffee for a better mix.

Now just put your coffee in your refrigerator until well-chilled and you are ready to go with a tasty caffeine injection of your own.

NEXT: DIY Chilled Coffee

On to the business of this post …

Pizza special – 2 (huge) slices for $5.00
Drink fo $0.99
TOTAL: $6.53 with tax

Mount Pleasant/Charleston, SC Weekly Specials (Jul 20-26)