Money Monday: Subway

For the past gazillion years, I’ve been extolling the virtues of the packaged Lean Cuisine trays: convenient, tasty, cheap. My term Lean Cuisine was really a catch-all for the microwaveable meals I subsisted on since grad school. I loaded up my Trader Joe’s cart with paneer tikka masala, chicken chile verde, panang curry. For Safeway.com deliveries, I noted ’10’ for the amount of Lean Cuisine spaghetti with meat sauce, ’10’ for sante fe style rice and beans, ’10’ for the shrimp alfredo. Anyone remember seeing my freezer stocked with all these goodies?

Now, there’s Subway. Yes, the fresh fast food chain with stores in all of my walking paths. There’s one next door to work. There’s one half-a-block away from home. We’re at 757 Sutter; there’s a Subway at 701 Sutter. I am now a die-hard fan. I grab a Subway sandwich at least five times a week. I get one of the $5 foot longs. I personally like the protein-stuffed Cold Cut Combo. I add lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, peppers, mayo, mustard, ranch dressing (I ask for two doses of ranch) and depending on my hunger level, I’ll top it off with guacamole for another $1. With that many calories stuffed into a sandwich, I have half for lunch and half for dinner. That’s $2.50 or $3 a meal.

I have been missing out all these years by nuking my food.