Debs via Flickr Creative Commons

No sprouts, but for only $1, who cares?

Though the appeal of Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches has sort of diminished in the wake of SproutGate 2012, it hasn't waned enough to pass up the chance for a lunch that costs only a buck. Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. today, customers can snag a $1 sub at participating Palm Beach County stores, including: Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Royal Palm Beach, Stuart, and West Palm Beach. The promo is part of the always-rotating series of customer appreciation days, wherein the franchise targets different regional markets for the $1 deal.

A call to the store in Boca Raton confirmed that the deal is good on eight-inch subs numbered one through six on the store's menu (plus the J.J.B.L.T.), and is good only for subs ordered on French bread. If you want whole wheat or a JJ Unwich (the store's low-carb lettuce wrap), you'll have to pay full price. Limit of one per customer, and it's good for dine-in only.

---

Follow Clean Plate Charlie on Facebook and on Twitter: @CleanPlateBPB.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but these $1 tacos are certainly larger than a matchbook.

Thank God for alliteration. Yeah, in the wrong hands, it's like a badly executed pun, but it also results in the likes of Margarita Mondays and Tequila Thursdays. Uncle Julio's new take on the mother of all day-of-the-week/food combos, Taco Tuesday, presents a lunchtime bargain the likes of which you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in Mizner Park.

Last Tuesday, April 17, I met a friend at Uncle Julio's for a Tax Day decompression lunch. At $1 a pop, we weren't expecting anything more than an appetizer-sized portion from the promo. We ordered a side of guacamole expecting to need the extra sustenance. Thankfully, the restaurant doesn't take the alliteration a step further by serving only "teeny tiny tacos." For us, two tacos each constituted more than a meal's worth. They're not mammoth by any means, but they're not some puny little two-bite snack size either.

More >>

​Some can't resist the siren song of all-you-can-eat specials at Rocco's Tacos or $1 tacos at Treasure Trove on Tuesdays. Turns out, Tuesdays aren't just for taco deals. It's a good day to take advantage of restaurant deals and happy hours as well as market price breaks. Chances are, you'll also enjoy a little extra elbow room too. Here's a short list of deals to be had today.

More >>

Marta Crowe via Flickr Creative Commons

Cheapskates deserve love, too.

​Ahhh, Valentine's Day. The quintessential Hallmark Holiday, invented to divest coupled folks of hard-earned cash (in turn for typically meaningless trinkets) and to remind singles of how sad they should be about being alone on during this most wondrous day of the year. More >>

Tuna rice.

​I've written here before that the one indispensable tool of any moneyless mammal is a rice cooker. I even provided a recipe for low-cost rice cooker deliciousness. But in my months of protracted broke-assness, I've come to realize that my previous comments were facile. The rice cooker is a machine of great subtlety, a source of both joy and sorrow -- and, on occasion, wisdom. You learn a lot eating 90% of your meals from a rice cooker while living on a $20-per-week food budget for the better part of a year.

Here, then, are a few of the Deep Mysteries of rice cookerdom.
More >>

​Whether they're seasoning a whole pig or smoking tasty pig parts over hickory, the folks at Mickey's Bar in Pompano Beach have been hosting a monthly pig roast they're calling Hillbilly Cookout.

"We've been pulling in a younger crowd that's different from our usual crew," said manager Lisa Carter who's in charge of roasting the pig. "We're trying to mix it up." When New Times named Mickey's "Best Biker Bar" in 2004, we wrote of its location in "a backwash of a neighborhood, an aging industrial ghetto just west of I-95."

More >>

The Hard Rock Cafe is 40 years old. We know it sounds crazy and we hardly believe it ourselves. It seems like only yesterday that we waited in line for over an hour to get a burger with a little flag on it and look at guitars hanging from the ceilings.

OMG -- is that Gene Simmons' jock strap in a gold frame next to the ladies room?




More >>

Elsewhere in the world, rice cookers are sexy.

​Cooking is hard, or so I was brought up to believe. I wasn't told this but rather deduced it from two facts: My family was full of people who'd spent decades cooking for one another, and almost none of them seemed to be very good at it. So what was the point? If a lifetime spent grimly oozing sweat over cast-iron cookery and tending to grease blisters might result in no more than my great-grandma's juiceless pot roasts, why even try? Might as well order in.

"You're just wasting money!" my mum would say. But she was wrong. My few experiments with cooking -- most of which involved risotto, because risotto cooks slowly enough that the chef is never required to deploy any quick reflexes and is therefore able to consult Google whenever stymied
More >>

Cyber Monday - now you can eat your bargains

​First there's Black Friday, then there's Cyber Monday -- the shopping day that's devoted to letting you shop in your underwear (assuming that you're not taking advantage of the deals at work).

After you snag the latest cameras, tablets, and TV's online, take advantage of some cyber savings on food:


More >>

​Recession or no, it seems that everyone loves a deal, whether it's a happy-hour buffet, dollar eats, or slashed prices on favorite items. Would you eat dinner for a dollar or less? (I'd likely skip it, though I'm in the minority.) Here's a roundup of recs for lowbrow fare on days when money's tight or you're saving it for the weekend.

5. America's Backyard $5 Happy Hour menu
From 5 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays through Fridays, drinks are two-for-one, and a rotating selection of cheap eats -- sliders, mac and cheese, plain pizzas -- sells for $5. More >>