This summer cold I've acquired is a real whammy. I'm barely eating anything, and certainly not the heavy, cold-weather food that this challenge is insisting on. But I'm trying, friends, I'm trying.
Today's menu was:
Breakfast: Oatmeal pancakes, syrup, juice, tea, milk
Lunch: Leftover black beans soup with vegetables, biscuits, milk
Supper: Hot dog stir fry, rice, ice tea
Snack: Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea
Alright. I was very ill this morning so I didn't make breakfast. I'm sure the boys ate something, probably fruit. When I got up I ate the last of the tortillas.
Since I didn't make the black bean soup yesterday, I made soup today. We had it for lunch. Well, I did, Samuel and David had a sandwich because they didn't think I was cooking.
I made the hot dog stir fry for supper, and also those hoe cakes from earlier in the week that we had skipped. The hot dog stir fry was...um, not great. The hoe cakes were cornbread, fried in a lot of oil. With butter on them.
Anyway. Let's all hope that tomorrow I feel better. I think scallopped tomatos are coming up. Don't want to miss me some scallopped tomatos.
Showing posts with label Meal planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meal planning. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Four
Oh, I'm sick. Coughing, hacking, grossness sick. And I get to eat re-heated rice with milk on it for breakfast.
Breakfast - Hot rice with milk, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, tea
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk
Supper - Black bean soup with carrots, celery and onions, cornmeal muffins, iced tea
Snack - Cinnamon toast, milk, tea
Alright. What the hey is hot rice with milk doing on there? I don't know one solitary person who has ever told me that 'way back when they were kids' their mama gave them leftover rice, reheated in the microwave, with milk poured over it for breakfast.
"Maybe it's a name for something else" I thought. You know, so far collared greens don't have anything to do with collars, and hoe cakes have nothing to do with hoes...maybe 'hot rice with milk' refers to rice pudding?
Well, actually, it does seem to be rice pudding. And so I soldiered on with it. Surprise, surprise, Samuel loved it; he ate his bowl, half of my bowl and then half of David's bowl as well. I also made a dozen muffins (apparently I was supposed to make these the other day and fill them with jelly?) and all but three of them got eaten after breakfast...clearly everyone is super hungry around here.
Not me, really. I'm gross and sick, but everyone else is hungry.
I wasn't able to make lunch, frankly, nursing and coughing were the sum total of most of my day's activities. But I did tell David that they had to eat Kraft Dinner for the meal, and so he made it for him and Samuel. Supper was black bean soup, which I couldn't stomach the thought of making, and so Samuel (who was too hot to eat anyway) had a bowl of cherries and a muffin, and I drank orange juice, ate popsicles and debated saltines.
Not a great food day.
Breakfast - Hot rice with milk, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, tea
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk
Supper - Black bean soup with carrots, celery and onions, cornmeal muffins, iced tea
Snack - Cinnamon toast, milk, tea
Alright. What the hey is hot rice with milk doing on there? I don't know one solitary person who has ever told me that 'way back when they were kids' their mama gave them leftover rice, reheated in the microwave, with milk poured over it for breakfast.
"Maybe it's a name for something else" I thought. You know, so far collared greens don't have anything to do with collars, and hoe cakes have nothing to do with hoes...maybe 'hot rice with milk' refers to rice pudding?
Well, actually, it does seem to be rice pudding. And so I soldiered on with it. Surprise, surprise, Samuel loved it; he ate his bowl, half of my bowl and then half of David's bowl as well. I also made a dozen muffins (apparently I was supposed to make these the other day and fill them with jelly?) and all but three of them got eaten after breakfast...clearly everyone is super hungry around here.
Not me, really. I'm gross and sick, but everyone else is hungry.
I wasn't able to make lunch, frankly, nursing and coughing were the sum total of most of my day's activities. But I did tell David that they had to eat Kraft Dinner for the meal, and so he made it for him and Samuel. Supper was black bean soup, which I couldn't stomach the thought of making, and so Samuel (who was too hot to eat anyway) had a bowl of cherries and a muffin, and I drank orange juice, ate popsicles and debated saltines.
Not a great food day.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Three
I'm just so pumped that I don't have to eat a bean ALL DAY!
Breakfast - French toast, syrup, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Batter bread, margarine, spinach, milk.
Supper - Creamed tuna and peas over rice, garlic toast, ice tea.
Snack - Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea.
We're running up against two big problems by Day Three. The first is that, with a few exceptions, the food I'm making is not food we would usually eat, and there's a good reason for that: we don't like it. I'm not a huge fan of french toast (eggy bread?) or pancakes, Samuel isn't a big bread eater at all, neither David nor I like beans or lentils especially, and David is missing meat terribly.
On the up side of all that, I think it means we're doing the plan well! This is, after all, an emergency menu. And with the exception of the pancakes on day one (and the orange juice allotment - I have no idea how two cans of juice is supposed to do four people for seven days!) every meal has given us so much food that not only could we easily feed four, but we're swimming in leftovers.
The second problem isn't one of preference, it's one of timing. These recipes take a lot of time. To make the refried beans from scratch would have taken me hours, which is why I used our leftovers from a previous night. I'm making bread every two days, where usually I can make it every four or five. Breakfast is taking 45 minutes to prepare from beginning to end, lunch over an hour and supper is being started the night before. I'm not used to cooking this way, nor do I particularly wish to become used to cooking this way.
Anyway, the french toast wasn't eaten by Samuel because 1) it was bread, and 2) it took so long to make it all that he ate before he ate, which ruined his appetite.
So, here we are at lunch again...spinach and something made out of cornmeal. Well, that's what Samuel and I will be having - David is on day three of eating the lentil and vegetable soup I made. It's almost done now! When he left this morning it was with a slightly forced smile, and he commented last night on how creamed fish didn't sound that bad for supper today, so I'd say he's holding up with his usual day three resilience to my crazy food schemes.
The batter bread recipe was difficult to understand for someone who has barely worked with cornmeal before. It said the meal would absorb the water, which to me means a paste is going to be the end result. But the cornmeal just sort of vaguely thickened the liquid - so I popped it back in the microwave for 30 seconds to thicken it up, and that seemed to work. The final product (which I cooked in a cast iron frying pan) was really very odd. The bread seemed to separate, leaving heavy cornmeal at the bottom, and a sort of salty custard on top. It was sort of like eating glue topped with mucus. Don't laugh, I have a whole pan of this stuff to eat. And let me tell you, it would have to be one heck of an emergency for me to make that again.
I didn't even try to give it to Sam, he had his share of the french toast, reheated. And I ate the last of the lentil soup.
And then...things just sort of fell apart for supper. I'd forgotten about the garlic toast, and had used the last of the bread for french toast this morning (though, with french toast for breakfast, cornbread for lunch, tortillas for snacks and rice for supper, did we really need another carb?) leaving me with no way of making garlic toast for supper. Since both of us had eaten leftovers for lunch, I forgot about the spinach (that we were supposed to eat earlier today) slowly puddling its merry way across my counters, and decided to make that with the creamed tuna. Which by the way was actually salmon, since that was on sale. Which made me forget about the peas! We sat down to rice, with creamed salmon (no peas!) and spinach.
It was pretty good, actually. I could see it working well on toast. Or biscuits. Or maybe mashed potatos.
Breakfast - French toast, syrup, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Batter bread, margarine, spinach, milk.
Supper - Creamed tuna and peas over rice, garlic toast, ice tea.
Snack - Peanut butter tortillas, milk, tea.
We're running up against two big problems by Day Three. The first is that, with a few exceptions, the food I'm making is not food we would usually eat, and there's a good reason for that: we don't like it. I'm not a huge fan of french toast (eggy bread?) or pancakes, Samuel isn't a big bread eater at all, neither David nor I like beans or lentils especially, and David is missing meat terribly.
On the up side of all that, I think it means we're doing the plan well! This is, after all, an emergency menu. And with the exception of the pancakes on day one (and the orange juice allotment - I have no idea how two cans of juice is supposed to do four people for seven days!) every meal has given us so much food that not only could we easily feed four, but we're swimming in leftovers.
The second problem isn't one of preference, it's one of timing. These recipes take a lot of time. To make the refried beans from scratch would have taken me hours, which is why I used our leftovers from a previous night. I'm making bread every two days, where usually I can make it every four or five. Breakfast is taking 45 minutes to prepare from beginning to end, lunch over an hour and supper is being started the night before. I'm not used to cooking this way, nor do I particularly wish to become used to cooking this way.
Anyway, the french toast wasn't eaten by Samuel because 1) it was bread, and 2) it took so long to make it all that he ate before he ate, which ruined his appetite.
So, here we are at lunch again...spinach and something made out of cornmeal. Well, that's what Samuel and I will be having - David is on day three of eating the lentil and vegetable soup I made. It's almost done now! When he left this morning it was with a slightly forced smile, and he commented last night on how creamed fish didn't sound that bad for supper today, so I'd say he's holding up with his usual day three resilience to my crazy food schemes.
The batter bread recipe was difficult to understand for someone who has barely worked with cornmeal before. It said the meal would absorb the water, which to me means a paste is going to be the end result. But the cornmeal just sort of vaguely thickened the liquid - so I popped it back in the microwave for 30 seconds to thicken it up, and that seemed to work. The final product (which I cooked in a cast iron frying pan) was really very odd. The bread seemed to separate, leaving heavy cornmeal at the bottom, and a sort of salty custard on top. It was sort of like eating glue topped with mucus. Don't laugh, I have a whole pan of this stuff to eat. And let me tell you, it would have to be one heck of an emergency for me to make that again.
I didn't even try to give it to Sam, he had his share of the french toast, reheated. And I ate the last of the lentil soup.
And then...things just sort of fell apart for supper. I'd forgotten about the garlic toast, and had used the last of the bread for french toast this morning (though, with french toast for breakfast, cornbread for lunch, tortillas for snacks and rice for supper, did we really need another carb?) leaving me with no way of making garlic toast for supper. Since both of us had eaten leftovers for lunch, I forgot about the spinach (that we were supposed to eat earlier today) slowly puddling its merry way across my counters, and decided to make that with the creamed tuna. Which by the way was actually salmon, since that was on sale. Which made me forget about the peas! We sat down to rice, with creamed salmon (no peas!) and spinach.
It was pretty good, actually. I could see it working well on toast. Or biscuits. Or maybe mashed potatos.
Friday, July 13, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day Two
Here's what our menu looked like today according to the meal plan:
Breakfast - Oatmeal, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk.
Supper - Burritos with homemade refried beans and homemade tortillas, iced tea, fried onions.
Snacks - Jelly filled muffins, milk, tea.
Alright, so the good news first. Before I went to bed last night I put a cup of steel cut oats in to soak with a handful of dried cranberries. This morning I boiled them, drained them, and served Samuel and I the cereal with milk and a little bit of syrup. We both ate it, and the leftovers got frozen to be tossed into muffins at a later date. I don't know if steel cuts oats were exactly what the HH meant, but they're what I try and serve for oatmeal...
On the other hand, with a giant bowl of oatmeal no one needed the toast, so I didn't bother.
We had a date for lunch, and so the lunch portion of the menu got skipped today. No big deal, I think, we've all eaten pb&j and KD before.
And that brings us to supper. I made refried beans using the leftovers from last night's bean, garlic, butter and kale meal using this recipe. I also made the tortillas, which were really surprisingly easy, using this recipe. I may never buy tortillas again! It is so incredibly hot that we just drank water and frankly, after making burritos from scratch I didn't even have the energy to fry a few onions.
David liked the beans, which was amazing! I liked them, too, but seriously I have eaten some form of legume for every meal in the past two days - enough already. Still, the recipe was amazingly simple and I imagine it will be a repeat for us. Samuel wouldn't touch the beans or the tortillas, so he ate an orange.
Tomorrow I'm apparently making french toast for breakfast! The boys should like that. And then batter bread for lunch? Batter bread? Um....
Breakfast - Oatmeal, toast, margarine and jelly, orange juice, milk, tea.
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, macaroni and cheese, milk.
Supper - Burritos with homemade refried beans and homemade tortillas, iced tea, fried onions.
Snacks - Jelly filled muffins, milk, tea.
Alright, so the good news first. Before I went to bed last night I put a cup of steel cut oats in to soak with a handful of dried cranberries. This morning I boiled them, drained them, and served Samuel and I the cereal with milk and a little bit of syrup. We both ate it, and the leftovers got frozen to be tossed into muffins at a later date. I don't know if steel cuts oats were exactly what the HH meant, but they're what I try and serve for oatmeal...
On the other hand, with a giant bowl of oatmeal no one needed the toast, so I didn't bother.
We had a date for lunch, and so the lunch portion of the menu got skipped today. No big deal, I think, we've all eaten pb&j and KD before.
And that brings us to supper. I made refried beans using the leftovers from last night's bean, garlic, butter and kale meal using this recipe. I also made the tortillas, which were really surprisingly easy, using this recipe. I may never buy tortillas again! It is so incredibly hot that we just drank water and frankly, after making burritos from scratch I didn't even have the energy to fry a few onions.
David liked the beans, which was amazing! I liked them, too, but seriously I have eaten some form of legume for every meal in the past two days - enough already. Still, the recipe was amazingly simple and I imagine it will be a repeat for us. Samuel wouldn't touch the beans or the tortillas, so he ate an orange.
Tomorrow I'm apparently making french toast for breakfast! The boys should like that. And then batter bread for lunch? Batter bread? Um....
Thursday, July 12, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Day One
Well, breakfast was pancakes today. I went onto the HH website to see how she expected me to make my pancakes (my normal recipe uses apple sauce instead of oil and apple cider instead of milk, and I make it in a large pan in the oven, not on the stovetop). Problem #1: The recipes for this week aren't conveniently located with the meal plan, you have to go searching for them in her recipe index. I found what I assume was the pancake recipe, made it, and was a little shocked that this was supposed to feed four people since I only managed to get 8 small pancakes out of it. I mean, it fed us, but we weren't all that hungry, and Samuel ate three of them.
Maybe I used the wrong recipe? Maybe I was supposed to understand that she meant to double it?
Anyway, we went out to play and when we got back it was Samuel's naptime. I'd hoped to feed him lunch before putting him down to bed, but he was having none of it, and instead took a piece of bread and butter and a glass of milk to his room. I assumed these were acceptable, since the meal plan told me to give him 'cinnamon toast' for a snack and milk at lunch.
Problem #2 came up pretty quickly when I went to start the soup - this meal HAD no recipe. I couldn't find one. I looked through the lentil recipes and the soup recipes and it was nowhere, so I assume I am just supposed to know how to make lentil and vegetable soup from scratch on my own? Well, I skimmed the stock, heated it, peeled and chopped the vegetables (and this was another thing - how much of these vegetables am I supposed to use? What if I use too many carrots and run out of them for a later carrot recipe?) drained and added the lentils and went to make the dumplings.
There also was no dumpling recipe. So I had to Google 'dumpling recipe', and find one I could make with only the ingredients she gave me.
Problem #3 - No word of a lie this lunch took me over an hour to make. We all sat down to our soup at 2pm, none of us terribly hungry because we'd filled up on bread and butter while waiting for the soup to cook.
The soup I had made used 3 carrots, 2 onions, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cup rehydrated soaked green lentils, 6 cups turkey stock and 1/3 sweet potato. I know the potato wasn't on the grocery list, but it was in my fridge and I didn't want it to go bad. The dumplings used butter, flour, b. powder, milk, salt and seasonings. It was decent soup, nothing to write home about but certainly edible. I've made better dumplings. There was certainly a tonne of it left over, a least half the pot, so guess what David will be taking for lunch to work tomorrow. Or maybe I'll freeze it.
With all of that soup in our stomachs from lunch, none of us was really eager for supper, especially when I told David what it was. More beans. My friend Martha gave me a good idea, though, rather than cook the onions, beans and collard greens separately, why not saute them together, with a bit of that garlic butter I made earlier? That didn't sound half bad! (By the way, what on earth is a collard green? I bought kale - is that similar?)
I skipped making the hoe cakes for one reason only - we are swimming in food from day 1 over here. I rehydrated double the amount of beans and lentils, made 6 cups more broth than I needed, and have copious leftovers from the two meals I made. No need to make more food. But in the interests of the challenge, I will make them sometime this week.
Maybe I used the wrong recipe? Maybe I was supposed to understand that she meant to double it?
Anyway, we went out to play and when we got back it was Samuel's naptime. I'd hoped to feed him lunch before putting him down to bed, but he was having none of it, and instead took a piece of bread and butter and a glass of milk to his room. I assumed these were acceptable, since the meal plan told me to give him 'cinnamon toast' for a snack and milk at lunch.
Problem #2 came up pretty quickly when I went to start the soup - this meal HAD no recipe. I couldn't find one. I looked through the lentil recipes and the soup recipes and it was nowhere, so I assume I am just supposed to know how to make lentil and vegetable soup from scratch on my own? Well, I skimmed the stock, heated it, peeled and chopped the vegetables (and this was another thing - how much of these vegetables am I supposed to use? What if I use too many carrots and run out of them for a later carrot recipe?) drained and added the lentils and went to make the dumplings.
There also was no dumpling recipe. So I had to Google 'dumpling recipe', and find one I could make with only the ingredients she gave me.
Problem #3 - No word of a lie this lunch took me over an hour to make. We all sat down to our soup at 2pm, none of us terribly hungry because we'd filled up on bread and butter while waiting for the soup to cook.
The soup I had made used 3 carrots, 2 onions, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cup rehydrated soaked green lentils, 6 cups turkey stock and 1/3 sweet potato. I know the potato wasn't on the grocery list, but it was in my fridge and I didn't want it to go bad. The dumplings used butter, flour, b. powder, milk, salt and seasonings. It was decent soup, nothing to write home about but certainly edible. I've made better dumplings. There was certainly a tonne of it left over, a least half the pot, so guess what David will be taking for lunch to work tomorrow. Or maybe I'll freeze it.
With all of that soup in our stomachs from lunch, none of us was really eager for supper, especially when I told David what it was. More beans. My friend Martha gave me a good idea, though, rather than cook the onions, beans and collard greens separately, why not saute them together, with a bit of that garlic butter I made earlier? That didn't sound half bad! (By the way, what on earth is a collard green? I bought kale - is that similar?)
I skipped making the hoe cakes for one reason only - we are swimming in food from day 1 over here. I rehydrated double the amount of beans and lentils, made 6 cups more broth than I needed, and have copious leftovers from the two meals I made. No need to make more food. But in the interests of the challenge, I will make them sometime this week.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The Hillbilly Housewife Challenge - Prep Day
I love my food challenge weeks, I really do. I love trying to decide what I'm going to push myself to do. Is it going to be as simple as recording what we eat and snapping a photo for a week, or am I going to have to re-vamp our way of eating entirely, perhaps going vegan, or raw food, or dairy free?
Well, this week's challenge is a fun one, in my opinion. It's based on the blog The Hillbilly Housewife; she has an emergency menu that she claims can healthily feed 4 people for a week for $45. It's nothing fancy, but she claims it's filling and tasty, and that piques my interest. I did the Big Shop today to prepare for the meals ahead.
First off - my grocery bill was $76, not $45. Now, that being said there were a few things I bought that she hadn't asked for, and a few things she asked for that I didn't buy. Her menu plan assumes a bare pantry, and I am well stocked with spices, salt, flour, etc. so those weren't purchased. Instead, I bought some fruit, which is completely lacking in her meal plan.
There were also a few 'switches' made. In some cases it was a simple switch, for example she asked for canned tomatoes, but I bought fresh because I prefer them and they were on sale. In other cases, I 'upgraded' my ingredients; she simply asked for hot dogs, by which I assume she meant the cheapest there were, and I bought the natural hot dogs that are chemical free and cost three times as much as the cheapest no name brand.
Is this cheating? Maybe, but I abhor wasting food and I refuse to cook something (taking the time, hydro and money out of my allotment) just for the fun of it and with no serious intention of eating the finished product! In the long run, though, and after reading a lot of comments about the meal plan, I can also see that there isn't much of a chance of me reaching the $45 mark and having enough food. I know from past experience that I can, with a lot of squeezing, feed two adults on $50 per week. But I am nursing two children, David is working 40 hour weeks on his feet, and we walk everywhere, not to mention a toddler shares our table; these days I'm doing well if I can keep our bill at $75 per week.
We eat a LOT of food. Just sayin'.
This is all to say that I think the switches and so forth even themselves out. Yes, I bought fruit, but I didn't buy flour. Yes, I bought expensive hotdogs, but I bought cheaper beans, etc. And it came to $76. So there you have it.
I intended to start today with the challenge, but after a close look at the menu I realized that I was going to need a 'Prep Day'. Here's what we'll be eating tomorrow, then:
Breakfast: Pancakes, syrup, orange juice, hot tea, milk.
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable soup with dumplings, milk.
Supper: Pinto beans, onions, hoe cakes, collard greens, iced tea.
Snack: cinnamon toast and milk for children, tea for adults.
Can I tell you what immediately hits me like a tonne of bricks from that menu? The beans for supper. Just...beans. Beans soaked, drained and then boiled. Oh my goodness how do people eat just beans? Nothing on them? Like, nothing?
I also had to look up what a hoe cake was, and it so wasn't what I thought it was. It turns out hoe cakes are fried cornbread. I'm trying to picture in my mind what Samuel's face is going to look like when I present him with fried cornbread tomorrow. I'm guessing we'll be using that syrup again come suppertime.
My prep today, then, involved making a loaf of bread so that we can eat our cinnamon toast. I also decided not to use the bouillon that the Hillbilly Housewife suggested for her soup broth, and instead I'm making broth as well, from turkey. I've also been wracking my brain on what to do about those beans, because that is going to be really tough for me. I settled on a roasted garlic butter, and I've roasted three heads of garlic in the oven and put them in the fridge ready to go.
She suggests soaking your beans for a few hours, but with dried beans I prefer to soak overnight using this method from Keeper of the Home (and here's a great link as to WHY I prefer that).
Other than that, I think we're ready for tomorrow. Let the beans shine on.
Well, this week's challenge is a fun one, in my opinion. It's based on the blog The Hillbilly Housewife; she has an emergency menu that she claims can healthily feed 4 people for a week for $45. It's nothing fancy, but she claims it's filling and tasty, and that piques my interest. I did the Big Shop today to prepare for the meals ahead.
First off - my grocery bill was $76, not $45. Now, that being said there were a few things I bought that she hadn't asked for, and a few things she asked for that I didn't buy. Her menu plan assumes a bare pantry, and I am well stocked with spices, salt, flour, etc. so those weren't purchased. Instead, I bought some fruit, which is completely lacking in her meal plan.
There were also a few 'switches' made. In some cases it was a simple switch, for example she asked for canned tomatoes, but I bought fresh because I prefer them and they were on sale. In other cases, I 'upgraded' my ingredients; she simply asked for hot dogs, by which I assume she meant the cheapest there were, and I bought the natural hot dogs that are chemical free and cost three times as much as the cheapest no name brand.
Is this cheating? Maybe, but I abhor wasting food and I refuse to cook something (taking the time, hydro and money out of my allotment) just for the fun of it and with no serious intention of eating the finished product! In the long run, though, and after reading a lot of comments about the meal plan, I can also see that there isn't much of a chance of me reaching the $45 mark and having enough food. I know from past experience that I can, with a lot of squeezing, feed two adults on $50 per week. But I am nursing two children, David is working 40 hour weeks on his feet, and we walk everywhere, not to mention a toddler shares our table; these days I'm doing well if I can keep our bill at $75 per week.
We eat a LOT of food. Just sayin'.
This is all to say that I think the switches and so forth even themselves out. Yes, I bought fruit, but I didn't buy flour. Yes, I bought expensive hotdogs, but I bought cheaper beans, etc. And it came to $76. So there you have it.
I intended to start today with the challenge, but after a close look at the menu I realized that I was going to need a 'Prep Day'. Here's what we'll be eating tomorrow, then:
Breakfast: Pancakes, syrup, orange juice, hot tea, milk.
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable soup with dumplings, milk.
Supper: Pinto beans, onions, hoe cakes, collard greens, iced tea.
Snack: cinnamon toast and milk for children, tea for adults.
Can I tell you what immediately hits me like a tonne of bricks from that menu? The beans for supper. Just...beans. Beans soaked, drained and then boiled. Oh my goodness how do people eat just beans? Nothing on them? Like, nothing?
I also had to look up what a hoe cake was, and it so wasn't what I thought it was. It turns out hoe cakes are fried cornbread. I'm trying to picture in my mind what Samuel's face is going to look like when I present him with fried cornbread tomorrow. I'm guessing we'll be using that syrup again come suppertime.
My prep today, then, involved making a loaf of bread so that we can eat our cinnamon toast. I also decided not to use the bouillon that the Hillbilly Housewife suggested for her soup broth, and instead I'm making broth as well, from turkey. I've also been wracking my brain on what to do about those beans, because that is going to be really tough for me. I settled on a roasted garlic butter, and I've roasted three heads of garlic in the oven and put them in the fridge ready to go.
She suggests soaking your beans for a few hours, but with dried beans I prefer to soak overnight using this method from Keeper of the Home (and here's a great link as to WHY I prefer that).
Other than that, I think we're ready for tomorrow. Let the beans shine on.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Food Challenge Day Five
I had cold cereal for breakfast, and Samuel...
well, Samuel ate a muffin from Tim Hortons.
Blech for pre-made food.
And since once a week we like to go 'out' for a meal, we had lunch at A&W as a family on David's lunch break. Two mozza burgers for $6. Add a large fry and it feeds a family of four - provided only two people are really eating and a third eats a few fries and drinks the ketchup.
Usually on a day that looks as bad as this one does nutritionally, I would prepare something really healthy for supper. Unfortunately, today was the day I had planned to use up stuff that was sitting in the fridge and pantry. So, we had spaghetti and tomato sauce, and by spaghetti I mean various bags of pasta odds and ends that I'm too frugal to get rid of.
I also started prepping for meals for tomorrow, since David is back on nights again. Chicken quarters on low in the slow cooker and a bowl of dried cranberries rehydrating on the countertop...
well, Samuel ate a muffin from Tim Hortons.
Blech for pre-made food.
And since once a week we like to go 'out' for a meal, we had lunch at A&W as a family on David's lunch break. Two mozza burgers for $6. Add a large fry and it feeds a family of four - provided only two people are really eating and a third eats a few fries and drinks the ketchup.
Usually on a day that looks as bad as this one does nutritionally, I would prepare something really healthy for supper. Unfortunately, today was the day I had planned to use up stuff that was sitting in the fridge and pantry. So, we had spaghetti and tomato sauce, and by spaghetti I mean various bags of pasta odds and ends that I'm too frugal to get rid of.
I also started prepping for meals for tomorrow, since David is back on nights again. Chicken quarters on low in the slow cooker and a bowl of dried cranberries rehydrating on the countertop...
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Food Challenge: Day 2
Today's food actually started last night, because with church in the morning and two really young children, it helps to have your meals as prepped as they can be. I made our 'big' lunch (David works in the evening again, just like last night, so another large mid-day meal) last night, and it's shepherd's pie.
This is another meal that I don't make with a recipe. For this one I sauteed ground beef, onions and garlic, seasoned with ground black pepper and some kosher salt and into that mixed about 2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables, two cups of frozen broccoli, and half a container of the Philly cooking cream. Then I topped it with 1/3 of the bag of frozen hash browns and onto that poured half a can of cream soup mixed with about a can of milk and some grated cheese.
At the same time as I was prepping this, I made up a casserole for a sick friend; hers used the other half of the can of soup, mixed with milk, and poured over the sauteed beef (minus onions and garlic) and hash browns, with grated cheese on top. I'm always cautious to make my gifted meals a bit bland if there are children in the house because you never know what level of picky eater you may be dealing with!
Breakfast for Samuel was mandarin orange slices and the last breakfast muffin. David and I are notoriously bad at eating breakfast, so I doubt he ate anything, and I know I had a cup of tea. Once we finished lunch and everyone was down for a nap I made up another batch of muffins.
I started with my basic muffin recipe again, but this time I lowered the sugar even further, to 1/3 cup, and I changed the 2 cups of white flour to 1.5 cups of white and half a cup of whole wheat. I also added 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. I'll use these muffins for snacks.
David took the rest of the shepherd's pie for his break at work. We rarely have leftovers in this house. Samuel and I had a veggie plate with dip for supper.
This is another meal that I don't make with a recipe. For this one I sauteed ground beef, onions and garlic, seasoned with ground black pepper and some kosher salt and into that mixed about 2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables, two cups of frozen broccoli, and half a container of the Philly cooking cream. Then I topped it with 1/3 of the bag of frozen hash browns and onto that poured half a can of cream soup mixed with about a can of milk and some grated cheese.
At the same time as I was prepping this, I made up a casserole for a sick friend; hers used the other half of the can of soup, mixed with milk, and poured over the sauteed beef (minus onions and garlic) and hash browns, with grated cheese on top. I'm always cautious to make my gifted meals a bit bland if there are children in the house because you never know what level of picky eater you may be dealing with!
Breakfast for Samuel was mandarin orange slices and the last breakfast muffin. David and I are notoriously bad at eating breakfast, so I doubt he ate anything, and I know I had a cup of tea. Once we finished lunch and everyone was down for a nap I made up another batch of muffins.
I started with my basic muffin recipe again, but this time I lowered the sugar even further, to 1/3 cup, and I changed the 2 cups of white flour to 1.5 cups of white and half a cup of whole wheat. I also added 1 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. I'll use these muffins for snacks.
David took the rest of the shepherd's pie for his break at work. We rarely have leftovers in this house. Samuel and I had a veggie plate with dip for supper.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Food Challenge Day 1
I've been getting all nostalgic about the early days of this space being a 'food blog'. Pshaw, I'm no foodie. Ask my husband. But it was fun to try new recipes and challenges, I have to admit!
These days I cook what's easy and fast; just time-tested recipes that everyone likes. But I wanted to set myself a challenge again just to get the juices flowing. After I got back from the weekly grocery trip today I spread out my purchases and took a little video of them. This week, you can come with me, peek into the kitchen and see what I'm making each meal. I'm always up for frugal options, and we try and eat fairly healthy (fairly I said, not always!) but I also have come to peace with the fact that I need to use some convenience foods to make my life a bit easier.
For this week, the challenge is just to make food and record it; not to specifically make any one recipe. I'm also (with the exception of milk) not going to purchase any other food for meals this week. However I am going to use whatever I may have in my fridge/freezer/pantry in addition to my groceries, just because a) I would do this normally and b) this isn't a budget challenge like I've done before, I'm just curious.
Aren't you curious about what you really eat all week? Don't you find yourself on Friday thinking 'have the children really eaten pasta every lunch this week?' Do you also find 'forgotten' purchases in your fridge all. the. time.? Is it just me? Anyway, I'm expecting lots and lots of recipe sharing in the comments so don't let me down!
Tonight is a work night for David, and so we would usually eat our large meal early, and then Sam would have a snack before bed. I had already prepared supper earlier in the week and frozen it, so we had chili and I made breakfast muffins.
I don't use a recipe for my chili, but this one had black beans, diced tomato, green pepper, ground beef, mushrooms, tomato sauce and seasonings. The muffin recipe I used was this one. I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and added ground black pepper, 1/3 of a package of diced bacon, cooked, and an inch of cheese, shredded.
Samuel had a bowl of local strawberries, a fruit cup and a leftover muffin for his snack before bed and David took a few muffins and the last of the chili with him to work to eat on his break.
These days I cook what's easy and fast; just time-tested recipes that everyone likes. But I wanted to set myself a challenge again just to get the juices flowing. After I got back from the weekly grocery trip today I spread out my purchases and took a little video of them. This week, you can come with me, peek into the kitchen and see what I'm making each meal. I'm always up for frugal options, and we try and eat fairly healthy (fairly I said, not always!) but I also have come to peace with the fact that I need to use some convenience foods to make my life a bit easier.
For this week, the challenge is just to make food and record it; not to specifically make any one recipe. I'm also (with the exception of milk) not going to purchase any other food for meals this week. However I am going to use whatever I may have in my fridge/freezer/pantry in addition to my groceries, just because a) I would do this normally and b) this isn't a budget challenge like I've done before, I'm just curious.
Aren't you curious about what you really eat all week? Don't you find yourself on Friday thinking 'have the children really eaten pasta every lunch this week?' Do you also find 'forgotten' purchases in your fridge all. the. time.? Is it just me? Anyway, I'm expecting lots and lots of recipe sharing in the comments so don't let me down!
Tonight is a work night for David, and so we would usually eat our large meal early, and then Sam would have a snack before bed. I had already prepared supper earlier in the week and frozen it, so we had chili and I made breakfast muffins.
I don't use a recipe for my chili, but this one had black beans, diced tomato, green pepper, ground beef, mushrooms, tomato sauce and seasonings. The muffin recipe I used was this one. I cut the sugar to 1/2 cup and added ground black pepper, 1/3 of a package of diced bacon, cooked, and an inch of cheese, shredded.
Samuel had a bowl of local strawberries, a fruit cup and a leftover muffin for his snack before bed and David took a few muffins and the last of the chili with him to work to eat on his break.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
My job / His job - Part Two of What Does A Housewife Do All Day?
In other words, I'm a housewife, but that's just a very small part of what I do and who I am.
There have been periods of time when I've taken paid work, sometimes more than one job at a time, and there have been weeks when my paycheck was more than David's, or my job more challenging than his in some way. And equally there have been days, weeks even, when Daddy has been home and doing laundry, or cooking meals, or soothing cuts and scrapes and returning library books while I've been somewhere else.
I've never really felt awkward about being the primary parent at home because I feel called to it; I've never taken on this role because society expected me to but because I'm good at it, and I like it, and it seems to work for us.
And yes, I think that each of our 'jobs' qualifies as 'work'. Just as David's parenting is no less than mine, my work is no less than his. Different, yes, but then that's true of each individual.
Beyond the standard stuff that I try to accomplish on a daily basis, though, there is one way in which I interact with the family finances in a more in-depth way. Several years ago I came across a stay-at-home mom who wrote that she viewed her job as helping to squeeze the most out of her husband's paycheck. Whatever money came into the house, she wanted to get every last useful drop out of. I liked that idea and it's always stuck with me.
It's become a bit of a challenge for me, which plays well into my naturally competitive side! Sure, tomatoes are $1.00 a pound at Sobeys, but they're 98 cents a pound at Superstore, so let's go there! And I take a great deal of pride (good pride, I think!) in seeing how I can turn random ingredients into delicious food; I'm a master at 'pantry cooking' after years of practice.
This past week I needed more cloth wipes for the baby, and made 18 new ones from an old, unworn shirt. I bought limes from the discount produce rack and juiced them, freezing the juice in ice cubes trays for days when limes would be too pricey to buy. I made our first loaf of bread in the bread machine, visited Costco to buy sausages and cat litter in bulk, and used up the leftovers in the fridge.
These little things are important to me while I'm at home; they keep me in a headspace that constantly reminds me that the money I spend and the lifestyle we live comes from David's 40 hour weeks on his feet, doing hard work. And, yes, they keep me accountable; I think David appreciates that if he ever were to ask me how I managed our money this week, I could give him a list just like the one I just typed. And lest the sexism bug rear it's ugly head, David is just as accountable to me for his actions regarding work; he would no more slack off at his job than I would at mine.
Tomorrow I'll be writing my Works For Me Wednesday post, and I'll share some specific things I've done recently, since coming back to the home for my maternity leave with our second child. And I'd love your suggestions, as well!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Why I feel better when my fridge is empty
I used to hoard food, thinking that somehow it made me thriftier, when in reality it made me crazier. I was one of those women who debated saving the water their vegetables were steamed in to use later when making their own broth. This saving food compulsion was born of a thrifty childhood, nurtured by some long, lean college years, and finally blossomed and bore a lot of fruit after David and I got married, had a child, and firmly slipped into a pretty low economic class.
Not only that, but our discovery of healthy eating (aka - skip the Ramen noodles every night and buy something labelled 'fruit' on occasion) led me to believe that I had to scrimp and save nutrients constantly. Don't throw out bones, because bones have calcium and, um, 'good' stuff, whatever that means, and they should be boiled to extract it and the reduced liquid should be frozen...or something. It was becoming an obsession.
I also noticed that the more I fell into this mentality, the more two things happened. The first was that I was actually LESS likely to make and eat food. Food had become a huge chore, requiring lengthly prep time and exhaustive research to be delicious. I would make it, and then be loathe to toss a Tbsp of leftovers and instead let them molder away in the back of the fridge. Half of the produce I bought, I tossed. Half of the healthy stuff I made, required a ridiculous amount of time. Not to mention space. My fridge and freezer both were crammed with food. Little labelled bags of stuff. Can't throw out that half a calcified lemon, since it was organic and all, and cost the earth.
The second thing that happened is that we all lost out on the joy of eating, as well as the supposed financial benefits of doing so in a healthy way. Who wanted to eat Mama's lentil casserole three days in a row? No one, that's who, including Mama. So the casserole sat there and Mama, exhausted from the two days of prep work it took to produce a healthy, entirely homemade lentil casserole, ordered a pizza. A delicious melon, or some perfectly ripe apples, supposing I hadn't forgotten them and left them buried under mounds of food in the back of the fridge somewhere, got pushed aside again and again in favour of convenience and 'food planning'. I couldn't give Sam an apple because those were the 'special' apples I was saving for a pie, which I couldn't make because we weren't buying piecrust anymore, just making it, and I was too tired to make piecrust. So let the apples sit.
So what changed this? To be honest, it's still changing, and the change is slow. I still hoard food. I still buy a bunch of 'excellent deals' at the grocery store and then throw them away. I still save bits and pieces. I have a peeled ginger root in my freezer as we speak. Yesterday my husband threw out a pumpkin that I had been holding onto in cold storage since before Hallowe'en, and to be honest, if he hadn't thrown it out I wouldn't have. I would have kept it.
But, I'm a lot better. To start with, we've all noticed that if there is one food option, then when you're hungry that's what you'll eat. If you look at that picture above, that big bowl on the second shelf is the roasted pepper soup I made yesterday - and we'll have it for lunch today. Because that's what there is for lunch. The top shelf holds some stuffed pasta shells, and David will take those to work for his supper today. Because that's what there is for supper. When I went to the store yesterday, I bought exactly what I needed for ONE intensive recipe - in my case, a roasted portabella mushroom soup. I bought three onions and whipping cream - you can see my onions in one of the crisper drawers. You know what else you can see in that drawer? Nada. There's nothing else there. On purpose.
There's enough food in that fridge (and my freezer, and the fruit bowl on the counter, etc.) to feed us for a few days only. Then I will have to go shopping again. I have a loaf of bread on the counter, but only one, and then I will have to make more bread. I have some homemade energy bars wrapped up, but only half a dozen, and then I will have to make more. I have three apples, a kiwi, a banana and a cantaloup in my fruit bowl - this means that in about two days, I will need to buy more fruit. These small, manageable amounts of food tend not to go to waste anymore. If you only have three apples, and they're all visible, then you'll eat your three apples. When they're done, you'll buy more apples. Simple.
I've found myself not only saving on tossed food, and therefore money, but also on stress. It's stressful to look in a fridge and have no idea what to prepare for a meal, and it's equally stressful, for me at least, to prepare this elaborate meal plan every week that I cannot hope to achieve. I don't want to spend two hours every day in the kitchen, making food. I like food, I want to eat food, I want to serve healthy and delicious food, but I don't want to use up my life preparing food. I can tell you right now what we'll have in the next couple of days without a meal plan. We'll have apple pancakes for a meal. We'll have portabella mushroom soup. We'll have a cheese souffle. And then at some point in the next few days as I run low on fruit I will also pick up some vegetables and we'll do a stirfry, and then an omelette. Then we'll be down on eggs and so...you get the idea. I don't need a meal plan, I can look at the dozen items in my kitchen and tell you right now what you can expect to eat if you arrived for supper.
Monday, January 2, 2012
A problem with frugal food watching...
Ok, so here I am, in my kitchen, writing down what we're eating today, and all I can think of it: "There is NO WAY we're eating $115.00 worth of food this week." No way. We went shopping on the 30th and have eaten 9 meals so far, to the tune of about $35, and that's rounding up. Although it isn't counting the breakdown of cost in using, say, 1/8 of a block of cream cheese that I already had in the fridge, or salt and pepper. But still. And we haven't used vast quantities of the food I've purchased. The pineapple, for example, we've been cutting hunks off of for three days now and still aren't finished it. I've made the apple pancakes, apple raisin bread and given Samuel at least two large glasses of watered down apple juice, and still this morning I had enough left from the 1 litre container to pour myself a glass. We've barely made a dent in the canned foods, I've used 1 pkg of ground beef, half a pound of bacon and 1 steak for all the meat needs in the past three days...
What am I missing here? Why are my food bills as high as they are? Surely I'm not throwing this stuff out and not realizing it?
What am I missing here? Why are my food bills as high as they are? Surely I'm not throwing this stuff out and not realizing it?
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Another post without pictures but with a menu.
I promise I won't do this much longer. I just need a week or so of keeping track of what we're making/eating/spending/blah blah blah so that I can try and figure out some math, here.
Today is Sunday, and that means church and rest, which means that our usually fairly balanced diet kinda goes out the window a bit.
I have no clue what David ate for breakfast, but Samuel and I shared a bagel with cream cheese on it. I can't imagine that our breakfast was more than 75 cents. Samuel then demolished about a third of a big bag of raisins during the sermon at church this morning, which is about $1 worth of dried grapes.
We came home and David was still at work (he works every few Sundays in the morning) and so the two of us split a bowl of pineapple slices before the boy went off for a nap. Once the three of us were together again we had stew that had been simmering in the slow cooker all morning. I used a small cabbage, a gigantic carrot, three potatoes left at the bottom of the last bag of potatoes I bought, some ground beef, the stock from the Christmas duck, and any number of little things I found in the fridge. It probably ran me about $5 to make.
In the afternoon Samuel and I baked a loaf of apple raisin bread and we all ate that and more stew throughout the evening before going to bed.
It was one of those days.
Today is Sunday, and that means church and rest, which means that our usually fairly balanced diet kinda goes out the window a bit.
I have no clue what David ate for breakfast, but Samuel and I shared a bagel with cream cheese on it. I can't imagine that our breakfast was more than 75 cents. Samuel then demolished about a third of a big bag of raisins during the sermon at church this morning, which is about $1 worth of dried grapes.
We came home and David was still at work (he works every few Sundays in the morning) and so the two of us split a bowl of pineapple slices before the boy went off for a nap. Once the three of us were together again we had stew that had been simmering in the slow cooker all morning. I used a small cabbage, a gigantic carrot, three potatoes left at the bottom of the last bag of potatoes I bought, some ground beef, the stock from the Christmas duck, and any number of little things I found in the fridge. It probably ran me about $5 to make.
In the afternoon Samuel and I baked a loaf of apple raisin bread and we all ate that and more stew throughout the evening before going to bed.
It was one of those days.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
December 31st, 2011.
Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!
Today's meals were...
These wonderful apple cider pancakes for breakfast. Mmmm. We made a few adjustments, using soy milk instead of cow's milk, pumpkin pie spice instead of apple pie spice, and apple juice instead of apple cider, but we mostly stuck to the recipe. They certainly kept to the promise of the website and gave us a big meal for under $5, probably closer to $3 if I factored in all of the little ingredients, like a tsp of spices.
{These pancakes are very cakey, and to get the batter to the right consistency you need to add up to a cup more liquid.}
Samuel had a playdate with his friend Edwin for lunch, and the boys had peanut butter and honey dip (microwave equal parts peanut butter and honey until runny) with apple slices, grapes, cheese cubes and sliced pizza buns. When David got home from work he had leftover apple cider pancakes for his lunch. I'm estimating here, but I'd say lunch was probably under $5.
After the playdate I made stock. I'm trying to think how much money I spent on this, but it's hard to guess. I used the carcass from our Christmas duck for the broth, so I can't count that.
For supper we had a layered southwestern salad with diced tomatoes, corn, lettuce, black beans, grated cheese, grilled skirt steak and a creamy dressing. {Lettuce = 1.00, Steak = 3.09, Tomatos = 1.42, Can corn = 1.39, black beans = 0.89, 1/3 block cheese = 2.00. Plus dressing. Total = $9.79} It easily fed us tonight and will give the family a big lunch tomorrow.
At close to $20 worth of food today, it isn't a good day to count as 'frugal'. On the other hand, every single recipe covered more than one meal, and lunch is covered for tomorrow. Does that make it better? How much does your family spend every day on food? Are we eating pretty much what other families eat? More? Less?
Friday, December 30, 2011
Groceries for the week of Dec. 30th to Jan. 7th.
Before Samuel started really eating solid foods I could feed David and I on about $75 a week. The food at that price was good, and healthy, but not terribly imaginative or varied. We ate a lot of salads, stir-frys and curries, but we certainly ate well. Once Samuel started to eat more and more, my grocery bill went up and up. So, my very first question, and one I hadn't asked myself in a long time, was:
1. How much do I actually spend on groceries?
I'm still living in a dream world that says: "You spend $75 a week on groceries, Amy, you clever girl!" Clearly, this can't be true anymore, but it's what I've told myself for the past nine months, even to the point of telling other people the same lie! If you asked me before this morning "So, how much does your family spend on groceries every week?" I would have told you, straight-faced, "Oh, I don't know, around $75."
Well, time for the truth. Today we had to go shopping, and I thought this morning that there was no better time to look at our REAL food bill. I jotted down a few things I knew we needed, and then I did what I usually do, I wrote down the meals I wanted to cook this week and what I needed for each of them. And then we headed out. Here's what we bought:
Produce
broccoli - $1.49
cauliflower - $1.49
eggplant - $1.33
1 bag of onions - $2.99
cilantro - $1.99
dill - $.99
mushrooms - $1.67
pineapple - $1.99
1 bag of apples - $2.49
1 bag of tomatoes - $2.84
Meat
2 sirloin tip steaks - $6.18
1 pkg. Italian sausages - $4.51
4 pkgs. ground beef - $10.35
1 pkg. bacon - $3.49
Bakery
1 bag of assorted bagels and rolls - $3.29
1 bag of 5 frozen tubes of bread dough - $5.99
Grocery Items
4 cans of diced tomatoes with spices - $5.00
2 blocks of cheese - $5.99 each
1 carton apple juice - $1.29
2 cans black beans - $0.89 each
2 cans mushrooms - $1.09 each
1 tub margarine - $1.99
2 cartons of eggs - $3.29 each
1 carton of saltine crackers - $3.19
2 pkgs spaghetti noodles - $1.29 each
2 cans of tuna - $0.87 each
1 can corn - $1.39
1 pkg raisins - $4.79
1 club pack wheat germ - $1.69
2 bags chips - $0.88 each
1 bag dill chips - $1.67
2 litres soy milk - $3.49
1 box shreddies cereal - $2.50
Non-Food
1 tube hand cream - $2.99
The total was $114.43. Almost $40 more than I thought.
Now, I have to be fair to myself here! To start with, several of those items were treats. David and I love to try new chip flavours and two bags at 88 cents each was, in our opinion, a fairly harmless way to indulge a bit. The third bag was actually on the list since I use dill chips in my tuna cakes. The bag of assorted buns was an emergency item; we had completely run out of bread at home and I wouldn't have time to bake one of the frozen loaves before lunch. And then several of the purchases will last much longer than one week. The wheat germ for muffins is a month-long club pack bag, at least. I bought four tins of Italian spiced tomatoes but only have plans for two of them, the other two are for the pantry...and so forth.
But on the other hand, several things went wrong right off the bat. When I got home I discovered that I already had several of the things I'd purchased. In fact, in one case I had done it twice over! I had bought a bag of apples, put them in the crisper drawer, then forgotten about them and purchased a second bag of apples, put them on the top shelf, and then today saw apples on sale, thought "I haven't seen apples in a while" and purchased a third bag of apples.
I also found myself staring at items on the shelves trying to remember if I had them at home. Did I have dried dill? Did I still have carrots? And I was unintentionally vague on my list. For example, for a vegetable curry I had planned for lunch this week I wrote "buy veg. for curry", then spent a whole heck of a time wandering the produce aisles trying to decide what vegetables I felt like having in a hypothetical curry that might happen at the end of next week! By the time I got home and was unloading produce I wasn't sure what was supposed to be in what dish anymore, which I know from experience will result in my using foods intended for one dinner in another dinner and force me back out to the store again.
And so, it wasn't a huge success in terms of a frugal shopping trip, but it was a start. It highlighted problem areas, at least. I need to plan not just what we're having, but what specifically goes into each dish. I need to write that down and buy those items, by-passing other things that I think we may possibly need in favour of those I know we need. I need to keep a list of food basics somewhere visible in the kitchen so that if we run out of cooking oil, we write down and subsequently buy cooking oil, rather than have me try and figure out if we need it by staring at it on a grocery shelf and trying to imagine my pantry in my mind's eye. And finally, we need to stop completely running out of things, necessitating an emergency purchase. I could have saved us money if I had something planned for lunch that didn't need bread.
Oh, and in case you have any curious questions, here's what we ate today:
Breakfast - porridge with dried figs, brown sugar, vanilla and milk. Samuel also had a banana.
Lunch - David and I had tuna melts, Samuel had grapes, half a bagel and some cheese. (We're testing his cheese intake).
Supper - omelets with onion, green pepper, mushrooms, bacon, eggs and a bit of cheese on top. A piece of Christmas cake for dessert for all three of us!
Lunch cost me about $2.27 for two buns, a can of tuna and about 1/6 of a block of cheese. Maybe 20 cents for Samuel's bagel and cheese as well. Let's say $3 total.
Supper cost me {half a carton of eggs+1 onion+1/3 carton mushrooms+1/6 block cheese+1/2 pkg bacon}
about $5.00, since I already had the green pepper.
1. How much do I actually spend on groceries?
I'm still living in a dream world that says: "You spend $75 a week on groceries, Amy, you clever girl!" Clearly, this can't be true anymore, but it's what I've told myself for the past nine months, even to the point of telling other people the same lie! If you asked me before this morning "So, how much does your family spend on groceries every week?" I would have told you, straight-faced, "Oh, I don't know, around $75."
Well, time for the truth. Today we had to go shopping, and I thought this morning that there was no better time to look at our REAL food bill. I jotted down a few things I knew we needed, and then I did what I usually do, I wrote down the meals I wanted to cook this week and what I needed for each of them. And then we headed out. Here's what we bought:
Produce
broccoli - $1.49
cauliflower - $1.49
eggplant - $1.33
1 bag of onions - $2.99
cilantro - $1.99
dill - $.99
mushrooms - $1.67
pineapple - $1.99
1 bag of apples - $2.49
1 bag of tomatoes - $2.84
Meat
2 sirloin tip steaks - $6.18
1 pkg. Italian sausages - $4.51
4 pkgs. ground beef - $10.35
1 pkg. bacon - $3.49
Bakery
1 bag of assorted bagels and rolls - $3.29
1 bag of 5 frozen tubes of bread dough - $5.99
Grocery Items
4 cans of diced tomatoes with spices - $5.00
2 blocks of cheese - $5.99 each
1 carton apple juice - $1.29
2 cans black beans - $0.89 each
2 cans mushrooms - $1.09 each
1 tub margarine - $1.99
2 cartons of eggs - $3.29 each
1 carton of saltine crackers - $3.19
2 pkgs spaghetti noodles - $1.29 each
2 cans of tuna - $0.87 each
1 can corn - $1.39
1 pkg raisins - $4.79
1 club pack wheat germ - $1.69
2 bags chips - $0.88 each
1 bag dill chips - $1.67
2 litres soy milk - $3.49
1 box shreddies cereal - $2.50
Non-Food
1 tube hand cream - $2.99
The total was $114.43. Almost $40 more than I thought.
Now, I have to be fair to myself here! To start with, several of those items were treats. David and I love to try new chip flavours and two bags at 88 cents each was, in our opinion, a fairly harmless way to indulge a bit. The third bag was actually on the list since I use dill chips in my tuna cakes. The bag of assorted buns was an emergency item; we had completely run out of bread at home and I wouldn't have time to bake one of the frozen loaves before lunch. And then several of the purchases will last much longer than one week. The wheat germ for muffins is a month-long club pack bag, at least. I bought four tins of Italian spiced tomatoes but only have plans for two of them, the other two are for the pantry...and so forth.
But on the other hand, several things went wrong right off the bat. When I got home I discovered that I already had several of the things I'd purchased. In fact, in one case I had done it twice over! I had bought a bag of apples, put them in the crisper drawer, then forgotten about them and purchased a second bag of apples, put them on the top shelf, and then today saw apples on sale, thought "I haven't seen apples in a while" and purchased a third bag of apples.
I also found myself staring at items on the shelves trying to remember if I had them at home. Did I have dried dill? Did I still have carrots? And I was unintentionally vague on my list. For example, for a vegetable curry I had planned for lunch this week I wrote "buy veg. for curry", then spent a whole heck of a time wandering the produce aisles trying to decide what vegetables I felt like having in a hypothetical curry that might happen at the end of next week! By the time I got home and was unloading produce I wasn't sure what was supposed to be in what dish anymore, which I know from experience will result in my using foods intended for one dinner in another dinner and force me back out to the store again.
And so, it wasn't a huge success in terms of a frugal shopping trip, but it was a start. It highlighted problem areas, at least. I need to plan not just what we're having, but what specifically goes into each dish. I need to write that down and buy those items, by-passing other things that I think we may possibly need in favour of those I know we need. I need to keep a list of food basics somewhere visible in the kitchen so that if we run out of cooking oil, we write down and subsequently buy cooking oil, rather than have me try and figure out if we need it by staring at it on a grocery shelf and trying to imagine my pantry in my mind's eye. And finally, we need to stop completely running out of things, necessitating an emergency purchase. I could have saved us money if I had something planned for lunch that didn't need bread.
Oh, and in case you have any curious questions, here's what we ate today:
Breakfast - porridge with dried figs, brown sugar, vanilla and milk. Samuel also had a banana.
Lunch - David and I had tuna melts, Samuel had grapes, half a bagel and some cheese. (We're testing his cheese intake).
Supper - omelets with onion, green pepper, mushrooms, bacon, eggs and a bit of cheese on top. A piece of Christmas cake for dessert for all three of us!
Lunch cost me about $2.27 for two buns, a can of tuna and about 1/6 of a block of cheese. Maybe 20 cents for Samuel's bagel and cheese as well. Let's say $3 total.
Supper cost me {half a carton of eggs+1 onion+1/3 carton mushrooms+1/6 block cheese+1/2 pkg bacon}
about $5.00, since I already had the green pepper.
The SAHM pt. 2
I’m like a woman obsessed.
I cannot stop thinking, night and day, about whether our family can manage with me at home, and whether they could manage without me at home. The lists of respective pros and cons are getting extensive, although so far they exist only in my own mind. The money, of course, is the big one. Oh, to live in a society where money was not the over-riding all consuming problem, goal and blessing that it is here! To live in paradise!
Because, to be frank, if the money wasn’t an issue then every other issue would be insignificant. They would pale in comparison to the big pro side of the list; a parent at home for our two children, a cleaner house, healthier food, more serenity in our days...theoretically, of course. As healthy and clean and serene as a home can be with two toddlers in it!
I have taken the first steps, though. David and I have started to talk about it. We see eye-to-eye on the issue, for which I can only thank God because as two individuals my husband and I are completely different people and if left to our own devices would never see eye-to-eye on anything! I’ve also broached the topic at work, which is a big step for me. I’m fortunate in my work that the community around me here is very family-oriented. They expected me to leave when the baby arrived and were surprised that I was insisting on returning within a month or two of the birth. Now that I’ve mentioned the possibility of not returning they feel back on solid ground once more and are supportive. They don’t want me to go, of course, but they certainly don’t want me to stay if it means jeopardizing my ever-expanding family.
I’ve also started to ‘interview’ friends from every spectrum of life on how they ‘did it’; how they stayed at home with their children and made it work. For the most part, again, the issue comes down to money. Making it, keeping it and not spending it unless absolutely necessary. Looking at our monthly expenditures I think what we really need to focus on right now is cutting our bills down as much as possible. For us, that seems to mean non-fixed bills. Fixed bills, like hydro, can’t be changed.
This month I’m tackling groceries. What do I buy, what do I waste, what do I make every day? Can I make anything healthier, cheaper, etc.? This morning was a great start to this; we finished off the last of the milk and oats in preparation for our shopping trip (we go to the store every one to two weeks) and I thought "what better day to start"? Tonight I’ll post what we bought and what we’re planning to make from it.
I cannot stop thinking, night and day, about whether our family can manage with me at home, and whether they could manage without me at home. The lists of respective pros and cons are getting extensive, although so far they exist only in my own mind. The money, of course, is the big one. Oh, to live in a society where money was not the over-riding all consuming problem, goal and blessing that it is here! To live in paradise!
Because, to be frank, if the money wasn’t an issue then every other issue would be insignificant. They would pale in comparison to the big pro side of the list; a parent at home for our two children, a cleaner house, healthier food, more serenity in our days...theoretically, of course. As healthy and clean and serene as a home can be with two toddlers in it!
I have taken the first steps, though. David and I have started to talk about it. We see eye-to-eye on the issue, for which I can only thank God because as two individuals my husband and I are completely different people and if left to our own devices would never see eye-to-eye on anything! I’ve also broached the topic at work, which is a big step for me. I’m fortunate in my work that the community around me here is very family-oriented. They expected me to leave when the baby arrived and were surprised that I was insisting on returning within a month or two of the birth. Now that I’ve mentioned the possibility of not returning they feel back on solid ground once more and are supportive. They don’t want me to go, of course, but they certainly don’t want me to stay if it means jeopardizing my ever-expanding family.
I’ve also started to ‘interview’ friends from every spectrum of life on how they ‘did it’; how they stayed at home with their children and made it work. For the most part, again, the issue comes down to money. Making it, keeping it and not spending it unless absolutely necessary. Looking at our monthly expenditures I think what we really need to focus on right now is cutting our bills down as much as possible. For us, that seems to mean non-fixed bills. Fixed bills, like hydro, can’t be changed.
This month I’m tackling groceries. What do I buy, what do I waste, what do I make every day? Can I make anything healthier, cheaper, etc.? This morning was a great start to this; we finished off the last of the milk and oats in preparation for our shopping trip (we go to the store every one to two weeks) and I thought "what better day to start"? Tonight I’ll post what we bought and what we’re planning to make from it.
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