A Guy, a Girl, and a Dinner Plate

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Project: Food Budget: Week 2

Budget: 70$

Actual Spent: 65.85$

Bought:

Chicken bites
2 frozen meals
Butter
Dried pinto beans
2 coconut waters
Salsa
Enchilada sauce
tuna
Linguini
Mac & cheese
Red bell pepper
Cornbread mix
Fresh jalapeno
Yellow onion
Sweet potato
Broccoli slaw mix
1 head of Romaine
Peanut butter cookies (from the bakery)
Eggs (1 1/2 dozen)
Bread
Chips (tortilla and Sun Chips)

We did it! We stayed under budget! Of course, we only bought food for 6 days this week, but we didn't eat either of the frozen meals we bought so we'll have those around for some other time.

CSA: We missed our work share again this week because we were sick. :( Our Farmer Marie says we might start getting shares again as soon as two weeks from now. Yay!

Meals made:

Chicken bites and guacamole on salad
Beans & cornbread
Enchilada meatloaf: from Healthy Meals for Less
Leftovers from last week: Risi e bisi, sandwich stuff, and rice & bean salad

What we learned:

1. It can be done. We can come in under this new budget.
2. It helps if your mom buys some of your food, so go visit! :)

For more details on Project: Food Budget, click here.

Participating blogs:

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Project: Food Budget: Week 1

Budget: 50$

Actual Spent: 122.50$

Holy moly! We spend over twice our budget!

Here's our week this week:

Bought:

bananas
kiwis
mango
an apple (for the sole purpose of ripening avocados)
2 oranges
2 lemons
3 avocados
2 heads of Romaine
red bell pepper
beets and beet greens (~1 lb)
celery
5 tomatoes
2 yellow onions
a red onion
parsley
cilantro
a bag of frozen peas
a gallon of milk
2 bags of Parmesan cheese
tomato pastes
tomato sauces
red wine vinegar
dijon mustard
2 small bags of Arborio rice
Frank's hot sauce
coffee
2 Jellos
a box of cereal
2 bags of turkey deli meat (the extremely cheap kind)
hamburger buns
HealthNut bread
2 2-liters of Diet Pepsi
12-pack of diet ginger ale
Frozen pineapple juice
2 Ben & Jerry's ice cream pints
Frozen meal (Chicken Florentine)
2 frozen pizzas
2 packets of lettuce seed

No wonder we spent twice as much as we intended. This list doesn't even include the 31$ worth of paper goods and cleaning supplies that we bought. It also doesn't include the ground beef, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and such that we already had.

It does include the lettuce seed that we planted with potting mix we already had. I'm hoping to keep a cherry tomato plant or two, a couple sweet pepper plants, and lots of lettuce on our porch to help supplement our groceries. We spend way too much on lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers, and have had great success with growing our own.

CSA: We didn't have any CSA pick up this week. Technically we still spend our money on the CSA though. 200$ divided by 18 weeks works out to 11.11$ per week. We have a separate budget for our CSA money, so it doesn't come out of our food budget.

Meals made:

Migas: leftover bell peppers and onions, scrambled eggs, and corn tortillas.
Hamburgers
Spaghetti & salad
Rice and bean salad: from How It All Vegan
Raw beet salad: from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian
Simple meat and potatoes: ground beef, steamed potatoes, Italian or Tex-Mex spices, cheese, and sometimes sour cream and/or ketchup.
Risi e bisi: from Emily Levenson
Parmesan-crusted veg sammies: from How It All Vegan (except we added turkey)
3 frozen meals (pizza and chicken Florentine)

What we learned:

Right now, 50$ a week is too tight of a weekly budget for food. It's a goal for the future but it's going to take some work to get down to it. Next week we'll try for 75$ instead of 50$.
Especially with only 50$ budgeted, it's (at this juncture) unlikely that we can afford our grocery store miscellany (toiletries, et al.) in that same budget category. For now, we won't count those items in our food budget.
It's even more important than we realized that we successfully budget our food spending (and stick to that budget!) because, while 100$ a week may be fine for some families, it is not sustainable for ours.

For more details on Project: Food Budget, click here.

Participating blogs:

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Raw Beet Salad

from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Recipe

The only drawback to this recipe is that my hands, kitchen, and cats were all temporarily dyed red. (Long story about the cats! Everything cleaned up easily with minimal fuss.)

This salad is quick to make, extremely nutritious, and exceptionally delicious.

I made this dish early on in the week, so we could eat it as a side dish or snack whenever we wanted it. I still can't believe how easy it was to make! Just shred the beets on the cheese grater, dice the onion, and mix with the dressing. Ta da!

Don't forget the beet greens either. You can serve this salad on a bed of raw beet greens or save them later for braising (a great side dish for beef).

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Project: Food Budget

Introducing:

A fantastic group of bloggers working toward staying on budget with their groceries. Right up our alley! (Get the details here.)

Guy and I aren't fantastic at staying on budget, but we try to plan meals ahead of time and cook at home. It's just too easy to pick up a frozen pizza and some mac 'n' cheese too or to blow our budget on beer.

Here's our plan: We split our week up into two grocery trips. One on Thursdays and one on Sundays, each with a 25$ budget. We include all our other household miscellany (e.g. toiletries, cleaning supplies, toilet paper) in this budget with the exception of pet supplies.

Each Thursday, I'll post about whether we stayed on budget, what we've been eating, and maybe some recipes. Of course, I'll also be including our CSA food into our meal plans and budgeting.

If you'd like to start reading posts from people already started on Project: Food Budget, please see the links below.

Participating blogs:

Saturday, February 19, 2011

CSA haul #8

Finally! We got a call from Marie asking us to come out to work on the farm. We went out early Friday morning. The temperature was perfect, a breeze was blowing, and the sun was shining down on us. With the help of one of our other CSA members, the four of us pulled up row covers and drip tape and gleaned what we could from the rows of carrots and radishes that didn't really make it because of the crazy ice storms we had. Once we had prepared the rows, a tractor tilled them up for us, so now they're ready for planting!

Marie told of us some of her plans for what's to come and we couldn't be more excited. Plus, even though there isn't enough for shares yet, those of us that were working got to take home an armful of goodies.

Pictured above (top, anticlockwise): a variety of carrots, turnips, two red radishes, a diakon radish, and some mustard greens.

The turnips, daikon, and some of the carrots are destined to become fish stew this week. The rest of the carrots, radishes, and some greens will be showing up in salads. The rest of the greens will be sauteed and eaten with salmon and asparagus tonight. We love our CSA and are so excited to get a little taste of what's to come this season!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Coming Soon...

Any day now, Guy and I expect to hear from our favorite farmer, Marie, calling us back to work on the farm. Maybe even as soon as next weekend!

To be frank, Guy and I chose to do the work share because it would be extremely difficult for us to afford 400$ three times a year for farm-fresh food. Our budget is really tight even just paying half that. We figured helping out on the farm would also allow us to assess our ability as gardeners and learn a lot about when and what to plant each season, preparing us for the the future when we can have a little land of our own. We also thought it would be kind of fun.

But I never expected to enjoy it as much as I do. I can hardly wait to get my hands back in that soil, pulling weeds or planting seeds.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Three Weeks and Counting...

It's been so long since we've been out to the farm and we miss it terribly.

Marie offered to let any of us sharers come out to the farm, even though it's not required at the moment, and we just might take her up on that. It's amazing how quickly we got addicted to getting our hands dirty and being a part of the growing process.