Sunday, 11/20: Tree Trimming Party

Doris was sick a lot last week and I fell behind with my postings so I'm starting over with a new week. We trimmed our tree early this year so that we would have time to enjoy it since we are spending so much time in FL. Everyone thinks we're crazy, but really we're not. We invited Michael and Nancy and the girls over and I made a big pot of chili. We're saving the leftovers to eat when we return from our trip next Monday. I used two boxes of Fantastic Food Vegetarian Chili mix and added my secret ingredients (kidney beans, black beans, and salsa). Extra beans makes this dish extra farty.

I served it with hot sauce, monterey jack cheese, corn bread, crackers, and clementines. Doris wouldn't touch the chili but loved the corn bread. Jiffy mix for just 69 cents.

Karen made oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies using tollhouse dough. They are good but she uses too much cookie dough and it create massive cookies.

Chili mix: $4
Kidney beans: $2.58
Black beans: $2.58
Salsa: $6
Corn bread mix: $1.38
eggs: 50 cents
cheese: $2

Total: $19.04 ($3.81 per person)*

*Maggie and Thea don't count as people because they aren't allow to eat yet.

$11.43 for the just three of us and there are a ton of leftovers so not as bad as it seems.

Tuesday, 11/15: Sesame Broccoli

I found a sale on Gardein products at Safeway so I bought a new one - Mandarin Orange Chik'n. Easy and yummy. Definitely a winner. To go with it, I made Sesame Broccoli, and wow, that was amazing! I'm still thinking about it. And it was so easy. I really love sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds are so yummy. Definitely a keeper recipe. We used the frozen broccoli from Whole Foods and it tasted like fresh. Really good. I used one bag of broccoli and double the other ingredients.

Doris has been complaining about her tummy hurting for a few days so I let her eat yogurt and bananas for dinner. She really liked that and ate 2 of each.

Chik'n: $4
Broccoli: $2.29
Sesame seeds: 20 cents
Sesame oil: 30 cents
Soy sauce: 10 cents
rice: 50 cents
yogurt: $1.50
banana: $1.34

Total: $10.23 (3.41 per person)

Monday, 11/14: Mac & Cheese & broccoli

We had bought some Halloween themed Mac & cheese on clearance. Ghosts, bats, pumpkins. The boxes looked like normal boxes, but we learned something. There are a lot less noodles in themed mac & cheese than the regular boxes. I served it with frozen broccoli and mini corn dogs. Good meal but left us a it hungry since there wasn't enough mac & cheese to go around. Karen also ate a spicy chik'n patty to supplement.

Mac & cheese: 50 cents
broccoli: $1
corn dogs: $2.67
Chik'n patty: $1

Total: $5.17

I chose this to be a cheap and easy meal and it succeeded in that goal.

Sunday, 11/13: Indian Spiced Acorn Squash

I had lots of leftover curry and two small acorn squash in my fridge. Usually I make the acorn squash risotto recipe from my Fresh & Simple Vegetable Dinner cookbook. I like this cookbook because the recipes are fairly easy with few ingredients and they are usually pretty tasty. I've had bad luck with Doris eating risotto recently, so this time I turned the page to Indian Spiced Acorn Squash, and served it with the leftover curries (cabbage & pumpkin) and made some paneer with the leftover curry sauces that I've collected.

Doris only ate the paneer and Karen only liked the squash a little and really just liked the paneer. Neither of them touched the leftovers. Sometimes I'm just working hard and spending lots of money to make food for myself. I thought it was tasty at least. I subbed sesame seeds for pumpkin seeds to save money and I really liked the taste of the toasted sesame seeds. I'm a big sesame fan.

I hate how hard it is to peel acorn squash. That was definitely the worst part of this dish. I will only make squash when it comes in my CSA because it's required. It's just too much work.

CSA veggies: $2
spices: 50 cents
vegetable broth $2
dried cranberries: $1
banana: 67 cents
chutneys: 50 cents
paneer: $4
rice: 50 cents

Total: $10.87 ($3.62 per person)

Still high. It's a problem when you run out of CSA veggies. It wouldn't be bad if we could eat it for leftovers, but ....

Week 8 in Review

Sunday: Diwali celebration $16.14*
Monday: Leftovers $0
Tuesday: Cabbage $6.54**
Wednesday: Sesame Tofu $10.60
Thursday: Panang Tofu Curry $14.08
Friday: Breakfast $20.17
Saturday: Etete $40
*I'm just including the cost for the three of us so that there is a reasonable number here.
**Cheapest meal of the week

Total: $107.53 ($15.36 per day)

Ouch! So many things came together to make this a really expensive week - breakfast for dinner, 2 meals that no one liked so we couldn't eat them for leftovers, dinner out. We have to do better next week.

Saturday, 11/12: Etete

We met Sarah and her husband for dinner at Etete, a little restaurant in Little Ethiopian. Good Ethiopian food.

Total: $40 ($13.33 per person)

Friday, 11/11: Breakfast for dinner

Karen promised Doris breakfast for dinner on Friday. So we all dressed in our pajamas and had breakfast. I made trader joe's hashbrowns (you fry them up and I swear they taste just like McDonald's), scrambled eggs with cheese, danish pancakes from trader joes topped with honey and powdered sugar, one frozen waffle, an apple, frozen veggie sausage, veggie bacon, and some blackberries and raspberries. Doris had her favorite breakfast item - frozen pancakes still frozen. I'm guessing when I add this up, it will be an expensive meal.

Hashbrowns: $1.25
Eggs: 75 cents
cheese: 75 cents
danish pancakes: $2.67
waffle: 33 cents
apple: 75 cents
sausages: $2.67
facon: $4
berries: $7

Total: $20.17 ($6.72 per person)

!!! OMG. That is way too expensive. No more breakfast for dinner, or at least we scale it back.

Thursday, 11/10: Panang tofu curry

This is Doris' favorite dish. We get it frozen from Trader Joe's and it's all she ever talks about. And sometimes she's lucky and she gets it from a restaurant. So I attempted (and failed) at making it myself using this recipe. The sauce was too runny, the tofu too soft. I think the sauce was flavorful, but needed to be much, much thicker. And the tofu should have been fried before soaking in the sauce because this is just tofu mush. Add to it that Karen doesn't like cooked carrots and Doris says "Ew!" every time she sees a pepper (which she used to like mind you...) and this just did not work for my family. But I think I'll try again with a different recipe. Now that I know what's wrong with this one, I'll know what to watch out for.

Modifications - I used canned carrots because I didn't have fresh. I used a combination of lime and lemon juice because I didn't have lime leaves and the fresh limes at the grocery store were just a joke. Sometimes it's just horrible to have Safeway as our main grocery store. And I left out the ginger. Instead of hot chili paste, I used hot chili sauce - the kind with the rooster on it. I served it over basmati rice.

Rice: 50 cents
Shallots: 75 cents
Garlic: 30 cents
Peanut butter: 50 cents
Spices: 30 cents
Hot chili sauce: 20 cents
Coconut milk: $1.29
Lemon and Lime juice: 75 cents
Brown sugar: 20 cents
Tofu: $6
Carrots: $1.29
CSA veggies: $2

Total: $14.08 ($4.69 per person)

A lot of money to spend on a meal no one liked.

Wed 11/9: Sesame Tofu

I had high hopes for this dish. My attempt at reducing our dependence on fake meat and eating more tofu. It was a bit of a let down. The tofu was amazing. Best tofu I've ever made. It came out crisp and didn't stick to the pan and had a nice flavor. But the noodles were only 'eh' and the sauce was too much and there weren't enough vegetables. Or enough tofu, actually. Doris ate most of the tofu, leaving very little for us. I think we are a two blocks of tofu family now. This dish might actually be good if you double the veggies and tofu.

Instead of a red pepper, I used a small green pepper and four 'yummy orange peppers'. We've had the soba noodles in the pantry for a while so I was happy to finally use them up. I used white vinegar instead of rice vinegar to save money and reduce the number of items in the pantry. And of course, I left out the ginger. And once again no cilantro at Safeway, so I left this one out, though it certainly would have made it taste better.

Tofu: $4
Sesame oil: 30 cents
Soy sauce: 15 cents
Sesame seeds: 5 cents
Peanut butter: $1
Vinegar: 5 cents
Red pepper: 5 cents
Noodles: $1
CSA veggies: $2
Bok choy: $3

Total: $10.60 ($3.53 per person)

Borderline high. As we run out of CSA food, this cost will just inch right up, I'm sure of it.

Tuesday, 11/8: North Indian Spiced Cabbage

**Winner - cheapest meal of the week**

I had another half head of lettuce from our CSA and a bunch of random curry leftovers, so I attempted this dish again. This time I used a fresh new bag of garam masala and added two tomatoes. And just like last time, I left out the fennel and replaced the fennel seeds with more cumin seeds and left out the cayenne pepper since all that does is add heat but not flavor. It made for a really tasty dish. I like that this dish includes protein so I don't have to worry about adding something.

Doris chose to eat white rice and naan for dinner. She's much pickier when she's tired and she was tired last night, so I hope that's all this was about. But I do worry that she's turning into a picky eater. On Saturday she was so constipated she cried "It hurts!" while pooping, so it'd be nice if she'd eat some vegetables with dinner.

Onion: 75 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Chick peas: $1.29
Tomatoes: $2
Spices: 50 cents

Total: $6.54 ($2.18 per person)

Our CSA ends in two weeks. I'm worried about our meal costs sky rocketing.

Monday 11/7: Leftovers

All leftovers. Free and easy meal.

Sunday, 11/6: Diwali celebration

Our final Diwali celebration. We had 9 adults and 4 toddlers for a Diwali puja and feast. It was a great time. I'm not sure I can guess how much we spent but I'm sure it blows our weekly budget. Our menu is below:

Appetizers
Poppudums
Samosas
4 kinds of chutneys - mint/cilantro, tamarind, mango, and homemade (Karen's mom) lemon pepper

Dinner
Naan
Rice
Potatoes Suki-bhaji
Chole
Pumpkin
Paneer Jalfreezi
Eggplant Bharta

Dessert
Jalebi cupcakes
Jalebi
Kaju rolls
Gulab Jamun
Apple crisp
Kefir (rice pudding)
Mangoes

We bought most food but some was brought by others. The Kaju rolls were a gift from Karen's boss, the Gulab Jamun was brought by Andrea and Corita, Apple Crisp was brought by Raiyan's family, and the mangoes were brought by Eli. I guess we bought everything else.

The dinners were mostly recipes from the Indian cooking classes I took a few years ago. I doubled all recipes. At first I was going to make 4 dishes, but Karen got nervous about having enough food, so I added the potato recipe because I had all of the ingredients. These recipes are hard copies from the class that I've scanned in. I'll try to add all recipes here but for now I'm only able to add the eggplant recipe. The pumpkin recipe has been posted on here previously.

The paneer jalfreezi is just paneer (2 blocks) with 4 bell peppers and some jar sauce. I also added one hot pepper for flavor because I had it from the CSA I bought the Jalfreezi sauce this time and it was really yummy. Definitely one of the best that I've made.

For the chole, I needed 2 onions but only had one left. So I used one red onion and 4 leeks. I also added one extra tomato for more sauce. I thought I had the amchoor powder that was called for, but I didn't. I found that tamarind and lime juice are good substitutes, so I added some tamarind chutney and lime juice to the dish.

I added two hot peppers to the potato suki-bhaji because I had them from the CSA and thought it might be nice. I served the potatoes cold like a potato salad but served all of the other dishes hot.

I topped everything with a little bit of cilantro. I couldn't find cilantro at safeway so I had to use the little half bag that was from our CSA. I definitely would have preferred more cilantro.

I was able to use a lot of CSA veggies to keep the ingredients fresh and the costs down. I had onions, peppers (bell and hot), leeks, potatoes, cilantro, and some tomatoes.

I used vast amounts of tomatoes. These dishes are very heavy on the tomatoes. I used 12 tomatoes and half a pint of cherry tomatoes. I also used 6 bell peppers and 5-6 onions. I guess it's just a lot of food that I made.

We have lots of leftovers so tonight's dinner is free and easy.

Poppudums: $4
Samosas: $2
Chutneys: $2.25
Naan: $8
Rice: $1
CSA veggies: $2
Spices: $3
Chick peas: $2.58
Tomatoes: $8
Pumpkin: $4
Garlic: 50 cents
Paneer: $10
Jalfreezi Sauce: $3
Eggplant: $6
Jalebi: $8
Cupcakes: $3
Kefir: $3

Total: $70.33 ($5.38 per person)

That's like one week's entire budget. But it was a party and served 13 people, so not bad. Really, pretty good. $16.14 for just our family.

Week 7 Review

Sunday: Old Town Pizza $25
Monday: Halloween $2
Tuesday: Pizza $2
Wednesday: Sweet Potatoes $5.75*
Thursday: Fried Rice $7.38
Friday: Nando's $10
Saturday: Boston Market $21
*cheapest meal of the week

Total: $73.13 ($10.45 per day)

A high one. 3 meals out in one week is a lot.

Saturday, 11/5: Boston Market

We needed fast food because we were on our way to the auction. But Doris was so constipated. That morning she cried "It hurts!" while pooping. My poor, poor baby. So we wanted a veggie filled meal. We ended up at Boston Market. Doris got the kids meal - mac & cheese, corn bread, a fountain drink, and one side. She chose apples. Then Karen and I each got the three sides meal and shared our food with Doris. Karen got mac & cheese, creamed spinach, and green beans. I got mac & cheese, sweet potatoes, and corn. Doris shared the corn and green beans. Doris was the only one to get a drink so we all enjoyed her yummy orange soda, which she loves because it tickles her tongue.

Total: $21 ($7 per person)

Friday, 11/4: Date Night

Doris went to Olivia's for the night and Karen and I had the night to ourselves. We had a Groupon for Nando's so we went there. Karen had a veggie burger and fries, and I had hummus & pita, fries, and a roasted butternut squash salad. Of course every thing was spiced with Peri-peri seasoning. It was yummy and the whole thing only cost $10. I love Groupon. It was crazy how long the line is. People really like that restaurant.

Total: $10 ($5 per person)

Thursday, 11/2: Fried Rice

Fried Rice is a staple in our home. A wonderful kitchen cleaner. At least it was a staple until Karen declared that she was over Chinese food. But we haven't been to the grocery store this week and I needed something to cook, so I quietly made it hoping that Karen would eat it. She said "Nice meal, Mommy." I reminded her that she was over Chinese food and she said that she was over being over Chinese food. She's like that. Hard to keep up with what to feed her.

I had some leftover Basmati rice. I cooked up a green bell pepper and about 4 small "yummy" orange peppers and some garlic. I found half a bag of frozen "Asian stir fry veggies" and half a bag of frozen edamame and added those. And I scrambled three eggs with a bit of soy sauce. Mixed it all together with a bit of teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, white vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil. Very yummy indeed. And lots of leftovers, which is always great.

CSA Veggies: $2

Frozen veggies: $1.50

Edamame: $2

Eggs: 88 cents

seasonings: $1

Total: $7.38 ($2.46 per person)

Wed 11/1: Sweet Potatoes

**Winner - Cheapest Meal of the Week**

BBQ Quorn cutlets, sweet potatoes, salad (fall mix, pear, walnuts, and 2 cherry tomatoes added by Doris, raspberry walnut dressing).

Cutlets: $3
CSA veggies: $2
Pear: 75 cents

Total: $5.75 ($1.92 per person)

Tuesday, 11/1: Pizza

We flew home early in the morning and went straight to work. We were so exhausted and couldn't even think of what to eat. So it was a nice surprise to get a text from Michael that he was going to leave a Whole Foods pizza outside our door. They are buy one get one on Tuesdays and Michael buys it every week. We came home to a Caresse pizza. I made some broccoli with butter to go with it so that we got at least one green thing. I thought Doris would go crazy for the broccoli but she just wanted the butter, which I didn't let her have.

Total: $2 (for the CSA veggies)

Monday 10/31: Happy Halloween!

Leila made dinner. Doris said she wanted curry so Leila went all out. Doris didn't actually eat anything. Kids. I think she was on a candy high. Leila made pumpkin, green bean & potato, dal, roti, rice, and mango. Doris kept asking for mangoes, so we served it as a side dish. However, Leila salted the mango and Doris took one bite and said "I don't like mangoes." She said she was all done but I told her that she couldn't have anymore candy unless she ate something else. I pulled some leftover Chinese broccoli out of the fridge and she ate that to satisfy me. See, Mommy, I ate something.

The nice thing about Halloween in another home is that I think Doris doesn't know that we have candy. She hasn't asked for it since we got home.

Total: $2 (I paid for the pumpkin)

Sunday 10/30: Old Town

We went to Old Town for the afternoon as a consolation for a failed attempt at Disney. It was also a bust. The rides were mostly for kids taller than Doris. The place was just weird. But we stuck around because they were doing trick or treating. We went to a pizza place for dinner because Doris said "Pizza!" Now she is pizza crazy. But actually, she ordered the kids pasta meal. We ordered a pizza meal to share - Neapolitan pizza with portabella mushrooms and kalamata olives and the best breadsticks I've ever had.

Total: $25 ($6.25 per person)

Week 6 in Review

Sunday: Sweet Potatoes $5.10 *
Monday: Spaghetti $5.30 *
Tuesday: Salad $6.98
Wednesday: Diwali $12.79
Thursday: Frozen Pizza $4.50 **
Friday: Birthday Party $0
Saturday: Temple $0

Total: $34.67 ($4.95 per day)

Pretty cheap week but this travel is killing us financially. $3000 and growing.

*based on estimates that include Karen
**cheapest meal of the week

Saturday 10/29: Happy Diwali!

We celebrated Diwali by visiting the Hindu Temple. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the food area, they were almost out of food. We were the last ones served before they shut down. They gave us dal and idli and bottles of water and then shut the door. Total for all five of us was $19 but Robert paid for it, so really it was free. The food was pretty good but I would have liked to have tried the other options.

Friday 10/28: Dane's Birthday Party

We arrived at Grandma's to a house full of people. Dolly & the boys were visiting to celebrate Dane's birthday. Dolly made the food. Veggie chili, pasta salad, salad, texas toast. Not the best meal ever, but it filled our tummies. Dessert was cheesecake, and that was yummy. It was the kind with 16 different slices with 16 different flavors. We ate cheesecake all weekend. Leila was trying to push her homemade cheesecake but seriously?

Total: $0 (but we had another trip to FL to pay for)

Thursday, 10/27: Frozen Pizza

**Winner: Cheapest meal of the week**

We're leaving for another trip to FL. In an effort to minimize the mess in the kitchen, I made frozen pizza for dinner. It was Giant brand 4 cheese pizza and it was pretty good. To make it a bit healthier, I also made fruit salad with mangoes leftover from Diwali, an apple that Karen brought home from her trip and Doris took two small bites out of, a peach and a pear.

It was a success. We all ate lots of fruit, practically finishing the fruit salad. There is one piece of pizza left for Doris to have for lunch.

Pizza: $3
Peach: 75 cents
Pear: 75 cents

Total: $4.50 ($1.50 per person)

Wed 10/26: Happy Diwali!

Last night we celebrated Diwali. Karen actually spent the afternoon at school celebrating Diwali with Doris' class. She made luminaries with them, read Mama's Sari's, talked to them about Diwali, put Bindi on their foreheads, and gave them snack. Snack was poppudums, sweet mango chutney, mangoes, and moong burfey. Surprisingly, Karen said they really liked the snack and came back for seconds and sometimes thirds. Of course the mangoes were the biggest hits. Karen bought frozen mangoes which were cheaper than fresh. We were surprised at how good they were.

For our Diwali dinner, I wanted to make something quick since this is not our only Diwali celebration. On Saturday in FL we are going to a Hindu temple to celebrate and there will even be fireworks. Then next weekend we are hosting a Diwali celebration in our home. So this was just a small Diwali celebration.

I made paneer jalfreezi. I will keep making this as long as my CSA keeps bringing bell peppers. I think we still have two left. This time I made it with one green bell pepper, one package of paneer, one can of diced tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, and a chana masala spice mix.

I warmed up a package of Trader Joe's spiced soy beans. Trader Joe's actually makes some yummy Indian food and it's quite cheap. This pack was only 99 cents. I also warmed up some Trader Joe's naan and some leftover basmati rice. We ate it with leftover poppudums and a variety of chutneys.

For dessert, Karen made Halloween cupcakes. We also served leftover mangoes and moong burfee from Doris' school day. A nice beginning Diwali celebration.

Spiced soybeans: $1
Paneer: $4
Tomatoes: 89 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Spices: 40 cents
Naan: $1.50
Cupcakes: $3

Total: $12.79 ($4.26 per person)

A little high but it's a holiday and included dessert, so not bad.

Tuesday, 10/25: Salad

, We were very happy to have Karen home for dinner. Everything is right again. We got along okay without her, but everything is better with her.

Another kitchen cleaner favorite of mine is salad for dinner. If you have the right vegetables, this is a very healthy way to clean out your fridge. I had to stop at Target on the way home from work, so while there I picked up some Texas Toast. This used to be a staple in our home. It's seriously the yummiest frozen bread there is. For the salad, I used fall mix lettuce, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and a granny smith apple. I sauteed a Quorn chick'n cutlet with BBQ sauce and added that as well. It was topped with raspberry walnut salad dressing from my work.

Doris loved the bread. She's not a bread eater, but she loved this one. After just one bite, she laid claim to the rest of the bread on the table. "I'm going to eat it all so don't eat it, alright?" She made a sandwich of olives and bread and ate it that way. Karen snuck a piece and when I tried to, she started crying. "I'm eating that. You don't eat it!" After dinner Karen and I finished what she had left on her plate.

Doris also liked the salad. She ate everything but the lettuce and asked for more. Who doesn't like fruit for dinner, so that makes since, but it's crazy what an olive lover she is.

I forgot to add cheese. Karen has told me many times that a salad absolutely must have cheese. But this time I forgot and she didn't say anything. I may forget more often because it's healthier this way.

CSA veggies: $2
Olives: $3
Apple: 75 cents
Bread: $1.23

Total: $6.98 ($2.33 per person)

Monday 10/24: Spaghetti

Another night with just Doris and I. We can't wait for Karen to come home tonight. Last night we had spaghetti. We had some leftover crumbles from taco night last week, which I sauteed and mixed with some jarred marinara and served it with fettuccine, topped with cheddar cheese. Doris also requested canned pumpkin after we gave some to Angel. Doris really loves that stuff. It was a tasty meal and we all loved it.

Pasta: 40 cents
Marinara: $1
Crumbles: $2
Pumpkin: 40 cents

Total: $3.80 ($1.90 per person)

With Karen it would have been a bit more - $5.30 maybe? ($1.77 per person)

Sunday, 10/23: Sweet Potatoes!

Karen's traveling so it's just Doris and I for dinner. Doris had a late nap so I had the luxury of making food while she was sleeping. We got these massive sweet potatoes from our CSA. When Doris was a baby she gobbled up sweet potatoes but now they are only okay to her. I thought I would give it a try anyway. I baked one very large sweet potato in our toaster oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. It was perfect inside. When Doris woke up, I sauteed a Quorn Chick'n Cutlet in a frying pan with a bit of oil. After it turned brown, I spread on BBQ sauce on each side and let it cook a bit before serving. Last night's leftover mac & cheese and broccoli were served as side dishes.

Doris ate a lot of mac & cheese and broccoli while "helping" me cook, so she didn't eat much for dinner. I told her about how she loved sweet potatoes as a baby to get her interested in the sweet potatoes, which certainly helped a bit. I thought it was a tasty meal and easy enough to prepare.

CSA veggies: $2
cutlets: $2
BBQ: 10 cents

Total: $4.10 ($2.05 per person) *

*Would be $5.10 ($1.07 per person) if Karen were home.

Week 5 in Review

Sunday: Ledo's Pizza $9
Monday: Burrito Bowl $13.75
Tuesday: Burrito Bowl Redux 75 cents
Wednesday: Butternut Squash Risotto $14.50
Thursday: Leftovers $6
Friday: Cabbage Curry $10.25
Saturday: Mac & Cheese $3.60*

Total: $57.85 ($8.26 per day)

*cheapest meal of the week

Pretty good week considering some really high meals in there. I have to say I'm impressed at how cheaply we eat.

Saturday 10/22: Babysitting

**Winner: Cheapest meal of the Week**

I was babysitting Reia and I needed an easy, kid-friendly meal, so of course I thought of Mac & Cheese - every kids favorite. I also served broccoli which we had just gotten from our CSA. Reia loved the mac & cheese and Doris was mostly too distracted to eat.

Mac & cheese: 80 cents
Milk: 50 cents
Butter: 30 cents
CSA veggies: $2

Total: $3.60 ($1.20 per person)

Friday 10/21: North Indian Spiced Cabbage

We had half a head of cabbage from our CSA. We're not big cabbage fans, so I looked for something interesting to do with it and found this recipe. It's actually a Vegetarian Times recipe, but the link from Vegetarian Times seems to be broken.

It was a pretty good recipe. I like the combination of cabbage and chick peas. We left out the fennel and used cumin seeds instead of fennel seeds because I hate fennel. It tastes like licorice. The problem was that it was bland, but that's a problem with my spices. I found that the back that I keep my garam masala was slashed which means it probably lost it's potency. Otherwise, I think it would have been very tasty. I also left out the cayenne pepper but it may have been necessary. Karen said she would have liked it with more sauce, which I think just means add some tomato.

I also made paneer jalfreezi with red pepper. I didn't have any curry sauce, so I used some Chana Masala spice mix that Leila had left. It was supposed to be mixed with tomato puree but I just used one tomato instead. It was really nice with just the right amount of wetness and seasoning. I also served rice and naan.

Karen was very impressed as what I was able to whip up after work. I was pretty impressed too. Doris loved the paneer, of course, but hated the red pepper. She assumed all of the red was pepper, though much of it was tomato. She would meticulously pick off all of the red and if a pepper got in her mouth, she would spit it out and say "Ew!"

Seasonings: 50 cents
Onion: 75 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Chick peas: $1
Paneer: $4
Naan: $1.50
Rice: 50 cents

Total: $10.25 ($3.42 per person)

Borderline high.

Thursday, 10/20: Leftovers

We have a lot of risotto left. I warmed up some veggie nuggets and made a salad of cucumbers and arugula. The salad had a really nice flavor.

CSA veggies: $2

veggie nuggets: $4

Total: $6 ($2 per person)

Butternut Squash Risotto

We have this problem that whenever Karen tastes someone else's butternut squash dish, she loves it. But when I make it, it's always too bland. But I keep trying. When we were in Lewes, Andrea made butternut squash risotto and Karen loved it. When I got a butternut squash from the CSA, I thought we should give it a try.

I found this recipe. I takes about an hour to make but I got home at a good time yesterday and Karen was planning to come home late, so it worked out okay. It would have worked even better if Doris hadn't had a pee accident in the middle of it.

Doris likes to try new foods while I'm cooking and last night she was really enjoying raw butternut squash. She doesn't like cook with me anymore because she's scared of the blue fire. I'm not sure what happened, but one day she just stopped and said she was scared. I hope she starts again soon because I really enjoyed that time.

I altered the recipe by using Apple Cider instead of wine because it's fall and I have a huge jug of apple cider in the fridge. And we are out of parmesan cheese so I used cheddar. The aborro rice I have had in our pantry for years so it was nice to finally use it up. And I forgot to add the chives which I actually did buy. The dish tasted great and Karen actually said she liked it, so finally, a butternut squash recipe that she likes. It makes a lot, so we are having leftovers tonight. Maybe I'll add the chives tonight.

I made fried veggies to go with it. The inspiration was the green tomato that I had, but I added eggplant and zucchini. I dipped each in egg and then bread crumbs and then fried it. The zucchini and eggplant tasted great but the tomato was soggy. I think the trick with tomatoes is to only cook for a few seconds and maybe to cut thick slices. But as a first effort at fried veggies, pretty good.

I also made Quorn veggie nuggets. All in all it was a heavy meal. When I make the leftovers tonight, just a simple salad or sauteed veggies will probably be in order.

Broth: $3
Butter: 20 cents
Onion: 75 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Rice: 75 cents*
Apple cider: 50 cents
Cheese: $1.50
Bread crumbs: 75 cents
Eggs: 75 cents
Veggie nuggets: $4

Total: $14.50 ($4.83 per person)

*Does the rice even count if I've had it for years?

Another big one. But it has leftovers, so another cheap meal tomorrow. I think it will work out okay.

Tuesday, 10/18: Burrito Bowl Redux

Lots and lots of leftover burrito bowl. Worked out well because I had a 30 minute conversation with the director of Doris' daycare, so I got home late. My favorite thing to do with burrito bowl leftovers is to put them in a tortilla, cold, with some pepper sauce. I had some leftover corn and black beans which I saved for Doris. She put those in a tortilla and asked me to roll it up for her. Then she used her sweet little hands to eat her burrito. So sweet.

Tortillas: 75 cents

Total: 75 cents (25 cents per person)

Monday 10/17: Burrito Bowl

Karen loves the burrito bowl from Chipotle, so it's always a favorite when I make it at home. I always make a really big batch, not intentionally but because it just happens that way. It's basically a layered salad with the follow layers:

Rice
Cilantro
Onion, Green pepper, & garlic sauteed with cumin and chili powder
Black beans & corn simmered with cumin and chili powder
cheddar cheese
fresh salsa
lettuce
chopped avocado
Lime juice & pepper sauce sprinkled on top

It's a tasty dish and there is always enough for another meal. Doris liked the black beans, corn, and avocados, but left the rest. Another meal that doesn't require fake meat, so that's always nice.

Rice: 50 cents
Cilantro: $1
Onion: 50 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Black beans: 89 cents
Corn: 89 cents
Cheese: $1.50
Salsa: $2
Avocado $4
Sauces, juices, and seasonings: 50 cents

Total: $13.78 ($4.59 per person)

That's a big one. Luckily there are leftovers so tonight's meal will be free to balance it out.

Sunday, 10/16: Ledo's Pizza

We had a great fall day. The weather was beautiful. Karen and Doris spent the morning at the park playing tennis but rushed back home and said "We want to go back!" Doris wanted to skate at the skate park. So we packed a picnic lunch and went back with Doris' skate board. She really wanted to skate at the park with the big kids but we convinced her to skate at the basketball court instead. Then off to Jolee's birthday party at the Little Gym followed by a quick trip to the Halloween Train at Cabin John. We had to squeeze it in where we could, so we did a late night. And we still hadn't had dinner yet.

We stopped for dinner at Ledo's Pizza. Doris usually orders from the kids menu - either cheese tortillini or mac & cheese. But this time she only wanted pizza. So we order the medium cheese pizza and ate the whole thing. What a great place to have dinner - only $9! So cheap and so tasty. Not exactly healthy... but what can you do. We all loved it. And it's such a cheap meal that it's just as cheap as eating at home.

Total: $9 ($3 each)

Week 4 in Review

Sunday: Grandma & Grandpa's house - Free*
Monday: Soup - $4
Tuesday: Pasta - $7.77
Wednesday: Curry - $11.69
Thursday: Tacos - $12.58
Friday: Pepper Poppers - $6.50**
Sunday: Frozen Foods - $8
*but required a very expensive plane ride
**cheapest meal

Total: $50.54 ($7.22 per day)

Great week! Even with two expensive meals in there, we still came way under budget. Best week yet.

Saturday 10/15: Frozen Food

Karen had an all day forum so I was with Doris most of the day. She had a late nap and didn't wake up until around 4pm. It was a beautiful day so we rushed off to the playground when she woke up. The playground was packed, but slowly people started going home. Doris asked where everyone went, and I said that they probably went home for dinner. Then I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she yelled "Curry!" Of course, curry. It's always curry. The white woman pushing her daughter on the swing next to us said surprised "Curry?" but when I gave her a look, she quickly said "Oh, that sounds nice." Geez, people, don't turn my daughter into a picky eater.

So I gave Doris frozen Paneer Tikka Masala from Trader Joe's and leftover pumpkin curry. Then when Karen got home, she and I ate a frozen thin crust margarita pizza and Karen had a caramel apple. Not the best dinner ever, but it got the job done.

Tikka Masala: $4
Pizza: $3
Apple: $1

Total: $8

Pepper Poppers

**Winner: Cheapest meal of the week***

I had about 10 small orange "yummy" peppers and wasn't sure what to do with them. The farm suggested Pepper Poppers, so I gave it a try. I used Tofurkey turkey slices instead of ham because they didn't have ham at the store. Karen saw what I was making and turned up her nose. But when she tried it, she actually thought it was quite nice. Doris didn't want to try it so I gave her the tofurkey slices plain and she ate two of those.

I served it with tomato and English cucumber salad with cilantro and raspberry vinaigrette (leftovers from work) and some leftover tomato soup. Nice meal and pretty simple.

CSA veggies: $2
Cream cheese: 75 cents
Tofurkey slices: $3
Cilantro: 75 cents


Total: $6.50

Taco Night

This is always a fun one. Put a bunch of bowls on the table and let everyone serve themselves. Doris keeps serving herself more and more until I tell her to stop or she licks the serving spoon clean. And of course, a big mess.

We like double decker tacos. I learned about these when I was a Taco Bell eater (and a meat eater) in college. It's a flour tortilla with refried beans spread on it and then a hard taco shell inside. Then random taco fillings inside. We used refried black beans, which are much tastier than the pinto bean kind but hard to find. I was lucky at the grocery store last night. Doris eats them by the spoonful right out of the bowl... Taco filling was burger crumbles seasoned with cumin and chili powder, organic mild sharp cheddar cheese, fresh salsa, guacamole (two avocados mashed with lime juice), and pepper sauce. Doris learned to eat a taco (tilt your head and take a bite). We've got a video of her building her taco and another of her eating it.

Shells and tortillas: $2.69
Beans: 89 cents
crumbles: $2
cheese: $1.50
salsa: $1
avocados: $4
lime juice, pepper sauce, & spices: 50 cents

Total: $12.58 ($4.19 per person)

Expensive and I blame the avocados. They are really tasty but way too much money.

Paneer Jalfreezi and Pumpkin Curry

I was planning to take Doris to the grocery store but by the time we left her school, it was already 5:30. I had already asked Karen to stop in at Whole Foods for some naan since I don't think they carry that at Giant, so I just called her and added onion and cloves to the list and I had what I needed for curry dinner.

For the Paneer Jalfreezi, I went the simple route. I stir fried a block of paneer, removed it from the pan, then stir fried a very large red bell pepper. Mixed the two together and added my leftover curry sauce. This is the leftover from every other curry we eat - be it homemade, frozen, or restaurant. It is a combination of Indian and Thai curries. Every time it's different and every time it's delicious. This was one of the best. Now I'm out and it will take me a while to save up again but it's so totally worth is since the good curry sauces aren't cheap.

For the Pumpkin Curry, I used this recipe. This is very similar to the curry that Karen's mom makes. My shortcut is to use canned pumpkin, which makes this an easy after work recipe. Leila actually peels a pumpkin, which I've done before but it is no fun and takes a lot longer to prepare.

We served both with naan, no rice needed. The two dishes tasted great together and Karen said she wanted to take it for lunch - a big complement because she never takes leftovers for lunch. Doris loved it. She's started to really like food inside bread. She took her naan and loaded it up with the two curries then asked me to roll it up like a burrito and ate it like such a big girl.

I'm always happy when I make a meal that doesn't require fake meat because I feel that we rely on that too much and I'm not sure what kind of message that sends Doris. You really can eat vegetarian food, and this proves it. I just need to do it more often.

Paneer: $4
CSA veggies: $2
Pumpkin: 89 cents
Onion: 50 cents
Spices: 20 cents
Garlic: 10 cents
Naan: $4

Total: $11.69 ($3.90 per person)

A little high on the budget but such a hit, so I guess it's worth it. If we buy our naan at Trader Joe's or the Indian store, it's much cheaper.

Tuesday, 10/11: Doris wants Pasta

I hadn't been to the grocery store, but while we were gone, Catherine & Dale brought by our CSA. So I opened it up to see what was inside and asked Doris what she wanted for dinner. Pasta she says. Okay then.

So I made fettucine with zucchini, onion, garlic, marinara, and Gardein Chick'n Strips. The gardein Chick'n strips are much more expensive than the Morningstar version, but I sent Karen to the store and this is what she came home with. It was a tasty enough meal considering I hadn't been to the store in a while.

Pasta: 50 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Garlic: 10 cents
Marinara: $1.17
Chick'n strips: $4

Total: $7.77 ($2.59 per person)

Monday 10/10: Free Soup!

We were exhausted when we got home on Monday around 2pm. After a quick lunch of veggie nuggets and fruit salad, we all took a nap. Part way into the nap there was a knock at the door. Michael had bought us some soup from Whole Foods to welcome us back. We really do have the best neighbors.

For dinner we ate the Roasted Corn & Poblano Chowder and the Tomato Bisque. Karen pulled out some frozen Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits that we had made when we had some leftover buttermilk. And then I served some spicy chick'n patties from Boca.

It was a fine meal. Not special but not bad either. Much better because it required little effort.

Spicy Chick'n Patties: $4

Total: $4 ($1.33 per person)

Sunda 10/9: Dinner with Grandma and Grandpa

Our world was thrown upside-down for about a week, which prompted cancelling plans and making an emergency trip to FL. Don't book tickets to FL less than a week in advance. We paid over $1300 to transfer and take little planes. Traveling to FL took us 10 hours! Things are calming down a bit which means I can get back to blogging.

Sunday's dinner was made by Grandma Leila. She's a bit of an odd cook. She's got the curries down but other meals seem to throw her for a loop. Robert wanted veggie burgers. They bought the kind of burgers we never eat - Morningstar Farms Garden Vegetable Patties. You could actually see the carrot in the patty. Then she said that she learned a trick from the woman at Publix - cook it slow with soy sauce and lemon pepper. She only have sliced processed white american cheese to top it with, and seemed to think it strange that we would want cheese on my burger. Then she wanted to mix up a concoction of mayo, mustard, and ketchup and put it on everyone bread for them. Thankfully, I stopped her before she did that, but then she didn't know what to do and wanted to squeeze ketchup on everyone's plate for them, which I also stopped her from doing. I convinced her that everyone likes to make their burger their own way. Robert bought the rolls and he is a bread lover, so they were quite fancy and delicious. But I did not enjoy the burger itself.

She also made french fries. I said that we could bake them but she said she likes them better fried. I do too, so I was happy with that. She cooked up some corn on the cob and served leftover salad.

Free (if you don't count the very expensive plane tickets)

Wed 9/28: Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage

Karen had this urging about a month ago. She wanted Italian Sausage sandwiches. Tofurkey sells Italian sausage that she's never cared much for in the past, but she had such an urging. She bought a four pack and ate one and then the urging past. And the Italian sausage sat in our fridge waiting to be eaten. So I decided to do something with it.

I found this recipe somewhere online and saved it to my email and now I can't find it again. Strange. It was pretty tasty and makes a lot so that I don't have to cook tonight. This was the goal since we need to clean tonight since Daifeng is coming over for babysitting. I pretty much followed the recipe except instead of dried seasonings I used fresh oregano and thyme from Andrea's garden.

I served it with a side of sauteed zuchini and tomatoes seasoned with garlic, oregano, and thyme. It was pretty good though Doris only ate the noodles and not the sausage.

Baked Ziti Recipe

• Cook time: 55 minutes

If you don't have Italian seasoning in the pantry, use 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti (can sub penne) pasta
• Olive oil
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage or ground beef or pork
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or basil), minced
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 large jar of marinara sauce (about 32 ounces) or make your own tomato sauce
• 1/2 pound of mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 heaping cup of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

Method

1 Bring a large pot of water to a strong boil. Add about a tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water. Add the pasta and boil, uncovered, until the pasta is al dente—edible but still a little firm. Drain the pasta through a colander. Toss with a little olive oil so the pasta does not stick together while you make the sauce.

2 Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil into a large sauté pan on medium-high to heat. When the oil is hot, add the bulk sausage or ground meat. Do not crowd the pan (work in batches if needed). Break up any large chunks of sausage as it cooks. Brown well. Don't stir that often or it will be more difficult for the meat to brown. If you are using ground beef or pork instead of sausage, add a little salt.

3 When the meat is mostly browned, add the onions and stir well to combine. Sauté everything until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic, rosemary or basil, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Cook 1 minute, then add the tomato sauce and stir well. Bring to a simmer.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch casserole pan, then dot the surface with half the ricotta cheese. Ladle in some sauce with the pasta, mix it well and add the pasta into the casserole.

5 Pour the rest of the sauce over the pasta, dot the remaining ricotta cheese over the pasta, and sprinkle on top both the mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven until the top is nicely browned, about 20 minutes.

Yield: Serves at least 8

Ziti: $1
Sausage: $2.25
CSA veggies: $2
Marinara: $3
Mozzarella: $1.50
Ricotta: $1.50
Parmesan: 75 cents

Total: $12 ($4 per person)

Expensive, but it makes a lot.

Fajita Night

I wanted to make it taco night. I even bought the soy crumbles. But I couldn't find the refried beans or the hard shells, and with Doris in tow, I didn't want to do the searching. So it was fajita night. Inspired by our hot peppers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions from our CSA.

Karen made the salsa. She doesn't like how I do it. I'm not really willing to chop, chop, chop so I put it in the food processor and she thinks it's too soupy. Salsa included tomato, red onion, hot house pepper, cilantro, cumin, lime juice. We used multi-grain tortillas and filled them with black beans seasoned with cumin & chili powder, onions and peppers (bell and hot house) seasoned with cumin and chili powder and lime juice, sharp cheddar cheese, guacamole (avocados mashed with lime juice), salsa, and pepper sauce.

Doris for the first time ate a burrito. Usually she just eats the filling. She put beans, guacamole, and cheese inside a tortilla, rolled it up, and took bites. She didn't get the roll right and most of the filling fell out of the bottom and she mostly just ate tortilla, but she really liked it. I think it made her feel older. She also scooped beans, guacamole, and salsa with some Trader Joe's soy & flaxseed tortilla chips. It think it's safe to say she likes Mexican now.

CSA veggies: $2
Tortillas: 50 cents
Black beans: 89 cents
Cheddar: $1
Avocados: $2
Random seasonings: 50 cents
Chips: 75 cents

Total: $7.64 ($2.55 per person)

Finally, a good cheap meal again.

Monday, 9/26: Asparagus and Tomato Pasta

Doris and I went to the grocery store again. She really likes shopping. I find that she's like me - she loves cooking, buying, preparing food. She rode in the car shopping cart this time and told me as we were leaving "I always ride in the car at the grocery store." Too bad because I found her much less able to control that way.

I came home to quickly pull together dinner. Doris kept saying that she wanted chicken nuggets at the grocery store, so I promised her veggie nuggets for dinner. I boiled some 'butterfly' pasta with asparagus and when they were cooked, I drained the water and mixed in some chopped cherry tomatoes and half a jar of 4 cheese roma sauce.

Karen was working late so it was just Doris and I for dinner. I thought the concoction was quite tasty but Doris only ate the veggie nuggets. For some reason she wasn't into the butterfly pasta this time.

Karen brought home kit kats from her conference so I had a tasty dessert. She says I can't eat too many because they are for potty training rewards. We'll see.

Pasta: 75 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Asparagus:$3
Pasta sauce: $2
Veggie Nuggets: $3.50

Total: $11.25 ($3.75 per person)

I find that the total for each meal has been going up. Strange. I can't figure out whats different.

Sunday 9/25: Leftovers

We came home late. We were at Poplar Springs all day. Doris can't bring herself to leave the pigs. She loves the elderly pigs that don't move. She just lays next to them and gives them big hugs and says "Hey sweetie." I just love it.

We got home at 6:30 and needed to shower. We were all covered in pig mud, especially Doris. She laid down next to them!

So then I asked Doris which leftovers she wanted - curry or pizza - and she said "Both!" So she ate a piece of cheese pizza, panang tofu curry, and some canned fruit for dinner. I had a peice of cheese pizza Karen had a veggie burger leftover from the horse farm (we bought veggie burgers for the girls but they didn't touch it). We all split one can of pineapples.

Canned fruit: $3

Total: $3 ($1 per person)

Week 3 in Review

Sunday: Dinner in Car $3.17
Monday: Spaghetti & Chorizo Pancakes $11.20
Tuesday: Cappelini Pomodora $7.70
Wednesday: Pad Thai $10.35
Thursday: Leftovers $4
Friday: Charm Thai $30
Saturday: Pizza $0

Total: $66.42 ($9.49 per day)

Pretty impressive considering we busted our budget a few times

Thursday September 22: Leftovers

We had a late night. Open house at school. We didn't get home until 7:15. To tide us over, I bought us peaches on the way home from work and we each ate one before the meeting. We also each had a cookie. At home we had our leftover chorizo spaghetti. I put it all in a pan and sauteed it quickly to warm it. Then topped it with more olives and capers.

Peaches: $2
Olives & capers: $2

Total: $4 ($1.33 per person)

Saturday Sept 24: Pizza

We had a babysitting day. We took Olivia with us to the fall festival at Days End Farm Horse Rescue. We had to rush home because Kai was coming over at 3pm for an overnight babysitting. Thankfully we only had the three kids for a short time. Al came over to pick up Olivia and stayed for pizza. We ordered it from Manny & Olga's. Two large pizzas - one cheese and one mushroom & spinach. It was tasty. Kai really liked it. He said "Mmm, this is really good pizza." I also served canned fruit and Kai thought it was the best thing ever - apricots and peaches. He didn't like the pears. Al paid for the pizza, so that made the meal taste better.

Friday Sept 23: Charm Thai

We tried a new restaurant. It's very close. We went with our friends from Doris' school. They wanted to give us advice about potty training. We really liked the restaurant. Everything can be made vegetarian. You just choose your protein and tofu and one of the options. We got three dishes and I loved two of them. Panang Curry is always Doris' favorite and she absolutely loved it. Spicy eggplant and tofu was my choice and I was surprised at how good it was. And Karen chose Drunken Noodle, which I think I'm over. It's just so dry.

Anyway, I think we have a new Thai restaurant. Though we really love Larb Tofu which they serve at Thai at Silver Spring, so it's a toss up.

$30 ($10 each)

Now that I track how much we spend on meals, it really points out how much eating out costs. That's three times what we spend when we eat at home. Ouch.

Recipe Search

What are my favorite places to look for a recipe? If I'm searching for an idea for what to do with abundant CSA veggies, I go to my CSA website. If I'm looking for ideas for special dinners, I have three places I go, and these recipes have never steered me wrong. Whole Foods (lots of simple recipes, vegetable based with fresh ingredients, and heavily vegetarian), Vegetarian Times (all vegetarian and they don't usually rely on the fake meats like I do), and Martha Stewart (some of her stuff is really extravagant but not all of it, and it always tastes good).

Wednesday September 21: Pad Thai

**VEGAN**

Well, I wanted to make Pad Thai. That was my CSA's suggestion for what to do with my eggplant. Simple pad thai using jarred pad thai sauce from the grocery store. But Doris and I went to Giant and all of the pad thai sauce had fish oil in it. I've made pad thai before (last fall with my CSA eggplant) but I went to Whole Foods for the sauce. They had vegetarian pad thai sauce at Whole
Foods. But not at Giant. So plans changed. I made Peanut Satay. Doris helped.

I used the wok to fry the tofu. It actually went really well. I usually struggle with tofu sticking to my wok, but not this time. Put that aside and stir fried the chopped, peeled eggplant (1/2 large bell eggplant). Put that aside and stir fried zucchini, yellow squash, yellow pepper. When it was done I added the eggplant and tofu and topped it with the peanut satay sauce, mixed in some chopped peanuts (Doris helped me pound them with the kitchen hammer), and served it over basmati rice.

It was pretty yummy. We probably have enough left for another meal though Doris ate a lot of tofu so I'm not really sure. She was eating proteins last night - peanuts, tofu, yogurt. One of those nights.

Rice: 50 cents
Tofu: $4
CSA veggies: $2
Zucchini: 75 cents
Peanut Satay sauce: $3
Peanuts: 10 cents

Total: $10.35 ($3.45 per person)

Oops, I did it again. Busted my budget. It's turning into an expensive week.

Nut Loaf

This is the quintessential vegetarian meal. The stereotype. I've only eaten it once in my life before I made it. Catherine and Dale made it once and it was yummy. This is not their recipe. We were invited by Jessica a passover dinner. We have only ever celebrated Passover once before and it was at a group event at our church, so this was our first intimate Passover dinner. Jessica asked that we bring something vegetarian since Passover is not very vegetarian. The rules - no beans, no dairy. I wanted to bring something traditional that provided protein because I assumed there would be some side dishes that we could eat. I searched and searched and found it very difficult. Even nut loaf recipes contain lentils or cheese. Catherine and Dale's recipe was laden with cheese. Many websites said that they bend the rules for vegetarians. The nut loaf kept popping up as a choice. This is one of the few that I found that followed the rules. To save money, I substituted almonds for brazil nuts, but otherwise I followed the recipe. I used canned tomatoes and I think that was why it was a bit soupy. I served it with canned mushroom gravy. It was pretty good. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones that ate it.

Egg Curry

This has become our traditional Easter dinner. Another attempt to blend the two cultures, and it gives us something to do with all of those boiled eggs. It's fun to use the died eggs because they make the dish oddly colorful. Egg and potato curry is very traditional in Karen's family. Of course, I leave out the ginger.

Saag Paneer

One of Karen's favorite Indian dishes. I didn't learn it in my cooking classes so I'm always looking for a good recipe. Karen loved this the first time I made it but the second time not as much. I think the cloves I had were going bad because they really overwhelmed the dish. I'm going to give it another try. I use fresh spinach and I think that makes it a rather soupy dish but tastier. And of course, I leave out the ginger.

New Years Dinner

Another recipe clogging my email. I've started a tradition for New Years. I want to keep my family traditions alive, but update them for my blended family. I've decided to make New Years a fusion meal. The traditional southern meal that Granny made every year is black eyed peas (for peace), hog jaw (for joy), rice (for riches), collard or mustard greens (for money), corn bread (for prosperity), and pineapple upside down cake (for coins). The meal that I've settled on for our family tradition is curried black eyed peas, vegetarian bacon, basmati rice, curried spinach, corn bread, and pineapple upside down cake or banana pudding. It's taken me a couple of years to find the right curried black eyed peas recipe, but this one is really a winner. It's amazing how the curries go so well with the corn bread and facon.

Christmas Leftovers

I've been keeping these recipes in my email for a while. This seems like a good storing place for them. After hosting Christmas dinner, we were left with an overwhelming amount of leftovers. Not wanting to waste, I looked up some recipes.

This one was really good. Crispy Leftover Stuffing Hash with Sunny-side Up Eggs. Our guests for Christmas dinner made some really tasty and sweet corn bread stuffing. I usually don't like stuffing, which is often dry (at least when my mom makes it from a box). But this was amazing. Of course, we don't eat sunny-side up. I made it with fried eggs. Making little hash pancakes and frying them up gave it a nice crunch.

There was some confusion and we ended up with way too much cranberry sauce. Our guests made their own and we bought some orange cranberry relish at Whole Foods. So I made these Glazed Cranberry Cornbread Muffins. I substituted Jiffy Mix for fresh and really just used this as a guide. They were good but I think I was too sparing on the cranberry sauce. Next time I will really fill them up. Or I could insert it after wards like you do with pudding in a cupcake. Something to think about.

Shepherd's Pie is of course how to use up leftover gravy and mashed potatoes. This wasn't amazing but it got the job done. Of course, I substitutes veggie crumbles for ground beef. I can't recall what veggies I used but I'm sure they were frozen.

Tuesday, September 20: Capellini Pomodora

**Winner. Cheapest Meal of the Week**

Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended today. This doesn't affect my life at all except that it's not illegal to discriminate in yet another place in this country. That has to be a good thing.

I took the bus home tonight. It takes 1 hour and 15 min. Somehow I got home early. I was supposed to get off the bus at 6:05 but instead got off at 5:48. Beats previous bus rides where I didn't get home until 6:30.

I made Capellini Pomodora tonight. I was planning my menu for the week when I happened to get this recipe emailed to me from Whole Foods. I've always liked their recipes and they are always one of my go to sources for recipe ideas. it was a great way to use up tomatoes and basil. I doubled the sauce recipe because we like a lot of sauce. I left out the chick peas because that just seemed weird though I appreciate that they were trying to make a complete meal. We've had a bag of frozen vegetarian beef tips for months so I used that instead. I left out the garlic because we don't have any. I replaced the asiago cheese with parmesan to make it cheaper and simpler. I served it over bow-tie pasta because we had some in our pantry.

Doris was really excited about the bow tie pasta. She first told me that she was a boy because she was going to eat boy toy pasta. But then she saw the pasta and said it looked like butterflies, so we called it butterfly pasta from then on. She only really ate the butterflies and left the sauce.

It was a tasty meal. I really liked it. I never have thought to include balsamic vinegar in my pasta sauce but it was really good. I'll definitely be making this again.

pasta: $1
CSA veggies: $2
vegetarian beef tips: $4
parmesan cheese: 50 cents
balsamic vinegar: 20 cents

Total: $7.70 ($2.50 per person)

A little about our CSA

We love our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Spiral Path Farm. We pay a lump sum in the spring and for 6 months we are loaded with fresh, organic produce. They deliver to our farmers market which is just across the street from our condo on Saturday mornings. It's super convenient and fills our fridge with fresh produce. Besides the convenience, we chose our CSA because they include vegetables that we eat anyway. I've heard so many horror stories about CSAs that are full of produce that you've never heard of and it just leaves you scrambling and probably wasting food. We rarely throw out our food with this CSA.

We get the full share and split it with another couple. The cost is about $360 and that's where I get the estimate of $2 per day for CSA veggies. Amazingly cheap for most of the produce that we eat in a week. I wish they offered a fruit share. It's my only complaint. They offer an apple share, but that's not enough variety for me. We eat a lot of fruit, especially Doris.

Monday 9/20: Spaghetti and Chorizo Pancakes

Doris asked to go with me to the grocery store, so I've decided to start taking her every Monday. She seems to really like it. I let her pick things like what fruit to buy (she wanted Watermelon - we'll see how it tastes). She's really good at helping to figure out what we need. She makes suggestions of things we really buy, like orange juice and yogurt.

We got home a bit later than normal and I still needed to make dinner. We've had a soy chorizo package from Trader Joe's in our fridge for a long time so I decided it was time to eat it. Karen loves chorizo and buys it and then I have to figure out what to do with it. I made this dish that we really like. Spaghetti and Chorizo pancakes. It doesn't really turn out very pancake-y, but frying it in the pan make it a little crunchy which I like. I skipped the sundried tomatoes because Karen doesn't like them and added a fresh tomato at the end of cooking. It made it taste more fresh. I usually use dried sage but happened to have fresh sage from Andrea's garden, so that was a nice addition. I used green olives stuffed with pimentos. Usually we only eat black Kalamata olives, the expensive kind, because Doris loves olives but has discriminating tastes. But at the grocery store she said she wanted both green and black so I cheered a little cheer because the green ones are half the price of the Kalamata olives. I'm amazed that I know so much about olives. My girl has strange passions. I left out the chili because I forgot to buy it.

soy chorizo: $4
CSA veggies: $2
Spaghetti: 50 cents
Parmesan cheese: $3
olives: $1.50
capers: 20 cents

Total: $11.20 (3.73 per person)

Wow, that was one of my more expensive meals. Who knew. I'll have to remember that for the future. Good news is that it actually makes a lot and we will be eating this meal again later in the week.

Sunday 9/19: Dinner in the car

I'm having trouble keeping up. September is a busy month. I told Karen today that I'd love to quit my job and be a writer. Dreams, of course. I'd like to be a travel writer, a restaurant reviewer, a food writer, write about how to be cheap/save money, write about parenting/same-sex parenting, do book reviews. But instead I'm a statistician. It's less fun but it pays much better.

We spent last weekend at Andrea's beach house in Lewes, DE. We never actually made it to the beach. It rained a lot and we were traveling with two toddlers and a baby, so there was a lot of napping. Not our best trip to the beach, but oh well.

We ate our dinner in the car on the way back. Everyone ate leftovers. Karen had a left over brie sandwich that I ate half of for lunch and an apple from the Lewes Farmers Market. Their produce is so much cheaper than ours. We got a bag of 6 apples for $4. It would have cost like $10 or more at our market. Doris had an ear of corn and some box mac & cheese left over from lunch the previous day. I ate at home because I was driving. I had Doris' left over lunch mac & cheese from our restaurant visit - fancy mac & cheese that she didn't like - and half a tomato. I seasoned the tomato with white vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, and it tasted quite nice. I think I had the best meal of the three of us.

Apple: 67 cents
CSA veggies: $2
seasonings: 50 cents

Total: $3.17 ($1.06 per person)

Sunday 9/11: Spanish rice

**Vegan**

We have a lot of tomatoes. It's tomato and pepper season for our CSA and we have to get creative. I went to the store Sunday morning to pick up muffins and fruit for breakfast at the park for Doris and two of her best friends Owen and Raiyan and while there I picked up two boxes of Rice-o-Roni Spanish Rice. I remember last year making this with fresh yellow CSA tomatoes instead of canned and it was amazing, so much better than what it usually is. I didn't know it could taste this good, and this is my favorite rice. So I thought this would be a good way to use up some tomatoes.

I made the Spanish Rice with 2 cups tomatoes, 1/2 cup white onion, and 1/2 cup green pepper and it was the best I'd ever tasted. I was afraid to add all of those fresh veggies to such a wonderful tasting box mix but wow, so much better. Will definitely be making that again because it uses tomatoes and peppers!

For a side dish I made a vegetable medley and just through in whatever I had - zucchini, carrot, white onion, green pepper, tomato and seasoned it all with cumin and chili powder to give it a Spanish flavor. I also served one box of Quorn chik'n nuggets.

Doris helped cooked. Now she wants to do so every night. It slows me down a bit because I have to let her help and also keep her from getting hurt, but we both really enjoy it. She didn't eat the vegetables, but loved the rice and nuggets. She ate 7 nuggets - she really likes those things.

Rice $1.50
CSA veggies $2
Nuggets $5

Total: $8.50 ($2.83 per person)

Week 2 in review

The blog went on hold because of the holiday. Our friend Katie was visiting from Rochester and I didn't fill in the for the rest of the week. Here's what I have. It also means we spent a lot this week.

Sunday: Paneer Jalfreezi $8.10
Monday: Sandwiches $5.50
Tuesday: Pasta $14.25
Wednesday: Qdoba $10.75
Thursday: Hot dogs $4.70
Friday: Thai at Silver Spring $28
Saturday: Homemade Pizza & salad $13

Total $84.30 ($12.04 per night)

Not bad considering we blew the budget many times. Still close to our $10 target.

Hot Dogs

**Winner: Cheapest meal of the week**
**Vegan**

Last night we had hot dogs, corn, and a tomato-cucumber salad (with dill, red onion, and garlic). Doris ate 3 hot dogs. Karen is so concerned with choking hazards that she cuts the hot dog very tiny for Doris to eat. Doris had a huge fit because she wanted to eat the hot dog on a bun just like we do. She cried and cried and Karen said no. So Doris ate her whole hot dog and then said "I want another one and don't cut it." She put it on the bread, added ketchup and mustard, and ate it just like us. And then asked for another one.

Hot dogs: $2
Buns: $1
condiments: 20 cents
dill: 50 cents
CSA veggies; $2

Total: $4.70 ($1.57 per person)

Qdoba

Qdoba sends buy one get one quite often in our ValPak. Our neighbor usually raids the recycle bin in the mail room to get as many of these as he can because they are very valuable. We had one that was expiring on Wed so we went there for dinner after picking Doris up from school. We got two burritoes and ordered the cheap kids meal for Doris. Cheese quesadilla with a side of black beans and a juice box. And Karen got the corn salsa from her burrito on the side for Doris because Doris said she wanted corn. Doris did not eat any of it. She played a lot with the black beans and corn. She did drink the juice box, but that's it. For a girl that eats so well, I wish she would eat what other kids eat sometimes too. Karen and I had leftover burritoes for lunch.

$10.75 ($3.58 per person)

Pasta night

Last night was a bit of a celebration. It was a big first day for Karen. So I made a simple three course meal. We had a box of frozen mozzarella sticks, which are Karen's favorite food. I put them in the oven first while making the rest of the food. Karen and Doris sat down to an appetizer of cheese sticks and salsa (black bean and corn salsa) while I finished dinner. This was a treat because we never buy splurges like this but the cheese and salsa were both bought at a grocery store that was going out of business.

We haven't been to the grocery store in a while so I scraped together what I had. And what I have is a boat load of tomatoes. So I made pasta sauce with two large tomatoes, garlic, and a handful of mushrooms. I sauteed some Trader Joe's breaded eggplant slices (we only had 4 left) to serve over some fettuccine topped with cheddar cheese.

The third course required going out to FroZenYo, where we all got our own concoctions. I enjoyed peanut butter and banana cream swirl topped with kit kats.

cheese sticks: $2
salsa: 50 cents
pasta: 50 cents
CSA veggies: $2
mushrooms: 75 cents
eggplant: $1
cheese: 50 cents
FroZenYo: $7

Total: $14.25 ($4.75 per person)

Busted our daily budget but not by much.

Hurry, Hurry

Last night we wanted to get new phones. It was kind of a hurry because we had a gift card expiring on Wednesday and there is a limited time promotion that made it feasible for us to finally have smart phone. We are finally just like everyone else! We feel like adults.

Karen had a doctor appointment in Rockville, so it was a bit of a rush just getting everyone together. I picked her up and then we both picked up Doris. We needed a dinner that could be made in just a few minutes so that we could get to TMobile before they closed. Sounds like a sandwich night. We've been eating a lot of sandwiches lately which is strange for us. We had vegetarian ham slices by Light Life, cheddar cheese, and roma tomatos. I put the olive tappenade from a few nights ago on mine and Karen did a more traditional mayo & mustard dressing. We ate watermelon and cantaloupe as our side dishes. Doris picked at everything, but did not want a sandwich. She does seem to like the vegetarian meat slices, and she at a lot of cheddar cheese, then she went crazy for the cantaloupe and also had some watermelon. Pretty successful meal for in a hurry.

Bread: 25 cents
CSA veggies: $2
vegetarian ham: $1
condiments: 50 cents
Watermelon: $1
Canteloupe: 75 cents

Total: $5.50 ($1.83)

Paneer Jalfreezi

I made Paneer Jalfreezi using this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/paneer-jalfrezi-paneer-with-green-peppers-onions-and-tomatoes-179836. It's a very dry recipe, which is a nice because I usually make very saucy curries. Paneer Jalfreezi is Paneer with Green Peppers. I got the idea from a sauce pack that Karen bought at the Indian store that I actually used to make Paneer and Mixed Veggies. But before we left for our trip to FL, to clean out the fridge we needed to use half a block of paneer and a green pepper and an open jar of curry sauce, so I made "Paneer Jalfreezi" with these ingredients. It was surprisingly tasty considering we aren't huge green pepper fans. But we've been getting a lot of green peppers so I attempted this again, but this time without the sauce since it's much cheaper that way.

I made the recipe but found it to be much drier than I like, so I added one tomato. It was still dry but had a but more liquid and taste from the tomato. Also, I never use ginger in any recipe because Karen hates it. She won't eat it if she sees me put it in there, so I stopped trying even though it often tastes better.

I also made the spinach recipe that I always make - spinach, onion, spices, lemon juice, and this time I used some leftover homemade salsa that we tried to eat but was way too spicy to eat with just chips. Also some frozen naan and leftover basmati rice.

Karen loved the paneer. Said it was surprisingly good given that it was mostly paneer with green pepper. Doris hated it and wouldn't touch it, though she was pretty cranky having just woke up from a nap and also upset with me because she wanted to help me make curry and I did it while she was sleeping. Karen said I promised but I don't remember that. So she didn't eat it but Karen and I liked it. Karen did not seem to care for the spinach though I didn't ask if she liked it or not.

Paneer: $2.50
Spices: 50 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Spinach: $1.50
Naan: $1.60

Total: $8.10

Week 1 in Review

Part of the reason to blog is to keep track of how much I'm spending on food. Here's my first week in review.

Sunday: Stuffed Peppers $10.75
Monday: FLTs $8.95
Tuesday: Chinese Takeout $38.20
Wednesday: Leftovers $3.18
Thursday: Leftovers 20 cents
Friday: Pizza free
Saturday Eggplant and Tomato Sandwiches $3.65

Total for the week is $64.93 for an average of $9.28. I think a good goal would be keeping dinners less than $10 per night and I did great for the first week, and that includes one dinner out. Let's see how week two goes.

Eggplant and Tomato Sandwiches

**Winner: Cheapest Meal for Week**

We had a hurricane coming. Irene. We spent an entire hour outside playing in the puddles and getting wet. Doris loved it and we had to beg her to come inside. After we all showered, Doris helped me to make Eggplant and Tomato Sandwiches and Oven Fries. Mostly she took the food that I sliced and stacked it into bowls she pulled out of the drawers, ate a lot, and dropped a lot on the floor. Karen had just gotten back from Whole Foods so we had some tasty Olive Tapenade Hummus spread to add to the sandwiches. Wheat bread, sharp cheddar cheese, grilled bell eggplant, tomato, olive tapenade. Oven fries served with steak sauce. Good but Karen said they were better when we had basil. True dat.

Bread: 25 cents
Cheese: 75 cents
CSA veggies: $2
Hummus: 50 cents
Steak Sauce: 15 cents

Total $3.65 ($1.22 per serving)

Pizza Pizza!

Greenbelt Pride was having a pizza pool party Friday night as a last hurrah to celebrate summer. We don't live in Greenbelt but Andrea invited us, and well, we love pizza and the pool, so... we had some Greenbelt Pride for a night. The pizza was tasty. Corita said it was from the local greasy joint called Joe's. Karen liked it so much that she said we should order it to go the next time we were in Greenbelt. Doris sat down and ate most of one piece, so I guess she's gotten over her "I don't like pizza" phase. We asked how much we owed and Andrea said nothing, which was a great surprise because we don't even belong to Greenbelt Pride.

Total: $0

Leftovers

Last night was all leftovers, though we needed to make some more rice. Doris was more adventurous this time and ate the cucumber and egg (always one of her favorite dishes). She spilled the soup all over the table (we didn't even bother giving her any the previous night). She had a breakdown when Karen tried to eat some broccoli, even though Doris had broccoli left on her plate that she didn't eat. I guess we've trained her that all broccoli belongs to her.

Rice: 20 cents

Total: 20 cents (6.7 cents per person)

Best meal all week. Guess it helps to cover the cost of our expensive anniversary dinner.

Cucumber and Egg Stir Fry

Wednesday we had leftovers. Lots and lots of Chinese leftovers. But to make something my daughter likes and to add to the number of vegetables served, I also made Cucumber and Egg stir fry. This is a dish my Chinese friends love to make for us and it's really tasty. Cooked cucumber tastes a lot like zucchini. I stir-fried it with CSA garlic and spring onion and used the leftover sauce from the dumplings. Karen said it was the best I'd ever made - sorry, can't make it that way again...

CSA veggies: $2
Eggs: 88 cents
Spring onion: 30 cents

Total: $3.18 ($1.06 per person)

Let's have a BBQ party

Ellen invited us to a BBQ Saturday night. She provided the burgers, we brought a side dish. We brought an cut up cantaloupe. Organic cantaloupes were on sale at Whole Foods the day before so it was an easy thing to bring.

We had a smorgasbord - burgers, cucumber salad, green bean & potato salad, green bean chips, fruit salad, green salad, little nut topped muffins. Too much actually, but it was yummy.

Ellen is a vegetarian and so are her children. She made a ton of beef and turkey burgers, and ended up with a lot leftover, which no one at her house will eat. What a waste of animal meat. I'll never understand this intense desire to please meat eaters in your home. People will eat what you offer and be thankful for a free meal. Or people will go home and eat. No big deal. Don't kill animals if you don't believe in it.

Cantaloupe: $1.50

Total: $1.50 (50 cents per person)

Candle-lit Chinese Take-Out

Last night was our anniversary. Well, one of them. It was the anniversary of when we met. 14 years ago. We had a date night in. It was interesting. We told Doris it was our anniversary and she said "Somebody going to be putting me to bed?" We haven't had an anniversary since March, and she still remembers that. She's amazing.

We gave Doris dinner and sat down with her while she ate it. She had 2 vegetarian hot dogs (Smart Dogs by Light Life) cold right out of the fridge, dipped in ketchup and mustard. She really liked it and wanted more (after eating 2 of them!) but there weren't any more. She said "Amma's going to buy some more at the store?" We served it with her favorite food - frozen broccoli, but she didn't really eat them. So I let her do her new favorite thing - pack it for lunch. Then she ate some strawberries (out of season but the girl loves her strawberries.

Then we put her to bed and I ran to Palais De Lune for some Chinese take-out. They are a local restaurant with a large selection of fake meat Chinese food. It's really amazing how popular that kind of food is. We got the hot & sour soup, fried vegetable dumplings, honey sesame chicken, and general tso's chicken. While I was out, Karen set the table with our China and candle light and crystal glass ware, and we had a fancy 4 course meal (appetizers, soup, entree, and dessert). Karen picked up some organic strawberry lemonade on sale so that was our drink. It was too much food and we have a lot of leftovers, so looks like we are having it again for dinner this week. Dessert was a raspberry tart that Karen picked up from Trader Joe's. It was pretty good but could have used more cream filling (but isn't that always true? more cream is always good.). We have a lot of dessert left, so I think we'll be having a nice evening tonight.

hot dogs: $1
broccoli: 50 cents
strawberries: 70 cents
take-out: $29
lemonade: $1
tart: $6

Total: $38.20 ($12.33 per person)

We certainly blew our food budget but we only have 4 anniversaries a year, so... At least we have lots of leftovers so that in the end it won't be that bad.

Grilled veggie sandwiches

Friday night I made grilled veggie sandwiches. Well, really, only the eggplant was grilled. And by grilled I mean put on the griddle on my stove. The sandwich was composed of toasted wheat bread (store brand), grilled bell eggplant, tomato from Corita's garden, jarred roasted red peppers, CSA basil, and pepper jack cheese. No condiments needed it tasted so good. I served it with oven fries (CSA potatoes) and a salad (CSA lettuce, carrots, kalamata olives, capers (a very few at the bottom of a jar), and CSA orange cherry tomatoes, dressed with leftover vinaigrette from my work.

The sandwiches were amazing. So fresh. I can't stop thinking about them. There was enough leftover ingredients to make the sandwiches again for lunch at the pool the next day, which tasted amazing outside in the heat. Doris helped with all of the prep because she said she wanted to help cook. Mostly she helped to make the salad, but she also put the bread in the toaster.

Doris doesn't like sandwiches, but she's going through this thing where she wants to be independent sometimes and a baby sometimes. She links being independent with being a mom. She likes to say that she is a mom and so she can do whatever grown up thing she is trying to do. So I asked "Do you want a sandwich or just the veggies?" At first she said veggies, then she thought for a minute and said "No, I'm a mom. I want a sandwich." She put one small slice of eggplant in between two slices of bread and ate her sandwich.

Bread: 25 cents
Eggplant: $3
roasted peppers: $2
Cheese: $1
CSA veggies: $2
Olives: $2
Carrots: $1

Total: $11.25 ($3.75 per person)

Stuffed peppers

Sunday night we ate stuffed peppers. We learned to make these from Andrea and Corita last fall. Our CSA gets pepper crazy in the early fall and that has just started to begin. I had four small orange "yummy" peppers which are super sweet and 3 1/2 green bell peppers. I made all of them so that we could eat the leftovers this week. For the stuffing used mostly what I had. I called it a kitchen cleaner. I love kitchen cleaners. I did need to make a run to Whole Foods for some burger crumbles (Quorn brand), but otherwise everything was in-house. The stuffing used leftover basmati rice, half CSA white onion, 2 small tomatoes from Corita's garden and one large CSA tomato, CSA basil, spring onion, and cheddar cheese. I cut the tops off of the peppers and stuffed them as full as possible and baked at 350 for 40 minutes. I served it with CSA corn (amazing - tastes like butter) and leftover salad (with vinaigrette dressing from work).

Peppers were a big hit with Karen, though she wanted more cheese. Doris not so much. I thought she would like the filling and she hated it. She ate shredded cheese and corn, but if either touched the filling mixture she'd spit it out and make a face, and she said "I don't want those crumbles!". I had to get her a new plate for just cheese and corn. We have two stuffed bell peppers left for later in the week to serve with our remaining corn. I have a lot of leftover filling and plan to make this again next week, though with more cheese.

Crumbles: $5.50
Cheese: $2
Spring onion: 25 cents
CSA veggies: $2

Total: $10.75 ($3.58 per serving)

FLTs

Last night we had FLT's (facon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches). We used Smart Bacon with whole foods 365 organic sharp cheddar, light mayonaise (safeway brand?), classic yellow mustard (safeway brand), yummy CSA tomatoes and lettuce, on whole wheat bread (Giant brand). It was filling and deliciuos. Sandwiches with fresh tomatoes are the best right now since the tomatoes are just amazing. For the first time Doris actually tasted and liked the facon. She didn't eat it in the sandwich - just by itself. She's so random in what she eats - this time not eating her favorites (cheese and tomatoes) but instead ate the facon which she's never wanted to touch in the past.

The side dishes were oven fries (with yummy CSA red potatoes and served with generic (Richfood) steak sauce), sauteed veggies (CSA zucchini, onion, garlic, and store bought white mushrooms and dill), and a leftover salad from a few nights ago.

Doris loved the meal so much she decided she wanted to pack it for her lunch. She packed a bunch of individual containers with facon, cheese, veggies, and one of cantaloupe from the fridge (organic cantaloupe on sale at Whole Foods). Getting her involved in food prep usually excites her about the food so hopefully she'll enjoy all of these selections today.

CSA veggies: $2
Bread: 25 cents
Facon: $4
Cheddar: $1
Mushrooms: $1.50
Dill: $1
Random condiments: 20 cents
Total cost for meal: $8.95 ($2.98 per person)

Got some good news last night so for dessert (after putting Doris to bed), I ran to the convenience (read: liquor/lottery) store down the street for some ice cream on a stick. Karen said she really wanted her favorite strawberry shortcake bar, and the best place for that really is a convenience store. I had an oreo bar, though I really considered the ice cream sandwich which is by far my favorite. Either way, a tasty treat. We ate while watching Mad Men on Netflix.

Tonight it's our anniversary (14 years since we met) so we get restaurant food! It won't be as cheap, but we deserve it, right?