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?