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| Lentil-couscous patties with tahini sauce and foraged dandelion and purple deadnettle |
Dollar amount of food consumed this week: $42.86
Total "spent" so far: $169.47
I'll admit, I'm getting tired of this challenge.
The existential dread has really been getting to me lately, and recording how many ounces of rice I'm using for supper feels futile sometimes. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that I'm gathering useful data for us— getting a sense of what $200 of groceries in a month actually feels like for two people. Doing it the way we have is very time-consuming and detail-oriented, so I only want to do it once. Then, in April… we'll probably keep eating just about the same, just without worrying about the details! (Oh, and Zach will start putting half and half in his coffee again.)
I'm also trying to focus on how much I'm learning. I continue to be astonished at how much stuff adds up, even with relatively few "big-ticket items" on the list— and I'm becoming convinced that the best way to save money on food is not simply being thrifty, but learning to share (look for a post about this later this week).
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| I asked Zach if Walmart had butter, and he sent this photo |
Our goal this week was not to shop at the store too much, but we ended up buying about as much as usual, mostly because… well, we were both stressed and we didn't want to do anything to make life harder. Zach has to put his health at risk to go work at the store five times a week anyway, so the incentive to avoid buying a couple packs of tortillas and replenish our butter reserves was just not high. That said, we didn't do any major stocking up, and we didn't buy any toilet paper, so maybe that's a win?
Some random thoughts and events this week:
1. Vegan baking recipes are my new favorite. Organic butter, milk, and eggs are expensive, so I've been relying on vegan recipes which use cheaper ingredients like oil, flaxseed, and plant-based milk (I usually sub watered-down milk kefir).
2. Anxious eating drives up the food budget. When I feel anxious, I tend to eat a lot, and this week my anxiety has generally been through the roof. I've been snacking on relatively cheap things— mostly bread and oatmeal— but that certainly adds up over time. I'm trying to work on ways to sooth myself without resorting to food.
3. Spring greens are coming up! I was so excited this week to do our first foraging: onion grass (field garlic), purple deadnettle, tender dandelion greens, red clover, and garlic mustard! (Stinging nettles, violets, and redbud leaves/flowers are coming soon.) Early spring greens are mild and delicious, giving our bodies a much-needed boost of nutrition. My kale, which survived the winter, has started putting out new growth, so I was able to make some pesto with it (using nutritional yeast instead of parmesan). Hooray for spring!
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| This went to feed almost thirty people! |
4. Yesterday we ended up getting an unexpected windfall of food: a couple hundred pounds of leftover produce from a restaurant! I was so excited to be able to give most of it away, but we still have oranges, potatoes, cabbage, a lot of cheese, and a few tomatoes for ourselves, and I wasn't quite sure whether to consider them "bought" or to accept them as free. After some discussion, we decided to go ahead and count them as free, since this event, while unexpected, is similar to what I've experienced sometimes when volunteering at my local food pantry and getting leftovers (or harvesting from our garden during the summer). Plus, if we were in dire financial straits, I wouldn't think twice about getting food at a local food pantry— that's what they're there for!
In the meantime, here's what we've been eating this week…
Snacks and drinks: Whole-wheat flatbread with homemade hummus, leftover pancakes, cornbread, coffee, water kefir
Day 15: Peanut butter toast, leftover pasta, rice and beans (Zach) and chickpeas and rice (Lisa), burrito, quinoa with pork (gleaned from a damaged package last month).
Day 16: Peanut butter toast, pasta with pork and kale pesto from the garden, chili and cornbread, leftovers.
Day 17: Toast (Zach) and oatmeal (Lisa), leftovers, pancakes, corned beef and cabbage (a gift from our housemate) with roasted potatoes and sunchokes with pesto, zucchini bread (a gift from our neighbor).
Day 18: Rice with lentils and sweet potatoes, leftovers, rice and chickpeas, oatmeal, lentil-couscous patties with kale.
Day 19: Toast, leftovers, lentil-couscous patty wrap, oatmeal, patty wraps with foraged spring greens.
Day 20: Toast, leftovers, lentil-couscous patty wrap, oatmeal, lentil-couscous patty wraps with foraged greens.
Day 21: Toast with peanut butter (Lisa) or eggs (Zach), burrito, patty wrap, mac n' cheese with salad (leftovers/gleaned).
Stay safe and well, y'all!
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