Because of unknown $ situation, I have been being really careful with our food dollar and it shows!
The first 8 weeks of the year, I UNDERspent our budget of $100 a week by $191.84 !
Since weāre self-described food snobs, this has taken some adjustments, but not so many that weāre hating our food.
Another note: has anyone else noticed that apples currently available arenāt so good? Not too surprising, considering theyāve been in storage since around Oct.
If you use apples (we have) as a cheap fruit, what would you use instead?
Iāve been eating a lot of Cara Cara oranges. Theyāre not super expensive right now, and I think they have a much better flavor than regular Navel oranges (which are so boring, ew).
I got some cheap (and tasteless) honeycrisps one week. Last week I bought Galas, two of them were soft in the middle but hard on the outside. The last honeycrisp was 1/2 bad by the time we ate it upā¦
I carefully store apples away from other fruits as they offgas ethyelene gas, which causes other fruit to degrade. I also usually store the weekās supply away from last weekās. We have been using about 5-8 apples a week, some in salads or cooked, but mostly as a cheap ādessert.ā
If your region has bad apples, donāt let them spoil your lunch! Check prices and try something else. We gave up oranges for about 4 months when they were all mush.
We tend to gobble up bananas very quickly, so itās hard to go once a week to the market and get enough. I do buy them, but they tend to only last about 2-3 days.
Is that a papaya? Havenāt tried that. We had pineapple I got on sale not too long ago, but nothing as elegant as a papaya!
We are also slowly eating last yearās frozen peaches. Peaches and rhubarb are the only fruits I freeze regularly. We have some commercial frozen blueberries to finish too.
Weāre having roasted ham, onion & potatoes for dinner with the last of the lettuce and tomato dressing.
Our apples have been great! But then, Iām pretty sure my state produces like half the apples in North America so Iām scandalized when I get a mealy apple that being said, cuties (little mandarins) keep being on sale so weāve been going hard on those to mix it up.
What a fun mystery! I donāt recognize it but I wonder if itās a type of melon? It looks vaguely melon-y and I feel like there are a million types of melons.
The mystery and expanded palates are huge pluses to me! We used to get a $50 produce box and I loved trying the new stuff. That was the size of two of these $5 boxes.
This week I am going to use tomatillos and mystery melon/gourd for the first time. And a bunch of old avocados to make guacā¦ thursday or Friday will be bowl days
Sort of predictibly. Last week I was under budget $50, this week Iām over $43. Next week, if I follow my pattern so far, Iāll be under againā¦
I went to a local little market and found something I did NOT buy, but have not ever seen before ā a 5lb package of bacon. The same brand 1lb packages were on sale, and cheaper per lb than the 5 lb pkg.
that being said, cuties (little mandarins) keep being on sale so weāve been going hard on those to mix it up.
