Veggies finally surpassed “CHEESE” at this moment in time. There was also $26 spent on 2 takeout meals – nachos.
Summary
*I made one batch of beans in the instant pot
*I am currently eating my new lentil “mac and cheese” experiment for dinner
*I have already juiced the oranges I’m going to add into my kombucha to start the second fermentation tonight
*I skipped the farmer’s market last week because I had produce I still had to eat, went today and spent waaaaaayyyy too much on a very heavy spaghetti squash but whatever
*Bought $7/12 duck eggs at the farmer’s market. Great news because the *half dozen of duck eggs from whole foods alone was $7. The organic chicken eggs at WF are $6/dozen or thereabout, so I can now just always grab duck eggs for $7 at the farmer’s market and be set with it.
note: still haven’t bought egg replacement powder yet to try (I am only using flax or chia for now) but am going to get the Bob’s Red Mill kind in my next WF delivery
*made guava shortbread cookies at the beginning of this week they were delicious
There was a vague goal of tracking and trying to eat more iron (I have a semi-concerning health symptom relating to my hair that google told me might be low iron) but I haven’t really done that at all.
My meal prep list is a million miles long:
Summary
*make hummus
*strawberry pumpkin seed muffins
*cheesecake cookies with chocolate ganache frosting
*do something with the spaghetti squash – undetermined
*vaguely ~Okonimiyaki~ style cabbage fritters
*Flautas de papas
*strawberry “dessert” Varenyky
My pantry looks great with most grains decanted into glass jars and my flours finally poured into this really cute set of 3 vintage 70s avocado green containers.
The glass corningware sauce/fry pan I bought on ebay also finally arrived this week.
Unfortunately, I am not changing my mind about my initial instincts that InstaPots are absolutely useless.
Summary
I feel really bad about that because mine was a gift from my friend. I mean I don’t want to sound rude but this is clearly a thing for people who don’t know how to cook or don’t have time at all to cook. I don’t always have time, but taking cooking shortcuts REALLY robs my life of a lot of joy. I love to watch everything like a hawk and vary temperature for perfection so the InstaPot is basically my nightmare. Also I have a really small kitchen/house, and the smell when you take that lid off, no matter what you’re cooking, is just absolutely rancid. I also noted that InstaPot food tastes really weird if you eat it straight after it’s done. If you put it in the fridge and reheat for leftovers, it’s tolerable, but … I just really hate this machine.
edit, additional thoughts:
I think I am finally a vegetarian now after 2 years of de-facto vegetarian. I haven’t eaten meat since… November? It might’ve even been October.
Also, I think the reason the InstaPot won’t work for me is that it can’t do a whole lot of cool stuff outside of cooking meat. I mean, yes, I’ve found all the vegan InstaPot blogs, but nothing is really inspiring me.
edit, again:
Forgot to mention my 4 lb bag of tapioca pearls for boba tea finally arrived! Had my first at home boba last night. They aren’t specifically boba so the pearls are a tad too small to be satisfying but uhhhh I don’t want to buy $4 boba from a cafe.
This entire thing is getting put under a cut because jesus h christ my entire life revolves around food.
Interesting idea. I got it brand new, and I try to wash all the parts as best as I can. I usually take the corner of my sponge and run it along the entire inside of the plastic ring a few times, maybe what I need to do is just soak it in soapy water for awhile?
Update - No groceries bought this week. I did go out to eat this evening, meeting up with a friend. Seemed like the only thing we could do outside together, and really enjoyed the whole experience. Absence really does makes the heart grow fonder.
Oh for some reason I read that as a hand me down from a friend, not a gift like new. Sorry! They can just hold flavors if you cook something strong- I know we have to have a “spicy pork ramen” ring because if we then use that to make rice it’s not good lol.
Basically this, although I’m incapable of actually using a recipe I love the brown rice and Millet ramen from Costco, although I’m sure regular ramen works too!
I make it in my IP. Pressure for the pork, (make ramen eggs and any veggies in the meantime), then shred the pork and remove to the side. Then I turn it to sauté mode and cook the ramen right in the IP. Then you can make individual bowls from the components so they’re balanced.
(I often skip the pork crisping- it’s tasty that way for sure, but not necessary for tasty food).
Sometimes the broth turns out way strong, in which case I’ll dilute with extra chicken broth.
Groceries purchased for this upcoming week: $27.14 - this was all fresh produce for the week, and 1 pint of B+Js dairy free ice cream that was on sale. I was surprised it was this high but I bought 10 pounds worth of Jicamas soooooo
Total so far this month: $113/$150 goal
I had a super busy week and Saturday, so I had no meal plan for this week. I went to the store on the way home from a 7am MRI apt today and decided while I was there that I would have taco bows and a bunch of random veggies this week.
My plan for this week is:
Update - last grocery shop of the month. We did get Papa John’s once. So, that’s two times eating out so far in the month, which is great for us.
On food waste:
This week was not good, likely because work was awful/had to work late every night and we had to triage with easy meals all week vs. actually cooking. But, I am finding this very useful as it is very eye-opening to see what $$ is literally going to trash. We need to do something to try to label to know when we cooked what and to freeze big meals like pork/rice immediately after cooking.
3 blackberries
1/2 block goat cheese
1/8 White Cheddar cheese block
1/2 can hot dog chili sauce
2 heads of romaine from December
~ 1lb of leftover pork - forgot when we cooked it and we are conservative about leftovers due to my husband’s sensitive stomach
Checking in this week with a slight fail. Thursday was a friend’s birthday, and friend (as have we all) has been less able to see people due to COVID. So I suggested a walk to the coffee shop as a birthday treat.
I got a mocha (decaf) AND a giant caramel pecan roll, so the walk/coffee/treat/overindulge association is still present after two weeks. Which means possibly I’ve failed this challenge, IDK, but also I need to restart the clock and go through a month’s worth of days not doing coffee shops/fast food.
Larva has a doctor’s appointment near the end of February and post-appointment coffee has been a thing going back to early pregnancy and my first ultrasound with her, so that will be the official new end of my challenge.
Treats have not gone up much, yay! (I bought ingredients to make our own. Cheaper than the coffee shop! Though less delicious… still dreaming of that hazelnut mocha scone…)
Interestingly, I found it much less onerous to do the math this week than last week. I guess this was a smaller shop?
Grocery bill up by $2 ($44/$100) since I forgot water on a walk to the library, although I forgot this coming week is a pizza week for my trivia team. The pizza’s not technically groceries, but since the plan was to eat down the freezer some I’ll probably group the number in anyway.
Update:
I didn’t make much of a dent in my cupboard/freezer, but I did use up a 1lb bag of broccoli that had been in my freezer for close to a year.
$40.01/$40.00 spent on groceries. One penny above my budget for the month. I will not need to go grocery shopping the rest of the month. I ordered pick up from a small, independent grocery store. The total was 32.01 for the groceries, and I tipped them $8. I’m not sure what an appropriate grocery pick up tip is, so I just went with 25%.
1/5 takeout meals.
We went to the grocery store once this week. Much to my protesting. So we have one shop left this month. This SHOULD be doable if my DH doesn’t decide he neeeeeeeeddddssss some random thing that we are missing one ingredient for.
Week 2:
Groceries: $104.42/200
Takeaway: 3/5 1 using a gift card and 1 delivery totaling $18 (though this was from a local restaurant and delivered with a local delivery service that actually pays its drivers properly)
Oops, I forgot to update yesterday! I made my Trader Joe’s trip last week and spent $111.58, $100 of which was on a gift card. Happy with what I got, except the part where carrying over $100 of groceries 3 miles home was a pretty exhausting decision .
New vegan restaurant near us is supposed to open Wednesday, so will probably spend some on takeout this week. TJ’s was the only food spending from the past week.
Okay, I’ve done curbside pickup twice at a total of $165.46, of which $40 was wine. Also a Blue Apron box at $60.
I think that’s it for the month, as we’re pretty well stocked up and we really do need to start eating down the stockpile, and I really don’t want to go out much right now.
Sorry! They can just hold flavors if you cook something strong- I know we have to have a “spicy pork ramen” ring because if we then use that to make rice it’s 
not good lol.
I love the brown rice and Millet ramen from Costco, although I’m sure regular ramen works too!
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