Saturday, March 28, 2009

Foodie . . . Saturday

Foodie Friday must not be meant to be.

When I was a kid, my mom was pretty thrifty with the food that she purchased. When I was very young, we drank a lot of Milk Man powdered milk. I guess it was cheaper than fresh milk. We also had limits on the cold cereal we were allowed. I don’t think my mom ever really cracked down on me since I was never excessive in my cereal consumption, but my brothers were allowed only one bowl of cold cereal and after that they had to fill their bellies with eggs or oatmeal or toast.

I decided to really try to spend less on groceries for this week, and I think I managed to get enough for the week for $72. I will obviously be drawing on our pantry items a lot, but here’s what I bought (from memory):

1 gallon local milk
1 dozen local eggs
1 large head broccoli
1 red pepper
fresh green beans
1 head romaine lettuce
2 mangos
4 apples
1 bunch bananas
3 pears
2 packages strawberries
1 jar minced garlic (I use this in bi bim bop since fresh is too strong)
1 package tofu
1 bag tortilla chips
1 box 44 count fish sticks (on a super sale)
1 large hunk of cheese
organic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (marked down to $1 for quick sale)
1 lb. fair trade coffee
1 bottle red wine
chopped pecans (marked down for quick sale)

So far we have been eating just fine. Luke has complained about the free bread from church that I have been making his sandwiches with since it has “crunchies” in it—it is oat nut rather than the usual 100% whole wheat—but he’ll survive. The nice thing about packing school lunches is that he is hungry and I’m not around for him to harass. I have also had to make homemade ketchup, which is quite tasty, and we didn’t get fresh cilantro in our tofu tortilla soup, which I missed a little. Also, the bi bim bop was made with whatever veggies needed to be used up rather than our usual spinach, zucchini, mushroom combo, but it tasted just fine. So far, it has been quite a thrifty week.

The only problem is that when I spend significantly less for a week, I always find that I’m out of so many things by the end of the week that I have to spend a lot the next. We’ll see how it goes.

8 comments:

amy turn sharp said...

I find that too. Um- tell me about this yummy sounding be bim bop thing! And we are reading each others blogs at same time I think! I just saw you left a comment on mine as I am reading yrs....dodododododoodod... xo

Ser said...

From what I understand, bi bim bop is the Korean version of fried rice. I was taught how to make it by my Korean friend Kyoung Min. Basically, it is steamed rice in a bowl, then a layer of whatever meat/tofu thing you like cooked in seasame oil, soy sauce, and garlic. Then veggies cooked in the same manner, and then for the home cook without those really hot korean stone bowls, a runny fried egg (which can be left out if you want to eat vegan.) Each person stirs as he/she likes and adds hot sauce, soy sauce, and toasted seasame seeds as preferred. Delish!

Oh, and this is nice for families with varied tastes because everything is cooked separately and each person can customize.

Christine said...

Tell me about the homemade katsup! I've been making homemade BBQ sauce, and I love it so much I will never go back to store bought.

Ser said...

Christine,

I think Laurel's kitchen has a recipe, and many variations pop up when you google ketchup/catsup recipes. Basically, it is sauteed onion, tomato product of some sort, vinegar, sugar, and salt, all pureed. My boys don't love it, but Craig and I think it tastes better than bottled--kind of like a cross between bbq sauce and ketchup.

Pudgy Mom said...

Oh, powdered milk...ew. Graham was telling me that his mom used powdered milk when they ran out of fresh milk. I use it in recipes, but I'm not a big fan of it in a cup for drinking. I see you included a bottle of red wine on your list..funny how that becomes a necessity! :) Let me know how your week ends!

Beck said...

And now I am SO hungry. I think I might try posting like this - it's interesting to think about regional variations in food costs, since strawberries HERE cost a zillion bucks right now and are imported from Peru, of all places.

Beck said...

And you know what? Powdered milk is handy to keep on hand - it's good to make hot cocoa out of and good to bake with. So I still have some on hand. But drinking it? Eck.

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