Nummy
In the first two months after Eleanor was born, Eric and I discovered our grocery spending was a bit out of whack. At first we had it chalked up to the holidays and my mom being in town, but when we looked at it after she'd been gone for a couple weeks we decided that $800 a month for two adults and a breastfeeding infant is probably more than is necessary. We were trying to figure out why we were spending so much on groceries and how much we would ideally be spending, and we realized that a lot of the food we were buying was going bad in the fridge. Essentially, we were shopping hungry and buying too much, and then only making some of it.
The last few weeks we've been sitting down on Saturday or Sunday morning and planning out meals for the week, then making a grocery list and doing the shopping. Having a plan and a list has really helped lower the amount we've been spending on groceries - this past month, it's been between $100 and $150 a week instead of $200 or $250. I think between $400 and $600 is a reasonable amount to spend on groceries each month, especially when you take into consideration the fact that we buy organic produce, organic/free-range meat/dairy, and sustainably caught fish.
I make two separate grocery lists: Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We get all our meat and seafood at Whole Foods, partially because it's really high quality and partially because I prefer getting meat from a butcher and fish from a fishmonger who wrap up what I select in butcher paper for me and it's fresh. I like it much more than picking meat that's wrapped in plastic and sitting in a styrofoam tray with a little pad in the bottom to soak up goo.
(Side bar: I stopped by Pete's, the little market down the street, on my way home from an appointment last week. We needed some chicken for dinner, so I thought I'd see what they had. The chicken said "all natural" on it so I asked the guy behind the deli counter what that meant, and he said it was "all chicken with nothin' added. Just, you know, normal chicken" so I asked him if that meant that it was factory farmed and he said yes, and then he started yelling at me about how organic chicken was actually BAD for you because he knows people who only eat organic and when they eat factory farmed chicken they get sick [...which makes NO sense, if you use that logic the conventional chicken is bad for you, clearly] and he asked me if I'd pay $6 a pound for chicken and I said, "Well, yes, I would and I regularly do pay at least that much." and he clearly wasn't expecting that answer and he was all, "99% of people wouldn't, and it's just normal chicken" blah blah blah except the entire time he was talking REALLY LOUDLY and derisively, as if I'd been completely out of line asking about the chicken. I mean, all I wanted to know was if it was conventional/factory farmed or free-range and organic. So I don't think I'm going back to Pete's any time soon. I don't like being treated like that. At Whole Foods today I asked if the bacon was nitrate/nitrite-free, and the nice butcher said that ALL their meat was nitrate/nitrite free, then he wrapped up my black forest bacon in butcher paper and gave it to me nicely with a smile.)
So ANYWAY, we've been planning meals out for the week ahead on the weekend, then buying groceries for the week (except meat/seafood, which we buy twice a week, and milk, which we buy as we run out because there's only enough room in the fridge for my gallon and Eric's half gallon at one time) on the weekends, and it's kind of nice. We do bigger and more complicated meals on the weekends when Eric is home all day to help with Eleanor, and during the week I try to do things that are a little easier or less complex.
Today we made corned beef brisket (on sale at Whole Foods for $5 a pound for the next 2 weeks) with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. It was REALLY good. I got 4 1/2 pounds of brisket and cooked it all, then froze half of it. We ate half of the one I didn't freeze, and then I packed the rest into two containers for lunches. I've been planning dinners, and then once a week we eat leftovers and we have leftovers for lunch. It works out pretty well. Tomorrow we're having turkey breast cutlets with a garlic-dijon-breadcrumb coating and roasted acorn squash. On Tuesday we're having chicken thighs en papillote with snow peas and ramen noodles with an orange and mirin sauce. Wednesday we're having leftovers and a wilted spinach salad with bacon and red onions. Thursday we're going to have chicken pot pie. I forget what we're doing on Friday, but Saturday I'm making lasagna.
I'm also making lentil cookies (Eric's request) and carrot cake, and I'm making some ice cream with our new ice cream maker. A Good Eats episode about avocados just aired, and one of the things he does is avocado ice cream. I'm totally excited to make it. The ice cream bowl thing is in the freezer, and the avocados are ripening. In the meantime, I'm making thin mint ice cream tomorrow and I think I might make something with coconut.
Next week when Colin comes I have a full menu planned. I'm super excited about the flourless chocolate cake with the green cardamom infused creme anglaise and raspberry coulis. We're also going to make a simple rhubarb fool that Jamie Oliver did on the rhubarb episode of Jamie at Home a few weeks ago. Eric and I had it last night for dessert and it was INCREDIBLE.
I made tiramisu earlier this week and it was really really good. I actually baked the ladyfingers myself, which I think really made a difference. Instead of a rum-espresso mixture for dipping the ladyfingers in, I used a Kalhua-espresso mixture. I also put Kalhua in the mascarpone mixture instead of rum. I used Ghirardelli cocoa powder instead of Hershey's. It was SUPER yummy.
I love cooking.
The last few weeks we've been sitting down on Saturday or Sunday morning and planning out meals for the week, then making a grocery list and doing the shopping. Having a plan and a list has really helped lower the amount we've been spending on groceries - this past month, it's been between $100 and $150 a week instead of $200 or $250. I think between $400 and $600 is a reasonable amount to spend on groceries each month, especially when you take into consideration the fact that we buy organic produce, organic/free-range meat/dairy, and sustainably caught fish.
I make two separate grocery lists: Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We get all our meat and seafood at Whole Foods, partially because it's really high quality and partially because I prefer getting meat from a butcher and fish from a fishmonger who wrap up what I select in butcher paper for me and it's fresh. I like it much more than picking meat that's wrapped in plastic and sitting in a styrofoam tray with a little pad in the bottom to soak up goo.
(Side bar: I stopped by Pete's, the little market down the street, on my way home from an appointment last week. We needed some chicken for dinner, so I thought I'd see what they had. The chicken said "all natural" on it so I asked the guy behind the deli counter what that meant, and he said it was "all chicken with nothin' added. Just, you know, normal chicken" so I asked him if that meant that it was factory farmed and he said yes, and then he started yelling at me about how organic chicken was actually BAD for you because he knows people who only eat organic and when they eat factory farmed chicken they get sick [...which makes NO sense, if you use that logic the conventional chicken is bad for you, clearly] and he asked me if I'd pay $6 a pound for chicken and I said, "Well, yes, I would and I regularly do pay at least that much." and he clearly wasn't expecting that answer and he was all, "99% of people wouldn't, and it's just normal chicken" blah blah blah except the entire time he was talking REALLY LOUDLY and derisively, as if I'd been completely out of line asking about the chicken. I mean, all I wanted to know was if it was conventional/factory farmed or free-range and organic. So I don't think I'm going back to Pete's any time soon. I don't like being treated like that. At Whole Foods today I asked if the bacon was nitrate/nitrite-free, and the nice butcher said that ALL their meat was nitrate/nitrite free, then he wrapped up my black forest bacon in butcher paper and gave it to me nicely with a smile.)
So ANYWAY, we've been planning meals out for the week ahead on the weekend, then buying groceries for the week (except meat/seafood, which we buy twice a week, and milk, which we buy as we run out because there's only enough room in the fridge for my gallon and Eric's half gallon at one time) on the weekends, and it's kind of nice. We do bigger and more complicated meals on the weekends when Eric is home all day to help with Eleanor, and during the week I try to do things that are a little easier or less complex.
Today we made corned beef brisket (on sale at Whole Foods for $5 a pound for the next 2 weeks) with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. It was REALLY good. I got 4 1/2 pounds of brisket and cooked it all, then froze half of it. We ate half of the one I didn't freeze, and then I packed the rest into two containers for lunches. I've been planning dinners, and then once a week we eat leftovers and we have leftovers for lunch. It works out pretty well. Tomorrow we're having turkey breast cutlets with a garlic-dijon-breadcrumb coating and roasted acorn squash. On Tuesday we're having chicken thighs en papillote with snow peas and ramen noodles with an orange and mirin sauce. Wednesday we're having leftovers and a wilted spinach salad with bacon and red onions. Thursday we're going to have chicken pot pie. I forget what we're doing on Friday, but Saturday I'm making lasagna.
I'm also making lentil cookies (Eric's request) and carrot cake, and I'm making some ice cream with our new ice cream maker. A Good Eats episode about avocados just aired, and one of the things he does is avocado ice cream. I'm totally excited to make it. The ice cream bowl thing is in the freezer, and the avocados are ripening. In the meantime, I'm making thin mint ice cream tomorrow and I think I might make something with coconut.
Next week when Colin comes I have a full menu planned. I'm super excited about the flourless chocolate cake with the green cardamom infused creme anglaise and raspberry coulis. We're also going to make a simple rhubarb fool that Jamie Oliver did on the rhubarb episode of Jamie at Home a few weeks ago. Eric and I had it last night for dessert and it was INCREDIBLE.
I made tiramisu earlier this week and it was really really good. I actually baked the ladyfingers myself, which I think really made a difference. Instead of a rum-espresso mixture for dipping the ladyfingers in, I used a Kalhua-espresso mixture. I also put Kalhua in the mascarpone mixture instead of rum. I used Ghirardelli cocoa powder instead of Hershey's. It was SUPER yummy.
I love cooking.