Food, Glorious Food
Apr. 20th, 2004 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doronjosamaWell, we are done with all our books and they are all at the printers being made into comic pamphlets. I only have one book on the schedule for next week (another issue of Furrlough, yay monthly schedule!) so the rest of this week will be taken up with mail, paperwork, and more of the office organization project I am undertaking. I cleared out a 33-gallon trashbag of old xeroxes we no longer need. (I recycle the ones that are small and which are one-sided- they get to have faxes come in on their blank sides.) But the big ones get eventually tossed months and months after we scan and use them. I suppose I could use them to make jaunty chapeaus or something, but when am I really going to need an office full of paper Napoleon hats?
Finally got a bunch of auction payments in as well, which meant I could go and do a full grocery shopping trip for the first time in probably two months. We've been living off ramen, mac & cheese, sandwiches, and whatever odds and ends were left over from the last grocery trip, so we *really* needed to go. But I am so rocking today, because I was hardcore about buying the store brands on stuff (our store brands are really tasty, actually)- and because of this careful budgeting, I managed to shave $100 off the monthly food bill. Go me! (I didn't buy any soda, chips, snacky things or frozen convenience foods, like frozen microwave meals. Good lord, but that saves a ton of money!) For my few splurge items, I got some soy taco stuff (I swear to god, it tastes exactly like Taco Bell meat! I don't know how they do it...) and these tomato/mozzarella/brown rice nuggets from GardenBurger that are super tasty. I am not even remotely vegetarian, but I like to eat meatless meals every so often as some kind of weird holdover from my mom's sometimes hippie-style cooking. For example, I prefer spinach lasagna to meat lasagna, and sometimes I'll make it with half tofu/half ricotta. And I like falafel, lentil soup, and couscous if it's made right (most people make it way too dry). My other splurge things were some Orville Redenbacher caramel popcorn faux ricecakes that are really tasty- and some Quaker cheese flavored ricecakes. No, I swear, I am not dieting, but I am trying to avoid stuffing my face with chips nonstop if I watch TV or something. One ricecake sized thing is a perfect snack for me and better for me than half a bag of Doritos. Just trying to eat healthier! I need to add more soy to my diet, as I am getting older, but am at a bit of a loss since I can't stand tofu. (Except when hidden in spinach lasagna and pretending to be ricotta cheese....) I also got vitamins again, and wow, the store brand had the exact same ingredients and stats as the brand name, but was almost $2 cheaper! The shopping took a long time, because I was reading labels and price signs and figuring out which deals were better. But it totally paid off to do that!
At any rate, there is something very comforting about seeing the pantry organized and stocked with food once again. It was looking pretty barren and scary, with weird things that didn't go together at all- furikake sprinkles, Kool-Aid packets, DP's collection of ochazuke flavors, Kraft mac & cheese, pasta sauce mix (but no pasta), cornflakes, etc. Not a happy pantry. Now it is a happy pantry, and I'll save a ton of money by not eating out. (When there's nothing to eat, the temptation to get 99-cent Jumbo Jacks is just way too strong!)
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atomicpanda came down to visit today. He actually helped a lot at the grocery store, since he knows which of the cheap brands are good. We'll probably watch some TV or something tonight, it's very low-key. Plus, I just spent all my cash on groceries like a responsible adult, so it's not like we could really go and live it up anywhere. ^_^;
Tomorrow means more work! But tonight, I am resting!
Finally got a bunch of auction payments in as well, which meant I could go and do a full grocery shopping trip for the first time in probably two months. We've been living off ramen, mac & cheese, sandwiches, and whatever odds and ends were left over from the last grocery trip, so we *really* needed to go. But I am so rocking today, because I was hardcore about buying the store brands on stuff (our store brands are really tasty, actually)- and because of this careful budgeting, I managed to shave $100 off the monthly food bill. Go me! (I didn't buy any soda, chips, snacky things or frozen convenience foods, like frozen microwave meals. Good lord, but that saves a ton of money!) For my few splurge items, I got some soy taco stuff (I swear to god, it tastes exactly like Taco Bell meat! I don't know how they do it...) and these tomato/mozzarella/brown rice nuggets from GardenBurger that are super tasty. I am not even remotely vegetarian, but I like to eat meatless meals every so often as some kind of weird holdover from my mom's sometimes hippie-style cooking. For example, I prefer spinach lasagna to meat lasagna, and sometimes I'll make it with half tofu/half ricotta. And I like falafel, lentil soup, and couscous if it's made right (most people make it way too dry). My other splurge things were some Orville Redenbacher caramel popcorn faux ricecakes that are really tasty- and some Quaker cheese flavored ricecakes. No, I swear, I am not dieting, but I am trying to avoid stuffing my face with chips nonstop if I watch TV or something. One ricecake sized thing is a perfect snack for me and better for me than half a bag of Doritos. Just trying to eat healthier! I need to add more soy to my diet, as I am getting older, but am at a bit of a loss since I can't stand tofu. (Except when hidden in spinach lasagna and pretending to be ricotta cheese....) I also got vitamins again, and wow, the store brand had the exact same ingredients and stats as the brand name, but was almost $2 cheaper! The shopping took a long time, because I was reading labels and price signs and figuring out which deals were better. But it totally paid off to do that!
At any rate, there is something very comforting about seeing the pantry organized and stocked with food once again. It was looking pretty barren and scary, with weird things that didn't go together at all- furikake sprinkles, Kool-Aid packets, DP's collection of ochazuke flavors, Kraft mac & cheese, pasta sauce mix (but no pasta), cornflakes, etc. Not a happy pantry. Now it is a happy pantry, and I'll save a ton of money by not eating out. (When there's nothing to eat, the temptation to get 99-cent Jumbo Jacks is just way too strong!)
atomicpanda came down to visit today. He actually helped a lot at the grocery store, since he knows which of the cheap brands are good. We'll probably watch some TV or something tonight, it's very low-key. Plus, I just spent all my cash on groceries like a responsible adult, so it's not like we could really go and live it up anywhere. ^_^;Tomorrow means more work! But tonight, I am resting!
