Update on my “Slow Month”

For a total of just under $5.

On Monday I went to the grocery store to get a few items for Chris’ birthday dinner the next day:

• lettuce
• 1 avocado
• 1 tomato
• bag of tortilla chips
• 1 can of cherry pie filling
• organic apple cider vinegar (I had it on my co-op list and it was on sale at the store)
• 1/2 dozen organic eggs

And that’s all I’ve purchased food-wise. David picked up a bag of cat food yesterday and I bought Chris’ birthday gifts. I’d say I’m doing pretty well. If you read “Dee’s Kitchen” you’ll have seen my menus which I’ve stuck to fairly well. Here are some of the meals we’ve had:

• homemade egg rolls with fried rice
• curried vegetables over brown rice
• Creamy Artichoke Pasta
• Vegetable Soup with Parmesan Dumplings
• gumbo and potato salad
• green chili/sour cream enchiladas 
• red beans and rice (the beans were in the freezer)

When I made Chris’ cherry pie for his birthday, I just had enough homemade pie dough in the freezer for one crust. Instead of the usual lattice top, I made a crumb topping from butter, brown sugar and flour. We all agreed it was better than the second crust. I have quite a bit of the topping left so I will be making apple muffins in the next day or two and using the remaining topping on those. I had bought 20# of organic apples a few weeks ago so I’m on the lookout for recipes to use them.

Oh, I forgot to mention one other expenditure. I had my monthly hair appointment last Tuesday. Call me shallow but keeping those gray hairs colored is a priority for me.

So far this hasn’t been difficult at all which just goes to show how much stuff we already had on hand and that I’m not much of a shopper. Oops. I just remembered one other thing I bought. When I was purchasing a couple of things for Chris’ birthday, I bought a Mother Earth News magazine. I used to buy lots of magazines of all types and had at least a couple of subscriptions at any given time. I have pretty much broken that habit with the exception of Countryside and Mother Earth News. I always find a lot of useful articles within each of these magazines and in fact, keep them for future reference. The current issue I bought has articles about eating well for less, pressure canning (something I plan to attempt this summer), seed companies and homemade cleaning recipes. All of these are topics I’m interested in and what I’ve read so far has been helpful. 

Things I haven’t bought this month include fast food and the occasional Diet Coke with vanilla on ice from a convenience store. Yes, I do indulge in those once or twice a week but not this month. And we don’t do much fast food but on occasion if I find myself in town around lunch time, I’m not above picking up a hamburger from a local favorite, The Whip Dip. But again, not this month. 

Tomorrow after church I will be picking up milk, butter and lettuce at Braum’s. My co-op order pickup is this week and I ordered right around $50 worth, mostly produce, plus a bag of masa harina so I can try my hand at making homemade tortillas.  The local organic bakery re-opens after a holiday break this Tuesday and they are receiving what will now be just a monthly delivery of organic produce. I will probably at least buy some broccoli and kale.

I have one loaf of homemade bread left in the freezer so I’ll need to do some baking this week. I think instead of making the usual five loaves, I’ll use part of the dough for hot dog buns since I have a package of all-beef, nitrate-free hot dogs in the freezer. While I’m making a mess in the kitchen that day, I should also make a bunch of pizza crusts to freeze and maybe some garlic breadsticks or focaccia. I’d also like to have muffins in the freezer and cookie dough. Perhaps I should just set aside a whole day in the kitchen and consolidate all that cleanup in just one day. We’ll see how this week goes. I know I’ve got at least four activities this week. 

Okay, it’s almost midnight and I’d like to get this posted today. Goodnight and pleasant dreams!