The Pig and I

This week, I didn't do any grocery shopping for myself. I did go to the store to get supplies for a study group party, but I didn't even keep the receipt since it wasn't groceries in the normal sense of groceries. So, my total is the same as last week. I'm a few dollars under monthly budget. I'm going to see for May if I can do an $80 monthly budget. I think if I keep it in the $20/week range but allow myself for an overall monthly amount, that might be easier for me in terms of the way I think about grocery shopping and budgeting while still trying to convert over to a monthly system.

This week, I wasted: NOTHING!!

Well, I forgot to put up a post for y'all on this one for last week. But that's okay, since I'm combining it with this week's storage totals. I suspect somehow as long as I tell y'all everything I remember, that things will be just fine with keeping up with what's being used. With finals coming up, I've mostly just been making foods you already know about: tossing together a can of coconut milk and Thai curry then adding some meat and veggies in it to simmer; baked zitis and lasagnas; polenta with some cheese mixed in, etc. Nothing new or exciting. As it stands right now, I'm just trying to keep my academic head above water for the next couple weeks. So mostly you can expect to see nothing new or exciting from me until this semester ends. But at the very least, I'll let y'all know generally what's happening in the kitchen. 1 pound penne (okay, so I didn't make baked ziti. I made baked penne. 6 and 1/2 dozen, I say) 1 pound linguini (pu...

Well, I finally made it to the store. I'm so proud. And I didn't just buy snacks, but actually got stuff people other than myself might consider to be food (so like, not just pickles basically). I'm not entirely convinced yet that I like the monthly budget as opposed to the weekly, but I'll try it during May also. Here's what I got at the store: Kroger : $2.99 - garlic juice $4.69 - garlic powder (strange I was out of this) $3.99 - milk (seriously, milk people. Is it necessary to charge so much for so little?) $2.49 - kalamata olives $2.99 - orange juice $1.72 - salsa $8.99 - 4 pounds chicken breast $2.77 - 1 pound butter $2.39 - coconut milk (which I mixed w/ some fried veggies, chicken and a can of Thai curry paste) $1.50 - banana peppers :) $1.94 - sugar (can y'all believe I nearly ran out of white sugar?) $1.34 - coconut and pineapple juice $2.28 - 4 cans of tomatoes $3.00 - 2 cans of anchovies $1.29 - fresh tomatoes $2.00 - oranges $0.99...

This week was not perfect. It was far from it, in fact. But that's okay. Next week I'll do better. This week I wasted: 2 cups pasta salad 3 slices bread

Once again, I didn't make it to the store this week. This isn't a huge surprise to anyone, is it? I have a gigantic shopping list and unfortunately, no time to buy it all. End of semester and all that jazz. So mainly I've been living on pasta and pre-made sauces all week (sauces I made, not sauces I bought; which you probably knew already). I made a quick baked ziti, using some of the meat sauce, a pound of pasta and the last of the mozzarella (plus I tossed in some mushrooms, onion and red bell pepper that needed to be used up). I made puttanesca, again. I could live off that, I think, sometimes. Plus some bread. And that's mainly what I've eaten all week. Plus I baked a few things for others. The upside of me not grocery shopping is that I have no choice but to use up food storage. The down side is that I'd really like to eat some chicken and I'm fresh out. So, for April, I'm going to go with the $30/week concept but scale it to a month. Which means ...

This week, I wasted (for the second week in a row): NOTHING!!!

I did well with the food storage use this time too. This time I used up: 1/2 box lasagna sheets 1 pound orzo 1/2 pound rigatoni 1/4 pound black beans 1 bag mint chocolate chips almost all the light brown sugar half a bag of bread flour some all-purpose flour more white sugar (I am actually nearly out of sugar now) lots of tea (in fairness, much of this was actually used in an o-chem lab) rosemary infused olive oil some jams half the kamruddin Also, I blew up my pressure cooker. It was so spectacularly cool I'd kind of like to do it again. Except, of course, it'd be a waste of another good canner. I wasn't injured in the process, though I should've been since my face was right over it when it blew.

Well, once again I went a week without going to the grocery store. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't go, since there were things I needed like chicken. And a new pressure canner (not that that's a grocery, but you know what I mean). Nonetheless, I didn't go. I am starting to think I may need to structure my entire system differently, having a monthly budget instead of a weekly one. Mainly because it seems like I don't go to the store for weeks on end, then, not surprisingly, I go far over the weekly budget (though strangely I don't typically spend more than one extra week's worth). What do you guys think about this? Should I set things at $100-120/month (This seems like a high monthly budget for two people, to be honest, even though that's what I bumped things up to. And which of course negates the occasional fifth week of a month and which will probably cause me to reduce the total monthly budget in addition to the extra occasional week), or should I...

Finally - a waste free week. It's about time, no? This week, I wasted: NOTHING!

Thanks so much to Ruth of of Once Upon a Feast for letting me host this week's PPN , and thanks to all of you who participated; I'm definitely going to be spending some time trying out all these wonderful looking (made even better by the skills of photographers far better than myself :)) recipes! It has truly been a pleasure to host Presto Pasta Nights this week, and I look forward to doing so again. Our first entry is from Val in British Columbia, Canada. She's made a stunning Ravioli Lasagna with Sausage and Mushroom s, one which I salivate at the thought of. Using raviolis to make the lasagna really lets you streamline the process while still getting all the deliciousness! Our next submission is a Smoked Salmon Pasta from Katerina, in Athens, Greece. Her submission comes from a place of love and appreciation for her husband. This is one of his favourite meals, and I can definitely see why! I can't help but imagine the touch of Scotch adds a warmth and depth ...

This week, I have the pleasure of hosting Presto Pasta Nights , a weekly event started by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast . It's a fantastic opportunity to share in our collective love of pasta, and one I hope you all will participate in. To participate, post a recipe in your blog, with a link back to Presto Pasta Nights , and one to me as well. Then email the link for your post to me at bahpeanut AT gmail DOT com and to Ruth at Ruth AT 4EveryKitchen DOT com. In your email, please also include as an attachment the photo of your dish so I can include it in the round-up, which will be posted on Friday. For my submission, I've made you an orzo and black bean salad. I used a homemade aioli as the dressing, thinned down a bit with some extra lemon juice to brighten it up just that much more. It's starting to get warm here in Texas as we prepare for yet another brutal summer, so salads are especially on my mind right now. I hope you all enjoy! 1 pound orzo, cooked to package direc...

Okay, so this week wasn't too bad either. I used up a good amount of stuff, though different stuff from before. 1/2 package no boil lasagna (I didn't feel like making pasta from scratch) 1 bag bread flour (now I only have one bag, like a normal person) palm heart, olives, mushrooms (all in canned form) all the meat sauce (though I made more) tomato sauce for pizza (as in, home canned sauce) some wheat berries for salad

Well, this might surprise you guys, but I went over. Way, way, way over. More than double over. I'm not particularly concerned right now that I did this, given I haven't shopped in ages. But I did go over. Mostly I went over because I needed to get the stuff to make and can my meat sauce and tomato sauce , as I'm basically out of both. And there we have it. So let's see what I got: Kroger : $3.79 - matzot $3.79 - matzot (yes, I needed two boxes. We are going through it at lightning speed these days) $0.99 - 28-ounce can whole tomatoes (meat sauce) $3.77 - 2 pounds pizza cheese $3.99 - Horizon milk $2.29 - dozen eggs $1.39 - diet coke $5.99 - chicken sausage (wow indulgence) $2.99 - chips $1.49 - hot dogs $2.00 - mushrooms $2.39 - ricotta (lasagna from meat sauce) $2.99 - leeks (meat sauce) $4.35 - tomatoes (tomato sauce) $1.59 - can mushrooms (meat sauce) $0.79 - cucumber $1.67 - garlic (6 heads) (both sauces) $0.50 - 2 lemons $2.99 - onions (toma...

I've been doing pretty poorly on the waste thing lately, haven't I? This week is no exception, though I'm hopeful that hereafter I should be posting about no waste. I'm really appalled by how much food has been wasted this week. This week I wasted: 1/2 pound cheese (I know what you're thinking. How does cheese go to waste in my house?) some celery (which I apparently had been completely unaware was infested with bugs when I bought it) 1 mango that got away before I found it in the back of the produce drawer