Day 8:  I am good at many things. Making eggs is not one of them. Since I have spent the majority of my breakfast eating years nibbling on toast, english muffins, oatmeal and other sweet and bready breakfasts, I find the egg to be a bit of a foreigner to me, at least on busy weekdays. But now I’m cracking ‘em up all the time, and while they taste pretty good, I have a knack for making fried eggs look absolutely dreadful.

I hate to admit this, and it saddens me to say it, but…I feel better without my morning coffee(s) than with it. Ugh. I didn’t want that to be true. But no, I don’t need coffee to wake up and I have felt more consistently energetic throughout the day during the last 8 days than I have in a long time. Still, I miss coffee more than anything else– far more than cheese and carbs, surprisingly.

I miss it not only for its terrific taste, but also for the sheer ritual of it. I miss waking up and holding that hot little mug in my eager hands. I miss stepping out for a quick break with a co-worker to indulge in a little late afternoon liquid love. I miss my friend. Java will be returning to my life on June 8th, just with a lot less sugar and milk. Right before filling my cavity last week, my dentist asked if I’d considered switching to black coffee. I looked at him and in all seriousness asked, “What do I look like? Some kind of an animal?” I’m thinking (hoping, rather) that after being off sugar for a month, I’ll need less to satisfy my sweet tooth. I’ll probably switch to a good decaf too.

Just as we settle in for a nice dinner of beef and broccoli stir-fry over spaghetti squash (instead of noodles) and coconut aminos (instead of soy sauce), I ask Vin to share how he’s feeling a week into this thing. Rather than complain about withdrawal from baked goods and missing the staff at Dunkin’, he says that he feels great and really likes eating this way. He mentions that he always feels satisfied, but never uncomfortably full like we did when eating meals like pasta or other carby dishes with cheese. He also mentions that it feels easier to wake up in the morning and his sleep has improved. He actually said, and I quote, “I can really tell that there is a connection between eating well and feeling good.” Somebody call a tow truck. My big ass jaw is on the floor.

Day 9:  Today is Saturday and we’d like to go out to eat. I’m finding going out to restaurants to be a big drag on this Whole 30 program, because so much of the menu is off limits and I’m used to choosing my dishes based on desire rather than practicality. We go to Bare Burger, one of the places in our neighborhood where we know we can get multiple offerings of organic meats. Vin gets the elk burger and I get bison; we have them wrapped up in lettuce leaves instead of buns and leave off the cheese.  WHO ARE WE?  My very lean burger is tasty, but I’m pretty sure the order of onion rings at the next table just winked at me.

We meet up with Vin’s friend, who is in the process of cooking a huge, delicious meal for his girlfriend’s birthday dinner, and is out in the hood food shopping. We foolishly accompany him to a local beer and cheese shop where pretty much every single item is off limits to us for the next few weeks. The beer holds little appeal, but I stare at the cheese counter with the type of longing reserved for someone who’s recently left for war. We make the rounds through the neighborhood, picking up massive amounts of kale, parsnips and broccoli rabe at the produce market, two juicy steaks and a whole chicken at the butcher and a bouquet of pretty flowers from the outside stand. I always feel like I live on Sesame Street when we do our shopping this way. I kinda love it.

Day 10:  Sunday morning is when I want coffee the most. It’s not uncommon for me to make a pot of coffee and sip on that until noon instead of eating. Terrible, I know. I do tons of food prep today. That’s what I like least about this way of eating. I am always cooking. But truthfully, it’s not really that different than the way I usually cook. Lots and lots of veggies with a side of protein. Except two weeks ago I would have thrown it all on top of  a batch of grains and topped it with cheese. I find that it’s just as satisfying without both of those extras.

We make steak, roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli rabe for dinner. Vinny is in heaven. I think this way of eating is pretty easy for him, as burgers and steaks are his comfort foods. My comfort foods are things that come wrapped in or stacked on tortillas, filled with refried beans, melty cheddar and roasted poblanos. You can take the girl outta Texas, but you can’t take the plate of Tex-Mex out of her grubby, coffee-bean stained paws. Until she goes on the Whole 30, that is.

Day 11:  I woke up this morning and ambled into the living room to see that Vin made a run to the grocery store last night for snacks. This usually involves a seriously delicious-looking bag of potato chips or cookies. You know what he bought last night? Three oranges and a box of cherry tomatoes. It’s like living with a stranger.

My stomach is definitely flatter. I like the way it’s looking, and I haven’t said that about my stomach in a little while. I think my jeans are looser too, but it could just be because they’re from the Gap and Gap jeans stretch out ten minutes after you put them on. I’m not sure if I’ve actually lost weight or not because you’re not supposed to weigh yourself through the 30-day period. I don’t have a scale anyway, so that rule sort of worked itself out.

Day 12:  Vin and I start fantasizing about what we’ll eat when this is over. We both agree that we’re going to take ourselves out for milkshakes. I’m a little concerned about what it will feel like when we start reintroducing foods back. Will it be worth it?

Day 13:  I miss some stuff, but my cravings aren’t terrible. Plus, we’ve been eating really well and we’re never left feeling hungry. I don’t get the shakes anymore from my blood sugar dropping in the afternoon. My body tells me that I’m hungry, but not in that desperate, manic, “If I don’t eat something right now I’m going to lose my shiz” kind of way. Here’s a little peek into what I’ve been cooking:

Cauliflower fried “rice” with stir-fried broccoli, green onion, cilantro, garlic, red peppers,

shrimp and chicken

(*Cauliflower is riced by shredding it in the food processor; there’s no actual rice in this dish)

 Chicken, sweet potato, onion and kale stir-fry with crushed pecans and dried cherries

Mixed salad with organic shredded chicken, carrots, radishes, avocado, toasted almonds in

lemon-olive oil dressing.

Broiled salmon with raw kale salad with radishes, almonds, avocados, lemon and olive oil

To-go lunch: grilled chicken topped with mango/pineapple salsa, avocado, and roasted sweet potatoes

Tortilla soup (sans tortillas) with a big scoop of guacamole!

Alright! I’m off to cook some more! More homemade Larabars and  butternut squash boats stuffed with ground turkey and caramelized onions.

Anybody else ever do a Whole 30? Would you? (I swear…it’s not that bad!!) PS: They have meal plans for vegetarians too!

Have you heard of the Whole 30? It’s not a diet, it’s considered a “nutritional reset” that helps people rethink their food choices in 30 days. I am currently on day 7, and it’s been an interesting journey so far. I hesitated posting about it because I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested, but I figure it’s a good way to track my progress and how I feel throughout.

For the last several months, I’ve been reacting differently to food. Maybe it’s just a result of getting older (sniff, sniff), but I just can’t eat the way I used to. I feel puffy and bloated much of the time, and I’ve been getting minor stomach aches after most meals. It’s become clear that I have at least a minor intolerance or sensitivity to something, but because I eat pretty much everything, it’s been difficult for me to put my finger on the culprit.

Enter the Whole 30. The goal is to eat “clean” for 30 days– organic and grass-fed protein sources, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and avocados (oh, so many avocados!) and cut out the stuff that causes inflammation (dairy, gluten, sugar, soy) in many people. Once the 30 days are up, I plan to slowly reintroduce the foods excluded from this list so I can identify what’s been causing me to feel less than stellar and make appropriate adjustments in my diet.

That means no dairy. No wheat. No gluten. No soy products. No alcohol. No processed foods. No sugar or sweet substitutes including honey. No legumes. No beloved coffee with cream and sugar.

For 30 days.

And my husband Vin, who loves Dunkin’ Donuts only slightly less than he loves me,  actually agreed to do it with me. What a guy.

Okay, here we go.

Day 1: So, not to be dramatic or anything, but I’m pretty sure that I’m dying. I feel awful. I can’t believe how poorly my body is reacting to not having coffee or carbs this morning. My body is a big whiny baby. Apparently I really am a junkie. Symptoms include an unbearable headache that won’t go away with Advil, nausea, and unbelievable fatigue. I am actually grateful that not many clients have shown up to see me today, because I’m pretty sure I would be useless to everyone. I look online–apparently this is typical in the first few days and is known as “carb flu”. I wish there was a shot for this. Of whipped cream. Or chocolate. Or goat cheese. Oh man, this is going to be rough.

A work colleague I barely know stops in the doorway of my office and says, “You don’t sleep well, do you?”. I laugh politely but really want to tell him never to say that to anyone again. Isn’t “you look tired” just a slightly more polite way of saying “you look like shit.”?

This sucks. All I want to do is sprawl on the floor and take a nap. Then I want to wake up and start the day over while standing underneath a rippling waterfall of sweet, creamy coffee. I’m day-dreaming about it.

I get home at 7, eat dinner at 7:20 (thank God I made some chicken soup yesterday–it’s the absolute perfect meal right now) and now I’m headed for bed. It’s 8:10. The sun is still out. So am I.

Day 2: I survived! Headache is subtle, but not nearly as severe as yesterday.  Pack lunches for me and Vin; leftover shredded organic chicken topped with chimichurri sauce, a bit of broccoli, roasted sweet potatoes and avocado slices. I also throw some almonds in baggies for each of us. I can already tell that planning ahead will be absolutely critical to our success. I’m also realizing there’s a lot of really good stuff to eat this month…

My first client of the day tells me I look like I’ve lost weight. This can’t possibly be true after a day, but I like whatever she’s seeing. I’m not doing this to lose weight, but if five pounds magically fall off in the process I wouldn’t be mad at ‘em. My second client of the day offers my first temptation– a big gorgeous tub of rice pudding from a well-known rice pudding spot called Rice to Riches that I’ve always wanted to try. It is basically everything I’m not supposed to eat all wrapped up into one sweet-smelling package– white rice, whole milk, tons of sugar. I kiss it goodbye and hand it off to a co-worker friend. Not the dude who said I looked tired. He gets bupkis.

Day 3:  It’s Saturday, which presents the weekend challenge of eating with people who are eating differently than me. My friend calls while I’m en route to meet her, and asks if I want  her to pick up a coffee for me. It pains me to say no, but I do it. Then I meet up with some gal pals, and we head out for brunch. I’ve never put any restrictions on my food choices before, so this was different for me. I’ll have the chicken sandwich, without the cheese, and on a bed of arugula instead of a bun.  I felt like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. My meal was pretty boring, and it was kind of a bummer having to drink black tea while everyone else had fun French Martinis, but turning down alcohol is not a big deal for me. I’m way more envious of things like english muffins and melty cheese.

Vin picks me up later and has a goody bag filled with Whole-30 friendly items, including Larabars which I’d never had before. What a fool I’ve been! These things are delicious!

Day 4:  I’m gonna give coffee with coconut milk (and no sweetener) a shot. I’m excited about this. This is gonna be good. And then I drink it. Blech. Yuck. I hate it. Not happening.

Today is Mother’s Day, so we’re headed to Vin’s parents’ house. We’re grilling meats and I’ve been assigned to bring some veggie sides, so this is perfect. We can probably slide under the radar without having to explain our new weird eating habits. We eat dinner, and no one even questions us when we don’t reach for the bread basket, the macaroni salad or the delicious looking chocolate cake. I’m shocked, frankly, and pretty impressed with Vin for sticking to the plan despite plenty of temptation.

Day 5:  They’re imperceptible to anyone else, but I’m noticing some changes. My belly isn’t bloated, and my face looks less puffy. No stomach aches either. I doubt I could eat paleo forever– it’s really too much meat for my taste– but I definitely see some changes in my diet coming down the pike.

Day 6:  I miss crunchy things. Tortillas baked in the oven. Crackers. Popcorn. Sigh. It’s only 30 days. And at least I can eat bacon.

Day 7:  Today’s Wednesday. I don’t work on Wednesdays so this is officially my errand-running, food-prep day. After having a cavity filled (and sharing the good news with my dentist that I’m off sugar at least temporarily), I head to the organic shops in my neighborhood and pick up some goodies, including dates, which I’ve never really used before in cooking or baking. I find a recipe online for homemade Larabars, and know Vin will be one happy guy when he sees what I’ve created! Homemade “pecan pie” Larabars made with pulverized dates, crushed pecans, a splash of vanilla and unsweetened shredded coconut. Delicious! I also whip up a batch of frozen banana-coconut milk soft serve and pop that in the fridge. 

The thing that’s hard about eating this way is all the planning that’s involved. I feel like I’m constantly cooking or prepping food, and I have to think two meals ahead. But week one is done, and neither one of us fell off the wagon and we both feel good. I’m pretty sure Vin goes to bed every night dreaming of Entenmann’s cakes though.

Has anyone else tried a Whole 30? What did you think of it, and how did it change your eating habits? 

Here’s how that broke down:

Groceries: $542.78

Meals Out: $318.87

Drinks (all non-alcoholic): $124.12

My Total Spending: $566.32

Vin’s Total Spending: $475.85

Grand Total: $1,041.57

(Sidenote: I didn’t tally all purchases in this breakdown). 

So what have I learned from this?

* Well, we live in an expensive area, first of all. This is obviously not news to me, but when I took photographs of all the food I purchased at the grocery for $40, $50, and $60 it just didn’t really look like that much food. Bummer.

* There are some things we’re willing to spend money on, simply because they make our lives better. I’m never going to stop buying organic chicken, milk or eggs to save money. That was a conscious switch I made years ago, and it’s staying put for a multitude of reasons. We’re never going to stop going out to dinner on Saturday nights or having brunch with friends on Sunday. Life’s too short.

* Some battles aren’t worth fighting. When I began to see $3+ hot chocolates from Dunkin’ Donuts pop up on Vin’s side of the spreadsheet nearly every single workday, it admittedly seemed like an easy cut to make. I make coffee at home, and I was thinking maybe he could make hot chocolate at his work with an electric kettle he has there. But Vin is a hard-working man who leaves his office very rarely throughout the day, and grabbing a hot chocolate down the street at Dunkin’ is often his only break. I get it.

* I need to look at grocery shopping as a weekly whole, rather than a series of individual meals. Meaning, because I love to cook and find a lot of joy in it, I often over-complicate things and feel like every dinner has to be some big ordeal. This leads to multiple trips to the grocery store for various ingredients, when I should be buying stuff that can be used multiple times weekly for a variety of meals. Also, it wouldn’t kill us to have just a simple meal comprised of 3-4 ingredients from time to time.

* If I prepare lunches for us daily, our overall spending will go down quite a bit. Both of our spending during the day is proportionally much higher on days when I don’t pack us lunches. This is a no-brainer which unfortunately requires more effort on my part, cause Vin sure ain’t waking up early to make turkey sandwiches.

Vin and I have had the same method for divvying up costs for the five years we’ve lived together. I pay for all groceries; he pays for all meals out. We also have very concrete ways of splitting up our other monthly bills. However, this is the first time Vin and I have ever tracked our budgets together as a financial team, and it’s opened up a floodgate of conversations about money, savings and our financial future. All good  things. We’re now talking about other ways to bring in extra income, and investments we might consider making. Not all aspects of married or coupled life are terribly romantic though, are they? Not sure if I can convince him to keep tracking purchases for May, but it makes sense to me to see if we’re able to get our spending down.

I tip my hat to anyone who managed to continue with this challenge through the whole month. Did anyone else follow through? What lessons did you learn about your spending?

I’ve had the “recipe” on my Pinterest board for eons, and after polishing off another tiny $10 bottle of Tide, decided to finally give this old-school method a try. For the step-by-step directions, please refer to the site where I found the recipe: Why Not Sew?.

For the price of one bottle of Tide, I got the supplies for an estimated 576 loads of laundry. All you need is one box of Borax, a box of washing soda, a bar of soap, a big pot, a grater and two gallons of water. I’d like to mention here that my husband Vin thought this was a spectacularly weird idea, and would not allow me to use any of his precious t-shirts in my homemade detergent’s inaugural run through the washer. That made it extra important for this experiment to work out well. I not only needed to save money. I needed to save face.

If you have similar needs, you’ll start by dragging your biggest pot out of the cabinet.

And get to work grating a bar of soap. I used only half a bar, because I read from others’ feedback that the solution thickens too much when using a whole bar. Don’t a put this on a your pizza pie. This is not a mozzarella. It is castille.

Homemade laundry detergent is incredibly simple to make–basically you throw the grated soap in the pot with one gallon of water until it dissolves. Then you add a cup of the washing soda and a cup of the borax until it boils. After that, you turn off the stove, pour in the 2nd gallon of water and transfer the mixture back into the empty gallon jugs. Unless you want some squeaky clean floors, best use a funnel to transfer the liquid back into the jugs. I used my fancy All-Clad soup ladle to haul the hot liquid into the funnel. You know, just like Laura Ingalls used to do it.

As I stirred the coconut oil soap into a hot, foamy froth, I imagined myself as a teenaged girl in the Duggar family, the one that’s always on TV with the mom whose uterus is begging for retirement. With 40 children, you know they’re not blowing through bottles of Tide on the regular. No doubt, the elder girls make a batch of this every day before whipping up enough tater tot casseroles to feed their small army.

I have a much smaller brood to wash for, so two gallons of this ought to last me a while longer. If you plan on trying this, you should know that after the solution cools in the gallon containers, it thickens and coagulates and generally lacks the smooth, liquidy texture you are accustomed to. Coagulate is a polite way of saying that this particular homemade detergent has the texture, color and viscosity of a big ball of snot. You basically have to scoop it out with your fingers and drop a wad into the washer. It’s weird, no doubt. But don’t let that deter you! This snot does the job.

For my inaugural batch I gave the homemade suds a demanding challenge. The white towels. Dun-dun-dun! I am happy to report that they came out of that machine zestfully clean and sparkling white. The soap was unscented, so there wasn’t as much of that “fresh out of the dryer” scent, but I can add scented soap or even an essential oil to the next batch.  I am pleased to say that I have effectively saved cash and face. Homemade detergent for the win!

Vinny– don’t hate. Congratulate.

This challenge has highlighted some poor habits for both of us, which can be difficult to look at. For me, I’ve learned that I’m pretty crummy at meal planning. Sure, I half-heartedly flip through cookbooks on Sunday morning with a vague idea of what I’d like to make that week, but once I hit the grocery stores, all bets are off. When it comes to cooking, I go day by day, because the urban lifestyle allows me to do so. I go to the grocery store an average of three times a week, and when you do that, it’s way too easy to throw stuff in the cart that could be done without.

Like bacon frosting. No one needs bacon frosting.

As for the ol’ ball and chain, well I’ll let him evaluate his column and see what he might be able to adapt to save a few bucks.

Anyway, I wasn’t up to photographing the contents of my grocery cart this week, but it was a big shop week for me, as it felt like we were out of almost everything. About once a month, we’ll hit Trader Joe’s, and I always spend a lot more than usual there as I’m stocking up on certain items that they carry that I’m obsessed with (honey-roasted sliced almonds= 4 bags) and because we go there in a car, which means I can actually purchase more than I can carry out with two hands.

Meals made:  pizza with spinach, tomatoes and mozzarella; shrimp and grits, quinoa and broccoli fried rice, pesto and mozzarella chicken sandwiches, strawberry and goat cheese salad

And to review, totals by week:

Week 1: $270.78

Week 2: $258.42

Week 3: $177.13

Week 4: $252.37

Total (as of April 26th): $958.70

That total is gross. But not as gross as bacon frosting.

How’d y’all do? Are any of you still tracking, or are you getting as tired of it as I am?

]]> http://muchtomydelight.com/2013/04/food-budget-challenge-week-4.html/feed 4 http://muchtomydelight.com/2013/04/food-budget-challenge-week-3.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=food-budget-challenge-week-3 http://muchtomydelight.com/2013/04/food-budget-challenge-week-3.html#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:55:41 +0000 Jenn P. http://muchtomydelight.com/?p=1127 Ten years ago, when I was a single girl in Colorado, I distinctly remember spending about $35 a week on groceries. My cart was full of healthy girl food and so consequently was my fridge. My, how times have changed. These days it’s a rare event to spend less than $50 on a grocery trip, even when it’s just a quickie run for a few last-minute items.

Not only that, but today I share a home and a refrigerator with a man whose metabolism occasionally makes me want to hurl small soft pieces of fruit at his face, because it’s all just so unfair that he should eat what he eats and get away with it. That flat-bellied fool drinks hot chocolate once or twice a day, indulges in burgers at least twice a week, and brought a big sexy bag of Cheez Doodles into this house the other day knowing full well that I am completely powerless to their cheezy charms.

Why, Vin? Why?

The stuff I bought for the week was far more boring:

Grocery Trip: salmon, 3 packages organic chicken, half and half, taco seasoning, free-range eggs, 1 package quinoa, cuties oranges

Total: $47.47

And here was our grand total for last week, including last weekend’s eats...$258.42 (is it just me, or is it insane that two people spend $250 a  week on food?)

THIS WEEK’S CURRENT TOTAL: $91.62

One improvement made this week: Almost 100% homemade lunches. Now if we could only kick our hot beverage habits during the day…

Spinach salads with grilled chicken, toasted almonds, avocado, chia seeds and creamy herb dressing

Rotini pasta with asparagus, lemon, olive oil, fresh mint and toasted almonds

Meals Made: Sweet & Sour Chicken & Pineapple over rice with garlic broccoli, roasted salmon with cauliflower, lentil tacos, stir-fry with quinoa, chicken, cauliflower and leftover chimichurri sauce, homemade strawberry shortcakes, sweet potato/spinach/chickpea saute with lemon, olive oil, toasted almonds and z’aatar, baked tostadas with black bean & jalapeno spread, zucchini and caramelized onions

Improvements Made: almost 100% lunches brought to work (!); used fruit in several dishes instead of letting them die slow deaths in the crisper drawer like they usually do; ate leftovers for dinner

Grand total (as of April 18): $619.

And if you’ll recall, I started this whole challenge based on the notion that I thought my friend spending $600 a month on groceries was crazy high. And we did it by the 18th day of the month. We must be advanced or something.

Ugh. Adulthood sucks sometimes, doesn’t it?

How’d y’all fare this week?

Recently, my good friend Bridget has been joining me on these walks, and man, does that ever make them more fun. We talk about all kinds of stuff, we’re out in the sunshine and fresh air, and it’s a fantastic way to see the city from a different perspective. On one of our walks recently, she reminded me of a quote I love, from a movie I’ve never seen. Bridget strives to be like Auntie Mame, the originator of the brilliant line, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.”

Amen to that, sister. Pardon me…auntie. And if the events of Monday remind me of anything, it’s that life is a precious gift that is never to be wasted.

We started rattling off a little list of things we wanted to do to satisfy our endless curiosity and thirst for life. I didn’t include travel, because I want to keep it to things I can get to work on locally. I prefer the term banquet list to bucket list, as I can conveniently avoid thinking of my own mortality as I cross items off of it. The list will be in constant transition, as I’ll keep adding things that sound brilliant to try.

I’ll track my progress in doing these activities on the blog (see the page up top titled “My Big To-Do List”; I’ll scratch them off as they get done).  Any local friends who’d like to join me in these activities, please chime in!!

So these sound fun…

* Play bingo at a legit bingo parlour.

* Visit Top of the Rock, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty

* Visit all five boroughs in one day.

* Go horseback riding in the Bronx.

* Take a Metro-North train somewhere I’ve never been before.

* Kayak in the East River.

* See  a show at the Apollo Theater

* Watch an outdoor movie on a pier or in a park.

* See an opera at Lincoln Center.

* Test out the Whispering Wall in Grand Central.

* Take a photography class.

* Take a carriage ride through Central Park.

* Take a ride on the Big Apple Tour bus (It was the way I got around 14 years ago, when I came to the city the first time, and I’d love to see it from the perspective of a local).

* Take a boat ride around Manhattan.

* Go out with the female members of Vin’s family to have tea at a fancy hotel.

* Have a girls’ lunch at the Central Park Boathouse.

* Have a 100% NYC food day (ie: bagels for breakfast, deli for lunch, fancy city spot for dinner, black and white cookie for dessert…)

* Have a big picnic with friends (and all their kids) in Central Park.

* Go on a segway tour.

* Go to a rock-climbing gym.

* Rent bicycles and ride around car-less Governor’s Island.

* Go to Spa Castle in College Point, Queens

Did I miss anything? What’s on your list? 

I’ve been very pleased with how agreeable– dare I say enthusiastic?– Vin has been about this challenge. He is quite analytical, and I can tell he gets kind of excited about spreadsheets. Evidence A:

Apparently logging his daily purchases has been somewhat of a cathartic experience for him and has presented an opportunity to also express some of his thoughts and feelings. Isn’t that lovely?

Most importantly, it has initiated an important dialogue about how we spend money as a couple. The other night, Vin turned to me and said, “I realize that by showing you everything I spend money on, I’m opening up some critique on both how I eat and how I spend.”

I think that’s why I appreciate him doing this little project with me so much. We both know that we eat differently, and spend differently, but tracking our purchases side by side has really highlighted those differences. Part of the difference stems from the fact that I cook and he does not, so my purchases are whole foods and very few snacks. His purchases are mostly impulse buys with a high fun factor. We shop very differently.  I mean, there’s a reason I rarely take him to the grocery store with me. I present Evidence B:

Followed closely by Evidence C:

Oh Vin. To know you is to love you.

Anyway, I left Vin at home and went grocery shopping on my own this week (at three different stores…oh Queens).

G rocery Trip 1: rotini pasta, white rice, greek yogurt, skirt steak, garlic, broccoli, raisins, turbinado sugar, parsley, cilanro, blue cheese, 3 plantains

Total= $28

G rocery Trip 2: big ass box of strawberries, onions, 3 zucchini, 2 bosc pears, 3 baby avocados, quinoa, pineapple, butternut squash, asparagus, melon, hot chocolate (for Vin’s apparent hot chocolate addiction).

TOTAL: $31.51

Grocery Trip 3: 1 whole organic chicken, 6 limes, big ass box of spinach, coffee beans, red lentils, cornmeal, organic applesauce, butter, 2 cans chickpeas, honey, fresh ginger, fresh mint, Andes mints (for Vin’s apparent MINT hot chocolate addiction)

TOTAL: $52.37

So how did that factor into our weekly spending? Let’s see: This is from this Monday, April 8th to today: (The first column is Vin; the second is me).

TOTAL:  $169.21

I did three grocery stops, so my total was bigger than Vin’s this week. Vin spent most of his lunch money on hot chocolates from Dunkin’ Donuts. Someone has a bit of an addiction, which contributed to my purchase of some fancy Ghiradelli cocoa to save a few bucks on outings. Spending overall not horrible, but week ain’t over yet.

And here’s the final tally from the full week (Monday- Sunday) of last week. The total blew my mind.

TOTAL= $270.78 (!) (Are you effin’ serious??!)

MONTHLY SPENDING (so far): $439.99 (FOR TWO WEEKS! How can this be?!)

Meals Made: Argentinian skirt steak with chimichurri sauce, white rice and honey-glazed plantains; buffalo chicken quinoa bites with blue-cheese dressing, breakfast “cookies” with oatmeal, mashed banana and applesauce; chicken, pineapple and cilantro risotto drizzled with Thai peanut-coconut sauce, cantaloupe with honey, lime, ginger and mint, broccoli fried quinoa-rice

Next Week’s Plan: Try to pack lunches for work everyday!; No grocery trip–use existing food in house since there’s plenty of it!

If you’re also tracking your food spending, please share how you’re doing here or on Facebook. Anyone else totally blindsided by how much they spend?

*Also, sidenote: after writing this post last night, I fell asleep and had a dream that I was best friends with Justin Timberlake and we did a fashion budget challenge together. I’m guessing he spends more than I do.

Being single wouldn’t be so terrible it it weren’t for dating, which is, of course, abysmal. Not only are unsuccessful dates a drain on my time, patience and energy, I’m now convinced they are what have kept me from realizing my full intellectual potential. With every blah date I go on, I’ve filled another inch of valuable gray matter with completely trivial knowledge about someone I didn’t know longer than the span of  a meal. If I could somehow eliminate several useless dates each year and focus my energy on the unique and complex tapestry of just one person, think of all the interesting, viable information I could insert into all that unreserved space. Imagine the possibilities! I’ll no longer need to know how much Derek adores motown and fears bacteria. The full spectrum of Alex’s allergies and Bryan’s junior high insecurities erased; replaced with a blow-by-blow account of the Battle of Saratoga or the chronological order of our country’s presidents. I could finally explain math to a small child, maybe pick up a Slavic language or two. I could Feng Shui entire buildings in a single bound.

Then there’s the maintenance. Dating takes effort and upkeep, and I’m getting tired of knocking myself out for people I barely know. I don’t want to rush home from work to pluck my eyebrows and paint my nails. I don’t need one more person in the world noticing the gaps in my teeth or the way my jaw clicks when I yawn during boring stories. I don’t want to catch my date noticing a pretty girl. I don’t want my date to catch me looking at my watch. I don’t want to force myself to think of interesting things to say. I don’t want to have the following conversations in front of my door ever again.

Me: “Thank you very much for the drinks.”

Man: “Yeah, well, you owe me.”

Me: “That restaurant was really great.”

Man: “I’m going to Detroit tomorrow. Can you feed my cats?”

Me: “I had a great time at the concert with you. Thanks for taking me.”

Man: “What kind of booze do you have at your place?”

Me: “This was one of the best dates I’ve ever had.”

Man: “Wanna get naked?”

The cutest ones lack ambition. The ambitious ones don’t have time for a girlfriend. The sensitive ones want to talk on the phone too long. The ones who are smart enough to realize I’m funny have annoying laughs. They’re all ruled by a single appendage, which in its moment of greatest resourcefulness ends up spray-painting the bathroom wall. It’s enough to make me abandon my quest for a man altogether. I’d  date a woman, but vanity precludes me from becoming a successful lesbian, as any potential for intimacy would likely be eclipsed by a bitter awareness that her breasts were bigger and better than mine. So back to square one I go.

I know I can’t hurry love, but what about lust? Flirtation? Friendly banter bearing the slightest indication of long-term companionship? Could I put a rush order on any of that? I’m tired of always being the third wheel. I want someone to pull out my chair and hang up my coat. I want someone to hold my hand, tell me I’m pretty, call me their girl. I don’t want to waste valuable time. I don’t want to be a cynic. Tonight, I really don’t want to eat dinner alone.

*This writing is about 11 years old–breaking out the oldies just for fun, and because I’m too lazy to write something new:)

So. Here’s how my week usually goes in terms of food purchases. Living in Astoria, Queens (just outside of Manhattan) definitely influences the way I shop for food, especially since I don’t drive and refrain from buying anything I can’t carry home with my own mule-like shoulders. I’m very lucky (ahem…spoiled) to live within a five-minute walk of four different grocery stores, and I shop at all of them for different things. This usually means I make multiple pit-stops for groceries throughout the week as opposed to one big weekly shop. If time allows, I’ll also occasionally hit the Union Square Green Market for fresh produce after work, but pickings are still a little slim this time of year.

The Usual Strategy: I’ll  scope out the situation in my fridge and pantry before hitting the grocery store and try to find new ingredients to complement the stuff I’ve already got. I’ll try to use up the more perishable stuff sooner in the week (ie: asparagus, lettuce, fresh fish) and save the hardier stuff that’s less likely to go bad quickly (ie: butternut squash, sweet potatoes, other root veggies) for later in the week. We eat most meals at home, but usually eat out one or two times on the weekends. I buy all the groceries; Vin pays for meals out or deliveries in. It’s very rare that I buy snack foods, so Vin usually makes stops at grocery stores to buy those for himself when cravings strike.

Grocery Trip: Round 1 (Trade Fair)

Items purchased: 2 packages organic chicken breasts, 2-pack tilapia, 2 leeks, 8 lemons, english muffins, jalapenos and fresh red/green chilis, 2 cans diced green chilis (you can take the girl outta Texas…), cheddar cheese, bananas, cauliflower, 3 large sweet potatoes, 3 small yogurts, one dozen cage free eggs, white mushrooms, one bottle cheap white wine, 2 stalks green onion, rye bread, one bag of chocolate chips and a 1-lb. bag of raw almonds.   TOTAL= $69.30

You will notice a conspicuous absence of a few things here. Really no fruit or fresh greens because I already had some at home, and also because this store’s produce section leaves a whole lot to be desired. This is usually the place I go to for dried, canned or frozen foods and it’s especially helpful for Middle Eastern, Indian and Hispanic ingredients.

This particular shopping trip produced an ethical dilemma, as the store’s meat workers have been on strike outside of the store for about two weeks now (some controversy about the labeling of their Halal meat products), and I felt like a total a-hole shopping there. Yet, and I’m wondering if my upstairs neighbors agree, this place is just far too easy to pass up. It’s the cheapest grocery store in the hood, it’s really fun to explore all the exotic products and most importantly, it is about a 30-second walk outside my apartment. Vin and I lovingly refer to it as “the pantry” and routinely stop in at least once a day for odds and ends.

To keep track of each of our spending, Vin made a document in Google Drive. I found it really helpful to track not just what we’re spending on food, but also the kinds of purchases we’re making to understand what we’re putting into our engines each week!

 Not too bad. But like I said, this is really only tracking four complete days, so the total is pretty low. Also, I’ve had a bit of a cold this week and a pretty small appetite, so I haven’t been cooking or eating a lot. Per the chart stats, Vin is a fan of Dunkin’ drinks, while I can’t get through a work day without a liter of seltzer. Hey man, there are worse habits. I will probably not be cutting this corner anytime soon.

STRATEGIES: Plan meals around produce already in fridge that’s about to go bad

MEALS MADE AT HOME: cornmeal-crusted tilapia, sweet potato cakes with red chilis and cilantro with herbed sauce, chicken and broccoli fried rice/quinoa, homemade granola bars (hence the chocolate chips), black bean and cheddar quesadillas, paprika shrimp with chickpeas and spinach

WHAT WE’RE DOING WELL: 100% homemade dinners, few impulse purchases

WHAT WE COULD DO BETTER: more packed lunches for work, better meal planning

Anyone else keeping track? Please join the conversation in the comments or on my facebook page and let us know how things shook out for you (and your wallet) this week!