January Challenge: Final Thoughts

Well January seems like the distant past, but I thought I'd recap how our challenge turned out. We ended the month spending about $180, twenty bucks less than our goal. We had the added benefit of holiday leftovers and frozen vegetables which saved us $'s. Here's a few things we learned.

Tiff made roasted salmon, long-grain brown rice and steamed vegetables. Yum!

1. To save money on healthy food, you have to plan ahead. Buying pre-made healthy meals at Earth Fare, Fresh Market, or even Publix is a good way to burn through a grocery budget real fast. To eat organic and local, you have to prepare many months in advance and learn to preserve those items.

2. Freeze everything you know you won't eat the next day. We've learned, if it goes into the fridge and we don't eat it the next day, it will probably go bad because I can't stand to eat the same meal three days in a row. So freeze it and have a nice easy lunch weeks later.

3. Many of us are addicted to our own food cravings. I used to go to Publix almost every day to get that food item I was craving. Being on a very tight budget made me realize how hard it is to deny myself and eat a meal made with things we already had. Having that special item is a great way to treat myself, not a good way to live.

Perhaps the most surprising thing I realized this past month is that with our tight grocery budget, we actually noticed a sharp decrease in spending across the board. We spent less in gas. We spent less shopping. We didn't have any of those "off" budget items. There's a good lesson here that has something to do with being content with what we have and not having to drive all over town spending money on things we don't need.

So this month, we're not doing the $200 grocery thing. But it's very much on our radar to assess what we have on hand and we've learned inexpensive and tasty recipes. Did you try it as well? We'd love to hear anything you might have learned as well.

Mushroom Weekend

What do you do when your brother in law shows up with giant haul of brown oyster mushrooms? You eat mushrooms for every meal until you can't stand them anymore. Then dry some for later and share the rest with friends. Here's a few highlights:

Tomato, basil and mushroom pizza with three-grain homemade crust

Vegetable, mushroom and barley soup

Mushroom fettucini based on this great recipe

Fill the house with hot steamy mushroom smell as they dry! The things my wife puts up with.

Brown Oyster Mushroom

My brother in law stopped by this evening bearing a gift.

That is an enormous clump of brown oyster mushrooms he found growing near downtown. The brown oyster likes cool damp weather like we've had recently. Needless to say, we'll be eating mushrooms with every meal for the next week. They're great for you and will be good in soup and on pizza.

It measures over 12 inches across. I wish I had a kitchen scale to weigh it, I'm sure it's several pounds. We'll eat what we can, share some, and then dry the rest. Thanks Leo!

They Sow. You Reap.

The past several months Tiffany and I have been eating a plant-based diet. We're not vegetarians and definitely not vegan, but we have cut way back on animal-based products such as meat, eggs and dairy. This has helped us drastically increase our consumption of plant-based products like rice, beans, whole grains, vegetables and fruit.

This year, for the first time we've decided to try a local CSA program. For a fixed price, we get to share in the weekly harvest from a nearby farm. We've purchased from Greenbrier Farms before at the Greenville Saturday Market. They have an outstanding reputation and a great product, so we've opted to try their program this summer.

In the past I've been reluctant to try something like this because I've been concerned we would waste so much. But the past few months we've had a blast learning to cook things we like with fresh produce. Participating in a CSA makes so much sense. You get the benefit of fresh, seasonal, local, organic produce. It benefits a local farmer which is good for our local food economy. It's good for the world because it isn't sprayed with petroleum-based pesticides and then shipped across continents. Everybody wins.

I'm sure there are other good CSA programs out there, let me know if you have one you like.

January Challenge: Week 3

Our January Challenge is moving right along. As of last Saturday, we had spent about $125 on groceries for the month, so we're in good shape to finish on target. This past week we've been enjoying stir-fry, rice and beans, soup, fruit and fresh salad, and homemade granola with dried fruit. Not too shabby.

One of the biggest things this experiment has taught us is how much food we waste. In the past our refrigerator has been half full of leftovers and half used ingredients that we had no honest intention of using. I hate having the same thing three days in a row. So we've learned if we cook more than two meals worth of something, immediately freeze the extra for lunches and meals down the road. When we plan meals, we've also learned to begin with assessing what we have already. A lot less food goes to waste.

Our fearsome guard dog keeping watch

This is also helping as assess realistically what should we preserve during the growing season. This past year, we didn't freeze much, so we're getting low on frozen vegetables. Our peppers and green beans are gone. At this rate we'll be out of peas, broccoli and corn in the next month or so. I'm already plotting and scheming my garden and plans to put food aside this summer. In the weeks to come, i'll share some of my ideas and look forward to hearing yours.

Homemade Hot Cocoa

This is why I eat healthy the rest of the week. Homemade hot cocoa. We modified this recipe by using soy instead of milk (be careful not to burn), using a 1/4 cup of sugar instead of 3/4 (can you imagine that much sugar!), and in additional to the vanilla, I added just a touch of almond extract. So nice on a cold evening.

Tofu Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Rice

Today was "make something with leftover ingredients day," so I put together a stir-fry. This is my very favorite tofu stir-fry recipe. Unfortunately I didn't have any asian vegetables on hand, but cooked what we had with the same method. I'm not a big tofu guy, but browning the tofu and coating with the rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce is pretty good.

We had half a block of tofu leftover in the fridge, so I browned that. Then added what was left of a bag of carrots, and from the freezer added broccoli and peas. Serve over rice and you have a pretty nice cheap and healthy meal. 

The part to watch out for is the soy sauce. I love soy sauce. I've been known to dip my sushi in a measuring cup of soy sauce. Unfortunately, one serving (1 tablespoon) is 1/3 the amount of sodium you should have in a day. So this meal could easily be enough sodium for a day or two or three if you're not careful.