Remember this time last month? I was dying for the challenge to be over with. I felt miserable about it. I begged for the end of the month to come as quickly as possible. This month? The exact opposite. To say I'm loving this challenge would be an understatement. Yes, there are still items I miss, but overall, going local is winning big time. Let's take a look at this week...
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| Week 3 Bounty |
The whopping total for week three is $93.14 meaning we're left with $6.86. What's the breakdown? $23.75 on fruits and vegetables, $13 for a whole chicken, $12 for 3lbs of beef ribs, $15 for 3lbs of ground beef, $5 for a pint of goat's milk gelato, $6.74 for 1.5 gallons of organic milk, $0.25 on a honey stick to appease a certain three year old, and $17.40 on beer to appease a certain adult toddler. Were there any "cheats" like last week? Yes. WIC was used once again for peanut butter, eggs, cheese, and milk. The majority of that was consumed by The Hubs. My only other non-government funded cheat was on a thing of organic peanut butter from Sprouts. I got it free because I won a $5 coupon from a FaceBook promotion. Still cheating? That's for you to decide. None of our money put into groceries was spent on anything other than local food. To me, that's a huge win!
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| For the aspiring beer connoisseur |
With all the good this week brought, a very, very sad thing happened. We ran out of flour. I had planned on making so many carbs to make up for the ones we didn't buy, but after making the aforementioned honey lemon cookies, we were out. I was frantic. This girl needs her some carbs. I made squash pancakes with the few tablespoons of leftover flour. Still didn't feed my carbalicious desires. I roasted red potatoes. They tided me over for one meal. My body was yearning, screaming for something full of simple sugars that would give me an instant high, but would surely knock me on my ass rather quickly. I often purposefully forget the fall because the high is so much more fun. I dug through the cabinets and sifted through recipes until I found something that would work. Flourless chocolate oatmeal cookies. I only had about a half a cup of old fashioned oats left, but I did have the instant oatmeal from WIC--not my first choice, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I whipped up the few ingredients, schlepped the batter into an 8x8 pan, and waited 20 minutes. I forced myself to do the dishes as they cooled. That way I knew I deserved such a tasty reward. Dishes done. Fork hurriedly shoved in the cookie-cake. Pure heaven. Google search saves the day again.
This is the lesson I learned this week. Not that I have an intense carb addiction or that I rely on Google too much, but rather that we can make do with the little we have. I was proud that I didn't just run to the store, as I usually do, and grabbed the biggest bag of organic flour available. I stopped. Put effort in. And found a creative and tasty solution. I'm enjoying this experiment in shopping as it's forcing me to experiment with cooking and baking. I'm excited to see what the next week's finds will be and what new dishes will be created.
So what did you cook this week? Did you try anything new? Are you likely to run out and purchase a simple ingredient or do you like to find alternate solutions? Has your local shopping increased this month? Let's talk!
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