I’m trying a new tactic for us now, since we’ve thinned out all the really old, odd things hiding in our cupboards. It’s called “build a pantry like an adult,” and my mom is awesome at it–keeping lots of things on hand, so that dinner is never a crisis. This week and last, I spent a lot of money on dry goods to fill our shelves. This way, we can do larger purchases at the store every two weeks, making sure to go on the day you get a 5% discount, then round out produce purchases as they’re needed.

Our fridge really sucks the moisture out of produce, even especially in the crisper. It’s like making kale chips. But you didn’t want them & they’re really cold. It’s an issue we were hoping to ignore, but now that we’re looking at living here a bit longer I hope to get it addressed. It’s also time that we start facing the problem & buying produce more regularly. We were great at this in France, running to market several times as things were needed. Here, we’re busier & more dependent on cars, so we head to the store once a week… then struggle to use shriveling produce we don’t want to throw away.

We didn’t use much of the “bulk” this week, but we did rely on some of the on-sale things I’ve been snagging lately. In summary, our grocery strategy is: (1) buy mostly bulk, and load up on it every once in a while (2) supplement that with smaller, more frequent produce purchases (3) buy more processed things only when they’re no sale & eat them only when I’m desperately trying to avoid the kitchen–which has been a lot lately.

MENU

Breakfast: peanut butter toast or eggs & potatoes or breakfast smoothies

Meals:
Sat. lunch: Joe’s new “potato nest” (fried potatoes & sautéed tomato surrounded by wilted kale, then topped with eggs until they’re cooked through–serious noms)
Sat. dinner: taco dip (refried bean goodness with the taco-flavored sour cream on top)
Sun. lunch: snacks at a volunteer celebration for work
Sun. dinner: roasted vegetables with fried tempeh
Mon. lunch: roasted vegetables with fried tempeh
Mon. dinner: eggs & potatoes
Tues. lunch: eggs & potatoes
Tues. dinner: mac & cheese with tomato & avocado
Wed. lunch: frozen pizza + dark chocolate brownies #noshame
Wed. dinner: eggs & toast
Thurs. lunch: Joe’s “potato nest”
Thurs. dinner: frozen pizza + dark chocolate brownies #judgingmyselfenoughforbothofusthanks
Fri. lunch: leftover pizza & soup
Fri. dinner: vegetarian bibimbap

Snacks:
hummus & toasted pita, crackers, carrots, almonds, COOKIES

SHOPPING

Organic Groceries from the Co-op ($80)
pomegranate & blueberry juice
refried beans
pitas
taco seasoning
turbinado sugar
tempeh
giant brick (several pounds) of butter
1 bunch of carrots
2 avocadoes
2 lbs. beets
2 lbs. dried garbanzo beans
sour cream
2 lbs. mandarins
3 lbs. bread flour
spaghetti
peanut butter
2 lbs. Jasmine rice
2 packs of crackers
tortilla chips
beer
broccoli soup

A Wednesday Run to Marsh ($12)
grapefruit juice
frozen pizza
cocoa powder

FOOD WASTE

• some old soup
• some plastic bags from bulk goods
• plastic bottle from tonic water & ginger ale (from weekend cocktails)
• bottles from sauces & things in the fridge that finally got used up
• the greens of turnips that were finally eaten
• some eggs whites I’d been saving for God knows how long
• lots of compost