100 DOLLARS A WEEK - Day 3...

GAH. Only Day 3 and already a day behind. The weekend was a trying one on a few personal fronts, and much of yesterday was spent dealing with memories and fallout from a past life. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I allowed it to keep me from writing what could have been a quick and easy post about the meals, but I'm hoping that the emotional processing that kept me from writing a few simple sentences about what I ate on one day will help me resolve some issues that have been plaguing me for years.

As I try not to throw anything away, you'll see lots of repurposing of leftovers in the coming days. During cool weather, I find that most leftovers will last at least a good 4 or 5 days. When it's hot, I try to use whatever's left within 3 days. But ultimately, the smell test is what dictates whether a thing gets eaten or tossed, so whether it's been in there 3, 5 or even 7 days, if it smells OK, it's getting eaten. At the moment, I can't think of a time that the food has smelled totally right and then ended up tasting or feeling wrong in the end.

Breakfast was a burrito for two made with some of the chorizo, a scoop of that Spanish rice again, 2 over easy eggs, the half of the avocado that was left from making California Rolls, 1 small Roma tomato, the last 1.5 burrito sized flour tortillas, a little cilantro and green onion, and of course a dash of Tapatio.

I took the burrito and divvied it up 60/40 for the Man and me, and that was more than enough for breakfast. I don't know how people eat a whole one of these things by themselves. That would make misery in my digestive tract for sure.

BTW, those flour tortillas were bought a week ago to make chimichangas, and since they're not the kind that are loaded with softening preservatives, they were a wee bit dry. A great way to soften tortillas is to wrap them in a moist paper towel (wet the paper towel all the way and then squeeze just enough water out that it can't drip) and zap them for 15 to 20 seconds. Too much longer than that, and you'll just overcook them and dry them out even more.

BREAKFAST: $2.00 total, $1.00/person.


Lunch was easy. Leftover lasagna for both of us, 2 pieces for the Man, 1 for me. The Man also took an apple for lunch. As I was preoccupied talking with CPA-type people about dealing with the IRS, I scarfed down just the lasagna and called it lunch.

The Man's lunch before nuke.

My lunch, after nuke.

Since the cost of the lasagna was already accounted for on Saturday...

LUNCH: $0.20 for the apple.

The way I was feeling last night, if it weren't for this project, I probably would have opted for a 2 dollar hotdog from 7-11, but the way dinner turned out, I'm glad I didn't.

A quick and simple braised pork using the other half of the pork butt with a little apple cider vinegar thrown in for faster tenderizing, a sauteed kale, red onion, and Gala apple salad dressed with apple cider vinaigrette, and yams baked with a tiny slab of butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Capped off with a couple of glasses of that grape-y, grassy, green apple-y Recoleta Torrontes I bought on clearance at Fresh & Easy for $3.99, it was a truly fitting and seasonal meal for the first day of the year to feel like autumn all day.

Where we spent next to nothing on lunch, we splurged a little on dinner, but there was one serving left, which the Man will take for lunch today. And that braising liquid will make the black bean chili I've planned for tonight's dinner extra rich and flavorful.

DINNER: $9.00/total, $4.50/person (if you look at it one way, but given that we have an extra serving, and that the wine made up $2 of that total, the food is really about $2.35/serving)

Here's where we're at so far:

Saturday:  $24.00
Sunday:  $13.00
Monday:  $11.00

I've spent $48.00 of the budget so far, but it's to be expected that the weekends cost more.

Here's to future on-time posts,

shinae

P.S. A friend pointed out that I don't have any dog food worked into the budget. That's because I prepare small portions of meat and vegetable for Honeydew that are pretty much incidental to our food. That's not to say I feed her our seasoned and cooked meals.

She usually eats boiled protein with raw veg like yesterday's meal of boiled but unseasoned chicken from this week's pot of chicken stock plus a little bit of raw veg, or a little bit of raw steak with raw veg. I also throw in a raw egg and unseasoned cooked grains from time to time.

As she's a pretty sprightly and trim 10 year old wiener with great teeth and a super soft coat that everyone who pets her compliments, I feel pretty good about what we're feeding her.

My cubicle mate...