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| Mads made this bracelet for me during the week while she was at her other house, and it just happens to go perfectly with the red maxi dress I'm wearing to the wedding. She is a million kinds of awesome. :) |
In comments from yesterday's post, MS asked me if I felt as though we were eating as well as we would if we weren't on this budget. For the most part, I think YES. We're pretty blessed to live in a generally diverse area that supports a good variety of ingredients at really reasonable pricepoints, so I'm able to put together a good variety of meals on a weekly basis. In some ways, I think we eat better from a health standpoint because an unlimited budget might find me buying more processed snack foods and soft drinks, which usually cost more than raw ingredients and generally encourage snacking from boredom or even anxiety. When you have to put even a little work into putting your food together, your mind does a subconscious double take - is this hunger physical or mental? Physical hunger demands that you get up and make something to eat. The mental or emotional kind often lazes back into the office chair and decides to keep working or surfing...
On the other hand, we have cut back on indulgences. If I had a little more food budget to play with, I'd probably buy more sashimi grade fish, and splurge a little more on really decadent things like foie gras (fwah GRAH) and uni. But the upside of the fact that these are splurges rather than staples is that we savor them all the more when we do get to have them. And this is a real benefit in my eyes - not some conjured justification or compensation for a harsh reality of living on a budget. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, that budget aside, I think a little delayed gratification is good for the soul. :)
But stepping off my soapbox and moving on to breakfast...
BREAKFAST
At long last, CROISSANTS. With creamy havarti cheese and the runny, gooey, creamy yolk of an over easy to medium egg, crisped in the oven so all that buttery flakiness is bloomed.
And what is now becoming my Mr. Coffee Potato Head project...
2 croissants (good and fresh ones, too) on clearance @ $1.50
+ 3 slices of havarti cheese slice @ $0.75
+ 2 eggs @ $0.30 + coffee @ $0.40
= BREAKFAST: $3.00 total, $1.50/person (The kids had breakfast at grandma's today.)
SNACK
The first thing Joe wanted when he got in the door today was to try his first ever bottle of MexiPepsi, which he now thinks is better than MexiCoke. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one.
And instead of salad or other veg with lunch, we ate the rest of last week's watermelon while we were making lunch. (The childrenfolk were recruited to peel and devein shrimp, squeeze sausages out of casings and peel garlic.)
1 MexiPepsi @ $0.99
+ 1/4 of a seedless watermelon @ $0.60
= SNACK: $1.60 total
LUNCH
As planned, I took a bunch of the remainders of last week to make something pretty gumbo-ish. I think the bay leaves I chopped into tiny flakes as well as the fennel from the Italian sausage helped bring back just a little bit of that je ne sais quois of the file powder I didn't have.
3 hot Italian sausages from last week @ $1.80
+ 3/4 of a pound of shrimp from last week @ $4.50
+ 1/2 an onion @ $0.20
+ 7 cloves of garlic @ $0.10
+ 1/2 a green bell pepper @ $0.50
+ 2 inches of chorizo @ $0.25
+ 2 Roma tomatoes @ $0.40
+ a couple handfuls of fresh okra @ $0.80
+ some bay leaves, cayenne, black pepper, Worcestershire, Tabasco, S&P @ no more than $0.50
+ a tablespoon of butter and a little more than 1/4 cup of flour @ no more than $0.40
+ 2 cups of Jasmine rice uncooked (which makes 6 servings) @ $0.80
= LUNCH: $10.25 total for 5 servings of gumbo + rice, $2.05/serving (we have one HUGE serving left)
Dinner will be a chicken, fish or vegetarian selection of some kind care of the bride and groom. I think I picked chicken...
We spent just under $15 today, and I hope they picked a good DJ. I just *LOVE* dancing at weddings. :)
shinae
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