Crunchy salad

You know those chip crumbs at the bottom of a bag of chips? They are delicious on salad!

Quinoa

One thing I really like to make is quinoa, it calls for 3 cups of water to each cup of quinoa, however I find it is much less mushy if you only use 2.5 cups of water. Here I used more of the frozen shrimp I have, and left over tahini sauce.

Shrimp salad and basil potatoes

Tonight I made my usual salad of: Lettuce, cabbage, and radish's but added sauteed shrimp on top. It was delicious. I also heated up mashed potatoes that I had made while cooking fried potatoes for breakfast this weekend. (So convenient to go ahead and cook an item a few different ways while you have it out, and save for later). On top I added chopped basil, and green onions. It was topped off with the tahini sauce that I love to make, see previous post: Day three.

Quiche!

Today I made quiche, amazed by how easy it is. I used a bunch of eggs, some milk, some pesto, sliced olives, and cheese at the bottom before the filling. I put some basil leaves on top for flair. I am currently baking the second one (had an excess of filling and two frozen crusts), and I think that I will wait and put the basil leaves on at the very last second so they only get slightly crispy.

Tacos!

Well a couple of days ago I caved to the power of pre-prepared food. I'd had a very long day, and knew that there wasn't much food at home, and happened to be starving. Not a good combination. I went into Safeway to pick up some food to make and all of the sudden found myself at the deli! Wha? How did that happen? Before I knew it I was walking out with potato wedges and some sort of chicken wing nuggets. Needless to say I felt so sick after eating all of it that I nearly got sick. Regardless of my lapse, I'm still continuing to eat at home. Yesterday, I made some wonderful tacos with turkey meat, cheese, lettuce, green onions, and hot sauce. I could probably count on my hands how many times I've cooked meat at home, so cooking the turkey meat was a learning experience. Apparently cooking frozen meat isn't really the best idea!

Day twenty seven

They say it takes 30 days to fully form a habit. It seems like the reason it is hard to form habits is that you eventually hit a hump in the process where you aren't as motivated as you have been. This is how I'm feeling about my challenge lately, but I think with a grocery run after payday will be able to add a little bit more excitement to the food I've been eating. The staples I've been making at home have started to become tedious, today a coworker asked if I wanted to grab a burrito for lunch and I almost threw the towel in. But I held strong! (Luckily I rarely have my wallet on me these days anyway, because there hasn't been much need for it.) I believe I am going to try to make a quiche next week and would love any ideas or tips on quiche if anyone has any. I'm going to enjoy this egg/cheese toast for now!

Day twenty five

I've admittedly begun to lose steam on my blog, still eating at home consistently, but running out of exciting dishes to post. I'm getting into a routine of comfortable staples and haven't had much to write about. However! I'm still enjoying the rewards of this challenge and will attempt something new to make soon enough!

Day eighteen and nineteen

Dinner today was brown rice, black beans, and shrimp, with peanut sauce. It's amazing how easy peanut sauce is to make: Can of coconut milk, something sweet like honey or sugar, salt, and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter. Also cayenne is a great addition as always.

Day seventeen

Made a lovely pesto-mozzarella-olive-pizza for dinner tonight, bought a couple of frozen crusts and it took about ten minutes total to make! Topped with cayenne and it was delicious!

Day sixteen

Speaking of bulk items, Cajun sesame sticks from the bulk section at the good food store are great for some extra crispiness in salads, which I love.

Day fourteen & fifteen

I haven't made anything new or exciting lately, but still going strong. Noticing that not spending money on food has spilled over into other areas of life. I've just grown accustomed to not taking out my wallet as much. Went to a going away party at a bar the other night, and didn't really feel compelled to buy anything, so just had water and still had fun. P.S. check out this jar I found at Goodwill! It's perfect for bulk items like oatmeal.

Day thirteen

Today for lunch I made pile-of-everything-that-might-spoil-soon, covered in hot sauce of course. Yummy meat balls, some cheese, and an avocado. Good news! This is one of the first pay periods that I have not had to dip into savings before the next pay day! Pay day is tomorrow and my savings is in-tact!

Day twelve

Didn't have a lot of time for anything fancy on this day, the old stand-by peanut butter and honey was perfect for a snack at work when I forgot to eat breakfast. This is a good one with a little cinnamon on it too.

Day eleven

Today I threw some blackberries from, guess where? Costco! into a blender with soy milk. It was a great accompaniment to a salad. It's so nice to be able to throw together a salad on my lunch break, a meal that usually takes awhile to prepare. With the pre-washed spinach from Costco, all I had to do was throw a chicken patty in the toaster oven, cut it up, and throw on some precut cabbage and radishes. Lot's of non-literal throwing. Not to mention that the whole meal had a great color scheme going on... Dressing is in a convenient little jar I re-used so that I could take the salad to work.

Day ten

People have been so nice about staying in to make food instead of going out to catch up. Day ten, here's my new favorite cereal, cranberry-macadamia nut from costco!

Day nine

I went to the market yesterday and got some veggies to complement my costco run. I've found that pre-chopping veggies makes using them in meals very simple and quick. And it looks pretty in the fridge! (Got a bad batch of radishes however... didn't get many good ones out of it.)

Day eight

The ice cream truck temptation!
I'm still behind one day on posting. I've removed the day counter from my blog because it had an ad on it, and felt that it took from the visual appeal of my blog :) So I'll keep track of the days with posts. I am getting to a point where eating out doesn't really occur to me as much. If I'm out, and hungry, my first thought is, "what do I have at home to eat?" Rather than the usual, "What place is nearby where I can buy food?" However, last night it was a little difficult when I saw the big dipper ice cream truck parked right outside my house. Really? Could it be any more taunting? They may as well have driven up to my window. I was feeling a little down, and was literally about to walk over to the truck when I remembered my blog, and thought, "That still counts! You would still be buying it!" So I held strong and am glad that I did.

Day seven

(This post is for yesterday) Today's eat-at-home creation is the pesto-spinach-grilled-cheese-goodness-sandwich. All ingredients from bulk quantities at Costco. Ok, this is a little obsessive, but I wanted to see how much this sandwich cost me to make when I price it out, compared to a similar sandwich at a local restaurant. Here is the itemized prices of this sandwich, (some ingredients are a rough guess).

2 slices whole wheat bread: $0.24

2 slices muenster cheese: $0.44

Tbs. pesto $0.05

half a handful of spinach: $0.05

Tbs. canola oil (for pan): $0.03

Cost of sandwich at home: $0.81

Cost of sandwich at restaurant: $5.95

That's $5.14 more just to have someone make a sandwich for you!

Day six

Nothing too exciting meal-wise today. Hopefully I will be able to post some cool dishes this weekend. Today was Costco day! I stocked up on a lot of bulk items. The last time I bought toilet paper at Costco, I swear it lasted half a year. I got a lot of the basics and will probably only have to make smaller grocery stops for awhile.

Day five

It's amazing how much money I know I am already saving in just five days of doing this. When I think of the handful of moments that I would usually buy food, (driving back from lake, eating out with friends, forgot lunch at work) that's 20 or 30 bucks right there! Today's exciting at home food is the grapefruit juice popsicle (picture is taken in "comic book" style because I like messing around with mac's photo effects). It is pretty tart, so may add honey next time.

Two notes about making your own popsicles: Drinkable yogurt (keifer) as a popsicle is gross.

Run warm water on popsicle before taking out because I just broke the handle trying to force one out.

Next popsicle idea: Iced coffee, courtesy of Debbie Preston's idea on facebook.

Day four

Didn't have a chance to post yesterday, but last night was a good opportunity to practice not eating out when tempted. Went to meet girlfriends at the Old Post (restaurant and bar) and met them after they had ate. I grabbed a small snack at home and planned to have a couple of beers with them on the patio after they ate. Once I got there, they had very sweetly saved what they didn't want for me, free french fries!

Day three

Had a nice breakfast on-the-go of oatmeal with honey and sea salt. I forgot to grab something for lunch when I came home to let out the dog (dog sitting) today. Usual trap to buy prepared food! Was able to make it through the rest of the day with drinkable yogurt in the fridge at work, some sesame sticks, and a plum courtesy of Ashley. Was able to make a quick dinner of brown rice, frozen shrimp and broccoli. (See picture). I have found that having some already cooked rice in the fridge makes it easier to cook when you are needing to make food quickly. The sauce that I smothered this dish in is one of my favorites, and is really easy. It's become one of those that I don't really measure, but here is a guesstimate if anyone is interested in making it:

2 Tbs tahini

1 1/2 Tbs olive oil

1 clove garlic

half a lemon

2 Tbs water

1/2 tsp salt (or soy sauce)

1 tsp honey (or agave, or something sweet)

dash of cayenne

Day two

Went to the beautiful Placid Lake today and packed a few lunch items to avoid having to stop for food on the way there and back. Got pretty hungry coming back, a usual trap that leads to stopping for easy food on my way home. But I didn't give in, and I learned to pack a bit more for longer outings.

Day one

This picture is from today's lunch, one of my favorite meals to make at home: fried potato cubes, fried egg, avocado, green onions, and siracha hot sauce.