Oh my gosh…here on day 40 I can’t help but think about how we are almost halfway there. I still plan to be on a budget when all of this is over (and we will still of course be eating “real food”), but I am pretty sure I will be giving myself more than $125/week to spend. And it is hard not to look forward to that! In the meantime I will just have to keep dealing with the temptations of all the delicious expensive food I see (and can’t afford to buy) every time I go shopping…including things like artichokes, scallops, mangoes, proscuitto and other cuts of meat, fresh mozzarella, and olives. This list could just go on and on!
So back to reality…as I mentioned I tried shopping at Bi-Lo the other day, but couldn’t get everything on my list so I had to make another run to the store. I still needed some staples like nuts, seeds, and cheese, so I decided to go to Trader Joe’s since they seem to have the best deal on those items (and I also needed bread which is right next door). Here’s what I got for $31.74 from Trader Joe’s…
- Pumpkin seeds $5.49
- Sunflower seeds $1.49 (it is hard to beat that deal!)
- Sliced almonds $2.49
- Mushrooms $1.99
- Monterery Jack cheese $3.07
- Cheddar $4.29
- Raisins $2.69
- Cashews $5.49
- Parmesan cheese $4.12
I also spent $5 on a loaf of honey whole-wheat bread from Great Harvest. And then I had to run back to Trader Joe’s the next day to get…
- 1 Avocado $1.32
I also “charged myself” to pull some local meat out of our freezer since it was purchased pre-budget…
- 1 pound of local ground pork $4.17
Then right when I thought I was doing okay with about $15 left to spend at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday I forgot that I had to take out $4 more for some vanilla beans that I’d ordered from the internet. I make my own vanilla extract (which is a very simple process by the way) and ever since I found this website that only charges $2 per bean (and free shipping) I’ve never bought them from anywhere else. So long story short…I only have $11 and change left and we desperately need eggs! So unfortunately I won’t be getting much else this weekend. That sucks.
In other news we enjoyed chowing down on the ground pork this week and managed to stretch it over three meals. First we made tacos and to help make the
meat go further we laced it with a whole container of diced mushrooms (pictured above) and some chopped carrots as well. I attempted to make some corn tortillas to wrap everything up in, and while they tasted delicious they looked quite disastrous. This is my second time making them and in my opinion they are nothing but a pain in the neck to try to keep together! They just fall apart and crumble so easily no matter what ratio of masa harina/water I use. And I find it difficult to make the tortillas thin enough without having them break into a thousand pieces. I can’t believe how much easier it is to make the flour ones. If anyone has homemade corn tortilla advice (or has experience with a tortilla press) please share! Otherwise I will not be attempting these again anytime soon, which is too bad because all four of us loved the dinner.
We’ve been making corn tortillas for a while. The hint is to let the dough rest for 20 minutes before you go to press it, use a little more of the dough than it says to, place plastic wrap or a plastic bag that you’ve cut in half against the press and flip the tortilla and press it. I never liked corn tortillas until we made them on the press.
Our family (2 parents 3 kids) has been trying to cut out processed foods and also eat gluten free. We don’t have allergies but I thought it might help with my low energy and sore joints. I went to Great Harvest and bought their gluten free bread. It’s fine (at $8 a loaf!) but there are a lot of ingredients that I don’t know about like xantham gum, tapioca starch and rice flour as far as processing. It got me thinking that maybe it’s healthier for my family to choose the Honey WHole Wheat bread with only a few ingredients, all of which I know over the gluten free version. So many choices….
Thanks for your input-
Hi there Dawn. If you do not have a gluten sensitivity, then stick with the bread that has the fewest and most whole ingredients. All the bread from Great Harvest is delicious! :) ~Amy
I grind my own wheat, rye etc. when baking each week, and when I need cornmeal I grind up organic popcorn which makes great cornbread. I’m now inspired to try corn tortillas with the fresh ground corn meal. Anyone know if the grains used for popcorn are a monsanto product, I’d be curious. They say it’s organic, but not whether it’s a GMO.
Hi Kelly. Any product labeled organic should, by definition, also be non-GMO but there is no guarantee of non cross contamination. You can go one step further and look for non GMO certified products: http://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/search-participating-products/. Hope that helps. ~Amy
For the tortillas… Are you using a plastic bag to help you handle them? Cutthe sides of a bag and press the tortilla between the plastic sides. It is much easier to handle without breaking.
We make our own tortillas all the time now. I notice other people have said to use a little more water then the recipe asks for and make sure it’s warm water. I also recently read that you should knead the dough a bunch and then let it sit covered for about 30 minutes. Then you can press and cook your tortillas. We did this and the tortillas didn’t tear as much.
I have made my own vanilla for well over 6 months now. I use 3 beans split up the middle in a bottle of vodka. It does keep indefinitely on the shelf. Any time you use any, just top it off with more vodka. Eventually the vanilla bean flavor weakens as it seeps into the vodka, but just replace the beans after a while. No big deal. I also make my own honey wheat bread out of freshly ground wheat flour I grind myself with my Nutrimill. The normal wheat flour you buy becomes bitter after 3 days, which gives bread that bitter taste. But this is amazing. And I can buy a bag of golden kernel wheat for half the price of flour! Each cup of wheat, amounts to at least 1 and 2/3-3/4 cup of flour. My oster breadmake comes in handy as well if I need to get other stuff done and not worry about checking the over or forgetting about the bread or rekneading it and letting it rise. Just put the stuff in and 3 hours later u have bread! It helps that we can buy our honey in 5 gallon buckets every other fall from the local bee keeper. $125 per 5 gallon pail.
Where do you buy your wheat kernels from? I want to start grinding my own but haven’t seen any wheat besides flour.
Hi Jamey. You should be able to purchase them in the bulk bins at Whole Foods or Earthfare. Some others have also reported getting them online. Jill
Have you tried Maseca? Most real corn tortillas are not supposed to be so thin unless you have a press! http://www.sweetlifebake.com has amazing Maseca recipes you could use. I use the Homesick Texan’s tortilla recipe which uses milk and olive oil instead of shortening or lard as in traditional flour tortillas. I wonder if coconut oil would suffice as an alternative to shelf stable lard. Real tortillas are usually made with Lard. Anyway, the tortillas come up so fluffy but my mom always tells me they need salt. I can never make them as good as hers but hey she has more practice. I hope this helps.