Month: June 2012

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: End of June Month 8 / Week 4

Project Food Budget Weekly (10-day) total: $116.67

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, entertaining, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

June – Month Eight, Week Four – End of Month

This week, I’ve spent $116.67, for a June month-end total of $392.71.

Wow, I didn’t think I was going to make it this month, with the “extra” items like fish oil & entertaining costs!

This week, there wasn’t much money left, so I carefully planned meals, stuck to specific shopping list(s), and made sure I only got what was really needed, and it worked!

These “extra” items totaled $70 for June, and it initially made me re-consider my budget parameters for next year, especially supplements, which could easily be moved to a separate budget.

But then I realized isn’t that what budgeting is all about. Setting up a budget parameter and doing your best to stick with it? Yeah, I can pretend that supplements aren’t really “food” but I proved to myself that it can be done with a little bit of effort and creative adjustments. Ha! Now ask me again when I need to buy fish oil next time. I’ll probably be whining again!

Week Four 10-Day Totals: $116.67

Dining Out: $19.00 – (2) ice cream splurges
Entertaining: $17.76 – 2 parties
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $79.91

June Totals: $392.71

Dining Out: $63.10
Entertaining: $25.24 – 3 parties for the month
Gardening: $8.77
Groceries: $259.09
Vitamins & Supplements: $36.51

June Store Breakdown (Groceries & Entertaining)

Whole Foods $64.11 (23%)
Meat CSA $61.88 (22%)
Market Basket $50.34 (18%)
Wilson Farm $30.90 (11%)
Trader Joes $22.88 (8%)
Winchester Farmers Market $18.35 (6%)
iHerb.com $17.60 (6%)
BJ’s Wholesale $12.27 (4%)

Spending Details

Thankfully there wasn’t much need for store-bought vegetables this week, because my garden has produced some greens and I still had produce leftover from prior week. I did need lots of fruit though!

Whole Foods Market $39.38: Bargain shopper! Even though I don’t include health/beauty products in my food budget, I got a great deal on two Kiss My Face items. I had two manufacturers $3 coupons as well as two WF $2.50 coupons.

Since my two “Kiss My Face” items totaled only $9, the coupon credit of $3 was deducted from my food purchases! Yay.

So, I purchased: salsa, red wine vinegar, peanut butter (non-organic), organic ranch dressing, organic ketchup (DH), local feta cheese, (2) Muir Glen tomatoes ($1 off 2 coupon), (non-organic NJ) blueberries, sm bag of organic cherries, (4) organic peaches, (3) mangoes, (3) organic bananas, and 1 lb SAF instant yeast which I haven’t decided if I’m keeping since it’s “made in Mexico” and adds ascorbic acid, which I just found out is a GMO ingredient.

Market Basket $32.29 (3 small trips): ingredients for two family “party” dishes, plus salsa, bananas, organic peaches, cheddar cheese and a carton of Pomi chopped tomatoes

Gardening Store $0: I originally purchased an 8oz bottle of BT Thuricide, a safe organic solution for worms in my cabbage and brussels sprouts plants, but I decided to return the bottle. I’d like just continue to manually pick off the little buggers myself.

Meat CSA $26.04 – (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as I cook/eat it.) I was planning on defrosting a less expensive skirt steak from my February delivery, but when I noticed the beefalo brisket was getting a touch of freezer burn, I took that out instead. I think some of the vacuum seals are loosening. I gotta start using up some of this meat, even if it’s just to cook and re-freeze.

Week of Meals (10 days)

  • Thursday: Homemade pizza with Parmesan & (frozen) mozzarella with my own garden salad (lettuce & peas)
  • Friday: Mexican Lasagna with corn tortillas, beet greens & leftover veg chili
  • Saturday: Family Graduation party – big lunch!
  • Sunday: Fried eggs with salsa crostini with veggie salad (including my garden peas)
  • Monday: Slow braised beefalo brisket with potatoes & beets, plus a small garden veg salad
  • Tuesday: Tomato jalapeño sauce with leftover beefalo brisket topped over pasta
  • Wednesday: Hodgepodge of leftovers with pasta and leftover tomato sauce plus leftover beefalo brisket and potatoes & beets
  • Thursday: Leftover pasta and sautéed zucchini & peas topped with a touch of cheddar cheese & fried eggs & small garden fresh lettuce salad
  • Friday: Salsa bread pizza with (frozen) smoked mozzarella
  • Saturday: Family birthday party – another big lunch

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

Instant Yeast & GMO (Genetically Modified) Ascorbic Acid (Vit C)

I home bake a lot of bread, about 2-3 loaves per week (kneaded in my bread machine). I don’t use an excessive amount of yeast (only about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp), as I like my dough to rise slowly, sometimes overnight in the fridge, depending on how quickly it’s needed (or kneaded, ha, no pun intended.)

I have been buying jars of Fleischmann’s Bread Machine (instant) yeast. It’s quite expensive; Last time I paid $5 for a 4 oz jar, but it lasted me over 4 months.

I had been hearing a lot of recommendations for 1 lb SAF Instant Yeast – it’s packaged as an air-tight, vacuum-sealed “brick” and it will last close-to forever stored in your freezer or even fridge.

I was tempted to purchase from Amazon’s Subcribe & Save – under $12 for a bulk pack of four 1lb packages…..but what would I do with all that yeast!? So, I phoned Whole Foods and asked if they carried it. Yes, and their price was $5.49, so I added it to my shopping list for my next visit.

Made In Mexico

So, here’s where I learned my first lesson.

After reading reviews online, I learned that SAF Instant Yeast is “Made in Mexico“. Nothing personal against Mexico or Mexicans, but I make it a point to stay clear of food imported from Mexico and China. I double-checked the label on my Fleischmann’s yeast and it’s “Made in Canada.”

But I use such a small amount of yeast, will it really make a difference either way, where it’s made? It’s not like eating an apple, or is it?

I decided to take a chance and go for budget-friendly, so I purchased a 1 lb brick of SAF Instant Yeast at Whole Foods.

Instant Yeast Contains Genetically Modified (GMO) Ascorbic Acid (Vit C)

Here’s where I learned my second lesson. There’s GMO in the yeast!

Ascorbic Acid (synthetic Vitamin C) is a man-made product derived from genetically modified corn. Ugh. Who knew!

And it’s also an ingredient in “instant” yeast. And would you also believe, ascorbic acid is the reason why so many bakers love “instant” yeast vs “active-dry” yeast? Ascorbic acid helps doughs “rise” better and faster, and also also acts as a preservative.

I’m thinking it might be worth the extra effort to start using “active-dry” yeast and perhaps just add a smidge of real lemon juice or vinegar to make up for the lack of synthetic ascorbic acid.

Well, I need to make a decision PRONTO, because I just used up the last bit of instant yeast in my bread dough this afternoon.

Do I just forget it, go with the cheap Mexican-made instant yeast, with a small amount of a GMO ingredient? Or perhaps the Canadian-made instant yeast with with a small amount of a GMO ingredient?

Or probably the best way: vote with my fork and go for the active-dry yeast with no GM ingredients (that I know of).

I think I’ll invest in a couple of little packets of active yeast, just to see how easy or difficult it is to work with. Online sources say you must “activate” in warm water first, and others say you can use just like instant yeast, and toss it in dry, unless you don’t know if it’s still viable, and it’s best to test in warm water with sugar added.

So, we’ll see!

UPDATE July 15, 2012: Well I tried the active yeast and it did work but I’ve decided to go back to the instant yeast even with the ascorbic acid.

I preciously only used 1/2 tsp of instant yeast but with the active yeast, I was using at least 1 tsp and it rose alright but not as easily as with instant, and the texture of the dough isn’t as smooth.

So, my reasoning is I’d rather use as little yeast as possible (for a longer rise) and since I’m using such a small amount, I’m hoping that any GMO ingredients are incidental. Plus I’ve decided to stick with Fleischmann’s brand that is made in Canada.

UPDATE December, 2012: I’ve gone back to active dry yeast! In october I purchased a 1 lb bag of the “Frontier Naturals” brand active dry yeast from iHerb.com. It works fine whether I “bloom” it ahead of time or just whisk it together with my flour.

Walmart Factory Farmed USDA Choice Steak

Walmart is in full tilt promotion mode.

On Master Chef tonight, they were shamelessly promoting Walmart’s new USDA Choice steaks, touting how cheap they were, but not bothering to mention that the cheap meat is raised in a devastating factory farm.

Shame on Gordon Ramsey who used to be all about sustainability and high quality food. It just goes to show how a few advertising dollars can sway someone’s ethics.

And while we’re at it, someone needs to smack, err, gently wipe the smugness off Joe Bastianich’s face, because who is he to condemn someone’s cooking ability or knowledge, when he has resorted to promoting food that he would never in a million years eat. It’s disgusting!

Gardening Diary: Another Harvest & Pest Update

It’s supposed to rain most of the today, so this AM I went out and gathered a bunch of fresh veggies from the garden. Yum

Cut a bunch of lettuce & basil, just a few tender beet greens, a few pea shoots (I’m growing shoots in a separate container), bunches of pea pods, a few sprigs of oregano, and two very small green Carmen peppers.

This is my fourth harvest. Here is a photo of my last (third) harvest of greens from my garden:

harvested lettuce, basil, beet greens, peas, and shoots
harvested lettuce, basil, beet greens, peas, and shoots
harvested lettuce, basil, beet greens, peas, and shoots

Gardening Notes:

So far, the only pepper plants with fruit are the Carmens and the plants are still so short/small, the fruit is larger and starting to drag. I figured I’d try cutting off two fruits to allow the plant to maybe catch up and grow some more! I had heard that it encourages the plant to grow more fruit if you pick the peppers while they are green, as opposed to waiting until they turn red. This will be an experiment!

Yesterday, I caved and bought a bottle of BT-Thuricide (Bacillus Thuringiensis), which is an organic solution for cabbage worms/larva.

tiny cabbage worm egg larva
close up of tiny cabbage worm egg larva

It was very easy picking off the tiny little yellow worm/eggs from the cabbage outer leaves, see my photos above. But then I noticed there were a bunch of worms snacking on inner leaves and it’s a lot more difficult to get them out!

The organic experts say BT is safe, but I still am reluctant to use it, mainly because it can cause resistance if overused. It’s especially disconcerting that they are “weaving” BT into Genetically-Modified (GMO) cabbage plants, which will eventually make BT useless for caterpillar/worm control!

UPDATE: 2012-06-27 I returned the BT. I decided that I would keep trying to pick off by hand.

Other than that, most of my plants are doing very well, in-ground and in-containers.

The only plants with issues are the bell peppers. I guess it might be more difficult to grow in the North. Most of them are looking “black” and losing their leaves. It could be from overwatering and not enough “heat.” I don’t know if I’ll attempt to plant bell peppers again next season.

Life is good!

Project: Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: June Month 8 / Week 3

Project Food Budget Weekly total: $62.29

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, entertaining, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

June – Month Eight, Week Three

This week, I’ve spent $62.29, with a monthly total of $273.48. That leaves $126.52 for the rest of June.

Dining Out: $0 – We went out on Saturday night to celebrate Father’s Day with my parents, but that was applied to my “gifts” budget. sneaky! hehee
Entertaining: $7.48
Gardening: $0
Groceries: $54.81

Spending Details

I really wanted to spend a lot less this week, in order to compensate for the planned Trader Joe’s $50 splurge by the end of the month, but I did stick to my allotted $60-ish for the week. DH informed me that he needed more fruit for his lunch, so I was happy to oblige.

I might have to rethink my MyLinkables Trader Joe’s $50 purchase – it might not be worth it to save just $5, especially since it’s going to be sent to Paypal. I think I’d rather just get my 5% cash back on the credit card and spend less. :)

Meat CSA $16.80: pork tenderloin (Luckily, products from the Meat CSA are paid in full, so technically no real money is actually spent, but I apply the cost to my budget as we consume it.)

Eggs $6 for two dozen. I found a new place to purchase fresh eggs. Smaller eggs, but they are from a small backyard farm.

Market Basket $7.48: Potatoes and ranch dressing – eeek, not something I’d buy normally, but it’s for family party, and I needed an easy roasted potato salad.

Winchester Farmers Market $18.35: First time at this market, it was like a small festival. I loved it! Walked around once, then walked around a few more times to pick and choose a little something from various farms.

  • Warner farm $2.50 for snap peas ($4/lb, same as Wilson Farm) – seems like a nice small farm, they had both organic and non-organic IPM strawberries also. I like that they grow with a lot of care and consideration. I will buy from them again if I visit this market.
  • Hanson farm: $2 radishes with greens. I had a nice conversation with the woman there about radish greens and what I like to do with them. I can tell it’s a small farm that cares. According to their CSA page, 2/3 of their crops are (non-officially) organic and the rest are grown using IPM (integrated pest management). If I return to the market, I’ll be sure to keep supporting them.
  • Lanni Orchards: strawberries $6 – they seem to be a larger farm/orchard. The gentleman at the booth didn’t really know a lot except that they did spray the berries with a low-grade pesticide. He didn’t know about the lettuce. I wasn’t thrilled about purchasing sprayed strawberries, but they were a $1 cheaper than Warner Farms. Looking back, I should have spent the extra buck perhaps.
  • EL Silva farms $7.85 – huge lettuce $2.50 (lettuce was not sprayed, but they do spray, so he suggested to ask every week for details), bunch of beets w/ greens $3.00 and 2 small zucchini $2.35 – they also had green house tomatoes, but I want to wait for the real thing.

BJ’s Wholesale $12.27: I was surprised to find so many organic offerings. We started a 60 day trial and picked up organic blueberries (.50 coupon), organic grapes, plus a pineapple. DH needs more fruit for his lunch!

Market Basket $1.39: Back to the store one last time for some half & half for DH

Week of Meals

  • Thursday: Pasta topped with tomato asparagus, celery, carrot sauce and salad
  • Friday: Bulgar topped with salsa and fried eggs with vegetable salad
  • Saturday: Dinner out with parents to celebrate Father’s Day. Applied to “gifts” budget
  • Sunday: Family BBQ for lunch, light dinner
  • Monday: Crockpot pork tenderloin with carrots, potatoes and onions, along with a large veggie salad
  • Tuesday: Pasta with lentil tomato jalapeño (frozen) carrot zucchini sauce
  • Wednesday: Fried egg with (leftover) potato,  brown rice and large salad

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week:

Gardening Diary: Garden Expansion Photos

I wanted to share some of the photos I took of my little veggie garden. It started off smaller, then expanded, and expanded.

For now, I’m posting wide angles, but soon, I’ll share more detailed photos to show the growth of each plant.

Last season, we started with a very small patch of garden, as you can see from notes on two photos. Our first expansion was adding a few more feet next to the fence, and another row with a pathway.

Here’s what it looked like on 5/24 (with notations for last season).

We’ve got (1st row near fence) snap & shell peas, a large perennial oregano plant, beet seedlings, more peas, pickling cucumbers, then (2nd row), carrots, lettuce, brussells sprouts, red cabbage, and eggplant. In containers, there’s red cabbage, potatoes, (2) lettuce, and (2) brussels sprouts.

Oh and we also have grape vines in the fence corner, and another vine in the middle area of the fence.
the garden started
The containers were placed on top of long metal fence posts to allow good drainage.
the garden started
garden diagram from last season

Continue reading “Gardening Diary: Garden Expansion Photos”

Bob’s Red Mill Cereal Muffins with Peaches, Strawberries, & Raisins

I love making muffins using Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain (or 10 grain) hot cereal. They’re similar to oat bran muffins, but so much better!

My husband enjoys eating muffins for an easy breakfast-on-the-go, and I always keep a batch in zip bags in the freezer for him. These muffins are especially great for those (like my DH) that do not like hot cereal! They make a great mid day snack too!

bob's red mill cereal muffins with peaches, strawberries and raisins

Here’s my recipe for muffins with peaches, strawberries and raisins:

Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Cereal Muffins with Peaches, Strawberries, & Raisins

Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients

  • 3 cups dry Bob’s Red Mill – 7 or 10 Grain Hot Cereal, or regular oat bran hot cereal
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 3 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/4 cup sugar or sucanat
  • 2 cups unsweetened Almond Milk (or any liquid equalling 2 cups: plain yogurt with water, regular milk, coconut milk, etc)
  • 1 large egg (or extra-large, jumbo, whatever you have on hand, muffins are so forgiving!)
  • 1/2 cup honey, preferably raw
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, preferably organic
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract (optional)
  • 1 cup (not packed) raisins, preferably organic
  • fresh fruit: handful of strawberries, 2-3 peaches or nectarines, 3-4 plums, a cup of blueberries, etc.
  • Other optional ingredients like chopped nuts, seeds, etc.

Note: These muffins were sweet, so you can reduce the honey to 1/4 cup, which is what I will probably do next time I bake them.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°
  2. In very large mixing bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients: cereal, salt, baking powder, sugar
  3. In large glass measuring cup, combine milk/water, eggs, honey, applesauce, and extracts
  4. Pour wet ingredients into dry, mix carefully, try not to overmix.
  5. Stir in fresh fruit
  6. Spoon into muffin tins lined with paper – I use my Good Grips Medium Cookie Scoop that I picked up from Amazon last year. It isn’t overly large, so I need to usually scoop twice, but it works really well without too much mess.
  7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until tops are no longer soft and mushy to touch.

Mind you, I am NOT a baker, but I do like making muffins because they are so forgiving. I don’t have to measure quite as precise as other baked goods, like cakes and pies. I can throw a bunch of dry and wet ingredients together, and if the consistency is too dry, I add a touch more liquid.

bob's red mill cereal muffins with peaches, strawberries and raisins

Nutritional Data

1 muffin (from batch of 18)

Calories: 179
Total Fat: 1.7g
Cholesterol: 13.6mg
Sodium: 162mg
Potassium: 111mg
Carbs: 39g
Fiber: 4.8g
Sugar: 18g
Protein: 5g
Vit A: 2.7%
Vit C: 4.3%
Calcium: 7.4%
Iron: 7%

As I said, the sugars are on the high side. Reducing the honey to 1/4 cup, lowers the sugar to 14g. If you also reduce the raisins to 1/2 cup, the sugar is lowered to 12g. Start off reducing the sweeteners slowly, and your taste buds will get used to it.

Humbled By a Spider

This morning, after a marathon weeding and grass-clipping along the fence near our vegetable garden, I snipped off two branches of grape leaves, so I could perhaps try a new recipe. I left them for a few minutes inside in the workroom, and when I came back later to get them, I picked them up, and noticed a huge H-U-G-E spider moving on the leaf. I immediately screamed and dropped the branches on the floor!

Then I got up my nerve, picked up the branches, praying that I could get them outside without the spider dropping off in the workroom. I tossed the branch on the pile of weeds/grass in the wheel barrow and ran inside to grab my camera. No one would believe how icky and gross this spider was, I needed photos! I mean this spider was like 2-3 inches!

I took lots of photos, at every angle. (Note: If you have a fear of spiders, don’t read any further, as I’m including detailed photos that might be troubling to someone with arachnophobia.)

Continue reading “Humbled By a Spider”

Project Food Budget / My Healthy Budget: June Month 8 / Week 2

Project: Food Budget Weekly total: $62.88

My healthy budget goal is to eat seasonal (local if possible,) home-cooked meals while sticking to a $400 monthly budget for all food including groceries, dining out, entertaining, vitamins/supplements, and gardening.

There’s two of us eating (mostly) 3 meals per day. My husband occasionally eats take-out lunch at work, & that $ comes out of his personal cash stash.

June – Month Eight, Week Two

This week, I’ve spent $62.88, with a monthly total of $211.19. That leaves $188.81 for the rest of June’s budget, about $60 per week.

Dining Out: $21.54
Entertaining: $0
Gardening: $8.77
Groceries: $32.57

We lucked out this week, in that we both of our two “dining out” dinners paid courtesy of others. NICE!

On the negative side, I felt like we were backtracking into bad habits. Eating high fat, high sodium, low nutritious junk meals at chain restaurants. Ugh. I put a stop to it, and for the rest of the week, we ate healthy.

I’m hoping that I’ll do okay for the rest of the month, we have three weekends of parties coming up, starting with Father’s Day, so we’ll see how that goes.

I have the Trader Joe’s “Get $5 Back if You Spend $50” from MyLinkables.com looming over my head. Hmm, yeah, it’s free $, but if I have to force myself to spend $50, is the $5 worth it? I have until the 27th to decide if I have enough money in the budget. Looking at my current TJ’s shopping list, I’m at about $40-$47, and I could easily add some organic chicken legs for the dogs, which doesn’t count for my groceries.

Spending Details

Wilson Farms (large local farm) spent $7.39 for $32.39 worth of produce, plants & seeds: Whoo hoo, BARGAIN shopper! Groupon offered $15 for $30 – I had a $10 referral credit on my Groupon acct, so it only cost me $5 for the groupon plus $2.39 for the extra purchase amount.

I bought 6pk basil plants, 6pk red lettuce plants, pk of seeds, along with local radishes, local snap peas, (2) local lettuces, asparagus, tomatoes, and organic nectarines. PLUS, they were having a “Grand Re-Opening” special day, giving away a bag of goodies, like shelling peas, homemade donuts & blueberry bread, jelly, root beer, granola, and apple juice sample. It was a great morning!

Whole Foods $24.73: organic raspberries (Driscoll’s .50 coupon!), 5lb bag o’ organic carrots, organic celery, (2) organic canned tomatoes, organic salsa (.50 coupon), block of parmesan cheese (NOT the good stuff, but I liked it actually better than Reggiano), and organic jelly ($1 coupon).

Market Basket $9.22: (3) oranges, (5) bananas, and a large watermelon. Geez, watermelons are expensive ($6). I liked Trader Joe’s price last week! But the one watermelon was very large, and it lasted for many snacks!

Week of Meals

Meal planning is still helping a lot. I sometimes forget what was planned for dinner that day, and it’s so easy to take a peek at my meal plan for the details. Not having easy access is what made it more difficult to stick to my plan before.

  • Thursday: Leftover burger in tomato spice sauce over pasta
  • Friday: dining out – we only had to pay for tip
  • Saturday: dining out – yes again! only paid for tip
  • Sunday: Homemade pizza topped with fresh tomatoes, salsa, feta & parmesan cheese, and a large veggie salad
  • Monday: Stir fry asparagus, carrots, celery with leftover (dining out) steak over barley
  • Tuesday: Homemade pizza shell topped with salsa, parmesan & radish greens, with a veggie salad
  • Wednesday: Fried eggs topped over red lentils, (frozen) corn, & fresh shelled peas

Want to Join the Project Food Budget?

project food budget

It’s never too late to join the Project Food Budget! There’s still plenty to learn and experience!

If you’d like to participate, get the details and let Emily know you’re on board!

Here’s who else is budgeting this week: