What we ate in April (plus how much I spent on groceries)

It's just me in my household. Right now I'm taking out $80 roughly every week for groceries and household stuff like toilet paper, detergent, cleaning stuff. I was debating cutting back but a friend who's not super duper close but I know her better now - anyways she posted on facebook asking if anyone wanted to commit to sharing food boxes from a local organic co-op and i'm sooo excited! I did this same co-op last year but even a half share was too much and the fruit s hare had stuff that had to be eaten quickly or went to waste. it's not what I'd call cheap and I hate waste regardless plus you have to order the night before and I'd often be called in or overtime which means I'd be obligated to pay for my share but probably wouldn't be ablet o pick it up...but this way we're all hoping we'll get enough of what we want. I like the idea of supporting the co-op but last year they had in a half-share 2 HUGE bags of kale -2 differnt kinds -t hese bags were about 2-3x the size of those produce bags in the store! so thinking I'll keep my budget where it is for now since half shares and fruit shares are close to $50 - I think my part will likely average $35 a week if I figured right but I'll likely add in a few extras from the buy-table. the only drawback is it's for eating raw vegan so no stuff that requires cooking or eggs or humanely raised beef/chicken. I already buy most of my eggs from a guy here at work for $2 a dozen though lately they've been on the small side due to new young chickens...

my meals when I'm working are normally quick things- eggs and potatoes I cook ahead of time from frozen southern style hashbrowns in tortillas...bean/cheese 'quesadillas', leftovers from freezer, sandwich. I'm planning on a pasta tuna salad (need onion!) or tuna casserole (need cheese!) or using the frozen mushroom ravioli in the fridge or spaghetti (no ground beef though) ..mainly trying NOT to restock my freezer since I'm planning on buying a new refrigerator in the next couple of weeks...one of my goals is to learn to make pizza dough and bread/rolls/biscuits - think I just need al ittle practice - and space to make them! also do al ot of tex-mex LOL - love taco meat and my latest discovery thanks to youtube was to use romaine lettuce leaves instead of taco shells- very very good! actually prefer this most of the time with the tortilla chips and guacamole or salsa on the side or just taco salads with canned beans tossed in. I think Sunday will be a cook ahead day since I'll be switching shifts Monday and that means I'll be tired and not feel like cooking.

I belong to a gleaner's club, so I get huge amounts of produce for next to nothing. There's a fair amount of work and time put in sorting the good from the bad and cleaning it all up, preserving before it goes bad, etc, so this might not be for everyone, but it works for us. Also, living on a small farm, we eat a lot of our own products, eggs, milk, and goat meat. Right now, we are eating out of the freezer quite a bit to make room for the upcoming summer's bounty. Typical schooldays breakfast is a smoothie made with bananas, oranges, strawberries and homemade goat yogurt. Add some toast and peanut butter and they're good to go. Last night's dinner was jerk marinated shoulder of goat and a mexican rice made with lots of peppers and onions. As the weather gets warmer I like to have cold options in the fridge so I don't have to cook all the time, and to that end I am currently boiling some chickpeas to make hummus. For dinner later we will probably have hummus on pita bread and cut up veggies, with some olives from a jar and some homemade cheese.

Well, you have so much to be grateful for, but one of the nice things about being single without kids....I pretty much do eat tex mex every night. ;)

I made a giant pot of turkey tortilla soup earlier this week (using happy local turkey I bought before thanksgiving from a local farmer) and it is still awesome!

I'm just getting back to cooking after an un-fun first trimester of pregnancy. It's great to have good food again! We also deal with lots of food allergies.

1 - Roasted Chicken, Tater Tots (I was clearing out the freezer) and Steamed Broccoli 2 - Ground Beef, Baked Beans, Corn Bread Muffins, Green Salad 3 - Leftover chicken w/ Cheese in Tortillas (Corn Bread for my dairy and wheat allergic kid), Carrot Sticks w/ Dip. I also diced up some Pear that had been leftover from a snack, cutting off the browning parts and adding Strawberries. 4- Sandwiches at the park w/ chips and fruit :) 5 - Black Beans, Flour Tortillas and Cheese (Tortilla Chips for my son), Homemade Guacamole (yum!). 6 - Leftovers 7 - Meatless White "Chili" w/ White Beans and Potato, Green Salad. My son also had a cornbread muffin.

Last week we had Aussie chicken (thanks to you and you'll be on my blog this week for this!), homamade pizza, ham & cheese pockets, some Filipino dishes, baked fish and potatoes and some leftovers.