Braised Cabbage with Basmati Rice (from Didi Emmons’ Vegetarian Planet)
Pantry lentil soup (a mix from a friend that has lentils and other dried veggies, cooked with chicken broth, onion, and potatoes–you could just use regular lentils if you wanted)
Grocery List
coconut milk
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
chicken broth
1 lb. tofu
ricotta cheese
quinoa
jasmine or basmati rice
cilantro
mint
green onions
2 onions
1 head garlic
butternut squash
1 lemon
1 lime
1 T. curry powder
Pantry items: butter, olive oil, flour, yeast, parmesan cheese, lentil soup mix, potatoes, cabbage, more lentils, carrots, any spices not listed above
Other stuff I bought for breakfasts, lunches, snacks:
milk
1/2 & 1/2
cream cheese
yogurt (Nancy’s, of course, as is the cream cheese)
bread
corn chips
almond butter
Clif bars (on sale, for Jeff to take skiing)
Granted, this might not sound like news…Philly Cheesesteaks are pretty famous, and they’re pretty good. But this fabulous sandwich was no cheesesteak.
This is a roast pork sandwich with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe from DiNics in Reading Terminal Market. So good I actually ate one (well, half of one, to be honest) two days in a row. And I’d eat another one right now if they weren’t almost 3000 miles away….
I went to the grocery store before making my menu list this week, and came up with the following:
Kale & potato Spanish tortilla: this is a repeat-I didn’t end up making it before, but bought more kale to try it again.
Sausages with sauerkraut & potatoes: I bought a jar of Wills Valley sauerkraut in Philadelphia, and while I could probably eat the whole jar without ever making a meal of it, I think I’ll do something like this or this instead.
Swimming Rama: I suspect this is an Americanized Thai dish since I only find recipes for it on sites that sell things like peanut sauce mix, but I’ll use the same recipe for peanut sauce I used a few weeks ago. NB, natural peanut butter works just fine in this recipe, despite the directions not to use it. I’m also going to use tofu instead of chicken.
Italian wedding soup: I’ll use the turkey meatball recipe from the most recent issue of Everyday Food, and kale, instead of escarole since that’s what I bought. I’m also going to add white beans.
Haystacks: Not so different from nachos, haystacks are a Seventh-day Adventist specialty. I grew up eating them for hot lunch (alternating with Veja-links and Veggieburgers).
Grocery List
frozen spinach
kale (2 bunches)
celery
cilantro
lime (1)
garlic
onions
celery
apples
oranges
green chiles
salsa
bean sprouts
tofu
ground turkey
chicken sausages
coconut milk
One of the first things I remember eating (or drinking, actually) from the natural foods store was peach-flavored Nancy’s kefir. This must have been in the early eighties, but I can still remember exactly what the carton looked like. Fast-forward to 1995 and I’m in the natural foods store near my NYU dorm on 3rd Avenue telling the proprietor he should really carry Nancy’s yogurt. He was friendly enough, but explained that it probably wasn’t distributed on the East Coast. Sad days. Now I’ve been back in the west for almost ten years and take my Nancy’s access for granted, but I just ran across this 2003 Seattle Times article about Nancy’s Yogurt’s expansion to East Coast markets. Hello, my East Coast friends. This yogurt comes highly recommended.
Though something with a nationwide distribution might not seem like “small food,” Nancy’s is still an independently-owned company that uses local milk and fruit to make real yogurt filled with lots of live cultures instead of sugar and gelatin. I usually buy the plain, lowfat variety and then sweeten it up with a little drizzle of honey, spoonful of jam, or a sprinkle of raw sugar. Sometimes I add cinnamon, fruit, and/or toasted nuts, but I really like the taste of the yogurt as-is. I keep a tub in the refrigerator at work, and if I haven’t eaten yogurt for breakfast, I frequently have it for lunch.
If you haven’t already spotted Nancy’s in a store near you, you can check out their store finder to see where it might turn up. This is good stuff.
(Whenever I write about products I always feel the need to point out that I’m not connected with the company in any way, and this post is not sponsored or paid or otherwise motivated by anything other than my personal experience with the product. In other words, yes I do just love this yogurt that much.)
One of the things people like to say when they hear I’m a librarian is “you must be so organized!” (That or something about the Dewey Decimal System. The (few remaining) school librarians are doing something right.) Until this started happening to me regularly it had never occurred to me that organization was a common librarian trait. In fact, I started to get a tiny bit paranoid that I would be exiled from the library community if anyone discovered the truth.
However, when I finally had a few real days off last week I did feel a little New Year’s urge to tidy something up. I considered our closet, or the crawl space, but I wasn’t that motivated. Instead, I tackled our pantry cupboard. It’s entirely possible this is the first time I’ve cleaned this cupboard since we moved here in 2003. Yikes. It ended up being a very manageable project, the kind that make me wonder why I didn’t do it earlier. I found the red lentils and the whole cumin seeds that inspired yesterday’s red lentil and cauliflower curry as well as some couscous we ate with tonight’s stewed chicken thighs with dried fruit (and both recipes were really good, though I doctored the curry up a bit.) I got rid of a few unidentifiable spices, some rancid-ish whole wheat flour, and an extra box of cornstarch (because I don’t think I’ll ever finish one box, let alone two and a half,) but for the most part the stuff in the cupboard is stuff we’ll actually use, especially now that we can find it. Now I have to stop opening it just to bask in its organized goodness–my potatoes are starting to grow eyes!
Bend doesn’t have a co-op but we do have Nature’s General Store, an independently-owned natural food store that’s tucked into the Wagner Mall. Though I’d always assumed shopping there would bust my budget, I decided to check it out for my first grocery shop of 2008.
Because there’s no online sale flyer available for Nature’s I went with a short list and an open mind. I was pleased to discover that prices were pretty much equivalent to those I was paying for the same items at the big grocery stores. I made my produce decisions based on price and season, and came away with apples ($1.99/lb), potatoes (5lb bag, $3.49 or $0.70/lb), green cabbage ($1.59/lb), bok choy ($1.39/lb), kale ($2.29/bunch), and delicata squash ($1.29/lb), all organic. I also picked out some Shelton’s chicken thighs, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, and eggs, and bulk stuff like spices, brown jasmine rice, and oats, as well as some corn chips (Jeff’s only request.)
Favorite find: organic tofu, sold in bulk like I used to buy it from our neighborhood deli in NYC, for $1.79/brick.
All told I spent about $50. When I combine what I bought with the stuff in my fridge and pantry I came up with the following dinners:
I really enjoyed shopping at Nature’s–they have a lot of variety packed into a small space, the checkout lines were short and the prices seemed very fair. It also smells exactly like a natural foods store should (What is that smell? essential oils? bulk food? Whatever it is, I like it.) If you want to check it out yourself you’ll find it at 1950 NE 3rd St. (near the 3rd & Revere intersection).
I was (not seriously) ill for most of December and had little desire to eat. While in some ways December might be a good month in which to lose your appetite, it posed a bit of a problem for me since I’d promised to plan, purchase, and prepare Christmas dinners for three separate groups of family members. Suddenly, looking through recipes–especially rich, complicated holiday recipes–held little appeal. I’d basically selected the main dishes (a pork rib roast, a prime rib, and a lamb roast) but had no idea what I was going to do for side dishes, desserts, and drinks. In the end everything turned out just fine (photo evidence can be found here) but I’m still mostly subsisting on toast and unsweetened cranberry juice, neither of which makes for particularly interesting food writing.
I do, however, have some changes in mind for the food we buy, cook, and eat in 2008. While most people like to dismiss New Year’s resolutions as arbitrary, overly optimistic, and ultimately futile, I actually really like using the switch to a new calendar as motivation to reflect on the past year and plan some changes for the next. Last January a good look at our finances led to the grocery budget and meal planning I focus on here. This year I’m really hoping to improve the quality of the food we consume. Articles like Michael Pollan’s recent “Our Decrepit Food Factories,” books like Marion Nestle’s What to Eat, and the many food recalls over the past year or two have inspired me to be far more selective about what I put in my mouth. I want to know where it came from, I want to know how it was produced, and I want the list of ingredients to be short. I want food from small stores, small companies, and small farms. I want 2008 to be my year of small food.
Here’s hoping you find what you want in 2008. Happy New Year, everyone!
I have no doubt that two people can eat for less than $75 a week, but can they eat well? More about this blog...
Here looking for menus & grocery lists?
I try to post a menu and accompanying grocery list each week that will feed two adults for $75. See all menus and lists.
You also might be interested in my "tools I use" posts that discuss how I put together my lists and try to stick to my budget. I will be adding to this list somewhat regularly.
I'm still working out some kinks in the menu posts, so if you have any questions about the posts or suggestions to make them more useful, please let me know.
