I had a benadryl, two vitamin I, and a nap for breakfast. On a 1 to 12 pollen scale, the counts for the last week have been solidly over 10, and Monday and Tuesday they're forecast to be 11.6 or higher. My green car is a kinda sickly yellow pollen color, there's so much of the stuff.
When I got up again (and took another allergy pill), I went out with a plan. I was going to Earth Fare to get sprouting seeds. I want green stuff. That was fail on so many levels.
I stopped off to see if World Market had a couple herbs on my wish list. I didn't see them, but did see both TimTams and import chocolate. While I escaped the lure of the wild Dairy Milk bar, the TimTams came home with me. Not only did I cheat and use money I don't have for them, they contain milk, so I also made myself feel bad physically and ethically/ morally.
Seriously, what kind of fool eats mucous-making stuff in the middle of nasty allergy week?
So that was $5 I shouldn't have wasted. 1900 calories though. And to think I wondered how I gained 40 pounds in NZ.
Earthfare might have had sprouting seeds, but I couldn't find them. The spot they used to hide (last week) has been taken over by swish cooking equipment, and I couldn't find an actual roving employee to ask- I hate asking the counter people, they can't do much from back there, and they don't usually know where random stuff was moved to.
But they had something else. Something I've been wanting to try. Something I thought I would have to wait a year for, then order online. They had Daiya.
For people who don't wander vegan blogs regularly, or hang out on vegetarian food forums, Daiya is like the holy grail of vegan cheese. It's reputed to both melt *and* stretch. It's supposed to taste *good*. It's *pre-shredded*.
It's also $9 a pound.
I bought it. 8oz, anyway. I have plans for it. Plans like cheese pizza, or a mozzarella and herb focaccia, or poutine. Or more likely, all three.
On Cheating
I keep doing it, and I'm not really doing as much as I could to stop it. There are a couple of different reasons for that. I really can't afford to cheat like I have been, but in a lot of ways I really can't afford not to. Having the already pretty strict limit of money set, if I didn't allow myself some cheating (and it's been easily more than a dollar a day so far) I might over restrict my resources.
I don't mean I'd eat just beans and rice, and cut out the good stuff. I mean I might cut out everything. Restricting one thing can very easily lead to restricting more. So while I'm trying to stay in the budget, I'm really not trying very hard. As I improve my motivation, and get things lined up better so I don't have to cook each and every meal right before I eat it, the cheating should go down. But I have to work on keeping the calorie counts up as well.
I don't want this blog to become thinspiration. If it inspires anything, I'd hope it was healthy and positive- for eating and for life. I don't want being broke to push me into more negative body image stuff, because even people with huge egos have *some* body part they don't like, and self confident I am not.
So I don't limit the "cheating" on money as much as I could/ should. The aftermath of eating dairy is more than enough punishment for falling off *that* wagon.
So all I can really do is say "I was naughty, but I can be better", and then try. But no one's perfect, and a good part of experiments with people as subjects deal with correcting for not following the rules. You can't, after all, *force* free people to do what you want them to. Even when that person is you.
So I was naughty, and I'll work on it. And at least I spent my food money on the "cheese" instead of pulling the money from somewhere else.
now, what to bring to dinner...
I've been reading your blog now for a couple of days and I must say that you are an inspiration in the positive way you want it to be.
ReplyDeleteI just started setting a menu budget so I can save some money for going a big holiday and reading your blog helps me to keep motivated.
How much have you spent so far? It seems like you are over a dollar a day.
ReplyDeleteFi- Yay! good inspiration is good!
ReplyDeleteJulia- Let's see... I took out $182.50, have $60 for veggies later, 7 and change in my pocket, and about 3 I haven't replaced yet. Best guess is I've spent around $110 so far. I used more at the beginning to allow me to buy some staples and things in bulk, and some things that tend to be higher dollar items. It was a healthier option than buying $7 the first week and eating it, then repeating. I might go to a weekly allowance for the second half, I don't know yet. It doesn't include the "cheating", though. If it did, I'd have no money left between now and august.
Well, I was going to be smart alec and do the dollar a day thing this week too. I have the house to myself for a few days, which is the only time I seem able to get that done (or to get anything else done for that matter).
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the onions going up. There is this Mexican store which usually has cheap produce, and usually has some kind of onions for fifty cents a pound or less, and even when there is no sale I can't ever remember paying more than .69 a pound. Yesterday, they were 1.29 a pound, and that's after I made a special trip to that store cause I noticed that they were going up at other stores. So I ended up paying 1.49 for two sort of sad looking onions.
Anyway, I don't know if I can do the dollar a day thing with 1.29 per pound onions. Black bean soup I can usually make about 12 cups for less than three dollars. I think this time I spent 3.38, and I feel like I'm forgetting something. Of course, I don't have to eat the whole 12 cups this week, and that leaves me 3.62 to spend even if I do, but having just a few prices go up really screws things up if you're on a tight budget.
About onions: depending on what you want to do with them, check out your grocer's freezer for chopped onions. If you are just going to use them in cooked dishes, this is a cheap way to go. All the prep work is done and no waste. Around here a 12 oz bag goes for .79 which is about $1.05 lb but when you consider the waste factor and prep factor, it seems like a deal to me and I am notoriously frugal.
ReplyDeleteOh, I made calzones and they were amazing. I'm an omnivore, so there was a lot more stuff in there that you wouldn't use, but now I'm obsessed. I'm going to try empanadas, and fruit ones, too. I ended up freezing pre-stuffed ones, so we'll see how well they come out. Ultimately, I was just too lazy to consider freezing the dough and filling separately and having to build each one before eating. Too much mess to clean up for one meal.
ReplyDeleteI think Whole Foods got rid of the sprouting seeds too. I mean, not all of them, cause there's still like mung beans and such in the bulk foods. But there used to be small packets of seeds near produce with the dried mushrooms, and I didn't see them. And then there used to be alfalfa and radish seeds and a few others with some herbs, which used to be near the teas, but they moved them and I couldn't remember where. So I finally asked the girl in vitamins where the sprouting seeds were, and she said that they didn't have any. I gave up and left.
ReplyDeleteThat can't be right, can it? Maybe I should go back and ask someone else. Maybe I should ask where the other herbs are. There was this little section of stuff, I hope that they didn't get rid of everything.
@laughing- Yeah, the onion thing is a killer. Good luck with your mini experiment.
ReplyDelete@Cyndee- I don't get much waste from onions, and they don't take me that much time to prep. But for someone who either doesn't use much, or doesn't like the eye watering, that's a great option.
@Kim- If you're going on a filled hand-food spree, you should look up some pasties and pies. They make them with just about anything in NZ, sweet or savory, and they're on sale in just about every gas station, dairy, and bakery shop.
Last couple times I've been in one, it looked like whole foods was moving from measure your own bulk to more of a "pre-measured, pre-packaged" bulk. I know the spice section at the one here was all these little plastic containers, like from the deli. odd, I thought. I'm going to try the hippy-dippy vitamin shop near my house. They had holistic healing herbs, so they probably have a good sprouting selection, too.
ReplyDeleteah pollen season in the SE. my car looks the same. I haven't seen any "green dust" on the blacktop days yet, but then the pine hasn't kicked in - and pine pollen is what does it. Good news though, we're due for RAIN by Wednesday, and that'll take it all right out of the air! YaY!
ReplyDeleteMy car was yellow with pollen this morning, too, and my eyes have been puffy and watery for days! Have you tried a Neti pot for the allergies? Gross but effective, and I don't need the antihistamines very often anymore :)
ReplyDelete