My Food challenge Update, and others...

A quick re-cap on my current state-of-being: Currently I am doing my best to stay positive and optimistic by focusing on my time away from work as my priority. Right now I would like to say that I am "living for the weekend" and my time at work is just to supplement my life outside of it. I am back in application mode, and doing my best to not get too hung up on one job or another, so far it's working.

Now for an update on my food challenge:

I have been slowly but surely making my way through my pantry, but I have been "cheating" so to speak with the help of my family. What was supposed to be entirely eaten, thrown away and consumed has been put on hold since my awesome family likes to feed me a lot. So, I had planned on making my first concoction this past weekend, but didn't do so until last night and this is what I made:

PASTA AND FRESH TOMATO AND CREAM SAUCE

Printed from COOKS.COM

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12 fresh plum tomatoes (Canned Pomodoro)1 onion, diced (Nope)1 clove garlic, diced
4 tbsp. butter
Parsley
Oregano
Basil, fresh (not fresh)Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. heavy cream
Fresh cooked pasta

+Peas

+Olive Oil

+Lemon Juice

 

Now before I say anymore I would like to point out that I am good about following directions, not so much with experimenting, and that is exactly what i did yesterday. You'll notice the words in yellow next to the recipe, those are the substitutions/additions I made (in an effort to not go buy more stuff, and use up the most of my old things as possible).

 

Note: I had wanted to put some broccoli in this but I found last night that my broccoli was bad so i tossed that (one more thing off the list).

 

All that being said... the meal wasn't bad, but honestly wasn't very good either. Poor Matt was subjected to what was one of my worst meals in a long time, which subsequently ended in us seeking something more palatable at the diner down the street. The biggest thing I noticed about the dish was that it left an aftertaste (one of my food pet peeves), and not a good one. Needless to say it was an experiment, one that I will be having for lunch for the next two days :::shivers:::

 

One thing I am learning from this whole experience is the value of planning (for both finances and meals). It is not very hard to spend one day , let's say Sunday, planning your meals for the week. This will not only save you time, but money too. Less time at the grocery store, less money spent on unexpected lunch-less-ness days or under prepared dinner time.

 

I think I will try to take this lesson to heart, and do my best to plan my meals and my shopping trips in advance. There are lots of tools that can help you do this. I downloaded an App that I have yet to use called "shopping list". It's free and will help me stay on track with my budget while at the grocery store.

 

So let's re-cap, what's left in my fridge/pantry: (the things in green are the things that have impeding expiration dates)

 

Milk

Butter

Margarine

Macaroni and Cheese

Cracker Barrel Cheese

American cheese

Cream Cheese

Nutella

(2) Lemon Juice

Lime Juice

Olive Oil

Pomodoro Crushed Tomatoes

Balsamic Vinegar

Wheat Thins

(5) Pop Corn bag

(2) Pancake mix

Frozen Peas

(2) Ramen

Syrup

Brown Sugar

Flower

Granola Cereal

White Vinegar

Tapatio

Bread Crumbs

Spaghetti noodles

Rotelle Pasta

Green Salsa

Canned Corn

Tuna

Bread

Skittles

Jelly Beans

Broccoli

Minced Garlic

Parmesan

Turkey Bacon

Ham

Apple Sauce

1 apple

Mayonnaise

Carrots