Frugal(?) Cooking

I haven’t ever participated in a blogging carnival before, but this one over at Owlhaven caught my interest.

I consider myself frugal with regard to cooking, in that I tend to cook from scratch and comparison shop. However, our philosophies about food here in Beanland are a bit different than the norm, so I was very curious to see how our diet stood up to the frugal challenge.

First, a bit about our food philosophy:

- We believe that good, healthy food is an investment in our health and our future. So we are willing to pay more money when necessary to eat well. I shop around to find the best deal on what we eat. Not to eat the best deals I find. (I hope that makes sense.)

- We enjoy cooking, but convenience is also a factor because we are both very busy. Scott is in medical school and I am a work-at-home mom. I tend to cook three dinners a week and we eat leftovers the other nights and all lunches. I usually make breakfast (a smoothie or one of the recipes in this post) and we graze on fruits and veggies the rest of the day.

- We don’t eat meat. We rarely eat dairy (cheese, milk, eggs). We rarely eat anything processed (white flour, added sugar, etc.). Our goal, in a nutshell, is to eat “whole plant foods” as much as possible because we believe that they are healthiest. That means we cook with a lot of spices, rather than cream, butter, cheese, sausage, etc.

- We store oodles of food in our basement (grains, dried beans, canned tomatoes, etc.) , so our weekly or every-other-weekly shopping trips are mainly to pick up fresh stuff.

Without further ado….

The goal of the carnival was to shop for three days’ worth of food and post pictures, recipes and cost per person per meal. I cheated because we constantly “shop” out of our basement and because I wanted to participate without actually doing all the dirty work (sorry!). So I chose some recipes to share, priced them out, and took photos of the food we had on hand to make the recipes. This is a hypothetical 3 day plan. I chose recipes that I thought were among the less expensive of what we regularly eat. I know we could eat less expensively, but it was very helpful for me to price out our regular meals. Hopefully it helps someone else as well!

In case you are intimidated by trying to cook a meal with “complete protein” without meat or dairy… ask yourself how many people you know (in this country) who are suffering from protein deficiency. It’s just unheard of. Far and away, more people are suffering from obesity and not eating foods that nourish their bodies and fight disease. So shoot for simple, whole plants (don’t peel and fry your potatoes or peel and sugar your apples) and eat a variety and you’ll do just fine! It’s easier and yummier than you might think.

The Menu

Day 1
Breakfast: Oatmeal with apples, raisins, cinnamon, and pecans
Lunch: Black Bean Soup with blue corn tortilla chips
Dinner: Red Lentil Curry with brown rice
Snacks: Oranges, apples, sweet potato, raw carrots.

Day 2
Breakfast: Whole grain pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup
Lunch: Red Lentil Curry with brown rice (leftover)
Dinner: Split Pea Soup with homemade whole wheat bread
Snacks: Hot air popped popcorn, celery, pancakes w/syrup

Day 3
Breakfast: Oatmeal with three berries and flax
Lunch: Split Pea Soup with homemade whole wheat bread
Dinner: Red Lentil Curry with brown rice
Snacks: Sweet Potato, oranges, bread with applesauce

The Photos

Because you’re only almost four months old once

Dear Mackenzie,

You are getting cuter by the day.

Your favorite foods continue to be milk and your own fists.

You love to play with Daddy.

You are learning to grab things and spend a good part of your day trying to grab your best friend, “Foxy”.

Every time we put you on your stomach now, you roll right onto your back. And you always look surprised.

You are a sweet, happy baby who loves to smile, laugh and “sing”. I shouldn’t put that word in quotes because you already sing better than your mama.

I often look up from work and see you grinning at me. It’s a wonder I get any work done at all.

I no longer take many photos of you sleeping because last time I did, the flash woke you up and I felt terrible.

Love,

Your mama

A Wee Seussy One

We frequently refer to Mackenzie as our “Wee One”. Sometimes she just gets this wide-eyed expression on her face, that is just so “wee” that it can’t be described any other way.

I love love waking her up in the morning. The other day, I caught her sleepiness on camera:

A particularly “wee” look:

We swaddle her arms at night, and let her legs go free. Good thing, too, because her Seussy little feet in the “feetie jams” are pretty darn cute:

As I watched, she even crossed her legs:

We’ve been reading a Dr. Seuss book to Mackenzie every day (at least every day that I remember). She’s becoming quite proficient on the story lines, characters, etc. I grew up with Dr. Seuss myself and I love sharing this tradition with Mackenzie.

I keep stumbling across lines that are so good they must be shared. So I took one bit of each Seuss story that we own, and I decided to give my blog readers a test. Probably only my family will find it enjoyable, but maybe there are other Seuss fans out there as well?

The Rules

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to name that Dr. Seuss story. We’ll start with the Easy Quiz. It includes the 23 most well-known (in my opinion) Seuss stories that we own. Then, if you’re brave enough, tackle the More Tricky Quiz, which consists of the 23 less well-known (in my opinion) Seuss stories that we own.

Here’s how the scoring works: You get two points on the Easy Quiz if you can name the story without consulting the list of stories (in other words, you pull the title out of your head). One point if you get it after consulting the list. You get 3 points on the More Tricky Quiz if you can name the story without consulting the list of stories, and one point if you use the list. And you lose a billion points if you cheat and use google or wikipedia. Leave your score in the comments, if you want. Don’t worry, we can still be friends if you don’t know your Seuss backwards and forwards. Just not BEST friends.

Random Information

Oh and because I know you’re wondering, here are the stories we don’t have here in Columbus (we may have a few still at my parents’ house in CA):
The Seven Ladies Godiva (a bit scandalous and more than a bit funny)
The Cat in the Hat Songbook (does anyone own this?)
My book about ME (hmm never had even heard of this one)
I Can Draw it Myself (I’ll have to look into this one. If it teaches you how to draw Seuss feet, I’m game.)
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? (Oh my, how come we don’t have this one?!)
Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now (Another classic)
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff (I’ve gotta say, the title isn’t too compelling)
There’s a Wocket in My Pocket (I think we have this one actually, just can’t lay my finger on it)
The Cat’s Quizzer (eh?)
I am NOT Going to Get Up Today (Woah, I hope we have this somewhere. Another classic.)
My Many Colored Days (published posthumously, never had heard of it)
Gerald McBoing-Boing (ditto. Though, the title is promising.)

Without further ado…

The Easy Quiz

Yesterday

Yesterday, I ate more cold cereal than vegetables.

Yesterday, I did not exercise.

Yesterday, I didn’t even step foot out of my house except for maybe to chuck a diaper in the outside trash.

That’s probably a good thing because yesterday I did not shower.

Yesterday, I did a load of laundry and worked every minute I could manage, but I ended up further behind in both areas than I was when I started the day.

Yesterday, Scott came home to a wailing baby who had her own booger stuck to her ear.*

Yesterday, instead of sending Scott back to campus with a warm dinner in his belly, I handed him a banana and a date nut bar.

Yesterday, I started the day in an over-sized sweatshirt and jeans and ended the day in an over-sized sweatshirt and jeans covered in spit-up and damp with baby tears.

Yesterday, Mackenzie was sick.** She was miserable when I held her, but completely fell apart if I didn’t.

Yesterday, I ran my cool hands over my baby’s hot, sticky forehead over and over again to help her fall asleep. But she only managed one short nap, all day long.

Yesterday, I sang my baby lullabies while she coughed and whimpered in her hoarse little voice and spit up all over both of us.

And yesterday, approximately five minutes after she fell asleep for the night in her crib, completely worn out and breathing noisily in and out… I already missed her.

Motherhood is a trip.

My sick (and sweet) baby girl:

*Don’t ask.
**The Grandma Update: She’s still sick but today was better than yesterday and we both bathed so things are looking up!