Domestic Goddess

Holy crap. I just made my own bread crumbs. For the record, I seasoned them with Penzey's Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle and Italian Herb Mix. They smelled awesome. I double bagged them, sealed them tight and stuck them in the freezer. See, I didn't make the breadcrumbs because I had a recipe that called for them. Oh no. I made them because I had two ends of bread left over. From the loaf we made in our bread machine!

This is the sort of thing that happens when you are trying to reduce the money you spend on food yet still eat well.

We have been very successful in making most of our meals the past two weeks. After a grocery trip mostly to get fixins for our small new year's party we focused on building meals around the organic vegetables and using what we already had in the house.

We have been using our "homemade" Delmonico steaks from Costco to make Pan-Seared Rib Eye and serving them with organic Sweet Potato Oven Fries and sometimes a side salad. The past two times, it's been Arugula Salad. And yes, Internet, I even shaved the parmesan.

I'm not saying we haven't had takeout. We ate Burger King a couple of times over the course of the week (we have coupons! I promise! And we share the fries.) because we're running low on lunch-ables. We're going to have to go to the grocery store soon (we're out of *cough*frosted*cough* shredded mini-wheats afterall) but we're gearing up to go shopping once a month now that the bulk of our produce comes to our door. That's certainly going to take some practice.

These changes have not taken much effort. We really don't spend a lot of time cooking these meals. And so far we've spent a lot less time shopping ;) I am not sure we've established new habits quite yet, or if these changes will last the year. But it's satisfying to know we are working toward a goal. The short term goal is to reduce our expenses with the longer term goal of increasing our savings. So far...it's fun. You should try shaving some parmesan, you just might like it.