The Menu is Here

My version of the Walletless Weekdays that I did last week- shop once, spend hopefully less than 30 dollars then eat good for the whole week.  I did not include breakfast since I just drink coffee in the a.m.

Shopping List:

Produce:

• 3 onions 
• 13 carrots
• 11 sprigs of thyme
• Small bunch of parsley (need 4 stalks)
• 1 head of Romain Lettuce
• 1 yellow pepper
• Small bag of celery
• 2 heads of garlic
• 1 of potatoes

Canned Goods/Dry:

• 14 oz. can of roasted tomatoes

• 1 cup of lentils
• 1 cup of white long grain rice
• Lite Miracle Whip
• Pistachios (optional, enough for chicken salad)
• 12 cups of chicken broth
• Bottle of balsamic vinegar
• Bottle of white wine
• 1 Bay leaf

Meat:

• 6 chicken breasts

(Already have the olive oil, salt, and pepper needed)

Menu:

Sunday Dinner: Lentil Soup

Monday Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup

Monday Dinner: Lettuce Salad with onion, yellow pepper, and balasmic dressing, brined chicken breast and roasted potatoes.

Tuesday Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup

Tuesday Dinner: Garlic Roasted Chicken

 Wednesday Lunch: Leftover Lentil Soup

Wednesday Dinner: Chicken Salad in Lettuce Wrap (Grilled chicken, lite miracle whip dressing, pistachios, onion and celery, all wrapped in a lettuce leaf).  

Thursday Lunch: Chicken Salad Wrap

Thursday Dinner: Chicken and Rice Soup

Friday Lunch: Left over soup

Friday Dinner: Whatever is leftover!

What I am Eating this Week

Postponement

This weekend the menu never happened since three of my friends ended up staying for the long weekend.  Also, this week is busy and ending with an out-of-town wedding so grocery shopping is really unnecessary.  I am going to work on building my workweek menu for next week though.   I am building it off this lentil soup recipe.  It will be a fun Sunday night meal (especially since the heat wave has broken) and great for weekly leftovers.  I am excited to see what I come up with and share it! 

And the Results are...

Well, it is Friday morning now and the Walletless Week experiment has come to a close.  It was all going rather smoothly until yesterday when I woke up late, forgot to make lunch and had to buy lunch.  I went to Subway, which I thought was a better choice and less “fast-foodie” than Jimmy Johns or Wendy’s or McDonalds.  Later, my boyfriend told me though that I don’t want to know where Subway’s chicken even comes from and that Subway should be included in the fast food category.  Next week I am going to research where food from restaurants and grocery stores that I frequently consumes comes from in an attempt to avoid supporting anti-green establishments with my money. 

Anyways, minus the Subway for lunch and skipping on cooking dinner last night (we went to happy hour instead), I spent no money this week.  We still have ingredients left over which is kind of disappointing but if I had planned better, I could have used those for lunch. 

Overall, I did not really like any of the recipes and made up my own for Wednesday with the ingredients.  It was really nice having dinner planned though and not have to think about it or run to the store to get something I didn’t have.

Since I liked the overall concept of shopping once and having the week planned out, I am going to do the same next week but with my own recipes.  I am going to work on my menu and shopping list tomorrow and I’ll publish over the weekend.  I am going to focus on ingredients that I can get the farmer’s market or from the local grocery store while also being conscience of the cost.  I hope to keep it at about $30.00 dollars (like it was last week).  

The Walletless Workweek

Over the past two months, not one week has been remotely the same.  This has caused a slight bit of stress but has been exciting and well worth it.  The main cause?  Meeting and falling in love with a pretty amazing boy.  However, we've both noticed that over the past couple of weeks, our old respective routines have pretty much been abolished.

So, during a long drive back from a weekend getaway, we talked about routine and why we want to get back into it.  The main to reasons are our wallets and waistlines.  We've been eating out (and drinking out) far too often and though it has been fun, we both agree we can still be happy and in love and all that cute stuff without spending lots of money on delicious chicken livers, not so good German pork dishes, and on pints and pints of micro-brewed beer.  

Then, naturally, what followed next in the conversation was "what's for dinner?". We both agreed “something healthy, we're getting fat”.  I happened to find an old magazine article hidden in my what-to-read folder. The article, from Women's Health, is about buying and roasting one chicken and eating it in a different way every night, from Sunday to Thursday.

Since we were both tired from eating, drinking, and driving (obviously not at the same time) for roughly fourty-eight hours straight, having a menu for the next fives days AND very orderly shopping list in front of us was very appealing.  We decided to go for it.  I decided however that I wanted to take it a little farther- buy just what I think I might need for the rest of the week, which shouldn't be much more than dinner and maybe a bottle of wine or two, and not swiping my credit card again until Friday.

This is another experiment in my going-green adventure.  I have a feeling it is going to be difficult for me.  I am pretty good about bring lunch to work but at least once a week, I am tired and forget to pack lunch or my very persuasive co-worker coerces me into buying something delicious with him (it has not been fast food though since I stopped eating it, which by the way has been unbelievably easy and basically a mindless practice).   I see the lunch hour being a potential problem.  Running out of wine might also be another pitfall.

In addition to saving trips to the store and cutting on unnecessary consumption, I hope to save money this week.  In the article that sparked this blog entry, it claims all ingredients to make the 5 meals cost $28.00.  We are on way to the store now and after we get home, I will update the actual cost for what is needed and also what I bought that I determined necessary to be happy and content until Friday.  Here we go!

And so it goes...

So it has been a couple of weeks since my last blog entry but continuing on the being more ecofriendly path has been going pretty well.  The biggest current roadblock is actually not willpower or even remembering to be consistent (which is a pleasant surprise) but money.  I am making the transition from full time volunteer to full time employee but with a one month vacation in between.  The vacation was for the month of July and filled with expenses- like moving into a new apartment.  At first I was going to the local market (which I love and is a two-minute walk away) and even though I wouldn’t say it is that much more expensive than the grocery store, I end up spending more since it is all fresh and local.  At the grocery store, canned veggies are not very good but they are super cheap.  So, until I get my first paycheck (!) in two very long weeks, I am not going to be able to shop entirely there or at markets.

I’m finding that time is also a large factor in living a green lifestyle.  One, because it is time consuming to first off be knowledgeable about why certain normalcies are harmful to the planet and what is a solution that is not just different (becuase that often is just as bad but might sound better) but is actually a less energy consuming process.  I feel like I still have no idea what I am talking about when I try and explain to people why I think that being conscience and knowledgeable is important.   As a sidenote, why do people get annoyed by the fact that I decided to not buy new clothes or want to ask where my burger is from?

A second reason for time being an obstacle in the quest of green living is that it takes much more time to cook meals that are just from local ingredients.  Example, if you want to make a corn salad, it is way easier to open a can of corn than cook and cut fresh corn.  Anyone though will say corn is better if cooked though, but it takes longer.  Then though if you are eating local food, what to do if the ingredient is not local, like my own personal favorite fruit, olives.  You can look up substitutes or just go without.  That takes time though, more time than just grabbing a can of olives with no idea where they are from.  

Going forward, I want to spend more time researching and learning about what is good for our planet and why.  I also need (and do not really have a choice if I am going to keep this up) to eat local without going broke.  It should be an interesting journey!

Sweet Summer.

I’ve been visiting my parent’s this week in upstate New York and it finally feels like summer is here now that I’m lounging by the pool and out of work for the entire month!  Since I’m moving into a new apartment in St. Louis at the end of this week, it’s been kind of a hectic time to keep up with a new change.  

However, as my welcome home dinner, my dad bought local beef for dinner and it was delicious!  My parents even said they might start always buying local beef and even other meat.  That made me happy!  

Not eating fast food has been so easy since I am surrounded by people who want to cook me delicious food this week.  In the airport Saturday, during my 10-hour trip (thanks to delays and missed connections) I broke down and ate a salad.  I had hoped to avoid eating in the airport, since that is basically all considered fast food, and brought two oranges and a bag of pistachios.  However, when I open the first orange I saw it was very mushy and had gone bad.  So, when we de-boarded the first flight, I got a bagel.  Dunkin Donuts uses little paper bags though so I didn’t feel too bad.  And my Nalgen was really helpful at keeping me from getting a bottled drink.  Other than that, it has not been a challenge.

When we drive in the U-Haul back to St. Louis on a fun 14-hour drive, I am going to try and persuade my dad to eat a packed lunch in a park or rest-area rather than stopping at a fast-food joint.  I’ll update on that later this week!  Next week, I am going to try to bike instead of drive on errands, if possible.  As for the rest of this week, I am just going to keep up with same goals and try and get this move over with!