It’s hard to believe we’re at Day 50 of our sustainability challenge already. Starting our eighth week of sustainable eating and healthier living, many of our changes like shopping at the farmer’s market, carefully reading the labels of those things we buy from the store, and cooking meals at home have become part of our regular habit. We have detoxed our cleaning supplies and replaced our plastic food storage with glass. And we have changed some of our health and beauty products to kinder versions without phthalates and parabens. What we need to work on is walking more, but I think that will improve when the weather is consistently warm.
This week, we did well on eating what we purchased. We have some beets that might not make it, but that’s it. I’m getting better (I think) at anticipating how much food we will eat. That was a bigger problem before we had a budget. I was so tempted by all the beautiful vegetables at the farmer’s market that I would over buy and then feel frustrated that we were basically composting money! In truth, we eat a lot less than I would have thought and it has taken me a while to adjust my buying to what we will really eat, not to what looks appealing. Knowing I am accountable to my budget each week has definitely made me a more careful shopper!
Here is how our shopping budge worked this week:
- Coon Rock Farm (carrots, sweet turnips): $6.00
- Locals Seafood (fresh monkfish): $17.00
- Farmhand Foods meat box (beef braising ribs): $15.00
- Hillsborough Cheese Company (fresh Greek yogurt): $4.00
- Whole Foods (ground bison): $12.97
- Trader Joes (Ezekiel bread, zinfandel, burger buns, soy milk, frozen fruit, broth, harvest grains, etc): $39.97
The total for this week is $94.94! A tad under budget this week! And what are we eating for $94.94? Here is the menu for this week:
Sunday–Zinfandel braised beef ribs with rosemary, garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed kale with pine nuts
Monday–Pan seared monkfish with lemon, risotto with leftover butternut squash, sweet turnips
Tuesday–Carryover ribs and potatoes, broccoli
Wednesday–Scrambled egg tortillas, leftover risotto, leftovers
Thursday–Bison burgers, harvest grain cous cous
Friday–Broccoli pesto pasta with pine nuts
Saturday–Homemade pizza night, salad
Here’s to another great week!
yearofhealthierliving 
kadell
/ February 19, 2012great job on the budget! what are you doing for lunches and breakfasts?
Year Of Healthier Living
/ February 20, 2012Breakfast is usually fruit/protein smoothies, Ekekiel bread, or homemade muffins/pancakes (made ahead and frozen). We love our Vitamix blender, which makes super smoothies fast! Hmmm, I should do a breakfast post! Thanks for reading!! I look forward to checking out your blog as well.