The fact that my 401 (k) statement arrived last Friday had absolutely no bearing whatsoever on a pet project that I launched last Saturday. Really, it didn’t.
I’m not entirely sure whether or not this pet project had anything to do with my usual, New Years’ endeavoring towards more thoughtful eating (which I talk about at length on Leite’s Culinaria), or the fact that I’ve just gobbled down Bittman’s brilliant Food Matters, which takes Michael Pollan’s equally brilliant In Defense of Food, and applies it in the extreme, to everyday living and eating.
This pet project, I am not ashamed to say, came as the direct result of my frugally-minded partner and I sitting down and agreeing to a serious, strict limitation on the dollars we spend on food, for one week. Like most people, we often say that we’re on a budget, but by the time Friday night rolls around, we have absolutely no idea where the money went. Starbucks? The office cafeteria (where, no matter what I eat, I always wind up getting sick)? Wine? What did we throw out at the end of the week? What’s wrapped in that piece of aluminum foil? Who knows. Rule of thumb: if you don’t recognize it, it needs to be tossed. Out it goes, along with a portion of the dollars you spent on it.
So, last Saturday morning, we sat down with our cups of coffee and with the animals gathered around our feet, and decided: we’d go to the supermarket. We would use Bittman’s book as a model, and severely limit our meat and animal protein purchases. We would load up on (reasonably) fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains. And we’d see how far we could push it.
The result:
$81 dollars spent.
33 meals made, so far.
To keep myself honest, I hung onto the receipt. Here’s what it contained:
Broccoli RabeKaleOnionsCanned tomatoesEggplantPotatoesSpinachBroccoliButternut SquashFrozen cornEggsYamsYogurtClementinesPork buttBoneless chicken breasts*London BroilPuff Pastry
$81.2033 meals, some of which are cooling their heels in my freezer right now, waiting for this week and next. Because really, who eats 33 meals in one week except maybe for the King Family? Not us.Down to business: the dishes. One caveat–some of the ingredients came from our pantry (like pasta, garlic, white beans, bread, tamarind, chaat masala).1) Pan-roasted corn cakes with chaat masala (see photo, above. Note little flecks of cilantro, which my better half cannot tolerate) (2 meals)2) Corn cakes with poached eggs (1 meal)3) Spicy broccoli rabe on garlic-rubbed toast (2 meals)4) Fussilli with broccoli pesto (3 meals)5) Roasted tomato soup with white beans and kale (4 meals)6) Japanese eggplant with lemon chicken (2 meals)7) Poached chicken with saag (3 meals)8) Heidi Swanson‘s Indian-Spiced Hot Pockets (9 meals)9) Curried Butternut Squash Soup (4 meals)10) Rice noodle bowls with spiced beef (3 meals)Not included:Cuban-style pork butt, which will yield 5 meals.Curried yam, tomato, and garbanzo stew, which will yield 3-4 meals.Breakfasts, which sometimes included leftovers (like cold rabe), and sometimes did not.*We never, ever buy boneless chicken breasts. This purchase was made to yield sliced poached chicken breast for as many lunches as we could squeeze from them.I won’t break down this list into specifics, like the fact that the broth for the rice noodle bowls was made separately (chicken broth with star anise) and frozen, or that the hot pockets were stuffed with a ragout of garbanzo beans, tomatoes, and potatoes, and are suitable for dinner, if you have them with a salad.The bottom line: we have used (or will use) absolutely everything, and I’ll continue to cook this way, assuming that my 401(k) free fall doesn’t totally kill my appetite.
