Food Frustration

You know what's kind of a piss off? Having food spoil before you can use it.

Specifically, sale food.

I've been trying to make a concentrated effort of buying food sale to bring my costs down. The problem is that there is only one of me eating it. I might find bread for $1 off, but I get half the shelf life compared to the bread I buy full price. I know it was at a discount, but I don't feel like I get my money's worth when I throw half of it away. The other piss off is when you avoid giving into the urge to eat out, and make the decision to make food at home instead, and find that the stuff you needed to use is spoiled. Bloody frustrating.

You might be able to tell I'm just a little pissed off about having to throw away half a loaf of bread.

I'll admit I'm terrible at cooking (and grocery shopping) for one. Its a skill I have yet to master, despite my efforts. I come by it very honestly, my mom cooks like a typical farm wife.

For example: Thanksgiving 2009. I expected to be working (out of province) that weekend, and my sister expected to be at her boyfriend's parents for dinner. My mom planned a dinner with enough food for her and my dad. The day of, I managed to get out of work and made the drive up north to my parents. At the same time, my sister and her boyfriend changed their plans and went to my parent's house as well. The dinner for 2 now had to feed 5 adults. No one, except my mother, was concerned about this. At the end of the meal, 2/3 of the food had to be packed up as leftovers.

So, all of you single ladies and gentlemen, what tips and tricks do you have to make cooking for one easier? How do you prevent food from spoiling? When it comes to something like bread, do you buy individual buns, or put it in the freezer and thaw individual slices? I could use some advice right now. I'll be set when I have a family, but for now my food budget feels like it's being unnecessarily abused.

Potato Proof

There is no such thing as "can't"

There are only excuses.

I find this is particularly true with urban gardening. Unless you live in an illegal apartment with no windows, you can garden. I offer my own proof:

 

Those right there are potato plants growing in reusable shopping bags. I had some baby potatoes from the grocery store that were sprouting in my cupboard; rather than throw them in the garbage, I decided to plant them.

They grew :)

Not only did they grow, they also produced potatoes which I ended up eating in the fall.

All of my gardening last year was actually done in containers. Potatoes, herbs, asparagus, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, you name it. You don't need to spend a lot either, as you can see above a little creativity can go a long way towards getting started. Friends of mine grew tomato plants out of the BOTTOM of their hanging baskets. You don't have to worry about staking them that way, and they don't take up any floor space :)

I will be trying to move my potatoes into the ground this year. We'll see how that goes.

I know of at least one blogger who is planning to write a whole series on urban gardening, which I am eagerly awaiting! I'll make sure to link to it when she puts it up :)

Has anyone done any creative gardening lately?

Leftover leftovers?

Okay, so it's really freaking cold outside, and I don't really want to go out there right now.

Which kinda sucks, because I need to pick up groceries soon.

I looked over my fridge, tossed the items that needed tossing (how did 4 month expired yogurt get missed in the last clean out?), and assessed what was left. Not much. A couple eggs, a splash of milk, some mouldy cheese and a container of spinach cheese dip from going out with a friend a couple days ago. On the counter was some bread crusts leftover from having some friends over for an english tea a little while back.

My fridge is not usually this barren. I blame the weather.

I have a reasonably stocked pantry, but I was feeling the need to use up what was in the fridge before tapping that. Well, tapping that too much anyway.

I trimmed the mould off the cheese and cut into small, meltable pieces (there was too little to shred). After cooking a pot of penne and draining it, I threw the cheese pieces to melt, and added the remaining spinach cheese dip. The result was a cheesy spinach pasta, with a little kick. For whatever reason the restaurant we got the spinach dip from does theirs with a tex-mex edge. If I find the pasta is too dry when I reheat it, I can throw some salsa in quite easily to fix that.

The bread crusts (about 1/2 a loaf's worth?) were torn up into little bite sized pieces and spread out in a baking dish. My last 3 eggs and splash of milk were whipped together with a few handfuls of homemade vanilla sugar and vanilla extract. I say handfuls, because I was too lazy to get a measuring cup out of the cupboard. 3 handfuls - That's about as precise-ish as I can get on this recipe. On top of the crust pieces I liberally sprinkled nutmeg and cinnamon, as well as a few handfuls of crushed walnuts and a handful of dark chocolate chips, before pouring the egg mixture over it. I pushed the bread down to make sure it all soaked up some egg mixture, covered the dish in tinfoil, and put it in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes.

Om nom nom.

I have some Devon cream in the fridge at work to put on that bad boy.

I now have breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week :)

Then I really have to go get groceries :s

Has anyone made anything interesting out of their leftovers lately?

School Fundraisers... Helpful?

Hopefully you all had a very merry Christmas and are finished sleeping off the self-induced turkey coma.

If you have school aged children, or know people with school aged children, or for that matter live anywhere near a school, you are most likely familiar with school fundraisers. Chocolates, magazines, baking products, 50/50 tickets, calendars, cookies, Christmas decorations, and other things which can be easily sold to earn money for various class trips and projects. More often than not they’re purchased out of a sense of social obligation or guilt (pleading 6 year old eyes anyone?) I love chocolate covered almonds as much as the next person, but my waistline doesn’t need any more of them thanks, neither does my wallet.

I was pleasantly surprised by a school fundraiser for one of my coworker’s daughters recently; it was affordable AND useful. They’ve been taking orders for grocery store gift cards at the 4 largest grocers in the area. The denominations ranged from $10-$250 depending on the store, with no expiry date. For every $100 the kids sold, the store would donate $6 to their fundraiser. So basically, the stores received guaranteed patronage, the people who bought the cards received their full donation in groceries, and the kids received money for their fundraiser. It’s a win-win-win situation. I plunked down $200, and ordered 6 - $25 gift cards and 5 - $10 gift cards to the grocery store I most commonly frequent. It gives me one less reason to carry my debit card around with me, and if I’m careful it will look after my dietary needs for the next 2 months or do. They’ll be carrying on the fundraiser until April, so I’ll have the opportunity to order more cards when I run out again.

I figured I’d mention the fundraiser on here in case others hadn’t heard about it before (I know I hadn’t) and might want to consider suggesting it to their children’s schools. I’m sure there might be a mom or two out there who would like to look after some of their families needs while doing their fundraising rather than trying to split their money between the two.

How about you guys? Have any fundraisers caught your eyes recently that would be worth sharing?