Shopping and Saving Part II: The List

Good Evening bloggies! I had so much fun reading all of your classic breakfast foods from your childhood. Looks like we were mighty cereal and pop-tart eaters. Our diets may have grown up…well, just a little bit. I’m still a cereal monster

Dinner

I was so excited to use my grass-fed beef I got from the Farmer’s Market last weekend for this dinner.

I have no idea why my food is awkwardly spread apart

In the Cajun Burger

• 1/2 lb. grass-fed beef
• chopped onion
• chopped red and green bell pepper
• cajun seasoning
• sea salt
• pepper
• hot sauce

Placed on a toasted sandwich thin with dijon mustard, ketchup and spring greens on top

Yummy. (Sorry vegetarians)

I also made a zucchini oreganata. Well, it went alright. Not good enough to safe for leftovers though.

And a side of peas. For no other reason that I was craving peas today.

I also had a  Skinny Cow Carmel Truffle Popsicle for dessert

Grocery Shopping

I woke up this morning not really excited about grocery shopping this morning, but the fact that I didn’t have any bananas really pushed me to go. As I developed my list I got very excited to go. Since I’m trying to use up all of the food I have because I’m moving back home for the summer in less than a month, my hauls are starting to be very slim. I can actually go through the express line now. Anyways, this all ended up to be less than $30.

Carrots, oregano, almond milk, millet puffs, sunflower millet bread from Great Harvest, naners, frozen strawberries, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, orange, apples, red and orange bell pepper.

I am so excited to devour my bread from Great Harvest. The loaf seems to be the right amount of squishy and solid. Is that weird?

This brings me to the next part of my series

Shopping and Saving Part II: The List

If you missed part I, setting your budget you may find it here.

I really encourage all to make a list. I can’t imagine going grocery shopping with out it. I feel like I’d miss a lot of the foods that need to be in my recipes that I have planned out for the week.

I organize my lists on Evernote.

1. I first organize a few meals that I want to make during the week:

For blogging purposes, I find it SO much easier to link the recipe. It also helps when I need to recipe on the day I’m making the meal.

2. I write down all the ingredients I will need and sort it into the stores that I need to go to.

There are a few of my staples that I get every week that transfer over such as bananas and apples so I just copy and paste those every weeks.

3. Once it’s time to go shopping I write all the foods down on a sheet of paper and organize it the best I can as far as the location in the store. I generally do the bakery items, dairy, meats, inner grocery aisle items and then onto the produce. Since 90% of my buys are from the produce section, I divide that up by how the produce section is organized. That may just be the type-A personality really coming out of me.

4. I take a look at my list and think about how much this will probably cost. If it looks like it is going to be a low-cost week I acknowledge that I may splurge on one or two items that are not on the list. By setting myself a limit to how many non-list items I may buy before going, I really cut down on those extra buys that can rack up anywhere from $10-40 extra on your shopping trip.

How do you organize your shopping lists? And how do you deal with those grocery shopping “extras?”

Indian Summer

Well it should be INDIAN FOOD and summer weather.

After the 5K I had a hodgepodge of a lunch.

Leftover macaroni salad and Caesar salad from last night’s roomie dinner as well as an egg puff with dijon mustard and laughing cow cheese on a sandwich thin.

As well as a salad with feta cheese, tomato and red bell pepper with Annie’s papaya dressing.

All together now.

Afterwards I still felt like I needed to run. I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical before the sun teased me and I went outside for a walk instead.

I tried to keep myself entertained until it was dinner time cause tonight it’s Indian food night, baby!

Nothing like some Indian food porn

Brown rice, a pita bread and TJ’s Indian Fare Jaipur Vegetables

I liked the flavor from last week’s mix from TJ’s just a little more, but it was still very delicious!

My body is really pooped out from all the running today. I’m thinking a popcorn and movie kind of night?

Question of the Day: Do you have a favorite Indian Dish? I’m still trying stuff out, but I’m in love with the Eggplant Curry I had on Thursday.

Too Much Downward Dog

Whew! I am one sore bloggy! I think there was too much downward dog!

I woke up feeling great, then as the day went on the soreness crept on in. But I had some Zumba to work it all out

Today’s breakfast was inspired by Tyler’s use of Coconut Milk Creamer.

I absolutely couldn’t resist. Only 10 calories per tablespoon and $2.38. Essentially my dream of a product.

My oats started off like this:

2 packets of instant oatmeal

about 3 T of THE MIX

and ended up like this:

topped with about 2 T of Coconut Milk Creamer and 1 T Coconut flakes.

I used Instant Oatmeal this time as apart of my Eat It, Not Buy It goal.

I still have a few packets of Instant left, but after that I will be switching to old fashioned forever

A banana covered in maca, cinnamon and mesquite also joined the party:

Okay, so I went a little overzealous with the mesquite. What can I say, I’m in love with the stuff

I was starving for some lunch, but unfortunately I had to wait for the turkey to de-thaw a little so I had a ridiculously burnt sandwich thin with PB&J on top.

I may have taken a bite to see if the bread was still edible. It most definitely was! I usually am not patient enough to let it toast enough, but I’m glad I got too caught up with my emails this time.

Finally I was able to cut away some turkey from the big block of ice, uh, turkey and made some Chicken Turkey BBQ Salad

Definitely still my favorite home-made salad.

Afterwards it was some time for some Zumba! We learned Jai Ho today! OMG OMG OMG favorite dance ever! I was hoping we would do that song, and the dance our instructor has is just phenomenal. Seriously, she is after my heart <3

I’m doing a bunch of sorority things tonight, including eating dinner there tonight (burger bar, burger bar, burger bar!)

I may not be able to post after it, but I’ll try to get some super sneaky shots of dinner. I feel its important how I eat when presented with mucho options of unhealthy food.

What is your best tip for eating when you have mostly unhealthy options?

Mine is eating in moderation! I usually eat a healthy snack before hand, fill my plate up with at least 1/2 veggies or brown rice if available, and savor each bite of the unhealthy stuff.

So Much Downward Dog

Whew! I am beat from yoga and body sculpting!

Immediately when I got to yoga my stomach rumbled…and caught with out some kind of granola bar…uh oh. I had to wait two hours with a tummy rumbling until I got some food in me

Needless to say I was ravenous when I got home! I’m keeping with my Eat It, Don’t Buy It goal and taking the chicken burgers and baby carrots that I already have to be inspired by this meal.

An open faced Morning Star Chicken Burger with ketchup and dijon mustard was in order

I naturally needed a side of veggies, so I used Caitlin’s recipe for the roasted parsnips and carrots.

I just needed to roast the veggies thismuchmore and it would have been absolutely perfect! Naturally it was still really, really good though

This was my first time ever cooking parsnips! I tried a raw one and wasn’t too much of a fan; however, I liked them a bit more than the carrots when roasted.

I naturally had to follow up dinner with dessert

A Skinny Cow Caramel Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream Bar.

Yeahhhhh boy!

I am so exhausted from my two classes! So much downward dog and arms. I might even be sore tomorrow!

Night my bloggies

My Dear Millet

Good news bloggies, I MADE IT on my goal of Limit the Bill.

I got some great stuff from Market of Choice and Safeway.

Sandwich thins, flatbread, coconut milk creamer, millet, parsnip, red bell pepper, 2 tomatoes, 2 oranges, caesar salad, spinach, pesto, sharp cheddar cheese, bananas

European blend greens, cajun seasoning, WW macaroni elbows, WW hamburger buns, black beans, ground turkey

Now the bill………….

Drumroll please……..

Trader Joe’s (from Saturday)       $12

Market of Choice                              $6 (!!!!!)

Safeway                                              $45

Grand total for the week               $63

I made it $12 under budget! I’m so happy

I’m hoping I can keep it up! I actually was a lot less stressed this week only allowing myself to buy what is on the list. There wasn’t any “well I really want it, but I don’t exactly need it, so is it worth the price” buys.

I was super duper excited to have this guy back in my life

PUFFED MILLET!

I quickly celebrated by eating a bowl of Annie’s Fruity Bunnies, Life and Millet cereal.

Oh baby.

This is my most favorite cereal mix. I’m so glad it back

Looks like I need to pull some blog-action magic and rewind a bit to this morning.

Breakfast was another 2 egg white sandwich on 1/2 a sandwich thin (it was all I had left), with laughing cow cheese and hot sauce

But I ate it before I remembered to photograph it. *Lowers my head in food-blogger shame*

Here is what was left of it though!

Nothing.

I also made my friend and I a smoothie later in the morning. She has been super sick lately, so I promised her a spinach smoothie. Turns out I don’t have any spinach left, but I still made her a smoothie.

Into the mix for 2 smoothies

1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries

2 bananas

2 T flax seed meal

3/4 c. Almond milk

3/4 c. water

4 ice cubes

Look at that color!

Hers went into my travel smoothie mug. Note I got green so I wouldn’t freak people out with my green smoothies. Makes non-green smoothies look icky

I added a spoonful of chocolate protein powder to mine

Voila! Magnifico!

I had to eat lunch in class while watching a movie, but I remember to take a picture of it when I was creating it

I was trying to recreate the stellar sandwich from yesterday.

4 slices deli turkey (one serving was 6 slices)

onion

tomato

red bell pepper

1 tsp dijon mustard

2/3 laughing cow cheese

It was really good! Not quite as fantastic as yesterday’s sandwich, but I think food is always better when prepared by someone else!

I also snacked on a pear

Eh, it was ok. It was an Albertson’s pear though so I really shouldn’t have been expecting anything good.

Off to a yoga and body sculpting class in a little while

Then going for my second goal of Eat It, Not Buy It with what’s hopefully a great dinner.

Question of the day: what do you do when you feel sick?

I try to get as many fruits and veggies in me as possible and rest as often as possible. Ideally my day would be: breakfast- oatmeal with flax, chia seeds & goji berries, lunch- a smoothie, and dinner- a salad.

Sandwiches and Sports Injuries

How is everyone’s Monday going?!

It’s fairly sunny and warm-ish here so I’m a happy girl…for a Monday at least!

I feel bad that I have to rely on phone pics today. I put my camera battery on the charger last night, but it didn’t actually charge. It’s so frustrating

Breakfast was a two egg-white sandwich with hot sauce and 1/3 of original Laughing Cow cheese. As well as 1/2 a mango, 1/2 a banana and 2 strawberries with a dollop of Chobani greek yogurt on top.

I had already taken a bite into the egg sandwich before I remember that I could use my phone!

Skip ahead to lunch and my friend treated me to lunch on campus.

I had a gigantic sandwich! It had turkey, provolone cheese, dijon mustard, jalepenos, onion, pickles, lettuce, green bell pepper and tomatoes on a 8 multigrain whole grain bread.

It was huge! But SOOO good and filling I think I’m going to need to recreate this stat!

I had my Zumba class soon after which I really worked up a sweat. I was getting super worried how the first two classes made me really sweat, however the past couple of classes haven’t at all! Today was definitely different. I gave it my all, especially with Lady Gaga

My knee has been acting up lately. I’m nervous about doing any kind of workout, especially Zumba where there is a lot of jumping up and down. I had a really interesting read about a doctor’s take on sports injuries and how they treat themselves. Being the daughter of a doctor’s kid I’ve had a lot of “take a pill and tough it out.” I feel like I’m not getting any better by doing that. All of my life I have been plagued by injuries that just add up.

What has been your take on injuries? Do you ice, rest and recover or take a pain killer and wait till it goes away? What did you think of the article?

I’m eating dinner at my sorority tonight, and I’ll try to sneak a picture on my phone so you can see how I eat when I’m there.

I Love my Indian Food

I also really just love food in general, but today’s afternoon meals were ethnically inspired.

Sorry for the late posting, dinner was super late and I was ridiculously tired last night so this post is going up very late.

After breakfast a chocolate coconut larabar was inhaled

These things are more like candy in my world. So delicious (& nutritious!)

My lunch date did end up coming through so we met at an organic cafe on campus (he was a trooper about this). I got a falafel-esque dish called the Karmapalooza. Though I wasn’t able to take a picture! It felt like it would be really rude to pull out my camera and act like I’m texting. And I was just meeting this guy for the first time so I didn’t feel comfortable being like “oh hey, I blog about everything I eat.”

Anyways, my lunch date got the daal over rice. I told him that the curry was better, but he didn’t listen. Though he didn’t admit it, I’m sure he wished he had gotten the curry too.

I wasn’t able to picture lunch, but this little guy was for dessert when I got back to my apartment

Little in size, high in calories (& deliciousness)

Thankfully, it’s the last of the Easter candy from the Easter Bunny (thanks mom!)

I had to run to a sorority thing-a-ma-bob right during my usual dinner time so I made this beauty for a quick snack to hold me over

a sandwich thin slathered 1/2 T sunflower butter with apple slices on top.

Yum.

The sorority thing was alright, and as soon as I got home I started boiling some water for the brown rice.

But of course thanks to me killing the first pot of brown rice, thus having to boil another pot afterwards, I had dinner at 9PM. Holy cow!

But it was delicious for sure.

Gina’s Vegan Gajar Halwa and Trader Joe’s Punjab Eggplant served over brown rice.

Looks absolutely disgusting but since it’s Indian food it is naturally sooooo good! My lunch date kept joking how Indian food is made to look as disgusting as possible.

How about you, do you think Indian food looks gross?

For me the more disgusting the Indian food looks, I’m probably going to like it better