Thoughts on the last day

First, every word with an 'l' or an 'o' hits the blister i gave myself earlier today while making flan... I've got to stop using these words.

First off, MONEY. We have $0.23 left. According to our receipts for grocery's for this month, we spent $46.90. The balance consists of food i bought from myself. I started out the month with eggs, butter, onions, and the like that i didn't want to go to waste, so i noted how much they were at the places i shopped (1lb butter=$1.99 @ wegmans; 18 eggs=$1.59 @ h-mart), and took the money out of the envelope.

If we do this again next year (and i think we will), i'm going to change one thing. We're going to start the month off with a USDA food supplement box. I'll have to confirm with some people, but i've packed these things before and i remember a 5lb bag of flour, a quart of vegetable oil, a jar of gov. peanutbutter, a big can of peaches, potato flakes, and a couple of other things i can't remember. I'm not sure what i'd do with the flakes (besides using it to coat some chicken into chicken strips...), but everything else would be EXTREMELY useful. I figure, if you're livin off if a dollar a day, then you probably get some government help...

There are a few things I made this month that I wouldn't have tried otherwise. we've been eating pasta carbonara for the past couple of nights and it's been pretty good. when all you have left is eggs, milk and pasta (garlic and parmasean help!), it's a pretty good option. The other is tempura (although i can't wait to try a beer batter next time), and tofu in brown sauce.

I'm a much better baker than i realized. especially when it comes to muffins. they're awesome. You can freeze the batter in the muffin cups and just bake what you need that morning. So every morning you get FRESH muffins! yaaaaay! i think these are going to be breakfast from now on.

This is the first time in many many years where i've run out of garlic. I ALWAYS have garlic. But from now on I'm not going to buy pre peeled garlic. I'm just goiing to buy it by the head and peel it and store it in a container when I get home. It's cheaper and much less wastefull.

A few words about waste. I'm going to make a committment to myself to try and eliminate food waste in our home. Herbs can be frozen for later and vegetables can always find a home if you bought more than you need. Most importantly, milk never needs to go bad. If you want to buy a gallon or half gallon, just save what you think you'll want to keep in it's original form and make something else with it. Paneer is soooooo easy to make, and dishes that feature it are delicious. Yogurt is easy to make too (especially if you have the little $25 machine). From yogurt you can make lebene - which i LOVE. You'll never need to buy sour cream again. Almost every fruit you don't want can be baked or reduced into a topping. These are things humanity has learned over thousands of year, but it's only taken a generation or two for modern society to forget. We definitely take the things we can just go out and buy in the grocery store for granted.

Anyway, all of the typing is making my blister kinda crazy, so i'll sign off for now. I'll update when I can.