It's almost time!

In just over a week, I get to pick up my first share of the season from my co-op. I can't wait!


A few of the things I'm looking forward to:

• Bibb lettuce, with the exception of a salad bar at a place downtown, I've avoided salads because I'm just disappointed with the lettuce. And I think I caught myself drooling when this picture came in my email today:

• Asparagus, I've tried buying some at the store but it is not nearly as good as what I get from the co-op.

• Zucchini, I am dreaming of sauteed zucchini and squash with some pasta.
• Spinach, I regret wasting my spinach at the beginning of the season last year, but now I know the best way to eat it is sauteed in butter and garlic.

There are plenty more things, but those are the things I expect to see in my shares soon. Aside from the actual food, I'll be glad to have some motivation for cooking again and maybe even some inspiration for the blog. 

Now here's the list of stuff I won't miss.

• Deciding what I'm going to eat
• Wandering the grocery store aimlessly
• Paying too much for strawberries and other produce that isn't that great
• Eating casseroles for a week straight
• Resorting to cereal or oatmeal for dinner

In other random news, the caretaker for my house/apartment has planted a garden in my backyard, as in spinach, broccoli, lettuce, etc. So I'm wondering if there will be an extra bounty for me to enjoy. 

Back to reality

Last week was a harsh reality. Some combination of going back to work after several days off and not having the co-op left me starving and crabby by Friday. Dinner was pretty much a failure every night, and even the cereal lover in me was tired of that fall back option.

But here was the issue: I went to the grocery store when I got back in town but was disappointed by the produce and came out with little more than the basics. I realized I hadn't grabbed more than an onion or other random ingredient from the produce section in months. So actually trying to shop in the produce section was a let down after months of bi-weekly co-op pick-ups.

But I knew I needed to spend some time cooking to improve my mood. So I went to a small local grocery store that has really good produce that isn't that expensive. Of course, I had decided I wanted to make broccoli cheese soup and ended up back in the Kroger produce section for broccoli, but it's good to know I have some alternatives until my co-op starts again.

And cooking put me in a much better mood. I made soup, tried a new pizza crust and tomato sauce and made some blueberry muffins. I also put some of my Christmas presents to use. I now know the only way to make soup is with an immersion blender, and I'm not sure how I did it before without one.

I realize it is only Wednesday, but my week is significantly better when I have something for dinner when I get home. It was also good to know that I enjoy cooking for cooking and not just because it's food from the co-op that's going to go bad. Hopefully, I'll get some recipes posted soon.

The thing about cooking for one is that you don’t really have choices. Yes, you can decide to make something on Monday rather than Tuesday or vice versa but at the end of the week you have to eat the meals you planned for at the grocery store. The leftovers will continue to stare at you from the refrigerator if you pass them up one night. There is no one else to finish off those things.

When I first lived by myself, I think this is what I struggled with the most. At my parents’ house I never doubt that there will be several options awaiting me in their refrigerator. But there’s also no guarantee that what I passed up the first time will still be around the next time I am looking for a meal or snack.

But now I’ve grown accustomed to a life without choices, so I actually struggled this week on vacation when the refrigerator was literally exploding with options.

Let me explain a little bit about where we vacation. We go to an island on the Atlantic Coast that is only accessible by ferry and once you are on the island, there is one grocery store and one main restaurant. This means the best approach is to grocery shop in advance and transport the food by ferry. You can still get whatever you need at the grocery store on the island, but it’s a little more economical to do the major shopping beforehand. This is what my mom did, and I contributed my produce share for the week. In addition, my mom prepared several dishes in advance, including two types of already cooked chicken (grilled and buffalo-style), a breakfast casserole (which didn’t actually travel as well as planned), and chocolate pies. Needless to say, even at the beginning of the week we had plenty of food.

Over the course of the week, we accumulated more choices as we prepared fresh seafood for a variety of dishes. My mom served as the main chef, but I promised to give the other participants credit. Note that for all of the dishes mentioned, I substituted shrimp when it was not the main seafood.

Shrimp and grits
Mahi-Mahi with risotto
Pasta with seasoned scallops (prepared by my sister)
Shrimp boil (prepared by my brother)
Steak and potatoes (steaks grilled by my dad)
Homemade pizza

These dishes were complemented with my fresh produce as sides. We roasted asparagus, sautéed zucchini and squash, sautéed mustard greens and fried zucchini.  I of course enjoyed the asparagus and liked both ways the zucchini was prepared. However, I was glad that I shared the mustard greens with four other people. We (well, my dad) sautéed them in olive oil with garlic and some bacon, but they were extremely peppery. I ate my serving as did everyone else, but no one asked for seconds. I’m hoping the next time those show up for me, I’ll be able to swap them out!

I also introduced my family to some of my new favorite recipes and proved to myself that it’s not just me who likes them. I made foccacia bread since I had more spring onions, but I still haven’t mastered the yeast thing. I served Pioneer Woman’s pancakes on one of our last mornings with maple syrup. I also successfully popped my popcorn on the stove and might have just converted my family to that approach over microwave bags, but then again, probably not.

They also got to enjoy the Bibb lettuce that I have come to love, and they seemed impressed by the strawberries that I considered a little subpar compared to the ones I had a few weeks ago. But maybe picking them straight from the farm raises my standards a little too high.

Needless to say, we ate very well all week, and I enjoyed a week of making choices about my meals once I got over my initial indecisiveness.

The coupon game

I'm not really a coupon person. I love a good sale and get a dozen promotions from various apparel and home stores in my email weekly. But when it comes to groceries, I don't even make a list when I go to the store much less plan out what coupons to use.

I worked at a newspaper for almost four years and of course subscribed (well, it was required), and every few weeks I'd get inspired and cut coupons. But when I'd go to the grocery store on Monday, I'd think I had to use all of my coupons that day or I would forget and they would expire. But I would also get carried away and buy things I don't normally buy because I had a coupon. This approach really didn't save me any money and might have even cost me money.

But I've seen people that play the coupon game very well, my friend Jawan is an expert. And when I was home for Easter, I discovered my younger sister has also mastered couponing as she pulled out item after item and told me she got all of them for free.

My sister is letting me on her secrets, although really the secret is southernsavers.com. The way to play the game is to collect coupons and then use them when the stores are also running specials, so you are saving dollars instead of 50 cents here or there. Southernsavers sorts through the weekly ads and pairs up items with coupons (both in the newspaper and online) and allows you to print a grocery list.

I have to admit I was intrigued but still not ready for the challenge. I needed to do some major grocery shopping this week, and my sister had been telling me how jealous she was that one of the stores here was tripling coupons this week. So I decided this was the week to take the plunge and try out her system. She was very helpful and even sent me a list from Southernsavers and talked me through all of the lingo.

On Wednesday night, I ventured to Harris Teeter (if you live near one, you have until Wednesday, May 5, to triple your coupons) armed with my list and some coupons. Because I have not been faithfully clipping coupons, I didn't have all the ones from previous weeks that would have worked. But I found my shopping to be more efficient even though it was an unfamiliar store. I had a list, and when I got to the right aisle I knew exactly what brand and size to buy of whatever the item was.

Now I clearly missed this warning on Southernsavers:
This is the long awaited triples week, so get your coupons ready. For triples, if you have never done this before you need to go early. Very early. If your store is open all night many will let you start checking out at 7 am.

The item I was most excited about and fought with my printer over was cheese. It was buy one get one free to cut it down to less than $2, and I had a coupon for 75 cents off that would be tripled, thus making it FREE. Well, the specific kind of cheese I had to buy was completely gone, and I felt like I didn't get my reward.

But all things considered, I do think I saved more than usual. I needed everything I bought and almost all of the items were somehow discounted, so although I wouldn't say it was a total success, i.e. nothing was free, it was a better experience than expected and I only forgot two things.

With the co-op, I am trying to avoid the grocery store as much as possible, but there are things I do have to go to the store for so I might as well save some money there. But I think my main goal right now is to be more aware of what I'm buying and how much I'm paying for it. But ultimately, I'd like to start play the coupon game well enough to pay for my Sunday newspaper subscription, which of course supplies the coupons but I also love reading the paper on Sundays.

Making something out of nothing

I was out of town two weekends in a row and decided that for the week in between I could skip the grocery store. I did go by the market near my house for milk and a prepared meal once, but other than that I was digging through my pantry.

When I got back in town on Monday, I knew there was no avoiding the grocery store since by that point it had been about two weeks. I’m sure I will delve into this in another post, but I’m not good at grocery shopping. I rarely make a list because it seems like when I do I don’t actually make it into the store with the list, which defeats the point. But without a list I almost always forget something and I come home with something I already have three of in at home.

Anyway after eight hours in the car, this day at the grocery store was particularly random. Here’s what I came home with:

Ground beef
Taco seasoning
Shrimp
Yogurt
Grapes
Clorox wipes
Sharp cheddar
Bagel Bites
3 muffin mixes
Pizza crusts
Mozzarella cheese
Bisquick
Shampoo
Granola bars

(Clearly I intended to eat tacos this week, but I got home and realized that while I have five packets of taco seasoning in my cabinets, I don’t have any tortillas, nor did I buy lettuce for a taco salad. I also forgot contact lens solution.)
 
With this random collection plus what was already in my house, I didn’t have a clear plan for dinner on Tuesday. As I walked home from work I used my  AllRecipes iPhone app to find a recipe. 

I put in shrimp as a main meal (because my mom showed me that it can be a non-leftover meal), and I landed on Angel Hair Pasta with Garlic Shrimp and Broccoli and proceeded to leave out everything I didn’t like or have. But I came out with a pretty good meal that I just made in a smaller portion and therefore only had to eat once.

Here’s what I ended up using, sorry I didn’t actually measure anything a rare thing for me:
Butter
Flour
Milk
Heavy Whipping Cream
Pesto
Salt and Pepper
Garlic
Shrimp
Olive oil
Angel hair pasta

The final product:

I wish I could say that I came up with something great Wednesday and Thursday as well, but I had things to go to in the evenings and I resorted to cereal and Bagel Bites. Maybe next week I’ll pull together tacos.

What do you make when you seem to have nothing or nothing that goes together?