31 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under menu monday
Since we have a new grocery store chain opening around town, I guess Giant Eagle decided to drop prices temporarily as to appear competitive. Well, my store was out of just about everything and what they did have looked like poop. Except for the mushrooms! Thank goodness for the mushrooms, because I basically planned the whole week around them.
Saturday – Homemade Primanti Sandwiches. Justin made dinner this night and this was his pick. Oh man, they were super good sandwiches. We still have a ton of cole slaw left in the fridge, too. YUM.
Sunday – I have been threatening to make the lonely bag of frozen ravioli for weeks, and we finally ate them. Hurray. Our long national nightmare is over.
Monday – Mushroom Stroganoff. We just finished eating this and it was amazing. I sautéed one whole onion in butter and olive oil, added 16oz of chopped mushrooms, added a little flour, some white wine, dijon mustard and worchesterchire sauce. Let it cook for a little bit and then add about 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt, serve over egg noodles.
Tuesday, Breakfast for Dinner – Buttermilk Waffles with Honey Butter. I have a ton of frozen one cup portions of buttermilk left over from Christmas. I’m using them in this recipe and also to make biscuits for freezing.
Wednesday – Veggie Pot Pie. Since I’ll already be getting my dough making on, I’ll just whip up a pie crust, too. The filling will be onion, carrots, mushrooms, peas and a creamy sauce. Do you put cheese in pot pie? I am going to.
Thursday – Mushroom Risotto. Risotto is becoming my go to cheap dinner these days. It’s super easy and really satisfying.
Friday – During my dough party, I’ll make some pizza crust and we will just eat homemade pizza rolls again, they are really good. From one $2 bag of flour I can usually get 5 pizza dough balls, 3 loaves of italian bread, 4 pie crusts and maybe 30 biscuits. Not bad for 2 bucks.
Breakfasts – Cookies, ftw! and smoothies. Although, we are running out of frozen fruit, so this party will end soon.
Lunches – Leftovers and salads, boo. So sick of salad, but my pants are getting a little looser and I don’t hate myself after eating one. Go salad?
This whole week is super cheap eats, I saved a ton of money at the grocery store. There are big changes happening around these parts and I don’t think that our budget will matter much in the coming months, but I still plan to outline what I am eating. Damien is eating plain greek yogurt, rice cereal and banana, avocado, sweet potato and a little whiskey. Just kidding! He hates sweet potato.
27 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Uncategorized
Cookies – the cause of, and possible solution to, my weight issue.
This whole time I have been trying to eat mindfully and exercise and drink more water one thing has been a struggle: Breakfast. I hate it! Eating food first thing in the morning grosses me out so much, I can’t even explain it. Typically, I’ll wake up with Damien around 7:30-8 and get a pot of coffee going. I’ll drink a cup while I play with him, then it’s time for him to eat. Then I’ll have another cup. He takes a little nap, so I’ll get a quick work out in. Then he’s up and it’s time for a diaper change, tummy time, etc. Oh, btw, it is 11am now and I haven’t eaten a thing. Usually I’ll grab an apple and some peanut butter by this point, but not always. So my first meal of the day is lunch and it has been 18 hours since I last ate. Not good! Anyone who knows anything about metabolism knows that is dumb.
Last night I was bored and decided to bake cookies, that’s when it all clicked. I love eating cookies, especially for breakfast. Breakfast cookies it is! Here is the recipe I used, they are pretty tasty and the recipe seems really flexible, so just adding in whatever is on hand should work. Yay!
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 smashed banana
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/3 cups oats
some dried cranberries
some sunflower seeds
Mix all the dry ingredients, separately mix the wet. Combine them all and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375.
This made about 24 cookies, each one works out to around 100 calories. There is a little bit of crunch and sweetness, plus the oatmeal really feels healthy.
This morning I had 2 with my cup of coffee and I feel great, maybe this will even keep my 11:30am headache/grumpy/pain in the ass attitude away!
26 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under menu monday
A bunch of people asked me for the recipe for the tacos I made this week, and here it is! They were delicious, provided plenty of leftovers and were made mostly from leftovers. They are like the Hanukkah candle of tacos.
1/2 block of extra firm tofu, pressed
1 yellow pepper
1 jalapeño
1/2 can pineapple, drained
1 can black beans, drained
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
chili powder (i used Ancho)
greek yogurt
cilantro
lime
tortilla
Chop the tofu, peppers and pineapple into bits. Cook with just a little bit of oil until everything is hot, but not browned. Season with salt, peper and chili. Let everything brown, then deglaze with lime juice.
Serve in warmed tortilla with greek yogurt (fake, healthy sour cream), cilantro and hot sauce.
We ate 2 tacos each and didn’t have anything on the side, but a salad or tortilla soup would have been nice. There are enough leftovers for at least three more tacos, but it would also be good fried up with some eggs and served with home fries for breakfast.
If you had to buy all of these ingredients to make the meal, it would run you around $15 (not including spices). If you used the whole pack of tofu and a whole can of pineapple, you could easily make 10 tacos, easy. So $1.50/serving. Not too shabby!
26 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Monies
This year we have a million new expenses. Health insurance for all three of us, dental insurance, and saving up for a new car are the big ones. We also do not have my salary anymore, so some adjustments need to be made. For the most part, we bring in exactly what we put out each month, so that’s nice. But, we also need a little extra here and there, so I had to find some more money. Here is what I did: I asked nicely. Every call, I asked “What can we do to pay less each month? We are happy with your service, but can’t afford it anymore.”
I called Verizon, Direct TV, and our car insurance company.
-Verizon let me drop my data plan, which I have never used and didn’t even know I could drop. Savings: $10
-Direct TV cut our bill by $10 and gave us three free months of Starz/Encore. Just for asking! Savings: $10
-Merchants Auto Insurance lowered our coverage to exclude collision. If we had to pay a deductible to repair our car, we would just get a new one anyways. Savings: $30
So, for taking about 30 minutes our of my day, I found an extra $50 per month. Sweet! I am totally adding that $50 to our food budget, because omg I am tired of resenting the cats for needing litter. Who do they think they are, anyways?
If we were in dire straights and needed to dramatically cut our monthly expenses, I would ditch the Netflix, drop Direct TV down to its most basic package, stop getting pizza once a week, and trim our food budget down by half. Luckily we don’t have to do that, but it’s nice to know that I have a Doomsday plan in place. And believe me, no Real Housewives or fresh fruit would feel like Doomsday to me.
The power of asking nicely!
23 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Uncategorized
First things first, I only had $39 to spend this week and my register total was $38.09. BOOM. It wasn’t easy making a menu with such limited funds, I’m really going to have to reevaluate the way I do things. I’m thinking that I should allocate an extra $25/month (coming from our “misc” fund) for things I can buy at the pharmacy like shampoo, deodorant, brita filters, etc. There is no reason that should come from our food money. I’ll work that one out later, but for now:
Saturday – Beet and Goat Cheese Salad. Fancy! This and a $1 baguette from La Gourmandine, yes. So good. The addition of toasted walnuts, cranberries and orange segments made this a full meal.
Sunday – Nothing! We went to dinner (at 3pm!) with Justins grandma at the Cheesecake Factory, so obviously we were stuffed beyond repair and could not eat for the rest of the day. Damien did really well in the restaurant, as usual. He is a good kid, we’ll keep him.
Monday – Brussel Sprout & Mushroom Pasta. I saw Giada make something like this on TV the other day, it looked yummy. I plan on roasting the sprouts, but making kind of a creamy gravy with the mushrooms.
Tuesday, Breakfast for Dinner – German Apple Pancake. As I am typing this, I am eating the last apple. Doh! I guess I’ll be spending those last few cents on replacement apples.
Wednesday – Hummus, Tabouli & Pita. Ah, my favorite cheapo meal. This is super healthy and filling, too.
Thursday – Tofu, Black Bean & Pineapple Tacos. I’m going to try and recreate the ones from New Amsterdam. This meal is comprised almost entirely from things lingering in my fridge, freezer and pantry. I only had to buy a jalapeño.
Friday – Pizza Roll. Justin made one last Friday and it was sooooo good. He used a recipe from Michael Symon on the Chew, it did not disappoint. The dough is easy to make, so he froze a bunch of it.
Breakfasts – Oatmeal and cereal, fresh fruit, eggs and potaoes.
Lunches – Leftovers and salad. Oh, salad. I’m so sick of you.
All in all, I did not have to do much shopping this week. I instead build the menu around things we already had (beets, brussel sprouts, beans) that I could pair with items on sale/coupons (goat cheese, mushrooms). I feel like a pioneer woman when this happens, but….It is so tempting to just say “eff it!” and buy whatever I want, what’s the big deal if I go a few bucks over the limit? But if I start doing that here and there, even just $5, then what is the point of planning at all? Every month, we tell our money where to go – we don’t wonder where it went. It’s just really hard sometimes.
I am working on “finding” more money for stuffs now, but I’ll talk about that later this week when I’m all done.
Also, Damien has eaten banana, sweet potato and avocado! In a few days, I’m going to make some rice cereal and add that into the mix, hopefully he likes it. I also read that you should spice their food so they adjust to ‘adult’ flavors, but when do you start that? What did peopkle do before the internet? Oh yeah, talk to other people about this stuff. We have a pediatrician appointment tomorrow, so I’ll ask him about it.
19 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Life
I think that our fat cat, Maria, is turning into a….something bad. Justin accidentally kicked her the one day and felt so bad that he gave her treats. Then I did the same the next day. Now she seems to plant herself in kicking range so she can score extra nibbles.
Do people really put their babies to bed at 6pm? That seems insane. Do they then wake up 5 times until dawn? I don’t get it. Damien gets his last bottle at 8, a bath at 8:30 and then bed by 9-9:30. He’ll either sleep through the night or wake up to (very quickly) eat around 2. Either way, he is up for the day around 7:30-8am. He takes a handful of catnaps throughout the day and is a very happy camper. I can’t imagine putting his to bed for the night that early. I hope I’m not messing up.
Speaking of messing up – I fed him water! by accident! I totally forgot to put the formula powder in the bottle and just went ahead and fed him the realllllly watered down leftover formula mix. Some quick googling calmed me, but still. Who does that? Add that to the list with pinching his finger with the nail clippers and leaving a visible line on his head from taking of his shirt and mangling his face with the buttons. I should add that none of these three things seemed to bother him at all, but sent me into a shame spiral. Aren’t kids fun?!
If you didn’t know me and came into our house you could easily assume that we are devil worshippers, but the really tidy kind.
Those WhoNu cookies are stupid. Just feed the kid astronaut food and call it a day, weirdo.
17 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under menu monday
Better late than never, right? I spent the afternoon planning for the BrideShow and baby wrangling. Onto the foods! But first – anyone who has ever been there knows that ShurSave is the worst, obviously. But sometimes they have the best deals for the week, so I shop there. I went last Friday morning and they had NONE of the advertised specials! No broccoli rabe (not even a sign) and no $6 olive oils. What a bust. I had to make up a whole new Monday night dinner on the fly, it was delicious, but I wanted rabe, dammit.
Saturday – I made Gnocchi Al Forno with Spinach. Nom nom nom and literally could not be easier. Just cook frozen gnocchi and drain, add to a small casserole with pasta sauce and spinach, dot with cream cheese, cover with shredded parmesan and bake until you smell the cheese yummies.
Sunday – The plan was to make Roasted Beets and Ravioli, but I had a horrible day and felt like poo. Justin went to dinner with his gram (like every Sunday, dinner with her is at 2:30. Old people are hilarious) and I had Indian take-out.
Monday – I just made a quick sauce with banana peppers, onion, shallot, garlic and plain tomato sauce. Then I put it over breaded eggplant that I crisped up in the oven. It was good.
Tuesday, BFD – Justin is on his own this night, I suspect he’ll make a breakfast sandwich and fried potatoes, his favorite thing in the world. I’m having dinner at La Casa with a friend. Funtime!
Wednesday – Buffalo Tofu Sandwiches and Oven Fries. Oh yes, this is the dinner we are looking forward to the mostest. Using my panko crumb, oven crisping method, this will be a crunchy good time.
Thursday – Pierogies with Sauteed Cabbage. Getting back to my Polish Hill roots.
Friday – Pizza Date. I am actually going to abstain from pizza this week since I will have had 2 restaurant dinners already. Big ole salad for the win!
Breakfasts – Banana Muffins, Cottage Cheese, Smoothies, etc. I am still struggling to eat breakfast every day. It is just. so. gross.
Lunches – Veggies & Hummus, Left-Overs.
This weeks sale items were pierogies, gnocchi, ravioli and cabbage so I tried to build a menu around them. Unfortunately, these aren’t really healthy choices. I guess portion control is the best measure to use here, but buttered cabbage is sooooo goooooood, seriously.
Next week is going to be a struggle for sure. At the beginning of each month, I take out $200 cash and that is our grocery budget – it’s usually fine, sometimes there is even leftover cash. But thanks to needing cat food, litter, olive oil and laundry detergent all at once (with no coupon/sale match ups), I only have $25. We’ll see how this works out, something tells me next week will feature a lot of pastas and beans and rice dishes.
13 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Friends, Life
MWF, 31, seeking daytime companionship. Enjoys cooking, eating, judging others. Stay at home mom, vegetarian, cloth diaper user – but not annoying or pushy about any of that. Horrible taste in music only eclipsed by worse taste in TV shows. Will not tolerate racism, homophobia or christian republicans. Cat video lover a plus. I guarantee not to be an asshole 95% of the time.
I took Damien out by myself for the first time yesterday, it was terrifying. Since I could’t see him and he was quiet the whole time, I assumed that he had died, was in the process of dying, etc. Turns out that he was sleeping in the car, like every other baby in the history of automobiles. The reason we went out, besides adventure!, was because it was raining and I am really trying to stick to my minimum activity goals. So to the mall we went. I seriously thought I was being so sneaky and clever going to Ross Park on a Wednesday afternoon – who would be there? Retail employees and kids who cut school? Old couples in matching jogging suits wearin’ out their silver sneakers? Nope. Just tons of ladies just like me, pushing babies around and window shopping. The only difference was that they had friends, no fair!
I have zero daytime friends. Justin is not working right now, but he is writing about 8 hours a day, so he’s out. All of my other friends either work, would rather boil themselves than walk around a mall, or some combination thereof. Where are these ladies finding each other? It was mostly pairs of women, but occasionally I would see three. Three! How rude!
Another young(ish) mother would be nice, someone else who can talk/listen to me talk about poo for 20 minutes. Where do people meet? Is this going to be like dating? Because if it is, kill me now.
Even Hitler had Mussolini and Hirohito, surely I can find a lady to lunch with. Pity, party of one?
That’s me!
10 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Financial Fitness, Monies
After being in the house for just under three years, we have paid off 80% of our mortgage, holy crap. We are on track to actually own our house by December 2012 and it feels so good. The original plan was to pay it off in five years, but when we found out we were having a baby we decided to kick it into high gear. Justin and I decided a long time ago that when we had kids I would stay home to raise them. Knowing that we would be cutting back to only one income, I started to sock my salary (minus about $100 per pay) into a “Pierogi Bucks” savings account – that money has paid for the hospital bills, medications, diapers, wipes, carriers, slings, etc, so our monthly income really isn’t affected by Damien’s needs. We also knew that this first year with him was going to be crazy and hard, so we figured why not just go nuts and restrict ourselves cash-wise as well as time-, patience-, energy- and sleep-wise? (Meanwhile, we have the easiest baby in the world*).
We bought this house during the first phase of the Homebuyers Credit, so we were given 8k (which went right towards the principal) and we have to give it back if we move within a certain amount of time. So basically, after we pay the house off at the end of this year, we are being forced, forced to live mortgage free for another two-ish years. The horror! I figure we can keep “paying” the mortgage and extra principal by just putting that money into savings – that way when we are ready to move, we will have the sale of this house plus about 30k in savings to buy a new place. I’d love to move into a bigger house and only have to pay 20k out of pocket. We could in turn pay that off in no time and then…I don’t know, buy a hotel? Is that what you do? On Baltic Ave?
*Don’t jinx it, don’t jinx it, don’t jinx it
09 Jan 2012
1nicolewhitePosted under Life, menu monday
So last week was great! I ate very mindfully all week long and it feels soooo good. Way better than a belly full of cookies. I also was able to walk every day, so double health whammy. I also didn’t drink any beer, just a few cocktails and half a bottle of wine on Saturday. Ugh, got to work on that one next. Here’s what’s on the menu for this week:
Sunday – I love that stupid show ‘the Chew’ on ABC in the afternoons, love it. Clinton from What Not to Wear, Carla from Top Chef, Michael Symon and Mario Batali from…food stuff. And then there’s Daphne Oz. Ugh, she is the worst, so annoying. Well, I made her chickpea and dumpling soup and it was very good, so maybe she’s not all that bad. (No, she is still the worst)
Monday – Sweet potato & black bean burritos. I never made these last week because I went out to dinner with Laura. Now the potatoes are all shriveled, whomp whomp. It will still be good, I’m sure.
Tuesday, BFD – Baked apple oatmeal and some fruit. I love baked oatmeal, it is amazingly healthy and easy to prepare. And it makes you feel full all night long, so bonus.
Wednesday – Sweet and sour tofu with broccoli. Trying to replicate Thai Cuisine’s recipe while they are closed for the remodel. Open up, Thai Cuisine! As an aside, I do a spot-on impression of that one lady that works there, “oh, thank you!”
Thursday – Philly cheese fakes. These are really just roasted mushrooms and peppers covered with cheese and put on a bun. The best. I’ll roast some potato wedges to go along with it.
Friday – Pizza date. Last week, I made myself eat a giant salad before I could have a slice of pizza, it totally worked! I only ate two pieces, because I was so full of the good stuff. You heard it here first, eating veggies and drinking water fills you up so you can’t gobble down four slices of pizza. Who knew?
Breakfasts – Fruit smoothies, cereal, toast, coffee, eggs for Justin. I hate breakfast, it grosses me out beyond what is reasonable. I just want coffee! Why can’t science make a little food capsule for us to ingest upon waking that keeps up the blood sugar and the mood until lunch? Stupid science.
Lunches – Salad city over here with a little bit of leftovers available for crazy mix em ups. Salads are boring, but crying in the dressing room on Old Navy is worse.
This week is all about staying on track, not being gross and trying to walk every day. Lucky for us, we are feeling the effects of the earth destroying itself from the inside out and it is 55 degrees in Pittsburgh in January, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
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