Ok, so what are we eating this week???

Breakfast
We have oatmeal with dried fruit for breakfast almost every day. This week we are having our oatmeal with Apples. (Rating 5 of 5 stars)


We cook only what we will use for the day.
Shopping list for the week:
2 Cups Rolled Oats
2 Cups Triticale
2 Cups Barley flakes
Brown Sugar
Dried Fruit
Vanilla flavored Oat Milk

Recipe (serves 2)
1 1/2 Cups water (bring to a boil)
2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar (mix into boiling water)
1/3 cup dried fruit (this varies depending on what fruit it is)(mix into boiling water)
1 1/2 Cups of mixture of oats, triticale and barley (or check for a 7 grain mixture in your bulk food aisle)

Stir in grains and keep stirring for about 30 seconds. Take off heat and cool a little.

When you are ready to serve it, add some milk to it. We add Vanilla Flavored Oat Milk to ours. Paul also adds freshly ground flax seed and wheat germ to his.


Lunch

Winter Vegetable Couscous (Rating 4.5 of 5 stars)



Recipe taken directly from Joy of Cooking

Dinner

Black Bean Soup and Corn Scones (Rating Soup: 4 of 5 stars, scones: dogfood)



I enjoyed the soup, which was just a really nice chili, but the scones did not turn out well. I *never* toss "good" food, but the scones are dog treats this week. Ironic that this is the week I started my blog...

These recipes came from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

Why am I writing about the food we eat?

Because we do things a little differently... We do not prepare unique, single day meals very often. My partner and I prepare a dish for lunch and a different dish for dinner and we make enough to last a week. We buy only the ingredients that we need to prepare those dishes, and our goal at the end of the week is to have nothing left. Well, maybe just the things that are really difficult to only get one weeks' supply of (like Hershey's Dark Chocolate Syrup...) We also have oatmeal for breakfast 6-7 days a week, and we put a different kind of fruit in it every week.

Why do we do this? There are many reasons, but the most important one is that it is really easy. We do not have to think of something new to have for dinner every night! It is already made by the time we come home from work and all we have to do is heat it up (usually). Another reason we do it fits into our lifestyle: we try to buy only things that we need (though we do have our vises...). Buying only the food that we will use that week also means that we are more likely to be eating food that is fresh. Only buying the food we will eat is much cheaper than buying food just in case we will need it. Our average grocery bill is $70 (2 people, 1 week).

How do we do only buy enough food for the week? We look at a recipe book, decide what we are going to make and make a grocery list. Our grocery store has bulk food, so we only have to buy the specific quantities of ingredients that our recipe calls for (there are exceptions). Sometimes it is way cheaper to buy 3 pounds of flour than just the 3 cups I need, so I will go ahead and get the bigger container. I feel good about doing this if it something I know that I will use soon.

I hope that you enjoy the blog! Happy eating!