you are what you eat.

if the saying is true, billy and i are not much! 

the truth is, the two of us don't consume a whole lot of food... but that doesn't stop us from spending WAY too much money on it.  i've realized lately that most of our perishable grocery items end up in the compost pile or in tucker's bowl. 
 
we like to go out to eat every once in a while, and while i think we are very thrifty when it comes to eating out (we always share a meal or have an appetizer as our meal), we can still easily drop 40 or 50 bucks on a single dinner after tip.

another bad habit of ours is our love of cheese. and cheese is expensive.
last week billy and i wandered into the grocery store to pick up some hors d'oeurves to bring to his sister's house and it was like a spotlight shone upon the fancy cheese section, and we wandered around it like zombies for ten minutes.  after we got in the car i realized we spent $75 on a variety of cheesey deliciousness.  seriously.  it's easy to do when a little block of gouda or a container of marinated mozzarella is $15 a pop.

so, after paying the rest of this month's bills this morning, i decided to embark on a little experiment.  i went to the grocery store and spent $25 on food.  and my plan is to make it last for dinners the entire week! i'll blog about what a make and how we do.  i really think it's possible, and i think just by paying a little bit more attention i'll be able to make delicious dinners with my meagerly allotted food budget.

here's what i bought:
2 baking potatoes (1.25)
1 acorn squash (1.50)
1 cucumber (.88)
1 bag yellow onions (1.00)
1 lb bag of carrots (1.00)
1 bag mixed green salad (3.50)
1 lb mushrooms (3.00)
3 pears (2.00)
1 package chicken breast (6.50)
orange juice (3.00)
1 can organic tomato soup (1.00)

the orange juice and the pears were pure pregnancy cravings and have nothing to do with meal plans. but hey i'm allowed a treat or two!  i have a fair amount of regular pantry items at home that i'm going to use to help with the meal making, such as rice, pasta and bread.  i'm excited to post my dinners this week!  if all goes well, we have a $50 gift certificate to bonefish that billy's parents gave us as an anniversary present, so maybe we will go out to eat on saturday night to celebrate our thriftiness :)

tonight i plan to make fried rice with the pantry rice i have, some carrots, onions, mushrooms, and i think i may have an egg or two lurking in the fridge to throw in to the frying pan.  i plan to pair it with chicken breast (i got the thin sliced chicken breast tenderloins because we don't eat a whole lot of chicken and that way it can be split up easier throughout the week.)  i'm excited about the fried rice because a big batch of it will last me for some leftover lunches throughout the week! :)  wish me luck and stay tuned.