I did it! (Kinda)

Despite every intention to blog regularly while I was not eating out, I had a hard time blogging about what was happening mostly because I was (too lazy) too busy being awesome to really comment on it. Okay, so we all know that's not true. I did manage to eat okay while not going out and I saved a TON of money, though, so that's good! I discovered a few things about myself along the way as well. First of all, my food routines are pretty established. I have a hard time thinking outside of the box when it comes to making new meals. I yell at J a lot for eating these narsty processed bagel dogs he buys from Dominick's but when I make food for myself it is usually a variation on chicken or pasta. And damn can I pack away the pasta...

I also simultaneously challenged myself to eat on 30, which is something I learned from Bell'Alimento who I just love love love to read (see http://www.bellalimento.com/2009/10/11/eat-on-30-project/ for more details) and I did do well on this side of things also! I went to Whole Foods one Sunday with only $25 and got lots of meat and some kick-butt asparagus, which I ate for about 4 days.

On the negative (?) side, I only went grocery shopping twice the whole month during the challenge. This is why although I managed to make it almost the entire month without eating out (I slipped up maybe twice), I didn't eat nearly as much as I did when I did eat out. I started working more regular (longer) hours at the bakery (another reason I didn't need to buy as much food because I am constantly surrounded by bread) and just lost my appetite for about two weeks straight.

I also (I know, it never stops, and probably no one is even reading at this point but! I will continue) started being super conscious about serving sizes and I realized that one serving of pasta is 2/3 of a cup. That makes my one box of Prince rigatoni last for 10 meals instead of 3, and at $1 a box, it's hard to spend over $30 a week on groceries. Like M mentioned, she's looking to start eating more responsibly, and I discovered the things I most worry about eating, especially after watching Food Inc, is meat, and I can buy it for myself at Whole Foods and not break the bank, and that is exciting.

SO

If you've made it this far, you get a cookie, if you skipped everything, here's a summary:

*I went almost a whole month without eating out (Give or take two or three meals)
*I ate a lot less
--due to increase in bakery hours
--due to self-imposed budgetary restraints
--due to watching my serving sizes like woah
*I had a hard time breaking out of my rut of the usual stuff I prepare, because despite the fact that I read a ton of recipe books and blogs, I sometimes just don't have the energy to be creative in the kitchen or even blog (shocker).

Regardless, I am glad I did this challenge, it definitely made me eat with a conscience (thanks Cathy! :) ) and even though I ate less and didn't grow much in the way of new recipes and experimenting, I am hoping that with summer farmer's markets, I'll be able to improvise a little more. My other wish is to one day wake up after falling asleep reading a cookbook and have all the information in my head like osmosis and diffusion or something. Never mind that it didn't work when I tried to stick my pre-calc books under my pillow in high school...

Ps.
Props to M for being featured on Whole Living! Our first shot at the big times!!!