Oh my Meatballs

Do you ever shop at IKEA?  By now I think it's taken over enough of this country that we can safely assume most of us have had a chance navigate this maze of a furniture store (or whatever it is).  As you wander through the store, you initially feel a surge of energy - you are filled with wonder excitement.  This closet is so organized! This chair is so modern!  I never knew so many things could be made from bamboo!  I don't remember needing star shaped ice, but for only 99 cents - I certainly do.   The discoveries are endless. 

But after awhile the spark wears off... and questions arise.  Do I need more pans or more products to organize my pans? or more of both?  How many kinds of ice shapes are there?  How come IKEA offices are larger than IKEA homes?  Exhaustion and frailty begin to set in.  But IKEA answers your call...

A well crafted sign appears advertising something called swedish meatballs for only $3.99!!!     

Meat in a ball - ahhh.... is there anything more right? 

So for those of you who don't care to brave the interior of IKEA - you can try my recipe!

 
The meaty mixture
-99% lean turkey 20 oz
-1 Can chickpeas (blend in blender - I use the magic bullet)
-1 tsp cumin
-1 drizzle Worcester sauce
-other seasonings (as desired)

Just mix this all together using your hands (it's ok - you washed them right?).  Then form in to 1-1.5 inch diameter balls.   The set in the freezer for a minimum half hour (just enough to firm up).  I actually had mine in the freezer (ahem - the outside) for much longer, so that's okay too. 

Frozen Balls (o come-on I couldn't resist!)

Heat about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of oil in the bottom of a frying pan.  And you can just plop the the frozen meatballs in directly - no need to thaw.  (They will cook all the way through because they are so small.)

Cover and cook for a while (10-15 mins). 

When they are finished they should look like this.  If you want to be sure - cut one open and make sure there is no pink. 

Meatballs wouldn't be complete without gravy.... mmm.... gravy. 

Gravy is super easy to make - I just learned so you can too.

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup vegatable broth (I used a low sodium version)

1/2 cup milk 

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon seasoned pepper

1.  Melt butter in pan over medium heat.
2. Add milk and flour, whisking consistently for 2 minutes
3. Add broth, salt and pepper and continue to stir for 3 minutes, sauce should be getting thicker.

The visual

No no, it's not for drinking.

The final meal

Any meal that includes gravy is probably not going to be included in next month's issue of healthy living.  However, I say look there's vegetables and we used 99% lean meat so let's call this a win anyway.

No more 10 dollar days

Well, after keeping a tally for several months - I've decided I'm done with 10 dollar days.  I will still manage my food budget at about $300/month but I think the daily recording has resulted in more frenzy that frugality.  I glanced over my mint.com budgeting tools and I am sure that I am spending less than $10/day on average and have been trending better than some days. 

Well that, and I just plain don't want to record it every day.  I know - the truth. 

So - onward and upward from there.

UPDATE: I guess I should add here that I montitor all my spending (not just food) very consistently.   I keep tabs via mint.com - it works great for me.  However, this micromanagement of food spending is beginning to have more downs than ups.  I believe it is the "per day" aspect, it's a very short term approach to thinking about food - where as a long term approach is best in terms of frugality.  (meal planning, food storage).  I'm not truly trying to change how much I spend.  $300/month is consistent with $10/day.  Also, to be fair, sharing my food consumption with everyone feels a little burdonsome.

Seven for 2011

This is my first year having a blog where I semi-consistently post items and thought I would decide to give in to peer pressure of making public resolutions (albeit over a week late).  Well actually there not really resolutions, but goals.  However, calling them resolutions makes them sound rather fancy and more befitting of the season.

These are of course goals that I have had in mind for some time now - and for many have made some progress towards already.  No surprises here, but they didn't all just dawn on me when the clock struck 12:01.  However, the changing of calendars and the start of a new year is a nice to reflect and think about what we hope to accomplish and things we would like to see change. 

Fitness Goals



1. Run a 5K in less than 30 mins. 
-So far I've enjoyed running a lot, but haven't had a ton of success going fast.  My best 5K time is 33 minutes.  Running a 5K in less than 30mins means shaving more than a minute per mile off my best time.  It's an aggressive goal, but still doable. (I did not accomplish this - I did run two 5Ks, but both were on the slowish end.  The one I intended to be a 30 minute 5K was forfeited due to recovery from injury) 

2. Run a Half-Marathon
-Not only do I want to run faster, I would like to run longer.  A pretty natural next step after running the TC 10 mile.  (umm.. no, but I did run a whole marathon and there is a Half on the books for 2012)

Food Goal

3.Eat lunch out less often
-Last semester, with my intense work schedule I ate lunch out - 9 out of 10 times. Seriously.... SO for someone who writes about frugality and food... I really need to see this change.  I liked to see this go the opposite way.  As in I bring lunch 9 out of 10 times.  ( I didn't really track this particularly well, but I certainly improved and perhaps came close to bring lunch 9 out of 10 times) 

Financial Goals 

4. Pay off half of my Credit Card debt.
-As someone who has always prided themselves on good financial know how - this one is a bit painful to even admit is an issue. ( errr.. umm... no, not really) 

5. Save one-month's worth of living expenses saving.
-For this particular goal I am very very close, but it is something I hope to not only achieve but maintain.   (Long story, but basically, yes)

Other Goals

6. Read Literature.
- I read lots of memoirs, lots of non-fiction and lots of blogs...but precious little fictional literature.  I'm committed to reading at least two novel length pieces.  I realize there are big time readers out there who polish off books in the double and triple digits every year, but I'm just looking for an improvement from last year (yerr - and this would be one).  (Yes, "The Help" and  "Friday Knight Knitting Club"... I also got half-way through Freedom- A novel, before I really started hating all of the characters) 

7. Improve my German
-This goal needs an appropriate benchmark, but I guess I'll shove it out there anyway.  I took 4 years of German and have visited Germany 3 times, but my German is still pretty weak considering.  Love to see where I could go with this.    (While the bf and I have been given to discussing German, not so much discussing in German, but that's still better than the year before... so Yes - I think)

The toughest part of coming up with goals/resolutions for 2011 (or any other time) for me was keeping this list to "only seven".  I had to subtract a few things.  I wanted to keep this list sort of short though, so I wouldn't get too overwhelmed and I would actually have a chance at accomplishing them. 
 

Stocking Up

I recently made a trip to Costco.  Overall, it was a pretty conservative trip in terms of purchases... most of the items were items I use all the time in baking or cooking.  However, due to the types of purchases made at Costco - the volume (and cost) was pretty high.  It has sort of thrown the "10 dollar day" plan for a loop.  I've decided to keep tracking things as I have been - just to see what happens.  It would be neat if it starts to level off.  I suspect it might.

Buying in bulk is the oft promoted way for saving money on food costs.  Judging by my costco membership and my referencing of stuffed cabinetry.  I obviously subscribed to this method as well.

It's a good method.  Many things have a shelf life of much more than two weeks... "the usual shopping cycle", so if I find them on sale, or can buy them at costco (lower per unit price), then I can really stretch my dollar.

Obvious things I buy in bulk are:
noodles, crackers, cereal bars, flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, olives, canned beans, dried beans evaporated milk and sweeted condensed milk - most of these items have a shelf life of a minimum of 2 years - some of them a lot more.

Some not so obvious things I buy in bulk are:
mayo, ranch, ketchup and other condiments - these items are refrigerate after opening... you can store them on the shelf until then and they often have a shelf life of a year or more. 

Some items I buy in bulk - because of the invention of the freezer:
meat, vegetables, other frozen foods (duh!), bread (yes - you can freeze this - but I do keep my quantities on this smaller than other things) and tortillas (same as bread)

This the list of things I buy in bulk or for storage, but other people make other choices.  I'd be curious if there is anything you depend on from your storage. 

Saving money this way suits my personality.  I have half a dozen dishes I could whoop out of food storage at any moment, and to be honest I get a perhaps weird sense of security out of this.

There are risks with this method however, as food does expire.  Also, many fresh foods are healthier as well (though not always the case).  If I were to stock more than I could use by the expiration date - this would not be a practice in saving, but in losing.    Loss of foods that have expired.  It's important that I mention this is just not a loss to my budget, but a loss in terms of environmental resources as well.  Resources were used to create the food, package the food, move the food to wherever you bought it from.  If these are wasted; I waste those resources too. 


Do you "stock up"?  Are you careful to avoid over stocking?  Do you freeze anything interesting (such as bread)?

Cheat-zilla!

So remember when I made claims of eating for 10 dollars a day and how easy peasy it would be. 

Well somehow between buying wine for parties, treating friends and oh um... treating myself.  I am more than a little behind on my $10/day plan of attack.  If you like numbers check the "10 dollar day" tab.  Right now, I am not a huge fan.

Anyway, I thought about wiping my slate clean and starting at square one, but then I thought better.

I going to give myself the rest of 2010 to catch up.   

So what to do:

Cutting the Crazy: My crazy schedule of work doom will end this wednesday - when I will return working normal human amounts.  I think doing this will help cut the crazy and allow me to make more food at home.

Holiday Mooching: I figure I should get a lot free food over the holidays, and err.. why not take advantage ;)

As always, I'll let you know how it goes. 

My thoughts on goals

Earlier this fall, I created two goals.

1) Eat for less than 10 dollars a day. 

2) Run in the Drumstick Dash 10 K on Thanksgiving Day. 

In one I was successful, and in one I was not. 

If you have been following along on the 10 dollar day tab - you probably already know the answer to this, but I'll answer the question anyway. 

I forfeited on the Drumstick Dash 10K. 

so yes, I kicked myself a few times.  ... but I think the more important question here is "Why?"

The reality is - Goal #2 was completely out of sync with my life right now.  For some reason I thought I could still train the same way I did for the 10 miler, even though it was going to be freezing outside - I was still working 50 hours a week and I didn't have any real plans to get a gym membership.  I maybe got out once a week - twice a week tops!   I waited until the day of the race to decide, which was the coldest thanksgiving we have had in 25 years!!!  I realized that a cold day to be skiing was probably a day that I didn't want to be running.  Or at least that ended up being a great excuse - because honestly I didn't want to go at all, even if it had been nicer out.  (I think I would have though - or at least I get to say that). 

Goal #1 on the other hand completely fits my life right now.  I found an easy way to manage it (online spreadsheet - easy to access), and in general it's incredibly achievable.  I've barely had to modify my life at all. 

Essentially, both goals were poorly conceived.  Goal #1 has been altogether way too easy.  I haven't had to stretch at all, in many instances it has encouraged me to eat fast food (so much money available! ahh!) instead of putting a "nix" on it.  While on the plus side, it has helped me to keep a record of what I'm spending (in not just the food department) - I think this goal was overly easy.  Goal #2 while seemingly easy at first - became "nearly impossible".  I think both of these goals could have benefited from a slight modification.  Maybe eating for $8 or $7 a day could have been enough to put the pressure on to avoid fast food.  As far as the race - there were options that were shorter (5K or 8K) and warmer (later in the day).  This would have been a whole lot less pressure and probably more fun orientated; while still managing to keep me in shape. 

The point of this post is that while achieving goals is important; making good goals in the first place is a critical step in the process. 

An update post

I realized that it has been over a month since the last time I posted, and since I am somewhat lacking in really thoughtful interesting things to say - I thought I could just do a quick update post on well - my life.  Between my two jobs I have been working close to 50 hours a week.  It's not so bad, and it seems like I get ample time to enjoy life as well, but certain things do slip through the cracks.  Namely, this blog.  Partially this is because I am tad perfectionistic about what I post, but also "lazy butt-ness" factors in.  Also - a rant - I have been having issues with my computer which directly affect how easy it is for me to get pictures up on here.  I don't like to do "wall o text" blogs, so I also choose to blame: computer issues for the time being.  Anyway, I haven't forgotten about my little ol' blog and I hope to come back (with vengeance) to this part of my life when my life slows down a titch.

So - some updates.


10 Dollar Day 
Yes, I am still doing this.  Yes, it does involve way more fast food than I would "prefer", but umm... I really don't mind.  You can stalk my spending here.  One thing I will say is that I may need to lower this daily allowance in the not so distant future.  Not sure what to exactly.  Not sure I will be able to make it equally as catchy... but I am sure if you've read this blog for long you know I enjoy a good challenge. Especially in the food spending department. 


Cooking
Actually, I have been cooking quite frequently (just not blogging about it).  Some interesting stuff too.  There was a Asian-esque goulash that failed to marvel, but also a stew that turned out quite nicely.  Additionally, an apple cabbage salad that probably deserves it's own post.  I also attempted to make bread in a bread machine (borrowed), which was a flop - but I am still blaming the bread machine.  After all, I can make bread without one.  


Running
I am currently "training" for a 10K called the Drumstick Dash.  Finding time to run though has been uber challenging.  I get out at least once a week, but need to be going about 3 times.  Hopefully, I can pick up the pace in time, or at least not finish last.

Personal Life
Umm... yeah. Ok - so this deserves it's own post as well, and maybe one day I'll get there.  At this point though I will say that I am moving in a good direction, but the road is a little long and rocky.