Day One

Today was the first day of the two weeks.  We decided to go shopping for some much needed groceries to help us get started.  First we made a list of staples for low-income living.  We knew we needed to have the basics, so that we could make many different things with the same ingredients.  The list consisted of the following:  Fruit, beans, eggs, potatoes, tortillas, milk, rice, bread and cheese.  We began by crossing off the things that we already had such as rice and milk.  We decided that we would try to pick up some greens if we could, but that we could probably find a way to scrounge more veggies later in the week by going to the docks at whole foods.  We talked about potential places to shop from Trader Joes to Smart and Final.  We decided that most of the things we needed could be found at the grocery outlet.  After spending the weekend in Pride festivities all we had left in cash between the two of us was $34.00.  With a wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket, we headed for the store.

We were both hungry (not a good idea when going to the store with such little cash), but we stuck to our budget.  We walked down every isle keeping a close watch on our $34.00 budget.  We put things in a "maybe pile" knowing that we may need to put those back if we ran out of money after we had gone through the whole store.  The beauty of the grocery outlet is that they have the weirdest stuff for cheap and sometimes you find things that are super yummy, but so obscure that they couldn't get rid of them fast enough in a regular store so they get sent to the outlet.  Our favorite finds of the day were jalapeño sour cream and jalapeño habanero jack cheese.  We also purchased four cans of tomato sauce for a dollar, 20 cage free eggs for four dollars and fifty tortillas for a dollar fifty!  In the end we spent $35.41 for a cart load of groceries (luckily we had $1.41 in change between the two of us).

Betty said that she wanted shepherd's pie for dinner.  Neither of us had ever made it, but we figured that since we both knew how to make each component of it, we could compile them without a problem.  Betty used taco flavored textured veggie protein for the base which we layered with half a red onion, frozen peas, frozen corn, and half a bunch of fresh spinach.  I made mashed potatoes adding a few scoops of the jalapeño sour cream for a nice kick.  We scooped it on top and added some parmesan cheese to the top ($1.50 - for a grated tub!).  We put it in the oven for 20 minutes and then in the broiler (Betty's new favorite thing to do in the kitchen) for four and served it up.  It was DELICIOUS!  The spinach was a little limp from the cooking, but still had a fresh taste and the colors were so much better than any other shepherds pie I had ever had.  It was wonderful.  For dessert we had some oranges dipped in dolci frutta.  It was a good start to our two weeks.