Posts Tagged CSA

Emily’s Spending: Way Under, Out of Necessity

Oct 8

We here at Eating Well on $50 each have our own reasons for participating in this project. For me, it’s a money management thing (plus, I’m up for any kind of culinary challenge). As previously noted, I’m bad with money. So when my paycheck was about three weeks later than I’d expected (still is, it’s supposed to come in the morning) and I blew through my measly savings to cover my monthly bills, I found that I had almost no money to spend on food. Luckily, I had a pantry full of non-perishables, a fridge full of perishables (thanks to my final CSA share, which I got about a week-and-a-half ago) and a friend who took me out for some spinach-artichoke dip.

Makes me think that with the goods I stockpiled during my recent (illegal, unethical) trip to the commissary I could totally live on $25 a week for a while and maybe stow away the extra $25 for the big Thanksgiving dinner I’m planning.

Anyway, I don’t know exactly how much I spent on food this week, but it wasn’t much.

Tags: artichoke, bills, commissary, CSA, dip, money management, necessity, spinach

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Emily’s Spending (Vacation)

Sep 24

Posted by emily in budget analysis

So, I said I was going to keep track of my spending while traveling through the marvelous Pacific Northwest. That—well—it just didn’t happen. I am slightly ashamed considering we took more than a week of before Labor Day, but slightly less ashamed since this was my first vacation from the Internet in more than two years. So I didn’t want to have to worry about anything. And I got to eat Voodoo Doughnuts and smoked fish pizza by the ocean. So there’s that.

But since getting back on Satudray, I had one meal out ($8), picked up my CSA ($25) and bought a few pounds of Honeycrisp Apples ($10). Oh, and there were those two lattes because I had no milk for my coffee when I returned ($8). Not quite a success, but not a failure, either, right?

Tomorrow is a new week, and considering I’m pretty damn broke, I don’t see how I could go over $50, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.

Tags: CSA, pacific northewest, spending, traveling, vacation

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I’m back. And I’m broke.

Sep 9

Posted by emily in Uncategorized

ambiance

As you may already know, I realized pretty early on that this project made me a smarter spender—not only at the grocery store, but in life. I just didn’t know how much smarter until Adam, Cari and I decided to go on what I thought was a much-needed hiatus.

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Tags: addictions, chicken, coffee, CSA, dinner parties, eating in, eating out, excel, ham, latte, new york, spending, travel

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Collard Slaw, or Soggy Salad

Sep 8

Posted by adam in recipe, update

collard slaw

… aaaand we’re back.

Subscribing to a CSA means never knowing what you’re going to eat. (CSA is an Esperanto anagram for Pay First, Pick Up Later.) It’s like getting a mystery ingredient on a cooking show. You have to bend your kitchen skills to it. Chances are you’ll get a bunch of vegetables that you never cooked before, because they’re not what you’d normally buy. Say you never bought a bunch of kale at the Shop-N-Save. Sign up for a CSA, and you’ll have to figure out what to do with it. Same goes for turnips. Same goes for papalo, or it would, if anyone knew what to do with that stinky stuff. Use all of it and let nothing spoil by the time the next pickup rolls around, and you win a prize. I’m not sure what the prize is, because I haven’t won it. I suspect that it’s the kind of hearty good health that involves a lot of trotting.

One thing I’ve been faced with from my CSA is a wealth of collards. Now, collard greens have a long history in this country. It’s been argued that, were it not for the deft ways with such greens of deracinated African cooks, white Southern slaveholders might’ve died young of poor nutrition. Let no one say that the relatives of the cabbage are without iron, or irony. One thing you can count on with a summer full of collards, is that people will complain about it. No one wants to stand over a hot stove in late August or early September, stirring the collards in boiling water or fat. I have a solution for that: cook them without heat. Collards are cabbage and cabbage mixed with vinaigrette makes cole slaw, so make a slaw of the collards and let the acid do the cooking.

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Tags: acid, cabbage, collards, CSA, slaw, vinegar

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Simple Summer Soup: Gazpacho

Aug 12

Posted by emily in recipe

gazpacho_1

I can’t believe that I’d never made—or worse, even had—gazpacho before. Well, actually, I can. I didn’t grow up eating the most exotic, or daring—or hell, even sophisticated-sounding—foods. I was 23 before I realized that a crudité is just a veggie plate and that chèvre is goat cheese. And while I’ve known that gazpacho was just pureed tomato-based soup for quite some time, I still hadn’t actually attempted to make it—until Monday, when I looked in my fridge and realized I had the basic foundation for a simple gazpacho: tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.

After glancing at a few recipes online (anyone who has read my book knows that in my life I’ve only followed one recipe from start to finish) I decided I would up the bell pepper factor—most recipes called for one green pepper, I saw that green pepper and raised it a yellow one—make it a tad spicy and try something I now like to call the half-and-half method.

The half-and-half method is, simply, halving all of your gazpacho ingredients and pureeing one half while chopping the other—both in the blender, separately—and then combining the two.

While I have very little to compare it to (remember, I’d never had gazpacho before) I’m considering it a success.

Recipe after the jump…

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Tags: bell pepper, blender, bread, butter, CSA, cucumber, garlic, gazpacho, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, onion, recipes, sea salt, soup, sourdough bread, summer soup, tomatoes, yellow pepper

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Adam’s spending, week 10: Almost Not Vastly Overbudget. Sorta.

Aug 10

Posted by adam in budget analysis, recipe

not ready to eat

This week on my summer staycation, I bought:

one bunch carrots
one baguette
one loaf Italian bread
one bunch cilantro
two large onions
one cucumber
one 4″ chocolate tart
six Grimaldi’s kaiser rolls
one half pound ground lamb
one half pound ground chuck
two pork sausage with broccoli rabe
one-third pound goat brie
one box Finn Crisp multigrain crackers
one jar Nutella
one dozen eggs, semi-responsible

I would have spent four dollars more, but the cashier missed one of my items. I would have spent two dollars less, but the meat guy gave me fancier stuff than I asked for. I had been checking out sausages. In his mind, maybe I got what I asked for. In my mind, maybe I got what I needed. I leave it to you to come to your own conclusions about karma. I think of it like buying drinks: what goes out comes back. I think of it as one facet of a lasting relationship with a grocery store.

CSA-related content and recipe for Burgers of Shalom below the fold.

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Tags: bike, burgers, chocolate, CSA, nutella, red hook

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It Sure Is Tomato Season

Aug 7

Posted by emily in recipe

bruschetta

I don’t get excited for baseball season or football season, or even for watermelon season. But I sure as hell get excited for tomato season.

Though my own fledgling plant has yet to be fruitful, and tomato season is delayed for many because of the cold, rainy summer, enough farmers in my general area have been lucky enough to allow me to get in on the tomato action.

For at least a month now, I’ve been getting wonderful hydroponic tomatoes from local farms through my CSA (the yellow ones) and last weekend I picked up some great ripe red ones from a roadside stand in Southern Missouri. While I can’t tell you which ‘breed’ any of my tomatoes actually are, I can tell you that they are perfectly ripe and delicious. And when mixed with a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh basil from the only plant on my balcony that’s producing anything, they’re a great topping for CSA sourdough bread that’s toasted on the stove in butter, lots of butter.

Tags: bread, bruschetta, CSA, CSA bread, hydroponic tomatoes, roadside vegetable stands, southern missouri, tomatoes

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French Press, I Hardly Knew Ye

Aug 4

Posted by emily in update

My French press during its 15 minutes...

My dad came up to Kansas City on Friday to help my uncle move. Because they worked well into the evening I made him spaghetti with meat sauce (with tomatoes and bison beef from my CSA, of course) and he stayed the night, even though there was a comedy show happening in my dining room (literally, not a dinner gone awry or anything).

As any good daughter who has a memory foam mattress and a dad with a creaky old back would do, I gave my him my bedroom and slept on the couch (the comedians were in my guest room).

Like me, my dad is a coffee drinker (and peanut butter addict). Unlike me, he is an early riser. But on Saturday morning I, too, woke early… to the saddest sound ever. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bison beef, broken french press, coffee, comedy, CSA, dad, dads, family, folgers, french press, iced skim latte, kansas city, parents, parties, peanut butter, pryde's kitchen, spaghetti, tomatoes, travel

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Emily’s Spending, Week 9: It’s a Good Thing Sudafed Doesn’t Count as Food…

Jul 29

Posted by emily in budget analysis

…because I was consuming a lot of it! Up until Sunday, I was pretty sick with something resembling The Consumption. And let me tell you: being sick does wonders for a food budget. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: asian market, balsamic vinegar, being sick, budget analysis, chicken, chicken breast, CSA, lettuce, noodles, one dollar, organic chicken, organic chicken breast, sick, spending, sudafed, the consumption