"The decision to mend vs. replace an item is often surprisingly
difficult. While being wasteful is rarely a good thing, there comes a
point in every object’s lifetime where you must do a little cost benefit
analysis or CBA. (I know this is Home Ec 101 and not Business 101, but
bear with me here.) While a consulting firm’s CBA may be complex and
tedious, yours need not be. All you have to do is ask yourself three
simple questions before you begin any repair: What is this item worth
(either monetarily or sentimentally)? How long will it take to fix?
And, is this repair worth my time?"
Though I've been menu planning for the last five years or so, I still have my share of those what's for dinner tonight? moments. They don't happen regularly or even often, but sometimes I realize that what I had planned simply wasn't going to work for whatever reason. As someone who loves to plan and be organized, those moments drive me absolutely bonkers and often lead to a cheap but only kind of satisfying meal at a restaurant downtown that has epically good pickles.
Since I decided to modify my grocery budget a couple of weeks ago, however, buying a BLT as an excuse to eat pickles is no longer an option (if I want my husband to eat every day of any given week, that is). I figured I could avoid those what's for dinner? moments by more carefully planning my menus, but chronic pain and awkwardly timed Fresh Direct deliveries can get in the way of even my best laid plans--which is why I found myself wandering the Shop Rite in search of some sort of quick, budget-friendly meal last Friday.
I immediately saw yellow rice for 49 cents a packet, so I threw a couple of those in my basket. I grabbed some black beans because, duh, black beans go with yellow rice. Since my husband likes meat in meals, I decided I'd blacken some chicken, and since I like to not die of malnutrition, I decided some peppers and onions would round out the mix. The only problem was how to serve it. Feeling lazy, I decided on throwing it in a bowl and calling it a day. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to it, but the bowl'o'Mexican-ish stuff ended up being easy and delicious.
Friday Quick Tip # 6 - Are your plastic food storage containers stained, dingy, cloudy, or (ew) smelly? To restore them to their former glory: fill your kitchen sink with the hottest water you can, then dissolve one large scoop of Oxiclean into the water. (Your water should be white.) Add the plastic containers to the water, weighing them down with glass bowls, and let them soak for four to six hours. Give them a quick scrub, then wash with dish soap or run through the dishwasher (use rinse agent!) and then admire your cleaner, clearer storage containers!
Menu Plan: May 17 - May 23, 2013
This week's menu plan is a little more luxurious than normal due to an awesome "$50 off $125" Fresh Direct coupon that came in the mail last week. I'm including the coupon in my price breakdown, because there's no way I'd spend that sort of money on groceries normally! Most of the recipes were planned based on Fresh Direct stuff that was made affordable by the coupon--like the swoon-worthy fettuccine alfredo made with fresh noodles and sauce. If the spinach pie turns out well, I'll share the recipe with you next week. Lunch out on Saturday is due to "Hot Rods and Harleys", an event that's going on downtown this weekend that, due to its noise, is impossible to ignore. We'll wander the streets and find lunch somewhere!
Friday - $5
Breakfast - toast with butter ($1)
Lunch - leftovers from Wednesday ("free")
Dinner - black bean, yellow rice, and blackened chicken bowls ($4)
Saturday - $23
Breakfast - homemade cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting ($5)
Lunch - lunch out downtown ($10)
Dinner - fancy pants jambon beurre ($8)
Sunday - $9
Breakfast - leftover cinnamon rolls ("free")
Lunch - leftover jambon ("free")
Dinner - spinach pie ($9)
Monday - $11
Breakfast - croissants ($2)
Lunch - leftover spinach pie ("free")
Dinner - Cuban sandwiches ($9)
Tuesday - $8
Breakfast - bagels and cream cheese ($1)
Lunch - leftover Cuban sandwich ("free")
Dinner - fettuccine alfredo with sun dried tomatoes ($7)
Wednesday - $8
Breakfast - bagels and cream cheese ($1)
Lunch - leftover fettuccine alfredo ("free")
Dinner - more Cuban sandwiches! ($9)
Thursday (my birthday!) - $52
Breakfast - croissants ($2)
Lunch - more leftover Cuban sandwiches ("free")
Dinner - dinner out maybe? ($50)
Total Meal Cost - $66.00 + plus $50 for eating out on my birthday = $116.00
Two Week Total - $129.00 (plus $80 for eating out) = $209.00
P.S. Did you notice anything different about My Dreams Unreal? Does the new design suit me or was the old
one a better fit? Is there anything you would like to see changed? I'd love to know what you think! (If you read this blog in a reader/subscribe via
email and want to see the new design, head on over to dreamsunreal.com to check it out.)
My favorite part of living in America is the fact that seemingly every store allows you to drive "thru". From prescriptions to dry cleaning to car washes to oil changes, you almost never need to get out of your car! New Jersey takes this convenience a step further and even offers drive through gas stations; pull up, give the guy your card, tell him how much you want, and *poof* gas appears in your car. Even better, now that paying with cash has gone the way of writing checks, you're no longer pressured to tip the attendants with your leftover change.
Speaking of cash and change, another of my favorite things is the invention known as the ATM. I don't carry much cash on me, so I often find myself going to the magical money machine more than just a few times a month. Dealing with a teller that often is too much of a pain for my time-strapped (ahem) schedule, which meant that in the past I would oops! forget to go to the bank for cash or to make a deposit. With New Jersey's vast quantity of ATMs, though, I can just drive on through and get my banking done without even having to get out of the car! Given the ever-present lines of cars at most of the machines, I could only assume that my fellow ATM goers were in the "HOORAY FOR SLOVENLINESS!" boat along with me. As with all of my assumptions about normal human behavior, New Jersey has managed to prove me wrong. (Again.)
Today, I drove up to the ATM to find two people in front of me. The first was an elderly woman at the ATM proper who was standing next to her car, while the second waited in line behind her. The elderly woman spent a few minutes hitting the screen's buttons like she was punishing them, and then proceeded to rage against the (automated teller) machine when it took too long to return her card.
The woman in the car in front of me repeatedly rolled her eyes in the side mirror, and exasperated by the first woman's five minute ATM experience, even went so far as to roll down her window to "WTF?" hand gesture at no one in particular. The first woman finished her transaction and gave a little wave as she tottered back to her car. When she finally pulled away, the second (less elderly) woman restarted her own car and roared up to the ATM with the nearly tangible frustration of a teenager late for curfew.
Then this happened... Followed by a lengthy pause to send a text message and count her $40 multiple times.
Now, counting money at the ATM is something that I have never
understood and could ramble on about for a whole other post, but that's
neither here nor there. Getting out of the car at a drive "thru" after being angry at someone else for getting out of their car at a drive "thru", though?
I'm sure that most people on the Internet have heard of Pinterest these days. My head-in-the-ground self has an account--as does Mr N's work--so I'm pretty sure that it's fairly ubiquitous. For those of you not in the know, however, Pinterest is an online "bulletin board" sort of thing where you can "pin" things that you like. Men use it for sports cars and video game stuff, women use it for weddings and recipes, and it seems that everyone uses it to stare at supermodels in various states of undress. Thanks but no thanks. (I thought you'd all like to know that I accidentally typed "butt no thanks", which I found to be a highly amusing Freudian slip.)
I know that at least one of you follows me on Pinterest, so I know that at least one of you knows that I horribly misuse it. Sure, there are a few recipes and a couple of nifty doo-dads, but my Pinterest is probably 90% sloths because, duh, sloths are awesome. They're nature's bums, content to cling to trees, each other, and (most adorably) stuffed animals. Their cuteness is enough to melt my icy heart, which is why I was absolutely horrified to learn of the atrocities that sloths face in South America where they are viewed as nuisances and constant reminders of their namesake sin. You don't want to know what happens to them when they are found by hunters and ne'er do wells.
But you do want to know what happens to them when they are rescued by the Sloth Sanctuary in Limon, Costa Rica. Orphaned baby sloths are hand-fed and taught to cling with the help of dedicated human helpers, while the hurt adult sloths are nursed back to health. Though the hand-raised babies will currently always need to rely on their human friends for food, shelter, and lots of hugs clings, the adults can be released back into the wild so that they can continue on with their slow lives of clinging and eating hibiscus flowers and... well... That's about all they know about these furry fellas. Presently, lack of knowledge is one of the biggest hurdles preventing the release of the hand raised sloths into the wild, and that is also why the Sloth Sanctuary is raising money for the Sloth Backpack Project.
Seriously, it is as awesome as it looks and sounds. They strap little backpacks complete with GPS onto our two- and three-toed pals and track them as they live their lives, which gives those actively working in the field of slothservation (sloth conservation, mind you) access to groundbreaking--or is it treebreaking?--new information about the lives of these mysterious little critters. Neat, huh? Not nearly as neat as the fact that by learning about the habits of adult sloths raised in the wild, they can learn how to release the hand-raised baby sloths into their natural habitat!
Unfortunately for the Sloth Sanctuary, sloths have very expensive taste and their little backpacks run at $3,000 a piece. That's a whole lot of greened beans for the baby sloths, so the Sanctuary is asking for our help. Until July 4, you can make a donation through IndieGoGo that will go directly towards helping the (privately funded!) Sloth Sanctuary outfit their sloths with the highest tech back to school gear imaginable.
Please help save our sloths by making a donation to the Sloth Sanctuary. How can you say no to these little faces?
Growing up in a vegetarian household, I didn't really "get" the love that many Americans profess for burgers. Though tasty enough, they were mostly just vehicles for enabling mass consumption of cheese. (Land'o'Lakes American, thank you very much.) Then, as most of my stories go, I met my husband. The second the weather began to warm for the year, my father in law would go into a primal trance and spend every weekend manning the grill producing enough meat for every man, woman, and child within smelling distance. At first, all of that grilled meat was kind of off putting, but it wasn't long before I was sitting at my mother in law's kitchen table and making towers of burger patties for whatever gathering was happening that weekend.
Though I still consider the cheese a highlight of a burger, I now appreciate the patty's charred outside and juicy inside about as much as I appreciate a good steak. Even more than the taste, I appreciate the frugality of a homemade semi-gourmet burger, so I try to make them at least once a month in the summer. I bake challah rolls, think up interesting mayonnaise flavors, and try to work out a mathematical equation to calculate the maximum number of different toppings any given burger can hold (that number is known as the MTR or Maximum Topping Ratio). Usually, it's great. Sometimes, meh. Rarely, a choir of angels having a rave in my mouth.
The burger I'm about to share with you is one of those angel raves, therefore I recommend you make it as soon as possible. Preferably yesterday. (Make extra patties for lunch, too.) Oh, and not having a grill is no excuse; this recipe is apartment-friendly.
Friday Quick Tip # 5 - Have you ever spent five minutes trying to scrape the last bit of sauce out of the jar? Get it done in ten seconds: add two tablespoons of water to the "empty" jar, replace the lid, and shake! Pour your newly found sauce into the pot with the rest. (Don't worry, the water won't change the consistency of the sauce.)
Before I get to the menu plan, I'd like to apologize for yesterday's post (or lack thereof). I wrote a recipe that should have been good, but when I actually made the recipe, something awful happened. I'm not sure if it was the fact that our oven has been wonky for the past few weeks or if it was the thawed egg roll wrappers I chose to use, but the end result was inedible. To prove that this isn't just an excuse, here is last night's dinner fail: Mexican egg rolls.
The skins after scooping out the filling.
Now that you're good and hungry after looking at my failed dinner, click through for my new, improved menu plan with price breakdown!
