Sunday, February 7, 2010

Food

Yesterday was grocery shopping day (again) and I was totally uninspired as to what to buy, what to cook this week, what to eat. I guess I'm like a picky five year old when it comes to my food because I kind of like plain food, nothing fancy, no weird vegetables or sauces, and definitely NOTHING ON MY PLATE CAN BE TOUCHING ANYTHING ELSE! I should probably invest in those cafeteria trays where all your food is in its own little compartment.

I don't like most vegetables, just the basic peas, corn, green beans type stuff. No slimy stuff like spinach or brussel sprouts and definitely NO BROCCOLI! Which is hard because Keith loves the stuff and always wants to buy the frozen skillet meals that are mostly BROCCOLI and even the smell of BROCCOLI turns my stomach. Even the word BROCCOLI is just nasty and gross.

Anyway, I was totally uninspired and ready to just buy frozen pizzas for the whole week, but I really want to eat healthier but still cheap food. So we went down to Trader Joe's to get some of their frozen vegetables and lean hamburger. I'm not buying hamburger anywhere else ever again because the stuff from Vons and Winco is all chewy and gristly (gag) and Trader Joe's just tastes much better. And it's not chewy and gristly. But Trader Joe's just doesn't carry everything we need so you still have to go to Von's or Winco to get all the other stuff.

But, I digress, the whole point of my story is being uninspired about cooking but still wanting to cook from scratch because it's cheaper and healthier than buying prepackaged. I have lots of cookbooks but so many recipes are for things that the picky five year old inside me doesn't like or they call for a whole grocery list of weird ingredients and spices that can only be used for that one recipe or they take too long to make or use pots and pans that I don't even own. So, when I saw this book at the Goodwill used book store, I thought for 80c it was definitely worth bringing home.


You had me at cheap.

Not to mention the fast and good part of it.

Well, this book was absolutely worth the 80c, it's got tips for saving on food dollars, making your own convenience foods to put in the freezer, recipes that use ingredients that you might even already have in the cupboard, and recipes that even that pesky five year old would eat.

Recipes like this one for pork chops cooked in apple juice, how easy is that?


Just brown the pork chops, add the apple juice and simmer for 40 minutes? Now, that's my kind of recipe.

So, next grocery trip I'll be getting the makings for some of these recipes and we'll have some nice homemade CHEAP but tasty dinners.

3 comments:

PussDaddy said...

LOL. I hate cooking. Hate cooked broccoli too but I love it raw.

PD

PussDaddy said...

I only buy lean hamburger myself. I can't stand all that grease when you cook it. It's worth spending a few more cents on if you ask me.

PD

Anonymous said...

That's so cool. I've been fixing the same boring cheap and easy meals for what seems like forever now, and need some new inspiration, but it still needs to be cheap and easy and healthy... I love it when we find new ideas like that, yay!