dinners, budgeting

We enjoyed homemade sushi and miso soup for dinner the other night:


Sushi was our usual cucumber and avocado roll, but the miso soup turned out better than I've ever made it before! I made a simple broth from a big chunk of fresh ginger, some mushroom stems, and a couple pieces of konbu. After straining the broth I added miso (obviously,) sliced oyster mushroom caps, and a huge handfull of fresh spinach. Yum! Green onions would have been an awesome addition, too, but we were out. Alas.

I made the most gorgeous, delicious pizza for lunch yesterday:

"Artisan Bread" half-whole-wheat crust, smothered in caramelized onions, mozzarella, parmesan, cremini mushrooms, and kalamata olives. We had a big, green salad on the side, too. Yum!

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Week two of grocery budgeting went well. First, the haul from the co-op looks a little weird due to Dan's trip to the Boundary Waters. This week:

BULK:
local, organic soybeans
local slivered almonds
local walnuts
organic, whole-wheat pasta
trail mix
PACKAGED GROCERY:
organic creamy peanut butter
organic ginger tea
organic tomato paste
14 frut leather
12 Clif bars
2 Virgil's Root Beer
plastic wrap
unbleached parchment muffin liners
Seventh Generation laundry detergent
PRODUCE:
organic bananas
organic avocadoes
organic lemon
REFRIGERATED GROCERY:
5-grain tempeh
local, organic plain yogurt

This week's co-op spending ran us $96.93, which seemed high to me since we didn't get much produce, but I figure all of that shelf-stable processed stuff adds up quick! (We also stocked up on nuts for granola, which get expensive quickly.)

To round out the week's produce, I hit the Farmer's Market this morning:

Berries, berries galore! I was in heaven. I spent a fortune ($53!) but got a ton of gorgeous, fresh, locally-grown produce. 10 cups of raspberries, (8 went immediately into jam, the other two into the freezer,) 2 pints of blackberries, 2 pints of blueberries, (both went straight into the freezer,) broccoli, honey, potatoes, and tomatoes.

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I thought I'd do a quick, mid-month grocery budgeting recap. We've spent $262.36 so far, which has included stocking up on some in-season produce and sale items at the co-op. We're exactly halfway through the month, and roughly halfway through our budget, so I feel like we're in good shape! Wahoo! Nice to know this wasn't quite as hard as I thought it was going to be.