Pantry Challenge: Second Food Purchase

I did very well this week in not spending any money on food. As you can see from my food log, this doesn't mean we weren't eating wonderfully tasty meals. In fact, making baba ganouj yesterday morning inspired a Lebanese dinner menu.

It started out with the baba ganouj (eggplant dip) served with toasted whole wheat Lavash with a cucumber-tomato salad on the side served over baby lettuce. The tomato and mint for the salad came from our garden, although the tomato was not quite fully ripe.

The main part of the meal, which I forgot to photograph, was Lemon-Garlic Potatoes and a Lebanese Vegetable Stew with Chickpeas. The garlic in the potatoes was overwhelmed by the lemon flavor, probably because I substituted a piece of my pickled lemon rind in place of fresh lemon rind since I didn't have a fresh lemon. The lemon juice came from the freezer. The stew was quite tasty and I'll bet will be even better as leftovers after the flavors have really had a chance to blend.

Today we went to the weekly farmers market because I wanted more potatoes and sweet potatoes. When we got there, though, the signs of fall were in the air, er, on the tables. I could not resist getting some broccoli, cauliflower, and collards. I also picked up a red bell pepper and some cilantro.

Here is the farmers market bounty minus one broccoli bunch. It cost a total of $25.10.

I was a bit peckish when we got home so I whipped up a quick snack. Leftover boiled potatoes and steamed broccoli florets, topped with a "cheesy" sauce. Usually I use the recipes in Jo Stepaniak's Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook for these but today I just whipped it up from the basic ingredients.

To the blender jar, I added 2 small red peppers, 1/4 of an onion, 2 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast, a squeeze of lime juice (because I didn't feel like digging in the freezer for lemon juice), a handful of rolled oats (because I didn't feel like digging in the freezer for the whole wheat flour either), and water. After blending this up until smooth, I cooked it on the stove top over medium heat until thickened. Salt was sprinkled over the top of the dish rather than added to the sauce.

So far, so good on sticking to the challenge. But then, we needed to run into town on an errand and ended up deciding to get lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, a big salad bar. We didn't need to because I have leftovers from last night's Lebanese feast in the fridge and that was the plan. But, we wanted to and agreed to go ahead and enjoy a meal there.

I stuffed myself with plenty of healthy food, starting with a plate piled high with salad. At home, I forget to add some of the tasty things they have at Sweet Tomatoes that make me so enjoy a meal there: beets for sweetness, jalapenos for heat, garbanzo beans for creaminess and flavor, and toasted almond slices and sunflower seeds for crunch. Sometimes I also throw raisins on for sweetness. These extra little touches really enhance the salad which is important when you're eating a big ol' plate of raw veggies with plain rice vinegar in place of a high fat creamy dressing!

That wasn't enough for me, though, so I headed to the hot food bar and came back with a baked sweet potato and small bowl of vegetarian potato-onion-tomato-spinach soup. I smooshed up the sweet potato on a big plate, topped it with more raw veggies (spinach, red onion, celery, zucchini shreds, green peas, and tomatoes) and poured the cup of soup on top. Yum! We told the server with the hot fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies to just keep walking. No cookies for me! (If you knew me, I mean, really knew me, you'd know how incredible that is...)

So how much more did we spend for this decadent yet healthy meal? Another $20.47 (plus tip).

Food purchases for this month so far are $38 at the farmers market and $20.47 at a restaurant. If you are eating out of your pantry this month, how are you doing?