Yes, I went to Costco, as a break from a really hard day. Yes, the tuna I like was on sale so I got two, and the pepitas, and the bouillon. The dates I like were getting discontinued, grab one bag. Peanut butter and vanilla for stock up, not sale but the prices not bad; the vanilla is good until 2031 so I can just stash it until I need it. I'm running low, not out.
And all that? For $88.71. That's a lot of money. Looks like I have a lot of tuna and PBJ ahead of me. Didn't see any cacao or organic almonds. I want to make more treat balls so I'll get those ingredients elsewhere. And I had a piece of pizza, which I was craving like crazy from a colleague's email.
And it got me thinking - to really eat well, there isn't much room for crap. LIke all three meals shoudl be on point every day. And that can be hard, still not always getting a lot of vegetables for breakfast. I can do legumes. Oh, I should make lentil loaf this weekend, I like that for breakfast. Ope, no I'm not. Looks like I have none of the lentils I like to use for that. Weird. OK, looks like I haven't bought any of those for three months, so must be true. Weird that I didn't catch it though. I'm usually good with staying stocked up. And I took out a bin that I had on the bottom shelf for things like snacks, chocolate bars, odds and ends like soft tofu and lifesavers. The lifesavers are no longer in my life, not the kind with sugar at least, and other things fit onto the shelf ok. Gives more space for the 30 or so jars I have of grains and legumes and other things like nutritional yeast.
Man, this week Wore Me Out. Mentally. Right now I feel ok physically and I want to lean into that. Toying with biking to a store I want to go to for cottage cheese - it's more miles than I usually do, but maybe I want to push myself. I also really really really need to do yard work and get the native plants into the ground THIS WEEKEND NOW. IT's already late because soon the rains will stop. It's time for some semi-deep cleaning, and I need to cook a lot. For certain tofu and squash with greens, and roasted vegetable salad (with leeks and white beans). Maybe tempeh chili. Possibly cook a pot of pinto beans to eat with corn tortillas in my freezer. Maybe leek potato soup. Maybe a carrot salad. Maybe garbanzo spread. I'm going to overspend my budget and I'm ok with that. I'll eat fish this week, too - maybe salmon, maybe tuna, maybe sardines. I need to finish up those fermented pickles I made months ago.
There was an overeating day this week, I think it was Wednesday. I was STARVING. So very very hungry, I couldn't focus. There were Girl Scout cookies in the breakroom and I ate one, then another. On the bikeride home I got about six chocolate pretzels (the bulk food price was 27 cents, so I know it wasn't much). I had a PBJ and crackers and cheese with an apple, plus the vegetables soup I had and other normal foods like a burrito, oh and last little bit of lentil barley soup. I was just so hungry. I do not like that. Fortunately it was just the one day.
Oh, it looks like the route to the store I want to go to is actually a really nice one. I need to get out and do more biking just for fun or for further destinations, not only for the commutes and nearby errands. I think I'd like that.
***
Just got my electric/water bill, and the electric consumption is half what it was last year. I want to credit my nice new heat pump water heater, but it's probably just because I had the bathroom renovated last year and they kept cranking up the baseboard heat, which is not energy efficient. Good reminder to credit my heat pump ductless heating system, though. Those energy efficient upgrades are definitely things that I am glad I did. There are limits to energy efficiency though, and utilities are just expensive. The very basic charge for water/sewer/wastewater is $81. My actual measured use of 1 kgal cost about $8 all told. Basic charge for electric is $39; my actual use cost about $80 (27kWh per day, which is mostly heating, plus water heating, plus clothesdryer in winter; May-October I use less than 10 kWh/day) Honestly I think the most energy/cost efficient thing to do is have more people living in the house so the heat is for more than just me. Though of course anybody else would want to make it warmer and spend more. It's set at 61 right now and I'm fine. I needed to crank to 66 the other night but I think I was just really tired and that makes me very cold.
I've still got the longer bike ride on the new-to-me bike path on my mind for this morning, even though I keep getting warned about precipitation by the weather app. I'd prefer the weather get up above 40 before i head out since I'll be riding along water so even chillier, but I want to go before the rain hits. I'm excited about the new adventure and hope I don't get thwarted.
When I got home last night from work, I laundered my work clothes so they can hang dry over the weekend. Along with jackets and blouses and pants, I laundered my Costco receipt. I could only make out a few numbers, and so I looked at all the items and tried to remember the prices. It was a good memory exercise and I was actually within a dollar on most things. I feel like I get price blindness at Costco, don't most of us? It's a good deal, something I use anyway, on sale, etc. Like the better than bouillon vegetable base (low sodium) - I use it a lot, and for a much smaller jar at another store it's about $9, but this large jar is on sale for $7. HOw can I pass up that deal? I can get it at the nearby department store for cheaper but they don't have the low sodium types or the vegetable type, and it's SO salty it's essentially unusable for me. The tuna on sale comes out to like $2/can, and it's the ethically harvested, etc. I can buy cheaper tuna (or maybe I can't anymore, tbh), but it's from dredging oceans and other awful practices. I like how this tastes better, too. I love pepitas and a much smaller bag at the store is like $13, but these were on sale for $7.50. Anyway, I know that I don't have to convince anyone about my grocery purchases, just have to justify for myself. And I'm feeling justified.
Last night I heard a familiar bark from the past - there was a possum on the fence and Ziggy was barking her possum bark while leaping up to grab it. The possum was flummoxed and didn't know where to go because there was also another dog on the other side and I could not convince it to go further down the fence where there was no dog on the other side and just go on the ground. It was very confused and kept turning around and soon my dog would have grabbed it's tail and yanked it down and I would be dealing with possum entrails. Fortunately my dog let me hook her to a leash and bring her inside - she didn't even fight me at all which makes me think she was doing this aggression for show and she didn't really want to gut the possum any more than I wanted her to. She is such a funny dog, very rule-bound, but the rules are of her creation. They're very elaborate rules which often I have no idea about, like last night when was walking me to bed, heeling perfectly, and did not want to be pet or praised because she was WORKING dammit.
OK, this is going to be a good weekend. I'll get plenty of exercise, I'll quilt and read books from the library, I'll cook tasty healthy meals. I'm foregoing social activities because I don't have the bandwidth to do it all, and that is ok.
My dog is so sweet - she just reminded me to put things on the porch for pickup this morning. I had the bin inside by the front door since last night, and she just sat staring at it until I moved it out this morning, which was great because I would have forgotten otherwise.
Breakfast is garbanzo spread, with fermented pickles (used them all up! NOw have to decide if I want to try to use the brine for something or not), pepperoncini, onion, tahini, and sunflower seeds. I always like the taste of this no matter what I put into it (I miss capers), with two exceptions: (1) I can get tired of it before it's gone, and (2) when I eat it for breakfast I'm often hungry right away. So I'm trying to increase the seed ratio to get more healthy fats to sustain me. I eat it on the same whole grain sourdough that i eat with cheese, and that combination sustains me all morning. So I feel like I should be able to beef this up somehow (while not actually using beef of course).
It's still cold out but I'm going to bundle up, gloves and ear protection ready, and I plan to head out. I'd like to get the errands done first because it's even colder to be digging in very cold wet soil to plant, but I really hope to do that later today and to not lose my mojo with the long bikeride. I'm going to risk it though. OK, ticker is telling me that rain is coming in about an hour, so it's time to head out. Yay me.
No comments:
Post a Comment