A look into Groceries.

This week has been a bucket of fail so far, and it probably won't really look up before Sunday. As my mother says, I'm pretty highly stressed at the moment, so one thing at a time. I am trying, even if my willpower is on vacation.

I managed meals ok. Most of my actual meals were on diet. It's just all the extra things I ate that weren't. The combination of being on my time of the month and also having Valentine's day sort of did in any real diet success this week. I've had a whole lot of extra sugar. I'm just hoping that because I was pretty good about carbs and only bad about sugar, that I'll be okay. Plus, aside from Tuesday I didn't/ won't take another real cheat day. That definitely isn't to say I didn't cheat, because I SO did. But still.

I made a discovery in the meals department. On Thursday night Jon and I went grocery shopping and got...for the first time I think, almost completely repeat things. Usually we have several things that are more "one-time-buys", but we got pretty much all the same things we usually get. My life may be gaining some sort of routine! Yay!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the way we eat.

Beans-
We buy canned beans from Safeway at 99 cents each. Jon gets pinto beans and I get black beans, according to our tastes. Jon likes to put a can of beans, drained, into a tupperware along with some frozen meatballs to take to work for lunch. He then microwaves and eats there. He also tends to take salads with him occasionally (Lettuce and grape tomatoes with light balsamic vinaigrette). I haven't figured out lunches yet, but I eat beans when I'm eating dinner alone and don't have much in the veggie department. I'll cook whatever protein we have and then put it on top of a cans worth of beans. It works out pretty tasty. Both of us also like to melt cheddar cheese on top of beans and eat that for a quick snack.

Frozen Veggies (3 bags)-
We get the stir fry mixes. There are a whole bunch of different ones, ranging from asian inspired (with snow peas and water chestnuts) to early spring mixes (with asparagus and squash). I always cook a whole bag, whether I'm just feeding myself or feeding the two of us. Asian mixes I tend to season with ginger and soy, while other mixes I either toss in lemon pepper or curry powder. I always pan cook with a lid.

Frozen Protein (fish or chicken, it was fish this week)-
Having frozen meat is nice for us because we're pretty bad at eating on a schedule. What we do for dinner each night is a toss up between cooking and ordering and depends on whether our roommates are using the kitchen (though we'll be moving soon so that won't be an issue) and how much energy we have.
When we get chicken, we buy the frozen chicken breasts from Safeway. They're 8-10 dollars a bag, depending on the sale that day. When cooking just for me I cook 1 breast, when for both of us I cook 3. I put the frozen chicken in a non-stick pan with a lid on medium heat and let it sit to thaw for a bit. Then I'll flip it over and thaw the other side. While that sits I make up a mixture of water (because I don't have chicken broth at the moment) soy sauce and ginger. I use Kikkoman soy, and a tube of fresh ground ginger (both purchased at Safeway, you'll find the ginger with the fresh herbs)I then pour this mixture into the pan with the chicken and put the lid on. I let this boil for a while, then flip and repeat. Once I think the chicken is mostly cooked I add the bag of veggies and cook both until both are done. I do the same with curry sometimes.
For fish, we grab what's on sale. This week it was Swai which is a light flavored white fish. I usually bake it with lemon pepper. Pop it in the oven on some foil on a baking sheet at 400 degrees. Wait 10 minutes, sprinkle with lemon pepper, flip, sprinkle other side. Cook until it's done. Sometimes I have to bring the fish up onto a pan on the stove to finish it out.

Frozen Meatballs-
These are a staple for Jon because they're really easy and tasty. Just pop them in the microwave! I'll occasionally eat some too with tomato sauce. We usually keep a jar of marinara/ other pasta sauce on hand. Once we move I'm going to make a habit of making our own.

Fresh protein for immediate consumption [We got pork chops]-
Often we'll get thin cut steaks, which I just pan fry, but this week we bought pork chops so I decided to to something a little more detailed. I started by pouring some soy sauce into a deep plate. I then dipped and soaked eat pork chop in the soy sauce. I then got Jon to help me by squirting some of the ginger paste onto the pork chops for me while I massaged it in. I then popped each pork chop into the non-stick pan for a couple minutes on each side. They cooked quickly and were SUPER tasty.

Diet Beverages [diet dr. pepper for him, vitamin water zero for me (I only get this when its on sale)]-
Jon drinks a lot of soda, and I really like vitamin water. So it's best for us to buy these when they're on sale at Safeway. ONLY diet beverages are okay, so we just get the diet versions of our favorite beverages. Luckily for us, Jon doesn't mind the taste of diet dr. pepper, and my favorite flavors of vitamin water only come in diet. :)

Protein Shakes-
These are breakfasts for me, and desperate times breakfasts for Jon. We've discovered that the Atkins diet chocolate flavors are the best. DON'T get the "Day Break" ones, they aren't as filling and they taste weird. The only useful thing about them is the lid, but I find that that keeps me from finishing the whole shake, thus defeating the purpose. I say Atkins rather than any other brand because every other brand uses sugar of some sort. No other brand is designed as a low-carb diet shake and a lot of them are actually meant to be high carbs for people actively building muscles and on calorie limiting diets. So really, Atkins. They actually taste pretty good too, I don't find them chalky at all.

So. Those are our food staples. I may post more detailed recipes for the dinners (with pics) once we move.

ALSO I HOPE YOU LIKE THE SLIGHTLY UPDATED SITE. Now there's an about page, links to my twitter and pinterest profiles, and also some shiny new design elements (like fonts and a new, somewhat more sensical, background)

Yay! More on Sunday.