Fancy Food

I was processing some big revelations this past week. One, of course, involves food.
Food is such a big part of life, when you're the buyer and maker of food for you family of 5 it takes up quite a bit of my brain space.

I'm still working on finding my food groove here in our new home. I wanted so badly to like our local Trader Joe's as much as my old one, but I don't.  The products may be the same but the vibe is not at all.  Every time I went in it made me miss my Oak Park store so much.  Time to revamp.

I LOVE our local co-op and the brand new Kowalsi's in Exclesior, pretty much equally.  The people are so friendly and the food is amazing, plus the co-op is 2 miles away and the Kowalski's is a perfect jaunt from Felix's preschool (and they have tiny carts!).
Trouble is these places are both a bit more expensive than the Trader Joe's prices. Though! It is possible not to spend an arm and a leg and I love a good food budget challenge.

This week I really buckled down.  Rather than fight the fact that we love take out most weekends and last minute shopping to grab what we crave I decided to split the weekly budget in half. Half for weekday groceries and essentials, half for weekend indulgences.  So far so good!

I find sticking to my plan is key, as is shopping the sales.  There are always sales in produce at both of my new favorite stores, and deli meat sales at Kowalskis (my kids can eat over 2 pounds of lunch meat a week if I let them.  Sales are important!)  I also REALLY try to not buy anything I could make for less (except bread!)  I get one bag of chips a week for Ian and the kids, and a box of crackers and dried fruit for the kids for snacks. They usually prefer fresh fruit anyways. I always have a full baking pantry for cookies or bars or muffins etc. as we want them.  It can be really hard to not overindulge in baked goods though. So delicious.
I also love the bulk bins at our co-op. The oatmeal is dirt cheap, as are most grains.  I love that if I'm really trying to stretch the budget I can buy just what I need for a meal. A cup of lentils, 2 cups of rice.   Bulk bins are my friends.

This week I spent $72 at Kowalski's for the weekday stock up.  Free range eggs, grassfed beef bologna, teriyaki sliced chicken, locally smoked salmon, lots of fruits and veggies, good dairy, sparkling water (always!).
I then spent $10 on two delicious loaves of bead at Great Harvest (I will forever miss my $2.20 loaves at Oak Park Bakery, but Light Wheat and Spinach and Feta loaves from GH are an acceptable substitute)

This week for weeknight dinners we're eating...

GH bread and leftover frozen chili from the co-op
Indian Daal with Naan (recipe from Family Cooks, refrigerator lentils spruced up Indian style with enough lentils left over for another meal next week)
Chicken Adobo with rice and cole slaw
Chicken Tacos
Crepes with smoked salmon and creamed spinach

Granted a lot of the food we are eating I already had either in the pantry or freezer, but I'm banking on willpower to stay on track this weekend to give me a bit more for next week to restock on meat and pantry items (or, thinking about going to back to one big Costco run a month to stock up, the costco situation is like the trader joe's situation though...once you've shopped at a brand new mostly empty pristine friendly Costco it's hard to go back)

This weekend I'm hoping the weather holds for grilling, pizza is always fun too. I like having some freedom and $ to exert that food freedom.

Yay food!!!