So…groceries are expensive. Am I telling you something?
I had so much fun last week with the market haul challenge that I decided to do another one this week. I know I spend a lot of money on groceries, but I rarely spend the time to actually track it. Tracking it last week forced me to slow down and account for what was coming into the house, going out, going into our stomaches and being put away for use later. Not only was it informative, it was also useful. For instance–I buy sweet basil every week that it’s available at the market, but I frequently only use only about half of a bunch for pesto and dispose of the wilted leftovers at the end of the week. It was fun to get down to the end of the week and really have to be creative about how to use up the last bits and bobs of food I had left. I’m happy to say that I did pretty well. I wasn’t 100% efficient, but I’m content with what I was able to use up.
Last week, I decided to do the challenge because I had such limited time to shop at the farmer’s market, having only gotten back into town 10 minutes before the market closed. This week, I took a little more curated approach to the shopping, buying more according to a plan than to what I could find. I bought some things that are a little more luxurious, but also stuck to some tried and true recipes.
Between the grocery store and the farmer’s market, I spent $280.00 on food this week. This included staples, such as butter, milk, cheese and flour.
Here’s what I bought at the farmer’s market:
Beets, tomatoes (san marzano, globe varieties and cherry), 3 bunches of sweet basil, a bag of salad greens, 3 melons, six baskets of assorted berries, a big bag of spinach, 4 Yukon gold potatoes, 2 zucchinis, onions (red and yellow), garlic, bell peppers (orange, red and yellow), 1 bunch carrots, celery, sage, ginger and cucubers.
And finally, I found these sweet delights:
They’re called “husk cherries,” or “ground cherries:”
They’re a member of the tomatillo family, as you can probably guess from the papery husk that covers them. They have roughly the texture of a cherry or a tomato, they have tiny seeds and they have a sort of a tropical sweetness to them–think mango and pineapple flavors. I hadn’t seen them in years–and I mean YEARS–I was thrilled and bought two baskets of them. Now, I’m kind of wishing I had bought more. But–it’s going to be easy to use up what I have this week and hopefully I’ll find more next week. Saturday was their first appearance at the market and they typically will run for about a month. Tune in later in the week to see what I do with them!
At the grocery store, I bought the following:
Butter, cheese, milk, cream, pine nuts, pasta, deli meat, 1.5 pounds ground veal, 1.5 pounds ground pork, 2 pounds ground chuck, halibut, and a very small chicken. I bought enough meat to make not only a meatloaf, but also ragu sauce to freeze and serve along with the tomato sauce I made last week. In the freezer, I still have a pork tenderloin and the shrimp I bought last week.
On Saturday, I went ahead and roasted the beets so they’d be ready to go for salads for the week. Next, in order to fulfill my inner squirrel, I made another large load of pesto. I put four more 8 oz containers of pesto into my freezer and saved one for use this week:
I promptly used it to make a pasta side for our dinner on Saturday night:
Halibut filet cooked in parchment paper, steamed zucchini and red pepper and pesto orzo pasta:
On Sunday, I used some of the ground meat–1/2 pound of ground veal, 1/2 pound of ground pork and 1 pound of ground chuck, to make my famous meatloaf. I served it with roast potatoes and spinach.
At this point, I feel like I’ve made a good start in using up what I bought at the markets for food this week. Tune in tomorrow to find out how I continued to use my bounty for our meals on Monday and Tuesday–including a more in-depth look at husk cherries!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
