The reason behind my grocery-store boycott is simply because the summer term stopped paying me in July and this new semester doesn't start paying me until October. So I decided to cut out my grocery budget, because who needs food, right?
I thought it was going to be hard. I thought I would grow thin and bony and my ribs would poke out and my concentration would be nil and I would waste away to nothing. I imagined reading books about starving artists and finally being able to empathize. "Ah, yes," I'd tell the characters in those books. "Our lives are so very hard." Maybe I'd even be able to write my own book about my experiences or something.
Turns out, though, you can eat through your pantry pretty comfortably for quite a while. Bummer. There goes that bestseller.
Even after two months without the grocery store, my pantry's still pretty full
I've come up with quite a few go-to meals that fill me up and don't make me gag. (Those are the two requirements, of course.)
Oatmeal: The old stand-by. Oatmeal, mixed with brown sugar and raisins, or maybe peanut butter and cocoa powder if I want some protein. Filling.
Toast: I've got zillions of half-eaten loaves of bread in my freezer that I was saving for the ducks. (Sorry, ducks). If I stick them in the toaster and smother them in peanut butter, I don't notice they're freezer-burned and stale.
Smoothies: Like the bread, the fruit would always go in the freezer once it got too old to eat. So now I'm eating it. Stick it in the blender, mix it with a bit of water and some honey, and you're good to go.
Pasta: I don't know why I have so many boxes of pasta in my pantry, but there they are. Sadly, my pasta sauce is pretty old and nasty, but beggars can't be choosers, right? Plus, a bit of wine and some freshly grated parmesan help to make it bearable. Yeah, I know; I'm really roughing it.
Peanut butter and banana shake: My favorite meal of all. Frozen bananas and chocolate protein powder and peanut butter and ice. It's like a milk shake. And it fills me up for half the day.
And of course, because I can't go more than about 10 hours without something sweet, I've got a list of go-to desserts as well:
Reese's pretzels: Pretzels, dipped in melted peanut butter and chocolate chips. So delicious.
Reese's Grape-Nuts: Peanut butter and Nutella (Yes, I have Nutella. Hard life.) melted together. Grape-Nuts stirred in. Crunchy goodness.
Graham crackers with Nutella: You can probably figure that one out.
I have plenty of other food too. Tortillas and energy bars and protein shakes and goat cheese and jam and popcorn and applesauce and cereal and baking supplies that I can't use because I don't have eggs and milk. And plenty of vitamins that I'm actually remembering to take for the first time ever. This little experiment has made me realize just how much food I have and how picky I usually am.
I'm a bit tempted to find out how long it would take before I actually started starving. But I don't think I'd have the patience to wait that long.
1 comment:
Actually what you are doing is pretty cool... It is amazing how much food we usually have in our pantries when we go shopping again :) but before you do starve, come over here and we will feed you :)
Most months we have end of the month meal... Anything I can find that is left over goes into the meal... Sometimes turns out to be the best meal of the month :)
Enjoy your project of saving money... Oh and by the way... Oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins is what I have every morning for breakfast, cheap and oh so good!
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