Grocery Day

This needs to be a relatively quick post since I'm heading to see Harry Potter in about 10 minutes(NERD alert). However, today was the BIG grocery shop day. For $80, I purchased a huge tub of spinach, mini colored peppers, baby carrots, hummus, mushrooms, 2 bags of bagel thins, butter, gallon of skim milk, eggs, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, bananas, and Sunchips. Everything was purchased at Sam's Club so while the above may not seem like a lot, just imagine bulk portions of everything. I'm not entirely sure what I will be using everything in but that means it's time to start getting creative in the kitchen! And on that note I'm off to cry my eyes out. Good thing it's a late showing, I may have streaky mascara marks on my face by the end of the movie.

What is When Foodie Met Frugal?

To say I love food would be an understatement. I love food with the same passion that I love my family, friends, and significant other. It's just another wonderful relationship in my life, but it hasn't always been easy. In fact there have been times where I've denied myself all the joys that food has to offer because I was too worried about what its popular friend, calories, would have to say. If you think about it, calories is that "cool" girl in middle school/high school. You do everything in your power to make her like you. You agree with her, you act like her,  you dress like her until suddenly you're not yourself anymore. You're so obsessed with pleasing her until suddenly you realize that you never will and that it's suddenly ok to be yourself. In fact, it's better. I've had that battle and while I realize watching calories is a necessary evil to maintain your weight, I don't have that same relationship that I once had. But enough about calories because honestly who really cares about her? :)

Food is my passion. I can spend hours in a grocery store simply browsing the aisles and looking at everything they offer.  Some of my earliest memories from childhood is being in the kitchen. My family and I would have homemade pizza on Friday nights and then play games afterwards. I would help my mom in the kitchen with kneading the dough somehow winding up with flour all over my face. All of the extra dough that wasn't used for the pizza was given to me to make my own little pizzas. I was so excited about having all of this freedom to create something delicious and to call it my own. As I've grown older, that excitement has not changed. Cooking gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I love assembling ingredients and then deciding what I can use to make a meal out of them.

So how does frugal fit into this mix? Unfortunately, I am not an heiress nor have I won the lottery and similar to every other American, I have to watch my budget. I may not spend a lot of money on clothes, shoes, purses or electronics but I can rack up a mean grocery budget. Even a real housewife from Orange County would be proud. Having a budget is not the end of the world though! In fact, it's easy to eat well AND stay on track with expenses. How is that so you may ask? Because I'm here to show you. Each day I will post a meal with the cost factored into it. At the start of the week, I'll show you what I bought with my budget and then the meals I made out of it.

I can't wait for this journey to begin and I hope you'll be here with me.