Double Sea: Hundred Dollar Challenge

It's time to reevaluate, folks. Cris and I failed the project for the month of February (whoops!) and were off to a bit of a rocky start for March, so we've decided to take this month off. We're feeling a tad stressed about having to keep up with it all (plus, we're both working on personal projects that are taking quite a bit of time!), so if you don't mind, we'll return in April.

This is not to say, however, that we'll be returning to our old ways of paying for breakfast, lunch and dinner all week. We went to the store last night and stocked up on $100 worth of groceries and we plan to keep being frugal by eating at home and packing lunch and drinking tea that we make once we get to the office. We're just a little overwhelmed and need to take a breather.

In the meantime, we'll leave you with this food-related photo of Wilbur, our geriatric cat, overindulging last night. (No cats were harmed in the taking of this photo; you'll notice that the lid is actually tilted up in the back, leaving plenty of airflow. Plus, she was taken out of the box about a minute after this photo was shot.) Even though she's 10 years old, she's very tiny and was meowing for some food. Cris took her into the kitchen to let her eat by herself and, once he opened the box, she slithered in. He brought box and cat to the bedroom to show me. 

Never a dull moment at the Double Sea.

See you next month!

-C

Yummy, yummy in my chee-loving tummy! Last night's dinner, IMO, was a roaring success. Cris thought there were too many flavors, but what does he know? He eats a slice of bread for breakfast.

Recipe: 

Boil water and toss in about a pound of rotini pasta. Chop up about a pound of asparagus into inch-long sections. Grate the rind of a lemon to get a bit of zest. When the pasta is fairly close to tender, add the asparagus to the pot. Cook to your desired texture. In a separate bowl, mix a 4-5 oz. log of goat chee (not the precrumbled kind, because it won't melt as easily), the lemon zest, a few sprinkles of tarragon and 1/4 olive oil. Drain the pasta/asparagus mixture and put it into the chee bowl. Mix it good. Grind some pepper on top. You've got yourself a tasty meal. Congratulations.

I got the recipe from this site, the author of which is basically who I want to be when I grow up.

Today we'll be having leftovers for lunch (burrito leftovers for Cris, since he wasn't a huge fan) and baked potatoes for dinner. We'll keep you posted.

-CW

Bad news, folks: I'm getting sick. There's been a serious sinus infection in the making for about two months now and it's, I'm guessing, about thisclose to hitting me full on. And so, in an effort to combat my impending illness, Cris and I thought soup was in order. 

This is what he whipped up: 

Sautée three potatoes and one chopped onion in olive oil. Add salt and pepper and garlic powder and a quarter cup quinoa. Add four stalks of chopped celery and a quarter head of chopped cabbage. Add one can veggie broth and two cans diced tomatoes. Add two-four cans of water. Add a handful of chopped cilantro, about a tablespoon chopped oregano, a small squeeze of Sriracha. Boil until quinoa is clear.

Then we thought, what goes better with soup than a grilled chee sammich? So he also grilled up some Texas toast with Colby Jack and it was perfect. Cris is the master of sandwiches. "Cooking should always involve an element of danger," he tells me. (The element of danger in grilling a grilled chee is that he only uses his fingers to flip the sammich to its other side. He lives life right on the edge.)

Some other updates from our real life: 

• You'll see in the photo that there is also an iPhone. That is my recovered iPhone that I had to retire in December when its battery died. BUT! I got it fixed and back in my arms today. You can call me on it if you want. 
• If you remember yesterday's dilemma, there is an update: Not only did I pack our lunch (and breakfast) this morning, but I also informed Cris that I'd done so. Here's the funny part: He still didn't eat any of it. 
• We went to the grocery store yesterday and spent $22.11. That leaves us with $26.40 left for the rest of this week and next. I hate to count my chickens before they hatch, but I think we might make it another month! 

That's all for tonight. I bought a container of Breyers Rocky Road (name brand alert! SPLURGE!), so I'm going to go enjoy a healthy serving.

Love,

-CW

As a young lass, I remember eating Chicken Cacciatore only a handful of times, but every time I think of jumbo shells, for some reason I think of that specific dish. (Mom, did you make chicken cacciatore with jumbo shells?) 

That is not what we made tonight. Nor did we make "Kitchen Cacciatore," which is what I thought it was called when I was young and precocious. But we did make stuffed jumbo shells, so the connection I've just made for you is not unwarranted.

Recipe:

12 oz. box of jumbo shells (I didn't prepare the entire thing; about 20 or so will do)

Bag o' spinach

Container of ricotta cheese (I used the skim milk kind, but I'd go with whole milk next time...go big or go home!)

Pasta sauce (we used El Cheapo tomato & basil, Kroger brand)

Sprinkle chee (we've run out of this, so I didn't get to include it this time, but it'd make a nice addition to the dish)

Boil water for pasta. Toss in shells. Coat bottom of pan with half the jar of tomato sauce. Sauté spinach. Mix spinch and ricotta in a bowl. When pasta is at your desired strength (we like ours a bit al dente), drain it and run a little cold water on top. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and, while it's preheating, stuff your shells and arrange them artfully in the baking pan. Sprinkle sprinkle chee on top of all the shells and then dump the remainder of the tomato sauce on top of that. Bake for about 25 minutes, but keep an eye on it because your shells could burn, baby, burn!

We also enjoyed a lovely salad with these shells, as you can see in the last picture. 

And, while I've got you here, I'd like to present a, shall we say, quandry that was brought to my attention this afternoon. Here's the scene: 

Last night, to celebrate Valentine's Day, Cris and I broke the rules of the challenge and—are you ready for this?—went out to dinner. We love Maharaja, so we went there and split a Bombay Aloo plus some Dal soup and naan. Before we left, we also purchased another of these dishes to go, knowing that we weren't going to make it to the grocery store and wouldn't really have much for lunch today. It's usually a lot of food for the both of us, so we figured it'd be enough for lunch the next day.

This morning, as Cris was getting ready, I began my morning ritual of packing our meals. I got out two tupperware containers and emptied the rice from Maharaja evenly into each and packed the restaurant's container of Bombay Aloo. I also tossed in an oatmeal packet and another tupperware bowl for my breakfast. Cris comes into the kitchen and, from the cabinet, takes out another packet of oatmeal from the box of the kind I don't like (Apple & Cinnamon) and sets it on the dining room table. (If you're familiar with our house, the kitchen and dining room table are in separate rooms. The lunch bag was on the kitchen counter and, as I see it, would have been an appropriate vessel for carting the oatmeal. In fact, I do use it to cart my own oatmeal each day. But I digress.) He goes to fluff his hair and I, noticing the oatmeal on the table, pick up the packet and put it in the lunch bag. Then we leave.

At lunchtime, I run into Cris in the kitchen at the office. He stands with me while I prepare my lunch (one of the containers of rice, plus about half the container of Bombay Aloo, leaving plenty for him) and then we don't talk about food for the rest of the day. Come 5 o'clock, Cris tells me that he HASN'T EATEN ALL DAY. 

...Uh, what!?

"I didn't know you'd packed my lunch," he said. It's here in the story where I remind him that I pack his lunch EVERY DAY because I know that, if I don't, he will go hungry (as he never has the foresight in the morning to remember his own breakfast or lunch). 

"But I went hungry today anyway! How was I supposed to know you packed my lunch?" he says. There again, I remind him that I pack his lunch EVERY DAY. He maintains that I usually remind him that I've packed his lunch and, while that may be true (though I'm not entirely sure it is), there's still no excuse for him not eating breakfast. He got the oatmeal out of the cabinet himself! With his own two hands! Plus, there's nothing stopping him from asking me if I packed his lunch. Or, perhaps, "Hey babe, what happened to that packet of oatmeal I got out of the cabinet this morning?" To which I would reply, ever so sweetly, of course, "It's in the lunch bag, my darling sugar muffin of love." Is that really so hard?

I shall end my rant here, as this is awfully long. I'm sending all the patient readers of this post bon-bons of gratitude for bearing with me. I'd like to invite you to respond to this conundrum and I'd also like to encourage Cris to present his side of the story (in a separate post, my sweet), as it is certainly lacking his POV.

That is all.

Love,

-CW

You all have been such great readers that I feel the need to reward you. And for you're reward I'm going to divulge a decades-old White Family Secret Recipe, which I used tonight for my dinner. It is called Chunky Soup & Rice.

1 can Campbell's Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup (also works with Chunky Vegetable Beef)

1 cup instant rice

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix one cup of rice and one cup of water in a bowl and toss it in the microwave for five minutes. Meanwhile, boil the can of soup. When the rice is finished, mix in one pat of butter and top with the soup (drained). Sprinkle a bit of pepper on top. Enjoy.

Not only has this recipe been passed down for generation, it's my go-to SPM (Single Person Meal). Not that I'm single, of course, but it's a great thing to fix when Cris and I are hungry at different times and/or don't feel like cooking.

Now, for a few updates. We have $48.51 left for the next two weeks. How we still have this much left over is completely beyond us, but maybe we're getting the hang of things! (And a Crock-pot of soup that lasts four days doesn't hurt!) We'll have to go shopping tomorrow (we were homebound today, working on our respective projects and napping), but we're thinking tomato soup is in our future, among other things. 

In other food-related news, I was lucky enough to get two (TWO!) girls' nights this past week. On Thursday, I had soup, salad and bread with some lovely ladies and on Friday, we all went to South Street Brewery, where I had this very yummy tuna dish. Ahi tuna on skewers atop a bed of mixed greens, cabbage and marinated button mushrooms. It was delish!

Cris and I went to the Tip Top on Saturday for brunch, which we conclude is basically Charlottesville's local answer to IHOP: Eggs (scrambled hard for Cris—hi Delane!—and over medium for Caite), homefries, grits (instant), sliced tomatoes, biscuits, bread and jam, coffee and V8. All that for $13! Holla!

On Saturday night we enjoyed sushi delivered to the house from Tokyo Rose (a Double Sea staple) and Jimmy John's sandwiches on Sunday afternoon. And I think that catches us all up! Phew! 

-CW

 

Four days sure fly by when you're having...tasty meals. I'll get right to it. 

After I admitted to my complete and utter obsession with avocados, I decided to try a few new recipes with the ingreendient (ha!). 

Garbonzavocado salad

1 can chick peas

2 avocados

1/2 onion (optional)

Minced cilantro

Half a lemon

Cut up avocado. (To do this, you want to slice the avocado vertically the entire way around and then twist the two halves before pulling them apart. Then, stick the knife into the pit and twist that—watch your fingers!—until it pops out. Use a paper towel to grip the pit and pull it off the knife.) Thinly slice the avocado while it's still in the skin and then run the knife along the edges to loosen the strips. Pop the strips out and cut them into little cubes. Drain the can of chick peas and toss them in a bowl with the avocado cubes. Squeeze the juice of the lemon (cut side toward your palm, to trap the seeds!) onto the mixture to keep the avocado from browning. Toss in some diced onions and minced cilantro and mix that good stuff up. Enjoy.

I will say that, though this recipe looks delicious, the onions turned out to be a bit much. If you really like the taste of onions (and the way they make your hands smell for the rest of the day even after you wash them), by all means add some in. But, if I make this again, I'll be cutting down on the onions and definitely chopping them into smaller pieces. 

As for servings, this made enough for Cris and I for lunch on Monday.

For dinner on Monday, we had a navy bean soup. Basically, we mixed a bag of navy beans (don't forget to sort and soak!) with a can of vegetable broth, onions, celery, cabbage and cilantro and threw it in the Crock-pot to cook all day. When we got home, instant dinner!

Tonight for dinner, we had this: 

Barry "Stuffed" Peppers

2 green peppers

Pinch of Flax seeds

1/2 cup rice

1/2 onion

Splash of beer

1 tbsp. cilantro

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1 can pinto beans

Splash of Sriracha sauce

1/4 cup quinoa

Sprinkle chee (to taste)

Bread crumbs

 

 

 

 

-CW

P.S. We're down one bag of English muffins. Went into the kitchen this afternoon and both Murray and Mae were missing, the cabinet was open and the English muffins were nowhere to be found. ...Except that I found them—all three of them—in the bedroom. RIP English muffins.

P.P.S. We're still under budget, but you'll have to wait until later to hear about the current total. We're still tabulating. 

I'm trying very hard not to place blame here, but if someone didn't eat the rest of our tortillas—tortillas which I had designated for a specific purpose—when he needed a snack, we might have been able to eat burritos for lunch one more day, thereby saving money. Alas, someone has his head in the clouds and perhaps forgot that we're living on a budget. He's lucky he's cute, or I might not forgive him. Ever. (It's that serious.)

To combat the unavailable lunch problem, I whipped up some pasta yesterday morning. (That's right; I was slaving over a hot stove at 7:45am to make sure we had a decent meal. What a woman!) I call it The White Lunch, not only because it's quite pale in color, but also because, well, that's my last name. 

Cup of orzo

1/2 cup of cauliflower (I used frozen)

Pat of butter

Sprinkle chee

Boil water, pour in orzo. Cook until soft. Meanwhile, defrost cauliflower. When both ingredients are ready, drain them and combine them in a bowl. Toss in the pat of butter and shaaaaaaaake it all up. Top with sprinkle chee and enjoy.

This recipe would probably also be good with some kind of spice like basil or oregano, but I didn't want to get too crazy before 8am. Gotta save all that crazy for later. 

As for dinners, we had spring rolls again last night, as we didn't end up going to the company game night. Cris had lots of work to do and I wasn't feeling all that well. Plus, who can't pass up the opportunity for avocado spring rolls? This girl. (You can see the tasty green treat—which is actually a fruit!—in the last photo, following the images of my boiling water and completed White Lunch.)

We went to Maharaja again tonight and it was deelicious. (Two Es for emphasis.)

Hope your weekends will be tasty. We're going to be working on some personal projects that we'll reveal soon. All in good time, friends. All in good time.

-C

P.S. Forgot to mention the new look of the blog! I got tired of the old one. This one looks much cleaner. Am I right?

 

P.P.S. Apologies for the poor quality of the second photo. My camera is confused by sunlight.

 

Our mailbox totally says that, FYI.

...So, we thought it would be a good idea to update you on our grocery buying and our goals for this month (since I promised we would three days ago). 

We've been to the grocery store twice. Once on Sunday (avocado, tomato, cellophane noodles, shredded chee, tortillas, oatmeal, apples) and again on Monday (another avocado, canned tomatoes, potatoes, onions, bay leaves, celery, English muffins, butter). We've spent about $31 total, leaving us with $69 for, basically, three more weeks. Tomorrow night we'll be eating hors d'oeuvres at a work-related game night (don't be jealous) and have stuffed peppers planned for lunch. We seem to be on the right track, budget-wise!

But we don't want to count our chickens before they hatch. We got a bit overconfident last month, leaving us with a few days of high-sodium, low-flavor noodle bowls. One of our main goals this month is to put a little more thought into expanding our lunch options, whether that means preparing more for dinner so we have leftovers, or coming up with creative and cost-effective dishes we can prep in the morning (like the burritos I mentioned in the last post). 

As for our other goals:

—We'd really like to work on buying local. We had a pretty decent gift certificate to Relay Foods after Cris did some graphic design work for the company, but that's run out and we haven't used them since. It'd be nice to get back into that—they do a pretty fantastic job—and work on driving the extra few minutes to C'Ville Market or Integral Yoga to pick up some stuff that supports the local economy and is healthier (and yummier). 

—Pictures! Once we get paid (what? You think doing this project means we have extra cash lying around? HA!) again, we're planning to up the ante on our photography. I'm not sure I'll go so far as to bring my Nikon with me to Maharaja (man, that was a good meal), but when we're cooking at home, we could definitely be putting a little more effort in. We ain't professionals, but I took a photography class when I was 14 and Marque (pronounced "Mark") said I had excellent perspective. So there.

—Include more fruit in the grocery list. And, for that matter, include healthier items altogether. We're not loading up on junk food (unfortunately), but we'd like to be able to provide some nutritional information, tips and observations, as well as continue our stellar recipe sharing.

We have a few other things in mind, like a points system and coupon saving, but we might have to keep those tucked away until Month Three. Things are getting a little hectic around here with all of our projects (work-related and otherwise) and—ah!—we just can't keep up! (Hence the terribly sporadic blog posts of late.) 

We'll leave you with this photo of Murray (and my favorite childhood stuffed animal, House) to help you pass the time. Who knows when we'll meet here again.

And, scene.

-C

As in, Cheaters, Cheaters... 

Let us explain. 

Back at Christmas time, Cris received a $25 gift certificate to one of our favorite restaurants from his secret Santa. Of course, we were pretty psyched about this and decided to use it on a date night (one of the first ones we had during Month One of this very project). Come to find out, you can't use said certificate on Friday or Saturday nights (the only nights we allowed ourselves to eat out, mind you) and it excludes drinks. Now, we didn't know this when we got there, so we're ordering up a storm: Our favorite pasta (Straw & Grass), a glass of wine—even dessert! The bill, we knew, was over $25. What we didn't know was that we couldn't use the certificate the night we were there, so we ended up paying the whole thing. 

Fast forward to tonight. We decided to try and use it tonight, as it's a Wednesday (which is allowed, according to the Rules of the Gift Certificate). We figured we could break our self-imposed project rules, as long as we didn't go over $25. Again, Straw & Grass (though, we stuck it to the man and ordered a full size and split it, which is actually cheaper than ordering two half sizes) and only one beer each, no dessert. The total: $24.48. Yesssss. 

Except for one thing. Your bill has to be at least $35 in order for you to use the gift certificate. Blast! Again, we ended up paying for the entire thing. So, basically, we're cheaters. Except only accidentally. Right? ...RIGHT?

Meanwhile, Month Two of the project is going fairly swimmingly. Sunday night we made spring rolls (I'm addicted to avocado spring rolls, p.s.), Monday night we had quesadillas (see photo below) and on Tuesday morning I whipped up some super easy, super delicious burritos for lunch. Here's the recipe: 

Little Donkey Burritos

One can black beans

One can diced tomatoes (I used Rotel brand, which has cilantro in it)

One can corn

One cup cooked rice

Shredded chee

Tortilla

Drain each can of ingredients. Mix together, add in rice. Mix again. Plop on tortilla, sprinkle with chee, roll up into burrito. Microwave for 45 seconds. (If you don't plan to eat it like a burrito, i.e. with your hands, you can sprinkle a little more chee on top for extra fatty goodness.)

We've had those burritos for two days in a row and, my, are they tasty. And filling! Breakfasts have been mostly oatmeal, English muffins and apples, plus at least two cups of tea. We're approaching the make-or-break coffee point: When we run out, do we splurge and buy a new jar? Or give up the caffeine addiction and mellow out with tea? These are the tough questions.

Thanks for reading,

-C

Hello, fellow foodies! Well, Cris and I are done with the first month of the project! (I know you're thinking, but it's only January 29—technically, you have two more days! Except that we had always planned to do this for four weeks, days of the month be damned. It works out well with our pay schedule and keeps things even for those months that are longer, at 31 days (January), and those that are super short (like February). Get it?)

Anyway. Month One: DONE. 

We don't have much to say other than this past week has been incredibly pathetic: Lots of Rice-a-Roni, beans* and growling tummies**. We are happy to report, however, that we accomplished our goal: One month of food (groceries and dining out) for only $100. We think, however, that we can do better. You didn't think we'd just quit now, did you? We'll be back tomorrow with a grocery list for month two, plus some other goals we're going to throw into the mix. It's about to get (even more) awesome. 

Until then, we'll leave you with this picture from last night's celebratory dinner at Maharaja. It was completely delicious and yielded tons of leftovers, which I'm about to partake in right now. 

-CW

*On Thursday, Cris had a can of green beans for lunch and I had a can of butter beans. 

**On Thursday night, Cris had a 35 cent bag of BBQ tater chips from Food Lion (I had dinner at a friend's for girls' night). We were down to our last pennies, people! (I would like to say, however, that we're being a bit dramatic: There's still a fair amount of food in the cabinets and freezer that we could have fixed if we weren't so stinkin' lazy.)