Thursday, January 14, 2010

Does this mean no girl scout cookies?

It's that time again. The grandma's in my knitting circle came to group armed with order forms. I had one in hand before I realized, that the orders are not filled until after the 100 mile challenge will start. Good bye thin mints, good bye Samoas. But again its about saving money, so hello to more (hopefully) money in the bank!

We went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. 15 items cost 46.95 or so. What did we buy? I will tell you. One jar of spaghetti sauce
One bunch of bananas
4 hoagie rolls,
1 pound of Roast Beef, 1/2 pound of Provolone Cheese, 1/2 pound of turkey
2 bunches of garlic,
2 boxes of broccoli cheese ravioli (16 pieces per box),
.18 pounds of thin sliced chicken breasts.

The most expensive things on the list were the items from the deli counter. And the only things I can see not being on a 100 mile list would be the bananas. Oh and maybe the provolone. I have yet to see a banana tree in NYC, and I've never looked for cheese before so who knows about the Provolone. Maybe there is a secret gross cheese farm somewhere.
The problem with this list is that it is not even a full weeks worth of food. It is one dinner and 2 weeks of lunch for the hubby. I think one of the things that will be hard on the 100 mile diet will be figuring out the last minute meals. Sure I know how to make ravioli, but it takes time.

Oh yeah I also bought 2 bars of Cadbury chocolate and an Entemann's Cake. But they were on sale! and I know chocolate will be hard to come by, so I'm getting while I can.

In other news I've started looking at CSA's. There is one in Flatbush that seems reasonable, but sign ups are happening now, and I don't feel right taking a share from someone who lives within the community.

Another in Staten Island is very expensive and offers no half shares. This is the closest, but seems to be the most expensive. I think I may do a fruit share there though. I am mainly worried about winter fruit, so I am thinking of doing separate fruit shares at a few places if we can afford it. This way I can "put some up" for winter without denying us fruit in the summer.






4 comments:

InventingLiz said...

Deli meat is full of preservatives, you might be better off financially and health-wise to buy the raw meat and cook it yourself, then slice it for sandwiches...

Mary said...

I'm very intrigued by this 100 Mile project of yours, and I'm looking forward to hearing how it develops...

I'm trying to think how I could implement something like this in my life, where I live--I think in some ways, it'd be easier since we're closer to farm country and have dairies & stuff just down the road. But on the other hand, with the population density being so much lower, I think my options would be limited since there's less variety/providers...winters would definitely be hard. Good food for thought, though.

Shepherdess of the Hills said...

Hi, this is your not so local meat girl and my own experience with deli meats. We found them all to be not so good, considering the feedlot animal and overall low quality of animals used - SO EXPENSIVE! Instead several of our own cuts such as Sandwich Steak work very well for lunch meals, they are easy to cook in bulk, freeze or fridge for the next several days worth of meals and you can change its taste with seasoning.

You can also take Briskets, Pork Shoulder Roast and even Leg of lamb and slow roast them on the weekend, take the first meal and then thinly slice ( a meat slicer can be helpful ) for use on sandwiches throughout the week. Can you imagine your husband telling his coworkers he is eating roast LAMB sandwiches?

regina said...

Shepherdess K- we are signing up tonight for the 3 month installment plan share!
the inclusion of bacon and the minute steaks helped to convince us!