14 Days of Frugality- DAY EIGHT

The further into the project I get the easier it is becoming to be frugal. We started the morning with a run and then oatmeal and iced coffee. For lunch I made falafel sandwiches from ingredients I had in the house. Nothing too exciting. Then Max and I set out to grocery shop. I have never been able to do one big shop for the whole week, but I have mastered getting everything I need for 3 or 4 days. First, I find all the recipes that I would like to make and write down all the ingredients and then we head out. We hit up Trader Joe's first. I know I can't get everything I need there, but what I can get is a great deal. I picked up some more pizza dough for 99 cents and popped it in the freezer. It freezes well and defrosts easily by just sitting it on the counter an hour or so before you want to use it. All the pizzas I make are cheese-less and sauce-less and are more like eating baked bread topped with goodies. It's a good fail safe and I like to have a few bags of dough in the house. Whole Foods sells it too, not only is it more expensive, it is packaged terribly. They sell their dough in plastic containers with pop off lids. If you leave it in the fridge for a few days the dough rises and explodes out of the container, causing a mess and making the dough inedible. This only happened to me once, but was enough for me to stop buying their dough. Gosh... I don't know where this rant about dough came from... sorry... moving along. After Trader Joe's we headed over to Whole Foods for a few things, mussels, spinach, sun dried tomatoes and milk. By buying things at Trader Joe's instead of Whole Foods I estimate that I saved around $30. Once home, I focused on making an amazing, healthy, gourmet dinner for $10.

Spanish Style Mussels with Spinach
Serves 4

2 lbs mussels (We got Moosabec mussels, from Maine)
2 jalapeno peppers
1 lime, plus zest
1.5 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 10 oz box frozen spinach
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 14.5 oz can no salt added organic diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

-Scrub mussels with vegetable brush under cold running water, set aside to drain. Discard any mussels with broken shells.

-Slice jalapenos in half lengthwise, remove seeds and veins and set aside. Zest the lime, set zest aside, then cut lime in half and set aside.

-In medium pot, add coconut milk and frozen spinach, and cook 3-5 minutes over medium heat until spinach has thawed and separated. Stir in cilantro, jalapenos, and lime zest. Squeeze lime juice into pot and then toss in the whole lime along with tomatoes, oregano and pepper. Stir.

-Bring to a simmer to combine flavors. Add mussels, stir and then cover pot, cooking for 4-6 minutes until mussels have opened.

This took me 15 minutes to make, start to finish.

I also toasted up a baguette from the freezer to dip in the broth. The meal was outstanding and the broth was so good we couldn't throw it away. It is in the fridge and I am planning to cook some chicken breasts in it tomorrow.

I pick up my farm share tomorrow and will most likely make Penne with Chicken and Vegetables, a dish that we both think will keep and reheat well. I am also planning to roast a chicken over a beer can later in the week, that should be interesting.

As for unnecessary spending, I keep thinking of things that I could cut out to save even more, like our morning iced coffee. Every time I make coffee for us I use 12 tablespoons of grounds and it makes enough for us to each have two large cups of iced coffee throughout the day. It is definitely a luxury and not a necessity. A pound of coffee costs $12 and I think we are going through about a pound a week. It is decaf so there would be no harm in cutting it out. But I am reluctant. Should I get rid of the coffee and save $12 a week? Or does it really not matter? This is the question I have been struggling with today.