Groceries: $170.43
Unnecessary Foods and Snacks: $16.86
Total Amount Spent for September: $187.29
A good month of food purchases in September overall, but the real improvement is HOW I bought food. After last month’s debacle, I decided to buy what’s needed for two weeks instead of for the entire month. This worked out perfectly and everything I bought got eaten, with nothing wasted or spoiled. And it all started with breakfast:
I tried out turkey sausage in August and it sucked, so September was turkey bacon. It took me a while to get the cooking time just right (about 3 1/2 minutes on each side at 350 degrees), but the results were much better than turkey sausage and tasted pretty good. Of course, it's not gonna be as delicious as pork bacon, but it does the job and won't give me AIDS. I only eat eggs on Saturday mornings, leaving my other mornings for cereal. And speaking of cereal:
Fuck Honey Nut
My usual Cheerios was tasting a bit bland, so I decided to get Honey Nut Cheerios instead of the regular one. I didn’t bother looking at the nutritional facts because… well, it’s Cheerios. Of course they’re gonna be tame with their sugar, right? Wrong.
9 grams of sugar. These assholes have 9 grams of sugar in the Honey Nut Cheerios, which is 9 times the amount in regular Cheerios. To understand how crazy this is, Lucky Charms has 10g of sugar. Honey Nut is comparable to a cereal that has marshmallows all over the place! Shit, I might as well go for Lucky Charms! What bothered me most was the way I felt after eating the cereal. With regular Cheerios I usually feel really good and energized. With Honey Nut, that sugary feeling brought me down a bit and I could actually feel the difference. Because I still crave just a little bit of sweetness in my morning breakfast, I was considering going back to Multi-Grain Cheerios and their 6g of sugar. Instead, I tried something else:
I bought Ground Cinnamon along with the other spices during last month’s spice purchases. While I’ve found use for almost every one of my spices, I haven’t found much use for ground cinnamon... until now. Combined with regular Cheerios, the taste is exactly what I was looking for and I control the level of sweetness. Problem solved!
Just about all the unnecessary food purchases had to do with hotdogs. I’ve had a craving for hotdogs, but no one here knows how to do it right. Back in college, the hotdog guy there made perfect hotdogs with Tex-Mex beef (ground beef with Mexican seasoning). A guy here in Smalltown did it too, but he doesn’t make it like that anymore. I went to 7/11 and their hotdogs tasted terrible, especially with their stale bread. Finally, Nino got tired of my idiocy:
Nino: Make that shit yourself!
Me: I don’t want to buy them because they’re high in sodium! I can’t find one that doesn’t have at least 900mg of sodium per hotdog.
Nino: What do you think they’re making at hotdog carts? It’s the same shit, you’re just paying more per hotdog!! Lots of sense asshole
Nino: And you can get hotdogs made out of chicken or turkey which don’t have as much sodium. Trader Joes sells them.
The guy was making sense. Instead of spending $3 per hotdog, I can buy a pack of 8 for $4, the bread for $2, and then the ground beef for $5. That’s $11 for 8 reduced sodium hotdogs (250mg) that should taste great. Every month I’d like to add a new food to my arsenal, so it looks like October will be the month of the hotdog.
Overall, September was a good month for food. If I can reduce the unnecessary foods to zero like I did in August, that would make October great… hotdogs or no.
P.S.: I'm still testing out different spices, and will continue to do so. Paprika is quickly becoming my favorite spice, as it seems to make everything better: from salmon to turkey burgers... even fried rice! I'll continue to add to my spice rack and experiment with different flavors, in the eternal search for the perfect flavor for my cooked foods.
Unnecessary Foods and Snacks: $16.86
Total Amount Spent for September: $187.29
A good month of food purchases in September overall, but the real improvement is HOW I bought food. After last month’s debacle, I decided to buy what’s needed for two weeks instead of for the entire month. This worked out perfectly and everything I bought got eaten, with nothing wasted or spoiled. And it all started with breakfast:
 |
| Organic Jumbo Eggs, scrambled with red and green peppers and onions. Added some paprika for extra flavor |
 |
| Turkey Bacon |
 |
| Add everything with grilled whole wheat bagels, and I have myself a very hearty and filling breakfast! |
I tried out turkey sausage in August and it sucked, so September was turkey bacon. It took me a while to get the cooking time just right (about 3 1/2 minutes on each side at 350 degrees), but the results were much better than turkey sausage and tasted pretty good. Of course, it's not gonna be as delicious as pork bacon, but it does the job and won't give me AIDS. I only eat eggs on Saturday mornings, leaving my other mornings for cereal. And speaking of cereal:
Fuck Honey Nut
My usual Cheerios was tasting a bit bland, so I decided to get Honey Nut Cheerios instead of the regular one. I didn’t bother looking at the nutritional facts because… well, it’s Cheerios. Of course they’re gonna be tame with their sugar, right? Wrong.
 |
| I remember being a kid and actually adding sugar to my Honey Nut Cheerios because I felt there wasn't enough. Near the end, I'd scoop up the sugar crystals from the bottom for the last sweet crunchy bites. I've come a long way... |
9 grams of sugar. These assholes have 9 grams of sugar in the Honey Nut Cheerios, which is 9 times the amount in regular Cheerios. To understand how crazy this is, Lucky Charms has 10g of sugar. Honey Nut is comparable to a cereal that has marshmallows all over the place! Shit, I might as well go for Lucky Charms! What bothered me most was the way I felt after eating the cereal. With regular Cheerios I usually feel really good and energized. With Honey Nut, that sugary feeling brought me down a bit and I could actually feel the difference. Because I still crave just a little bit of sweetness in my morning breakfast, I was considering going back to Multi-Grain Cheerios and their 6g of sugar. Instead, I tried something else:
 |
| $1.99 at Trader Joes |
 |
| A hotdog from 7/11. Ugh! Never trust chili when it looks like diarrhea being squeezed out of a machine |
Just about all the unnecessary food purchases had to do with hotdogs. I’ve had a craving for hotdogs, but no one here knows how to do it right. Back in college, the hotdog guy there made perfect hotdogs with Tex-Mex beef (ground beef with Mexican seasoning). A guy here in Smalltown did it too, but he doesn’t make it like that anymore. I went to 7/11 and their hotdogs tasted terrible, especially with their stale bread. Finally, Nino got tired of my idiocy:
Nino: Make that shit yourself!
Me: I don’t want to buy them because they’re high in sodium! I can’t find one that doesn’t have at least 900mg of sodium per hotdog.
Nino: What do you think they’re making at hotdog carts? It’s the same shit, you’re just paying more per hotdog!! Lots of sense asshole
Nino: And you can get hotdogs made out of chicken or turkey which don’t have as much sodium. Trader Joes sells them.
The guy was making sense. Instead of spending $3 per hotdog, I can buy a pack of 8 for $4, the bread for $2, and then the ground beef for $5. That’s $11 for 8 reduced sodium hotdogs (250mg) that should taste great. Every month I’d like to add a new food to my arsenal, so it looks like October will be the month of the hotdog.
Overall, September was a good month for food. If I can reduce the unnecessary foods to zero like I did in August, that would make October great… hotdogs or no.
 |
| My spice experiment with turkey burgers from left to right: Dark chili powder, curry powder, paprika. The curry powder tasted the best, but mostly because it had the strongest flavor. |
 |
| Fried Rice with salmon and a side of steamed vegetables. The paprika, seasoned salt, and lime juice made this salmon the best I've ever made. |
P.S.: I'm still testing out different spices, and will continue to do so. Paprika is quickly becoming my favorite spice, as it seems to make everything better: from salmon to turkey burgers... even fried rice! I'll continue to add to my spice rack and experiment with different flavors, in the eternal search for the perfect flavor for my cooked foods.
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